Key takeaways
- Restarts eat energy and delay decisions.
- Losing overview costs candidates, focus and morale.
- A light rhythm delivers clarity faster than ad hoc work.
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Small, consistent steps outweigh single sprints.
What we often misunderstand
Many SMEs think that recruiting is mainly a matter of working harder when you have to. A vacancy is posted, phones go red hot and everyone lends a hand. It seems efficient, only it rarely is. Without a set rhythm, every vacancy feels like a mini-project that needs to be reinvented.
The pitfall of the restart
Starting over every time means building context every time, searching for texts, choosing channels and making appointments. While you are already operationally crowded, answers slide to tomorrow and candidates invisibly drop out. You pay the price later: longer lead times, more pressure at peak times and a team that feels doubt.
Why rhythm is more rewarding than effort
Rhythm is not extra work, it is a way of spreading work. If you have fixed moments for intake, publication and feedback, you gain back peace of mind. You see what works faster, your decisions become more consistent and you lose less time on improvisation. Not bigger, but more predictable.
“Rhythm wins over effort because predictability speeds up candidates and decisions.”
Are you ready to replace restart with cadence
Ask yourself three questions.
Do I have one place where all candidates and statuses are listed? Does everyone know who decides and when? Is there a set response and decision time that is achievable? When this is clear, things start to feel lighter and the feeling of having to start from scratch every time disappears.
The stages of growth in practice
You don't have to change everything all at once. Work in stages. Each stage has one goal and a few simple actions. Only when that succeeds three weeks in a row do you move on to the next one.
Launch phase: You work with one list for all candidates. You pick one place where everyone reads updates and post everything there. You pick two fixed moments per week to review this. For each step, you use the same short standard e-mail so you don't have to write every time.
Stabilisation phase: In this phase, you respond to files that are complete within 48 to 72 hours. For incomplete files, you send exactly one reminder and then stop.
Scale phase: Here, each role gets a clear owner who checks that everything is running. You work with one simple overview that shows how long each step takes and where each candidate sits.
Book a meeting with Tarquin, founder of MediaGuru, to solve your challenges.
