The average time to fill a tech role in India is 68 days. For senior positions, it stretches to 90 or more. Every day a position remains open costs money — not just the recruitment spend, but the opportunity cost of delayed projects, overburdened teams, and missed deadlines. Here is how progressive engineering teams are cutting that timeline to under 2 weeks.
Why Tech Hiring Takes So Long
Before fixing the problem, let us understand what causes it. A typical 90-day hiring cycle breaks down like this:
- Days 1-10: Job description drafted, approved by multiple stakeholders, posted on job boards
- Days 11-30: Resumes trickle in, HR screens them, shortlists shared with hiring manager
- Days 31-50: Phone screens scheduled (with reschedules), technical assessments conducted
- Days 51-70: Panel interviews, debrief meetings, internal debates about candidates
- Days 71-85: Offer approval process, salary negotiations, background checks
- Days 86-90+: Notice period negotiations, start date confirmation
The bottlenecks are clear: sequential processing, too many decision-makers, and a reactive sourcing strategy that waits for candidates to apply rather than actively pursuing them.
The 2-Week Framework
Here is how to compress each stage:
Week 1: Source, Screen, and Shortlist
Day 1: Pre-approved job requirements Stop writing job descriptions from scratch for every role. Build a library of pre-approved role templates for your most common positions. When a hiring need arises, select the template, customise it for the specific team, and publish within hours — not days.
Days 1-3: Parallel sourcing Do not rely on a single channel. Launch all sourcing strategies simultaneously:
- Internal referral blast: Send a targeted referral request to your engineering team with a clear description of the ideal candidate. Offer meaningful referral bonuses.
- Pre-vetted talent pools: Partner with a staffing firm that maintains active candidate databases. At StakTeck, our [permanent staffing](/services/permanent-staffing) practice delivers the first shortlist within 48 hours because we source from a continuously refreshed pool.
- Direct outreach: Have your recruiters reach out to passive candidates on LinkedIn with personalised messages — not generic templates.
- Job boards: Post on Naukri, LinkedIn, and relevant tech communities, but treat these as supplementary, not primary.
Days 2-5: Asynchronous screening Replace live phone screens with asynchronous technical assessments. Use platforms like HackerRank, Codility, or take-home assignments that candidates can complete on their schedule. This eliminates the scheduling back-and-forth that adds days to every hire.
Days 4-5: Shortlist delivery By the end of Day 5, you should have a shortlist of 6-10 candidates who have passed both resume screening and technical assessment. If you do not, your sourcing strategy needs adjustment.
Week 2: Interview, Decide, and Offer
Days 6-8: Compressed interview panel Run interviews on 2-3 consecutive days. Structure them as:
- Round 1 (60 min): Technical deep-dive with the engineering team
- Round 2 (45 min): System design or problem-solving with the hiring manager
- Round 3 (30 min): Culture fit with a cross-functional stakeholder
Critical rule: all rounds happen within 48 hours of each other. If a panel member is unavailable, find a substitute. Do not delay the pipeline for one person's calendar.
Days 9-10: Same-day debrief and decision Hold the debrief meeting on the same day as the final interview. Use a structured scorecard (not gut feeling) and make a go/no-go decision before the meeting ends. Delayed decisions lose candidates to faster-moving competitors.
Days 11-12: Rapid offer process Pre-approve salary bands for each role so that hiring managers can make offers without waiting for finance or leadership approval. Send the offer letter within 24 hours of the decision. Every day of delay increases the probability of a counter-offer from the candidate's current employer.
Days 13-14: Close and confirm Follow up within 48 hours. Address questions. Be transparent about the team, projects, and expectations. Secure the acceptance and agree on a start date.
Five Tactics That Make the Biggest Difference
1. Eliminate sequential handoffs The biggest time killer in hiring is waiting — waiting for approvals, waiting for feedback, waiting for calendars to align. Run every stage in parallel wherever possible.
2. Use structured scorecards, not consensus Hiring by consensus means the most cautious person in the room has veto power. Use weighted scorecards where technical skills, problem-solving, and cultural fit each have defined criteria and weights. The data drives the decision.
3. Build a warm pipeline before you need it The companies that hire in 2 weeks are not starting from zero. They have been building relationships with potential candidates for months through tech talks, open-source contributions, and networking events.
4. Partner with a staffing firm for hard-to-fill roles For senior, niche, or urgent positions, a specialised staffing partner who maintains active candidate pools will dramatically cut your sourcing time. Our niche recruitment practice focuses specifically on hard-to-find talent in emerging technologies.
5. Invest in candidate experience Fast hiring is not about rushing candidates. It is about eliminating waste from your own process. Communicate timelines upfront, provide prompt feedback, and respect their time. Candidates who have a great experience are more likely to accept quickly — and refer others.
The Cost of Not Acting
Every unfilled tech position costs your organization approximately 1-2 lakh INR per week in lost productivity, project delays, and team burnout. A 90-day hiring cycle for a 15 LPA role costs 6-12 lakh INR in hidden costs before the new hire even starts. Compressing that to 2 weeks saves real money and keeps your team's momentum intact.
Getting Started
You do not need to overhaul your entire recruitment process overnight. Start with your most urgent open role. Apply the 2-week framework. Measure the results. Then systematise what works. The companies that consistently hire fast are the ones that treat speed as a process discipline, not a one-time effort.
