Are you ready for 2020?

How long would it take you to find a new senior member of staff?

I know this sounds quite shocking but it’s only four months until the end of 2019. I am not a doom monger or someone that starts buying Christmas presents in August. However, I do realise that to recruit a senior level candidate in to your business and organisation really does take time. Honestly, if you are looking for a brand new hire to start in January 2020 then it’s worth getting a move on. Here’s why.

Hiring a senior executive is a complex process

From the moment your company or organisation realises a new member of staff is required there are many things to consider before someone finally takes their place in your team and begins to contribute.

For example, once I have received a comprehensive briefing from a client our typical timescale to producing a qualified, screened and interviewed shortlist usually is around 6 weeks. Sometimes it’s shorter but it’s worth planning for that kind of time scale. Some search firms actually quite 3 months to get to this stage but unlike some organisations we are able to react to our clients demands pretty swiftly. We like to act as an ambassador for your organisation as we present your company and the opportunity to our carefully screened candidates. Therefore the information we use must be the very best and also look highly professional.

Why does it take so long you might be wondering?

Writing an in depth briefing for potential candidates is not a five-minute job. Collating information, asking opinions, making decisions about key information and producing a document that really accentuates the positives of an organisation is time-consuming. Yet we’ve seen that it actually saves time in the long run. That’s just a starter. Obviously, using our experience and knowledge we design the most appropriate search strategy and fee structure and also which organisations and teams to target in our research of your specific market.

It’s time to prepare in September for a 2020 hire

So you can see that if you kick-started the process in September 2019 you’d probably be in October before your shortlist was in place. It takes a long time to sift through CV’s even if you are offered just the strongest long list. I recommend that time is taken at all stages to ensure your eventual hire is the kind of person that’s going to add considerable value for your very specific needs.

November might mean more than fireworks

On the other hand, for senior level candidates an interview process may well consist of 2, 3 or 4 stages and involve many stakeholders. Facilitating this is not always easy and with the best will in the world can also take place over a 4-6 week period. So you can see that by now, with this kind of situation you would be looking to November at the earliest.

We will then help coordinate interview times as well as communicating feedback after each stage of the interview process which all takes up time.

Do remember, your potential hire process works both ways

Once the decision has been made to recruit, someone needs to work on the process of offer and negotiation alongside drawing up contracts. This can take between 1-2 weeks. Obviously the candidate must also be happy before they finally sign on the dotted line. People move jobs for a myriad of reasons and each candidate is an individual. It’s not just a matter of whether they will fit you. Companies should understand that people have many choices and your brand needs to be on point with their own aspirations, whatever they might be.

However, we will counsel for potential counter offers and then conduct reference checks once the negotiation process is complete. So we do our level best to keep the hassle and paperwork you have to do to the minimum.

Having reached November in our fictitious candidate hire we have to factor in that the typical notice period is 3 months and in some cases may be even more.

So the overall process from day 1 until someone actually starts can be up to 6 months. Yes, of course, certain elements of the timescales are variable and notice periods can be negotiated downwards but hey, you might be thinking: hiring for 2020 is now a matter of urgency and, of course you’d be right.

If you anticipate any mid-senior level hiring in your business in the next 6 months, and are interested in finding out more on how we can help you, let's have an informal conversation to chat about your goals. Afterwards, we'll recommend the best way to proceed. For a no obligation discussion please call me directly on + 44 7793 526078 or click here to schedule an appointment directly at a time to suit you.