When Hiring Breaks Down, It's On All of Us

How HR and leadership can better partner to prevent internal ghosting and accelerate great hires.

We’ve all experienced it:

• The job is posted

• The candidates are sourced

• The interviews are booked

• And then… nothing.

No feedback. No decision. No movement.

While we often talk about candidates ghosting employers, there’s another version that hits closer to home: internal ghosting — when hiring managers disengage, panels delay decisions, or HR misses critical follow-ups.

The truth? Hiring is a shared responsibility — and when it breaks down, it’s rarely just one department’s fault. It’s a system failure. And it’s costing us great talent.

The Data Behind the Delays

 Let’s look at the research:

• 52% of hiring managers admit they take longer than they should to make hiring decisions. (LinkedIn Global Talent Trends)

• 63% of candidates say they’ll withdraw from a process if they don’t hear back within two weeks of an interview. (CareerBuilder Candidate Experience Report). I think this window of time continues to shrink.

• The average time-to-fill in the U.S. is now 44 days, and it’s even longer in tech and service industries. (SHRM Talent Acquisition Benchmark Report)

• Only 25% of employers report having consistent internal alignment between HR and hiring managers throughout the hiring process. (Harvard Business Review, 2023)

What’s Actually Going Wrong?

 Delays aren’t always about apathy. Often, they stem from:

• Lack of ownership — no clear decision-maker

• Panel overload — too many cooks, not enough clarity

• Unclear hiring criteria — decisions by gut instead of alignment

• Overengineered processes — multiple interview rounds with little added value

• Miscommunication — feedback gets delayed, misrouted, or watered down

• HR burnout — limited time to chase down every loose end

And sometimes? We in HR don’t close the loop fast enough either — especially when caught between moving targets and shifting priorities.

So What Can We Do Differently?

This is where collaboration becomes critical. Here’s what both sides can bring to the table:

What HR Can Own: 

• Set decision deadlines and share drop-off metrics to create urgency

• Pre-align on salary bands and role scope to avoid offer delays

• Simplify the process by limiting interviews to what's essential

• Coach leaders on interviewing, feedback, and candidate experience

• Treat recruiting like a campaign, not a checklist

What Leadership Must Own: 

• Treat hiring like a business-critical priority, not an HR task

• Make timely decisions and stand by them

• Be present and prepared during interviews

• Understand the cost of inaction — unfilled roles create risk, delay revenue, and stretch teams thin

• Provide feedback that is honest, fast, and actionable

The Shift We Need

Hiring isn’t just a function — it’s a leadership behavior.

And if we want to compete for top talent, we need to act like it.

That means aligning early, committing to speed, and holding everyone accountable — not just HR. We can’t keep saying “people are our greatest asset” and then leave hiring decisions to lag in inboxes for weeks.

When we fix the internal disconnect, we don’t just hire better — we build a culture of clarity, trust, and execution.

 Final Thought

Let’s stop ghosting our own process.

The talent market won’t wait — and neither will your next great hire.