Mike Shekhtman explains how perpetual job postings can lead to deeper problems in the workplace
'Zombie' jobs have become a fixture of the modern labour market, and the effects extend far beyond frustrated applicants, seeping into the workplace.
Mike Shekhtman describes zombie jobs as open roles that never seem to move, lingering on career sites for months despite being advertised as available. He emphasized they’ve become more common because of constant economic change, shifting business priorities and budget freezes that keep interrupting or stalling hiring plans.
“The big prevalence is that what used to be a very straight process for organization has shifted, in terms of having a budget in place, having a streamlined process for hiring, having the ability to just pull the trigger and put an offer out in front of a candidate,” said Shekhtman, senior regional director at Robert Half. “Employers are getting way more choice in terms of applicants but not necessarily the right applicants. They're flooded with applications that are available for candidates that, again, might not be the right fit, but at least it's creating noise for the organization in terms of the process.”
]Shekhtman acknowledged that priorities can change mid-search, forcing hiring teams to redesign roles and start over, while more people have become involved in hiring decisions than before, which adds layers and delays. On their own, he thinks each of these pressures is manageable, but together they create the perfect conditions for roles to stay open indefinitely.
"When you compound some of those strains, you start to see some of these roles continue to be posted and that becomes a challenge," he noted.
According to Shekhtman, zombie jobs don’t just hurt the candidates applying, but they ultimately hurt the business as well. Notably, when roles sit vacant, companies lose out on revenue and productivity, which runs directly against their goal of growing and hiring. That’s why he believes faster, more efficient hiring supports higher productivity, stronger revenues and better profitability, so it’s in an employer’s clear self-interest to fix delays and inefficiencies in their process.
“If you think about revenue generating and companies growing, that will allow you to actually hire people. The quicker you are in hiring, the quicker that increases your productivity, revenue and profitability. It's what you want as an employer. It's in your best interest as an organization to work on these things and making sure that you got that done,” he said.
He argues the impact of unfilled roles on employees is significant, pointing to the firm’s research shows that leaving positions open is strongly linked to lower morale and higher burnout, and he connects that directly to drops in productivity.
The workload doesn’t disappear just because a job isn’t filled as it gets absorbed by the existing team. While leaders may feel they’re doing their part by keeping a posting live, the real burden falls on the people inside the department who are covering the workload.
Shekhtman underscored that this doesn’t just exhaust staff, it also increases the risk of people leaving, turning a staffing issue into a wider problem for culture and retention, with knock-on effects that organizations often don’t anticipate.
The starting point is a clear-eyed assessment of every open role, not just the obvious zombie jobs. He suggests running a monthly or bi-monthly audit of career pages to confirm postings are current, clearly describe core responsibilities and reporting lines, and align with what's shown on LinkedIn or other platforms.
His advice to hiring managers is to focus on what's within reach, particularly as what leaders can control is the clarity of their job requirements, how proactively they move candidates through the funnel, and how consistently they follow up. Sharpening those basics, he argues, removes bottlenecks and cuts down on the conditions that let zombie jobs take hold.
Employers also have a clear responsibility to manage hiring processes properly, both to protect their brand and because it’s simply the ethical thing to do, underscored Shekhtman. He notes how candidates have long been frustrated by poor communication and not knowing where they stand, so organizations need reliable systems and ownership around follow-up.
For him, that means clarifying exactly who leads recruitment and who handles each part of the process - from scheduling to updates to offers - rather than letting responsibilities get lost when too many people are involved. He also highlighted how Ontario now legally requires employers to respond to applicants within a set timeframe, which raises the stakes on documentation, process discipline and clear lines of responsibility.
Beyond the postings themselves, companies should set target start dates for each hire, share openings with internal teams to tap networks, and post roles internally to give existing employees a fair shot at advancement.
“The big thing for companies is their ability to streamline the [hiring] cycles. If they don't do that in an efficient way, it will impact your productivity and team performance and well-being. Ultimately, it comes hand in hand, but it doesn’t make things easier,” he said.
