I hope of those 5-6, 4-5 are at least told something like "we are intending to proceed with another candidate, but we were impressed by your interview and may contact you again in the future".
That at least gives them an understanding that they are probably not going to get the job, but there's a slim chance they may be offered it in the future (although as I've said before, I'd rather be a different company's first choice than their second), rather than continuing to make them keep their life on pause because they don't know if you've already offered the job to someone else or whether you're still deliberating.
I’m not in the businesd of keeping tethers out just in case. The way we do it is leave the role open for 1-2 weeks, choose our top 10 or so, and start proceeding through initial screen, hiring manager call, panel, director call, and done. If we get to a few people at panel level, we stop reviewing new applicants, but we continue with everyone who is at panel level.
We’re open with candidates saying that we’re interviewing multiple people and that we’ll keep them updated. It’s usually 5-6 weeks _in total_ so realistically you’ll have had maximum 2 weeks where we will have said “we’ve got three candidates at the panel level, we’re speaking to next week. We’ll make a decision by friday the 31st April”. If I could wave a scheduling magic wand and get everything wrapped in a Fortnite I would.
I guess I misunderstood what you were saying. The post I replied to sounded like you told most of the candidates no, but kept the other 5-6 waiting until your chosen hire had accepted.
But this clarification makes it sound like you do actually do what I was suggesting - telling those others they weren't successful as soon as you've actually chosen one.
If you haven't finished making your selection yet, you obviously wouldn't tell the people still in the running either way. I was specifically talking about once you have made the decision and informed the successful candidate - because many companies don't bother telling the other candidates at that point just in case the candidate you chose doesn't accept the job, they still want to keep those other people live. I think it's better to tell them that you've offered the job to someone else and will only contact them again if that person doesn't acecpt.