The more I work with hiring systems, the clearer it becomes that breakdowns rarely happen in one dramatic moment. They happen quietly, in the space between expectation and response where uncertainty grows and good opportunities slip away.
The Week in Review
This week I launched the website, which means I can start taking clients and test the positioning in the wild. I also hit a hard lesson on responsiveness when a layout proved non-dynamic and forced a rebuild; it cost a few hours, but catching it early prevented a bigger rewrite. The other friction was context switching: building was flowing, but I had to pull myself into daily outreach instead of letting momentum run the schedule.
Over the next 7 to 14 days my priority is the hiring side of the matching automation. I am locking scope to intake, scoring logic, and a clear output that a recruiter can read in one pass, with a target to ship by Friday, August 15, 2025. The aim is simple: get a usable slice in front of real roles so feedback shapes what comes next, not assumptions.
If you are juggling build and growth, time-box the marketing, ship a narrow slice, and let real users tell you where the system bites.
But enough about me, lets get into it! In this week’s edition:
Signal from the Field
Hiring slows down and trust frays when candidates hear nothing after they apply. Several studies show how widespread the communication gap has become. One analysis reports that 65 percent of candidates rarely or never receive an update on their application, and even among those who do, more than half waited three months or longer for news.
Silence is not happening in a vacuum. Recruiter bandwidth and process complexity are part of the story. Recent benchmarking shows an average of about five hires per recruiter per quarter, with applications per hire rising as markets fluctuate. That load encourages triage and delayed replies, which makes the experience worse for applicants and weakens employer reputation over time.
Candidate ghosting gets attention, yet employer ghosting is at least as corrosive. In a 2024 survey, 61 percent of job seekers said they were ghosted after an interview. Another snapshot found over a third of candidates still had no response one to two months after applying. These lapses create uncertainty, waste time, and push qualified people to disengage or apply elsewhere.
There is also a timing problem. The typical time to fill in the United States sits around five weeks, and additional assessments, while improving quality, can extend that timeline. Long cycles without intentional touchpoints amplify the perception that applications disappear into a void. Automating status updates and setting reply SLAs are simple moves that close the gap without adding heavy overhead.
What to do next is straightforward and operational. Publish response expectations on every posting. Send an immediate receipt, then a timed follow up at defined milestones. Close loops with polite rejections rather than leaving applications open. Track these touchpoints as real metrics alongside time to fill and offer acceptance. Teams that codify these basics protect their brand, reduce wasted effort, and make better hires because candidates remain engaged through the process.
Whether you are filling a role or chasing one, the gap between effort and feedback is where trust is either built or lost. Closing that gap is rarely complex. It simply requires the discipline to do what most overlook.
Thys Benson
MJB Strategic
