---
title: "Recruiting Best Practices: How to Deal with a Long Candidate Search"
description: what happens when the RPO provider is not finding that candidate for a while; in particular, when the search is taking more than 60 days?
image: https://blog.rpoassociation.org/hs-fs/file-18089973-jpg/images/candidate_search.jpg
---

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 The RPO Voice

RPO trends and best practices for talent leaders by talent leaders.

# Recruiting Best Practices: How to Deal with a Long Candidate Search

by [Lamees Abourahma](https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/author/lamees-abourahma) Mon, Jun 25, 2012 ** Share [**](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/bid/175039/Recruiting-Best-Practices-How-to-Deal-with-a-Long-Candidate-Search) [**](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/bid/175039/Recruiting-Best-Practices-How-to-Deal-with-a-Long-Candidate-Search&text=) [**](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/bid/175039/Recruiting-Best-Practices-How-to-Deal-with-a-Long-Candidate-Search&title=&summary=&source=)

![candidate search](https://blog.rpoassociation.org/hs-fs/file-18089973-jpg/images/candidate_search.jpg?width=180&height=146&name=candidate_search.jpg)There are many reasons companies outsource their recruiting to an RPO provider including finding better candidates, reducing cost and time-to-hire. However, what happens when the RPO provider is not finding that candidate for a while; in particular, when the search is taking more than 60 days? As the search lingers, most likely moral is going down and frustration is building up. Not a good situation. How should the RPO provider deal with this situation? Mike Mayuex, Founder and CEO of[ Novotu](http://www.novotus.com)s, proposes a solution that “amazingly seem to put everyone back on the same team again. It is human nature to look for someone at fault when things are getting bad, but it’s good business leadership to pull the team together and get them working toward a solution.”

When the search for a candidate is taking long and not getting the desired results, Mayuex suggests offering the client the following 4 options:

1. You can change the job specs and keep searching
2. You can NOT change the job specs and keep searching
3. You can HIRE someone you have interviewed
4. You can GIVE UP

In reality, these are the only options available. Either you choose a candidate from the selection pool, change the specs for the job, not change the specs and keep searching, or declare the search a failure and give up. “Things get bad when the team has no plan and when there is a lack of fruitful dialog. The metrics seem to always point to the right decision when aligned with the business goals.”

Other than the 4 choices above, Mayuex points out that someone might choose to fire and/or hire another recruiter. The problem with this option is that you’re extending the search even longer by starting all over. Mayuex’s advice: “stick with your team whenever possible or you will likely just extend an already long search.”

[recruitment](https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/topic/recruitment) [Recruiting Best Practices](https://blog.rpoassociation.org/blog/topic/recruiting-best-practices)

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