title: Process contract description: The process rules agreed at intake, the feedback limits, the five questions most intakes skip, what to do when a rival is at final stage, how to version a brief, and a case where an unlocked brief lost the hire.
Process contract
The process contract is the part of the brief the hiring team signs about their own behaviour. It is short, specific and written down, because good intentions about speed do not survive a busy quarter.
What goes in it
- Every stage, and the one person who owns it.
- The feedback limits below, with a named person who chases them.
- Who runs any work sample, and the deadline for reviewing it.
- How candidates are submitted, and to whom.
- Any competing process, and the deadline it sets.
- Who signs the brief, and the rule for changing it.
Feedback limits
One limit for every stage gets ignored. Tiered limits, written into the brief, get met.
| Step | Limit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Scarce profile, any step | Same day | The fastest companies close strong candidates before a rival books a second interview |
| CV or profile sent: yes or no | 24 hours | A day without an answer reads as no interest to a candidate with options |
| Interview scorecard submitted | 24 hours | After a day, interviewers remember their impression, not what was said. Late scorecards are less accurate as well as slower |
| Final decision after the last interview | 48 hours | Long enough for a busy hiring manager, short enough to hold the candidate |
| Any candidate hears something | 5 business days, absolute limit | Past this point a meaningful share of candidates lose interest, and most are gone by ten days. Anything slower is ghosting |
Make the limits visible. A shared view of who is late works better than reminders. If scorecards are missing, move the debrief rather than holding it without them.
The five questions most intakes skip
Each of these has ended a search that looked healthy.
- Who else is in this process? Other recruiters, internal referrals, a candidate already at final stage. Searches are lost to candidates nobody saw, through a parallel process nobody asked about.
- Has anyone on the hiring side worked with a likely candidate before? On a team with several hiring managers, prior history with one of them can decide the hire regardless of the shortlist.
- Who runs any work sample, and on whose clock? Samples run by an engaged owner close hires. Samples left with a busy client go quiet, and so does the candidate.
- How will candidates be submitted, and how fast will you respond? Agree the channel and the reply time in the room. An unanswered submission email has ended a search.
- If a rival candidate is at final stage, what is the deadline?
When a rival is already at final stage
Do not produce a full brief first. Produce the minimum brief (outcomes, three must-haves, pay, the deadline), and start candidate generation the same day. Finish the full brief in parallel. Intake paperwork never outranks the clock.
The first twenty-four hours after intake
- Written brief back to every stakeholder the same day, with open questions marked as questions.
- Three real calibration profiles to the hiring manager before going wide. Include one strong on pedigree and one strong on building from nothing; the reaction shows which one they actually want. Two rejections for reasons outside the brief mean the brief needs another pass.
- Scorecard locked, with what each stage tests.
- Panel, stages and feedback limits agreed, interview time held in diaries, including any work sample slot and who plays the buyer.
- Sourcing plan live, with target companies chosen by motion (similar deal size, buyer and stage), and any job ad written from the signed brief.
Versioning the brief
- The signed brief is version 1. Location, seniority floor and how tenure is treated are locked in writing at this point.
- Any change to scope, pay, location or seniority is a new version with a one-line change log: what changed, who asked, the date, and which candidates in process it affects.
- Candidates in process are re-checked against the new version within days. The change often reveals that a different requirement was the real constraint all along.
- Never edit a signed version in place.
From the field: the brief that was never locked
A business development seat was briefed, sourced and run to a partner-level interview. Then the role was re-scoped to account management, and the leading candidate was out. Weeks later it was re-briefed again, and by then three different pay figures had been given by three different people, none reconciled. Nobody had pushed for a single signed version at intake, or for every decision-maker to agree it. The search was lost. The fix costs one meeting: everyone who can say no signs the same brief, with one pay figure, before the first candidate is contacted, and every change after that is a new version.