Speed is a hiring strategy, not an operations metric
The best candidates are off the market in weeks. Slow processes do not just lose people - they select for the ones nobody else wanted.
Strong BFSI candidates in Mumbai, Singapore and Dubai are typically in three processes simultaneously and receive offers in two to four weeks. A five-round process stretched over two months does not evaluate them more thoroughly - it evaluates whoever is still available. Slowness is not rigor; it is a filter for the less desired.
Where the time actually goes
Not interviews - calendars. The gaps between rounds, the week to schedule a panel, the ten days for feedback. A process with six days of dead time per stage is standard; cutting the dead time, not the rigor, is the entire opportunity.
The fast-process playbook
- Block interview slots before the search starts, not after candidates appear
- 24-hour feedback rule: every interviewer scores within a day
- Same-week debriefs; decisions in the meeting, not by email
- Comp pre-alignment: band approved before the first interview, so the offer takes hours, not weeks
The signal it sends
Speed is also a message: this organization decides. Candidates extrapolate your hiring process to your credit committees and product launches. A crisp process is evidence. A shambling one is too.