Hiring decisions speed up, but long notice periods keep talent waiting

According to Careernet data, the time from raising a requisition to extending an offer fell from 53 days in FY25 to 46 days in FY26, an improvement in how fast companies are closing roles. Notice periods, however, have barely changed. The average gap between accepting an offer and joining remained around 30–33 days across both years. Roughly 29–31 per cent of the hires still took 60 days or more to join after accepting an offer.

“Nearly a third of hires take two months or longer to join after accepting an offer — a significant gap between making the hiring decision and the person coming on board. During that period, companies are also managing the risk of counteroffers, drop-offs, or losing the candidate to another opportunity,” Neelabh Shukla, Chief Business Officer, Careernet, explained.

In Careernet’s placements, hiring volume for AI, machine learning and data science roles grew by about 48 per cent y-o-y. The average time-to-hire for these roles increased from 38 days to 63 days. Employers are opening more AI-related positions, but taking longer to close them.

As per Careernet data, GCCs’ average time-to-hire is 37–38 days, as opposed to non-GCC employers at 54–65 days. This trend has remained consistent even as GCCs have scaled their hiring. However, they face a challenge after the offer is made. GCCs have the longest notice-period wait, at 41–42 days compared with 27–28 days for non-GCC companies. They are also the only segment where the share of hires taking 60 days or more to join increased y-o-y, from 35.7 per cent to 36.5 per cent.

“One reason could be the kind of talent GCCs hire, since they tend to draw more heavily from senior professionals working at large, established companies, where contractual notice periods are often longer,” as per Shukla.