Rome wasn’t built a day, and neither was your recruitment campaign. The average hiring process is 42 days long, according to the Society of Human Resource Management. According to our recent poll of the Do Good Community, 46% of the for-purpose sector take 4-6 weeks to recruit, 29% take 6-8 weeks and 21% take more than 10 weeks.

Even if you’re at the short end of that scale, you’re quickly running out of time to get an offer on the table before the Christmas break. With notice periods at play, it could still be February 2022 before you get a bum on an office chair. Put it off until after the break and you’re looking at May 2022 for that new team member – 5 months into 2022 already!

Kiwi summer almost always leads to a three month shut down of ‘normal life’ and that may be further exacerbated this year by covid-19 fatigue. 2021 hasn’t been easy, and it’s tempting to push things, liking hiring, into next year. The continuing issue of a candidate short market has made recruitment more complex, and the likelihood of having to go ‘back to market’ when preferred candidates get another offer has increased tenfold.

So, what are your options if you need to hire?

Option One: Bite the bullet and get it done now

Pick up that phone to HR, draft that job ad and get it moving. If you recruit now, and take 4-6 weeks, you could have an offer on the table in early January 2022 for your new hire. With paperwork and their notice period to work through, you can realistically expect them to start their new role in early to mid February.   

(Hopefully) get someone in your role by: 

February 2022

Pros:

Have your new hire early in 2022 for a full year of impact in their function. Finish 2021 with your ducks in a row and get ahead of the great resignation. This mass shake-up of people’s careers is accelerating overseas, wreaking havoc on businesses ability to operate. “Job openings are sky-high. Many positions are going unfilled for months” US news site The Atlantic reported in October. All signs point to this phenomenon taking hold in New Zealand in the first quarter of 2022.

Cons:

You have to do it now, and there’s a lot on your plate... so you might be tempted by:

Options Two: 2021’s done – recruit after Christmas 

2021 is a year that can’t end soon enough, let the Christmas wind-down begin! You know you need that new hire but it can wait. If you (and the other people you need for the recruitment process) return to the office on 10th January and take 4-6 weeks to recruit you might have someone starting by March. If you take longer to recruit, or Sharon from HR stays at the bach until February, you’re looking at April or May 2022.

Get someone in your role by:

March 2022 at the earliest, most likely April/May 2022

Pros:

New year, new you. You’ll return to work ready to make an impact and hire an incredible new member of your team and own 2022. Or that’s the plan...

Cons:

If your new hire starts in May 2022 and takes 6 months to get up to full speed, that’s November of 2022 before they really start making an impact in their role and bringing in results. After a rocky 2021, you can’t afford another year of missed opportunities. You’ll also have the aforementioned great resignation to contend with, job seekers firmly in the driving seat- and a candidates market that’s being compared to the housing market. The war for talent will get brutal. Both of those options fill you with a sense of dread? You might want to:

Secret Option Three: Get Do Good Jobs to do the work 

We get it, it’s hard out there. The right candidate is more important than ever, and harder to attract than ever. You can’t afford to lose time over the Christmas break but you and your team NEED that holiday. We can:

• Schedule a job ad now to go live on a date of your choice

• Give you bonus free time on your ad so that it’s up over the entire holiday period, attracting CVs (our default for job listings is 30 days).

• We can even arrange for our expert team to shortlist for you

If we’ve shortlisted for you, or your ad has attracted CVs from our values aligned job seekers over the break, you can get on the phone in early January and get that do-gooder in for a February 2022 start.

(Hopefully) get someone in your role by: 

February 2022 - if you put your skates on in January

Pros:

We do the hard work. Your ad is up over Christmas and New Year when professionals will be reassessing 2021, work-life balance and what they want to change in 2022. They might just be tempted to dust off that CV.

Cons: 

We can’t think of one. Email us and we’ll organise that listing for you: hello@dogoodjobs.co.nz.