What are the real impacts of unsuccessful recruitment processes?

Working in recruitment and search during EOFY season is always an interesting time.  For many of our clients, it is a time of reflection and planning as they evaluate what and where to invest into in the upcoming financial year, and there is often a push to close out recruitment processes to ensure that adequate human resources are in place to properly execute planned initiatives and projects.

Clearly, for us at JMES, this is often a very busy period as we look to meet our client’s requirements within tight timeframes. In 2025, this busy period has also been accompanied by a period of broader macroeconomic uncertainty, which has brought a certain lack of conviction in hiring processes.

Many of the natural concerns that crop up in recruitment processes, from the perspective of both our clients and candidates, have been magnified as individuals and businesses grapple with the uncertainty in the market and their desire to make the best decision for their team and their individual careers.

With all the hustle and bustle that comes with this time of year, it has been my observation that it is very easy to lose the human element in recruitment processes. Every decision that does or doesn’t get made; every timeline that gets pushed out; every goalpost that gets shifted is not only a source of frustration for all involved, but there is a very real – and human – opportunity cost associated with each.

Recently, JMES has been working with a couple of clients that seemed to have it all: international brand and standing, a transaction pipeline second to none and a track record of developing its people through access to much bigger roles and opportunities both locally and abroad. Both of these firms had incoming pipelines that belied the uncertainty in the broader macro environment, were actively pushing for multiple hires domestically and - through a thorough search process - were in a position to move a number of candidates to offer.

Unfortunately, after verbal offers and acceptances had been made, what followed was a period of weeks where, through the fault of no individual in particular, both firms were unable to secure formal offers which ultimately led to those offers being withdrawn.

In this situation, it would have been very easy to pass on the bad news, share some condolences and move on. However, it must be recognised that during the period of weeks that followed the verbal offers, all the candidates involved - some of whom are currently not employed - turned down opportunities to pursue other suitable roles. One individual was preparing to turn down an attractive internal opportunity with a business in which he had significant tenure and good will. Another individual was preparing her family to relocate interstate to take up one of these opportunities. Not ideal.

Without trying to turn these examples and episodes into the proverbial mountain from a molehill, I think it is important for hiring managers to remember that their decisions, or lack thereof, can materially impact someone’s professional and personal situation and to be mindful that, one day, the shoe may well be on the other foot.