A conversation I was having yesterday with a client of mine made me realise that this is a topic pretty relevant to people right now. As we are beginning to emerge from lockdown and into our new normal, many organisations are thinking “When should I start my recruitment process if I’m looking to recruit later this year?”
The answer to this is situation dependent. However, what organisations should be looking at is their timeframe. For example, my client is looking to recruit and have people working on projects by September. The client needs projects to be moving by Q4, which means that he really needs to have made offers to people by the first of August. The new employee is going to need a month to work out their notice period, which brings us back to the recruitment process. It will take approximately two weeks to complete the interview process. That’s without taking into account how the interview process has changed due to COVID-19. This moves the client’s timeframe back to the middle of July.
So, then trying to incorporate an appropriate period of searching for candidates brings the client’s timeframe back to the middle of June. We both came to the halting realisation that it is the middle of June and in order for the client to have someone starting on a project in Q4, the recruitment process pretty much needs to begin immediately.
Mapping out a timeframe of the recruitment process is a necessity! In the COVID sense, everything’s been changing and moving around so quickly. Timescales have been rejigged and changed, and lots of us have lost track of the timing of things. So, I thought it was worth mentioning that if people are planning on kicking off a project in Q4, their recruitment process probably needs to start somewhere in June. As much as that may come as a shock to the system, it is the reality of the timeframes.
I welcome anyone’s comments, thoughts or perspectives about recruitment processes. Maybe you have been able to make moves quicker, or maybe you’ve taken longer than that. Feel free to let me know your thoughts and experiences in the comment section or by reaching out to me directly.