Executive Search Scheduling Benchmark
Interviews that book faster mean searches that close sooner. See what actually speeds up a reply, which side is really slowing you down, and what quietly kills a meeting that was already agreed.
THREE QUESTIONS THE REPORT ANSWERS FOR YOUR DESK
- How to get candidates and clients to reply the same day
- How to tell whether it is the client or the candidate holding up your search
- How to spot a search that is about to stall days before it does
SAMPLE DATA · THE BENCHMARK NUMBERS
One booked interview, measured end to end.
Three numbers from the report, and what each one means for how fast your desk books.
Counterparties who reply within the hour
49%
Of the replies that do come, 88% land within a day. Send in their afternoon and the typical one arrives in under an hour; send overnight and it takes seven.
Typical reply, candidate against client executive
1.5h · 1.6h
Neither side is quicker. Clients ask to move a meeting twice as often as candidates, and when they do the negotiation runs about four times longer.
Rise in cancellations as a thread drags on
4x
Cancellation runs at 3.9% for threads settled in one exchange and 16.4% past twelve rounds. The report shows where to step in.
And when a meeting is waiting on someone, it is mostly waiting on someone outside your firm. In meetings that were ultimately cancelled, 83% of the waiting was external, and 57% of all waiting time was follow-ups that went unanswered.
WHERE EVERY HOUR OF WAITING GOES
Get the benchmark.
Eleven sections, the seven-measure scorecard for your own desk, and the full methodology.
Drawn from 70,000+ real scheduling emails across 7,059 client and candidate facing conversations at large, medium, and boutique firms, November 2025 to August 2026. Every figure is measured from message timestamps and participants. Nothing here is survey data. All figures are aggregates and no individual, firm, client or candidate can be identified.