Voices in Leadership • 6 MIN READ
The Counter-Intuitive Case for Slower, More Careful Hiring
MAY 28, 2026
Every piece of advice says hire faster. One Chief People Officer explains why she deliberately slows down for certain roles, and the results that followed.
The cost of a bad hire
The conventional wisdom in talent acquisition is that speed is everything: the best candidates are gone in ten days, so move fast or lose them. This is true for some roles. It is actively harmful for others. The cost of a poor hiring decision for a senior or highly specialised role, including severance, management time, team disruption, and the opportunity cost of the months before you accept the hire is wrong, is typically six to twelve times the monthly salary of the role. Rushing that decision to save two weeks in the process is not rational.
What slowing down looks like
For roles above a certain level or criticality threshold, we deliberately extend the assessment process. We include a work sample or case study that tests actual capability, not just interview performance. We run a structured debrief using calibrated scoring, not a show-of-hands around the room. We check references proactively, speaking to people who have worked with the candidate rather than only those they have chosen to list. And we are willing to restart the search if the best candidate in the pool is not genuinely right for the role.
