Start the search properly, or find out why it has stalled.
A role that stays open costs you. A role filled by the wrong person costs you more.
The Hiring Campaign Diagnostic is a two-day review of your role, salary, job description, advert, sourcing plan and candidate journey.
It is designed for two situations: before your role goes live, when you want to make sure the campaign is set up properly, and after a search has stalled, when you need to understand what is holding it back.
Two days. £1,500 fixed.
A clear written plan before more time is lost.
Most hiring problems start earlier than people think.
Not at interview. Not at offer. Not when the right candidate disappears.
They usually start with an unclear brief, the wrong salary benchmark, a role that has been written for internal approval rather than the candidate market, or a process that good people will not wait around for.
By the time the problem is obvious, the campaign has often already lost weeks.
The Diagnostic is designed to catch those issues before they become expensive.
We take your role, whether it is planned, live or already stalled, and review it across the areas that usually decide whether a campaign works.
Salary and market position
Is the salary aligned with what the market is actually paying, or is the campaign asking for more than the budget can realistically attract?
Role definition
Is the role clear, realistic and properly scoped, or is it trying to solve too many problems at once?
Job description
Does the job description explain what the person will actually do, what success looks like and why the role matters?
Advert
Is the advert written for candidates, or does it read like an internal document copied onto a job board?
Sourcing strategy
Are you looking in the right places, or relying on channels that are unlikely to reach the people you need?
Active and passive candidate mix
Can this role be filled through applicants alone, or does it need a more proactive search?
Talent pool realism
Do the people you want actually exist in the numbers you need, at the salary you are offering, in the location or working pattern you require?
Candidate journey
Is the process clear, timely and credible, or are good candidates likely to lose momentum before a decision is made?
Interview process
Are the stages, assessments and decision points helping you choose well, or creating friction that slows everything down?
Employer story
Does the role give the right person a reason to move, especially if they are already in a good job?
You get a practical written report with a red-amber-green scorecard showing where the campaign is strong, where it is exposed and what needs fixing first.
You also get:
The aim is simple: you finish with a plan, not a PDF to file.
The Diagnostic is useful if:
It is especially useful for data, technology, AI, cyber security, software, infrastructure and leadership roles where the wrong brief, salary or route to market can cost weeks.
The Hiring Campaign Diagnostic is £1,500 fixed.
It takes two days.
There is no obligation to use Xist4 for the search afterwards. The Diagnostic stands alone.
If you do want help with the search after the Diagnostic, we can talk about the right way to support you.
Xist4 was built on 26 years in specialist recruitment across data, technology, AI, cyber security and leadership.
We know where campaigns tend to fail: vague briefs, misaligned salaries, overlong processes, weak adverts, unrealistic candidate profiles and poor communication with candidates.
We also know that recruitment done badly is expensive in ways that rarely show up neatly on an invoice.
Time gets lost. Delivery slows. Hiring managers get pulled away from their day job. Candidates lose interest. And sometimes, the organisation ends up hiring the wrong person just to end the search.
The Diagnostic is built to prevent that.
If you want to understand why a role is not moving, or check the campaign before it goes live, we would be glad to talk it through.
You complete a short discovery questionnaire and join a consultation call. We use this to understand your recruitment goals, the role you are hiring for, the challenges you have faced and what success looks like.
We analyse your salary position, sourcing channels and talent availability against live market data in your sector, so you know exactly where you stand, whether your campaign is yet to launch or has already been running.
Using our ten-point framework we evaluate your recruitment approach across job adverts, candidate experience, employer brand, sourcing mix, role design and more, identifying where you are strong and where you have gaps.
We translate the findings into clear, practical recommendations backed by 26 years of specialist recruitment experience in data, technology and leadership. No generic guidance. Specific actions you can take immediately.
You receive your branded Hiring Campaign Diagnostic report, complete with a visual scorecard and market data. We then walk you through the findings on a playback call, answer your questions and agree what happens next.
Before your role goes live, make sure your hiring campaign is set up to attract the right candidates. Book Xist4’s Hiring Campaign Diagnostic for practical, expert recommendations before you go to market.
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