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Career Advice
Melissa Hoegener
10 September 2025
A perfect candidate walked away because he'd seen one red flag most companies completely ignore. This wasn't about salary, benefits, or even the role itself—it was about something far more telling.
The company had been trying to fill this critical supply chain position for 14 months. When we finally found a candidate who was the ideal fit, he declined the opportunity. Not because of the role requirements, not because of the compensation package, but because he'd noticed the position had been posted and reposted for over a year. To him, this sent a clear message: something was fundamentally wrong.
What seems like persistence to hiring managers signals dysfunction to top talent. Every repost tells a story that high-performing candidates read loud and clear.
When skilled professionals see the same role advertised month after month, their minds immediately jump to troubling conclusions:
"Does this company even know what they want?" Extended posting periods suggest internal confusion about role requirements, responsibilities, or the type of person needed for success. Top candidates assume the organization lacks clarity about their own needs.
"Maybe they already hired someone... and that person left quickly." Long-running job postings often indicate high turnover. Experienced professionals wonder if previous hires discovered problems with leadership, company culture, or unrealistic expectations that forced them to leave.
"There must be something wrong with their culture or leadership." The inability to attract and retain talent for extended periods suggests deeper organizational issues. Quality candidates question whether they want to join an environment that others have consistently rejected or abandoned.
High-performing supply chain and operations professionals have options. They're not desperate for any opportunity—they're selective about where they invest their careers. When they see persistent job postings, they interpret this as market validation that something is amiss.
This perception becomes self-fulfilling. The longer a position remains open, the more it repels the exact candidates you most want to attract. Meanwhile, the candidates who do apply may be those with fewer alternatives or less awareness of what these warning signs typically indicate.
The impact of repeatedly posting the same role extends far beyond missing out on individual candidates:
Damaged Employer Brand: Your organization becomes known in the industry as a company that struggles to hire effectively. This reputation spreads through professional networks and impacts future recruiting efforts across all roles.
Internal Frustration: Hiring managers become increasingly desperate, leading to compromised standards or rushed decisions. Team members waiting for support grow frustrated with prolonged workloads and delayed projects.
Recruiting Fatigue: After months of unsuccessful attempts, organizations often lower their standards or rush through the process with suboptimal candidates, creating the very problems that drove away better options.
Extended hiring timelines create measurable negative impacts on candidate engagement and employer brand. According to SHRM's 2025 Talent Trends research, when candidate expectations aren't met during the hiring process, 'offer acceptance rates can plummet, leaving organizations with unfilled roles and extended time-to-hire metrics.'
The research shows that organizations failing to prioritize candidate-first recruiting strategies risk alienating the very talent they seek to attract, creating a cycle of missed opportunities and higher recruiting costs.
Most extended hiring cycles aren't caused by talent shortages—they're caused by internal dysfunction. When leadership teams haven't aligned on fundamental questions before posting, the process inevitably stalls, restarts, and repeats.
The solution isn't better job boards or more aggressive recruiting—it's getting your internal house in order first. Before any job posting goes live, ensure complete alignment across leadership on three critical areas:
Define the Role with Precision: Beyond basic job descriptions, clarify exactly what success looks like in the first 6-12 months. What specific projects will this person tackle? What challenges must they solve? What measurable outcomes define success? This conversation often reveals that different leaders have entirely different expectations for the same position.
Lock the Budget and Authority: Determine not just the salary range, but the complete compensation package, reporting structure, and decision-making authority. Many hiring processes derail when budget realities clash with market demands or when reporting relationships remain unclear.
Agree on Success Metrics: Establish concrete, measurable criteria for what makes someone successful in this role. This includes both technical competencies and cultural fit factors. When everyone knows what "good" looks like, evaluating candidates becomes straightforward rather than subjective.
Organizations that master pre-posting alignment see dramatically different results. They fill positions faster, with better candidates, at lower total costs. More importantly, they avoid the reputation damage that comes with persistent job postings.
Leading supply chain recruiting firms recognize this pattern and work with clients to establish this internal alignment before beginning any search. The most successful placements happen when everyone knows exactly what they're looking for before the process begins.
Implement a strict 30-day maximum for any single job posting. If a position hasn't been filled within this timeframe, remove the posting completely and conduct an internal review before reposting. This prevents the accumulation of negative perception while giving you time to address underlying issues.
When you do repost, make significant changes to the job title, description, or requirements to signal that this is a refined opportunity rather than a recycled failure. Consider adjusting the role scope, compensation range, or reporting structure based on what you learned during the initial posting period.
Establish clear escalation protocols when positions remain unfilled beyond predetermined timeframes. At the 14-day mark, require hiring managers to provide status updates and identify any obstacles. At 21 days, involve senior leadership in problem-solving discussions.
Track and analyze patterns in your extended postings. Are certain departments consistently struggling to fill roles? Do specific hiring managers have longer average fill times? These patterns often reveal systemic issues that need addressing beyond individual job requirements.
Develop contingency plans for critical roles that risk extended vacancy periods. This might include identifying qualified contractors, establishing relationships with specialized supply chain recruiters, or creating cross-training programs that allow existing team members to temporarily handle essential functions.
Having these backup plans prevents the desperation that leads to keeping unsuitable job postings active indefinitely while also reducing the operational pressure that compromises decision-making quality.
The difference between companies that attract top talent quickly and those that struggle for months isn't market conditions, compensation levels, or industry appeal—it's internal preparation. When leadership teams do the hard work of alignment before posting, everything else becomes easier.
Top candidates can sense organizational clarity and decisiveness. They're drawn to companies that know what they want and can articulate why someone should want to join them. Conversely, they avoid situations that feel chaotic, uncertain, or poorly managed.
Your job posting isn't just advertising a role—it's advertising your organization's competence and desirability as an employer. Make sure the story it tells is the one you want high-performing candidates to hear.
Ready to stop losing top talent to preventable red flags? Contact our team to learn how strategic pre-posting alignment can transform your hiring results and attract the caliber of candidates your organization deserves.
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