You’re Not Short on Talent - You’re Short on Clarity
Hiring rarely fails because “there’s no talent.” It fails because hiring sits in the inbox, not on the agenda.
Every company thinks they have a hiring problem. Most actually have a prioritization problem, disguised as a hiring one.
Let’s unpack this in the simplest, most real-world way possible.
1. If everything is urgent, nothing is urgent
Picture this.
A company opens eight roles at once:
A Sales Manager
A Customer Support Lead
Two Developers
A Marketing Coordinator
A Finance Controller
An HR Generalist
A “must-hire-ASAP” Operations Manager
Recruiters are told all eight are “priority.”
But…
The JD for the Sales Manager isn’t final.
Finance hasn’t approved the Controller role.
The Hiring Manager for the Developers is on holiday.
Marketing can’t confirm whether they want a generalist or a specialist.
The Operations Manager interviews keep getting postponed.
At the end of the month?
Everyone says:
“We’re struggling to hire.”
No.
You’re struggling to decide what actually matters right now.
2. The world isn’t short on talent - it’s short on clarity
A global LinkedIn survey showed that 70%+ of companies still find recruiting challenging, even with talent supply improving post-pandemic.
But deeper research shows the real bottlenecks are internal:
41% of delays come from slow decision-making (not sourcing).
Hiring managers reschedule or delay interviews 2–3 times on average.
Job descriptions change mid-search, causing restarts.
(Source: LinkedIn Talent Trends, SHRM Talent Acquisition reports)
This means:
Most hiring delays happen before the recruiter even speaks to a candidate.
3. The hidden cost of not prioritizing
Leaving a role open isn’t free.
Research shows a vacant mid-level role can cost 1.5–2x the monthly salary in lost productivity, delayed projects and team burnout.
Every week wasted looks like this:
A project launch slips.
A client isn’t followed up on.
A developer is juggling two people’s work.
HR keeps hearing “we’re overwhelmed.”
All because the company hasn’t decided:
Which role absolutely must be filled first?
4. Hiring is not a sourcing activity - it’s a sequencing activity
This is the mindset shift that changes everything:
❌ Old way:
“Let’s open all roles and see what comes.”
✔️ New way:
“Let’s rank roles by impact and hire in the right order.”
The companies that hire well aren’t faster because they have better recruiters. They’re faster because they have fewer moving targets.
They decide:
What will unlock revenue now
What will prevent burnout
What will remove a bottleneck
What can wait 90 days
What is “nice-to-have” not “must-have”
Chaos increases time-to-hire. Clarity reduces chaos.
5. Why prioritization instantly improves hiring outcomes
Here’s what happens when you pick your top 2–3 roles and commit:
1. Hiring managers make time
When a role becomes “the role,” calendars open up.
2. Recruiters focus on quality, not quantity
Instead of juggling 10 requisitions and giving 10% effort to each, they give 100% to the top ones.
3. Candidates move faster
Fast processes win offers.
A slow process with five decision-makers? Offer declined.
4. Leadership gets visibility
Everyone knows what’s happening, why, and by when.
5. Your organization stops mistaking noise for urgency
You stop hiring because “we always hire for this role” and start hiring because “this role unlocks X impact.”
6. A simple, human-friendly way to prioritize hiring
No complicated matrices. No scorecards. Just three questions:
Q1: If we don’t fill this in 30–60 days, what breaks?
If nothing breaks → Not urgent.
Q2: Does this role directly generate or protect revenue?
If yes → Higher priority.
Q3: Will filling this role meaningfully reduce team overload?
If yes → Move it up.
If a role doesn’t clearly win on at least one of these, it’s probably not a current priority.
7. The real reason companies feel “short-staffed”
It’s rarely lack of talent.
It’s misallocated attention.
A role feels important…
until a more important role shows up.
A recruiter starts sourcing…
then a hiring manager changes the requirement.
Interviews begin…
then “let’s pause and re-evaluate.”
This stop-start pattern kills momentum and confidence.
Candidates can feel when a company isn’t aligned.
And they quietly drop out.
8. The companies that hire exceptionally well do one thing differently
Here’s the secret:
They hire fewer roles at a time - but hire them properly.
Think of hiring like surgery.
You don’t perform all surgeries at once.
You perform the necessary ones in the right order.
Smart teams apply the same logic to recruitment:
Prioritize aggressively
Sequence intentionally
Remove internal blockers
Keep decision-makers aligned
Focus resources where they actually matter
Hiring accelerates automatically when prioritization becomes discipline.
9. If you’re struggling to hire, try this starting Monday
List all your open roles.
Select the top 3 that truly move the business forward.
Put everything else on pause for 15 days.
Lock interview times in hiring managers’ calendars in advance.
Build a fast, clear pipeline for just those 3 roles.
Watch how your “hiring challenges” magically shrink.
10. Final thought:
Hiring Doesn’t Fail Because of Talent Gaps. It Fails Because of Priority Gaps.
Most companies don’t need more candidates. They need better sequencing, sharper priorities and more internal clarity.
When you fix prioritization:
Recruiters stop firefighting
Candidates move faster
Teams feel supported
Leadership feels in control
Hiring becomes strategic, not reactive
And suddenly…
You’re not “struggling to hire” anymore. You’re just finally hiring the right way.
You’re not competing for talent. You’re competing for clarity.