In the last 3 months, we've seen a 30% increase in new roles from clients who partner with Burns Sheehan. The market is showing positive signs of recovery, but with that comes greater competition for top candidates.

According to Ashby, interview hours per hire have jumped 1.3x since 2022. Teams now spend 21% more time interviewing for technical roles vs business roles, risking higher dropout rates and putting pressure on stretched hiring teams.

Speed and momentum matter more than ever. Organisations with slow, unclear, or overly complex processes are going to lose out to companies who move faster and communicate better.

So, how do you move fast without compromising quality?

The winning framework = 3-4 stages | ≤ 4 hours total

The most effective hiring processes we’re seeing today are 3–4 stages long, with no more than 4 hours of candidate time.

1️⃣ Initial Call (30 mins) - A mutual fit check with talent or the hiring manager

2️⃣ Technical Assessment (90 mins) - Skills evaluation with key team stakeholders

3️⃣ Culture Assessment (60 mins) - Exploring motivations and team dynamics

4️⃣ Optional Executive Conversation (30 mins) - Final Q&A with C-level or function head for alignment and buy-in

Balancing fast with thorough

Rigorous technical assessments are key for ensuring quality of hire, but time-poor candidates are more likely to disengage if the process feels excessive. Striking the right balance means understanding what makes a process worth engaging with, and what causes top candidates to drop out.

Here’s what we’re hearing across our network:

✅ What candidates value:

• Clear preparation materials upfront
• Interviewers who’ve reviewed their background and come prepared
• Thoughtful, two-way conversations - not one-sided grilling
• Empathy around career gaps, redundancies or transitions
• Talent teams who coach them through the process with tips and context

 ❌ What turns candidates off:

• First-stage interviews lasting 2+ hours
• No feedback after completing tasks or interviews
• Assessments that feel like unpaid work for the company
• Vague case studies with unclear expectations or success criteria
• Processes that feel impersonal or overly transactional 

How 9fin cut time-to-hire by 58%

Series B FinTech 9fin doubled their engineering team in just 4 months last year, slicing their time-to-hire down from 64 to 27 days. 

Along with thorough headcount planning and providing interview training for the entire engineering team to create alignment and reduce bottlenecks, they reimagined technical assessment with two key approaches:

💬 Structured case studies
"We've found case studies to be the most effective performance measure when technically assessing candidates."

Rather than relying on CVs alone, 9fin uses role-specific case studies that replicate real tasks across Engineering, Product, Marketing, and Design. These assessments are tied to clearly defined competencies, giving both sides a more meaningful sense of fit.

Talent Director, Alice Simpson explains how 9fin reframes the time investment as mutual value:

“It’s part of the ‘give and get’ of hiring and interviewing. Candidates get to experience the types of challenges they’d face in the role, so they can assess whether the work excites and stretches them.”

To make case studies fair and effective:

• Provide clear preparation materials, including how long they should spend on the task (9fin usually timebox to 3 hours total)
• Set expectations for success
• Explain how the task mirrors real-life work (without it actually being work -candidates shouldn’t be working for free!)

• Always give feedback, regardless of outcome

🎥 Coderbyte for recorded pair programming

For software engineering roles, 9fin implements Coderbyte for recorded pair programming assessments. Candidates demonstrate their skills in real-time while giving engineering reviewers the flexibility to evaluate recordings at 1.5x speed. This not only saves time but improves consistency across the evaluation process, without compromising on quality.

TL;DR: Your Hiring Process Checklist

💡 Prioritise time efficiency. Aim for a technical assessment process totalling no more than 4 hours (including prep). Investing in the right tools can help assess while saving time on live interviews. 

💡 Make assessments mutually valuable. Use real, role-specific case studies to give candidates insight into the role, while giving teams a more meaningful read on fit. Always offer constructive feedback - it’s a simple step that builds brand respect and trust.

💡 Candidate experience matters more than ever. Transparency upfront around timelines, prep, and format helps candidates commit with confidence, especially when juggling multiple processes. Small signals like a well-structured interview or a prepared interviewer shows their time is respected.

That's all for now!

— The Talent Crunch team

Next issue: The reality of hiring for AI roles & how to assess them