How to shorten the hiring process (and still find qualified employees)

Sponsored MoneyWatch: Managing Your Money How to shorten the hiring process (and still find qualified employees) We may receive commissions from some links to products on this page. Promotions are subject to availability and retailer terms. .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-moneywatch.jpg'); } By Angelica Leicht Angelica Leicht Senior Editor, Managing Your Money Angelica Leicht is the senior editor for the Managing Your Money section for CBSNews.com, where she writes and edits articles on a range of personal finance topics. Angelica previously held editing roles at The Simple Dollar, Interest, HousingWire and other financial publications. Read Full Bio Angelica Leicht April 20, 2026 / 1:12 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google A lengthy hiring process can cause major issues, but it is largely a structural problem, which means it can also be fixed.  J Studios/Getty Images In today's hiring landscape, the average job opening attracts hundreds of resumes, if not more. Of those candidates, most hiring managers will seriously consider just a handful of people for the role, yet the process of whittling down the options can span numerous weeks — or months — due to layers of approvals, multiple interview rounds and long deliberation processes that involve multiple stakeholders. All of those steps have to be completed before a single offer letter can be sent out, after all. The problem is, though, that the strongest candidates are generally hired and off the market shortly after starting their search. That means that the longer a role sits open, the more companies risk losing their first-choice hire to a quick-moving competitor. And, they're doing so while also absorbing the productivity loss, team strain and recruiting costs that come with a prolonged job vacancy. The good news is that a lengthy hiring process is largely a structural problem, which means it's one that can be fixed. But how exactly...