Why Does Hiring Take So Long? A New Way to Think About Recruitment

When you’re building something important—like the UK's NHS Trusts or any organisation responsible for human lives—you want the best people on your team. But hiring for senior roles, like a Regional Director at a UK NHS Trust, can take six months or more. That’s not just a long time—it’s a missed opportunity.

I’ve spent years observing how recruiting teams work, breaking down workflows and asking the “5 Whys” to understand what’s really happening under the surface. Here’s what I’ve learned: The process is full of good intentions but plagued by inefficiencies that slow everything down.

What if it didn’t have to be this way?

Let’s reimagine recruitment—not as a series of manual steps, but as a seamless, thoughtful journey designed to empower recruiters and candidates alike.

The Problem: Why It Takes So Long

1. Job Evaluation
Why does it take weeks to kick off hiring?
In the NHS, every new role needs to pass through panels, align with budgets, and meet organizational goals. These are critical steps, but the process is often slow and siloed.

2. Sourcing Candidates
Why does sourcing feel like finding a needle in a haystack?
Recruiters are piecing together spreadsheets and using fragmented tools, spending hours on tasks that could be automated.

3. Shortlisting
Why does shortlisting feel endless?
Feedback loops drag out the process. Informal interviews and manual tracking tools create bottlenecks that stall decision-making.

4. Interviews
Why are interviews so rigid?
The NHS interview process is designed to be fair and thorough, but it’s also inflexible—leaving little room to explore a candidate’s true potential.

5. Onboarding
Why does onboarding take months?
Conditional offers depend on notice periods, compliance checks, and manual data entry. By the time onboarding is complete, you risk losing your best candidates to faster-moving organisations.

The Cost of Complexity

Think about this: Every delay in hiring is an opportunity for someone else to swoop in and hire the candidate you wanted. The best people have options—they won’t wait forever.

At the same time, drawn-out timelines create stress for your existing teams. They’re working harder, waiting longer, and carrying the weight of vacancies. In healthcare, that can mean fewer resources for patients.

It’s not just a logistical issue. It’s a human issue.

The Opportunity: What If Recruitment Was Different?

What if hiring was as seamless as ordering a ride or booking a stay?

• Integrated Tools: Imagine managing all candidates—those who apply and those you proactively find—in one place.

• Smarter Shortlisting: What if AI could surface the best candidates instantly, so you spent less time sorting and more time connecting?

• Automated Admin: What if the tedious work—tracking, compliance checks, onboarding—happened behind the scenes, freeing you to focus on people?

These aren’t futuristic ideas. They’re solutions we can build today.

A Better Way to Hire

Here’s how I think about recruitment: Every interaction is a chance to create trust, save time, and build something meaningful. It’s not just about filling roles; it’s about creating an experience that works for everyone—recruiters, candidates, and the organization.

Recently, I worked with NHS recruiters to reimagine their workflows. We asked tough questions, broke down every inefficiency, and uncovered opportunities to make things faster, simpler, and better.

The result? A blueprint for a smarter, more human hiring process.

What’s One Step You’d Simplify?

Here’s my challenge to you: Take one part of your recruitment process—the part that feels slow or frustrating—and ask yourself: Why does it work this way? What could make it better?

The answers might surprise you. And they might just spark the change you’ve been waiting for.

Let’s build a better way to hire—together.

Rich Dawes
Founder & CEO, Nolea AI
Reimagining recruitment to create a faster, more thoughtful way to connect with top talent.