Most people blame the candidate when a hire takes too long. In senior Pharma, that is rarely the cause. The candidate is keen. The skills fit. The hold-up sits inside the process. Too many steps. Too many people in the loop. Feedback that takes a week to arrive. Each small delay adds up. By the end, the best person has another offer.

I run searches in regulated industries every week, and the pattern is almost always the same. Speed is not about cutting corners. It is about removing friction. The teams that hire well are not reckless. They are simply organised before the search starts, not halfway through it.

Where the real delay hides

Look at the gaps between stages, not the stages themselves. That is where time leaks away. A CV sits unread for days. An interview waits two weeks for a slot. An offer stalls in sign-off. None of it is dramatic. All of it is costly. Map those gaps once and the pattern shows itself.

In senior Pharma the gaps are wider because the people who decide are busy and the roles are scrutinised. A Medical Affairs Director, a Head of Regulatory, a Pharmacovigilance lead — these hires touch compliance, budget and sometimes the board. So feedback gets cautious, and cautious feedback is slow feedback.

Three fixes that work

  • Agree the brief once, in full. Before the first CV, settle the must-haves, the deal-breakers and the salary band. A brief that changes mid-search is the single biggest cause of delay I see.
  • Set the interview stages up front. Two stages, three at most for the most senior roles. Name who sits in each one, and book provisional slots before you have a shortlist. A senior candidate reads your pace as a signal.
  • Name who decides. One owner who can say yes. When three people share the decision and none of them owns it, offers die in the gap between them.

Pace is a message

A slow process tells a senior candidate the role is not a priority. A sharp one says the opposite. The people you most want are usually in work, often being approached by others, and rarely short of options. The way you run the search is the first real look they get at how you run the company.

Close the gaps between stages and your hiring speeds up with no drop in quality. You do not need to lower the bar. You need to protect the calendar, decide who decides, and treat a strong candidate's time the way you would want yours treated.