Hiring is hard. Even in the best-case scenario, hiring a new employee puts a strain on time, financial resources and, in many cases, already-taxed staff. However, if filling open jobs seems particularly challenging for your company, it may be time to look for cracks in your process.

Here are a few areas to review:

Beware of bottlenecks.

If your hiring timeline seems labored, your process could be suffering from:

• A lack of communication or clear process for assessing talent
• Too many jobs for too few internal recruiters or hiring managers
• A lack of clarity and agreement on what the “right” person looks like
• A lack of clarity and agreement on who the decisionmakers are

Clarity and transparency are musts. Take the time to establish both as soon as the job is open.

A posting with no purpose.

The pressure is on when an employee leaves, and it’s easy to “post now, clarify later.” Without building and gaining consensus on a job spec, you run the risk of:

• More unqualified people coming through the door—wasting your time and theirs
• A missed opportunity to examine what the new role could be—it’s likely evolved (or should) from the job description crafted years ago
• Hiring someone who doesn’t really meet the “must-haves” for the job

Your job spec should depict who you need and what that person will be doing. Anything less and you’ll end up with the wrong hire.

Respect while recruiting.

Contrary to popular belief, companies are not in the driver’s seat in today’s job market. Top talent will take a hard pass on your opportunity (and your brand) if they experience the following:

• An interview process that drags on and on
• An offer that comes two weeks after the last interview
• A lack of common courtesy—timely feedback, appropriate response times (including communication if they don’t receive an offer), being treated as an equal

Highly-talented, in-demand jobseekers expect a streamlined, transparent, and respectful process. And they’re not afraid to broadcast less than savory experiences. (Have you checked your Glassdoor reviews, lately?)

When it comes to hiring, acknowledge from the outset that finding quality people takes time and effort beyond the normal day-to-day responsibilities. And then take the additional time and effort to do it right.