Follow-Ups and Chasing

Why chasing is the expensive part#

A recruiter proposing times to forty candidates is not doing forty units of work. They are doing forty, plus the twenty-five follow-ups a week later, plus the fifteen second follow-ups, plus tracking which of those threads is still open. That bookkeeping is invisible on a calendar and enormous in practice.

It is also the part that decays fastest under load. When a team gets busy, follow-ups slip, and slipped follow-ups are candidates who quietly go to another company.

What Vela does instead#

When a participant does not respond, Vela follows up on its own without being asked. It keeps the tone of the original thread, it does not repeat the same message verbatim, and it stops when the answer arrives or the thread is closed.

Because Vela runs continuously, a follow-up goes out when the follow-up is due, not when someone remembers.

Candidates who go dark mid-process

A candidate accepts a screen, then vanishes before the panel. Vela keeps the thread warm with follow-ups instead of letting it die between rounds.

Clients who reply only on their own schedule

Senior counterparties answer when they answer, often outside business hours. Vela is coordinating at those hours, so their reply gets an immediate confirmation rather than sitting overnight.

Interviewers who miss the availability request

One unresponsive interviewer can hold up a whole panel. Vela chases individually rather than resending to the entire group, so the people who already answered are not asked twice.

Threads that need to close

When a role is filled or a search is paused, chasing should stop cleanly. Vela stops following up once the thread is resolved.