Planning for 2026, we are exploring incorporating closing dates on our job advertisements. If your team has experience with this or has explored, I would greatly value your insight. What are your best practices for deciding to include a closing date, implementing, and communicating?
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To comply with Colorado law, we implemented a closing date reference in each job posting that provides flexibility based on our needs: "This posting will be open for application for a minimum of 5 days and may be extended based on business needs." Each posting shows how long ago it was initially opened, so it's easy to determine. Scout around for CO-based jobs on Indeed to find other options you may want to consider or adopt.
In my experience, closing dates work best when the hiring need is predictable. Set the date based on typical time-to-fill, include it clearly in the job posting, and communicate upfront whether applications after that date will be considered. Keeping the message consistent across the job ad and recruiter outreach helps avoid confusion for candidates
As a public sector agency, this is already included in our announcements as a requirement. It's posted at the top of each announcement so it's clear to the applicant. Whatever the deadline (specific date), or structure (continuous, open for a minimum of 5 days), it is at the top and will be updated if it changes. Dates can be extended if necessary.
We have recently incorporated due to Colorado requirements.
We did this at my last company and found it gave candidates a sense of urgency, we posted them for 6 weeks, if we did not have anyone we could always repost