I have been recruiting in the Brisbane market for several years’ and in the last 6 months I have noticed a real change when employers are hiring staff permanently. Gone are the days when there was a ‘normal’ recruitment process timeline of a few weeks from start to finish. What I am seeing is two distinct extremes in timeframes of either days (fast) or months (slow) and here are a few key reasons:

The Slow Recruitment Process

This are often for newly created positions. These new positions are invariably linked to business growth and although decision makers will have approved the recruitment, they are very cautious about making a final decision. The brief can change multiple times and as the role is not considered urgent, employers will delay their final decision for as long as possible, to secure their perceived ‘ideal candidate’, before committing to making any firm decision. Therefore, the process can be as long as a few months and a number of candidates become frustrated with not receiving a firm ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

The Quick Recruitment Process

These are predominantly the replacement roles. The incumbent may have been working massive hours on a regular basis, most likely taking on the responsibilities of several positions. When this person resigns, hiring managers can understandably go into panic mode to replace the role, permanently and as soon as possible. So much so, when a shortlist of candidates is presented, those candidates who require four weeks (or more) notice are not even considered. The obvious pitfalls of this rushed process are that employers do not see the whole market, preventing them making an informed decision about the long term fit of the successful candidate.

Our advice is to engage a temp/contractor who can start within hours and ‘hold the fort’ whilst the permanent recruitment process is underway.

For a candidate who is currently employed, this can become very frustrating as they are often over looked in favour of those people who are immediately available. Some can then vent their frustration to us when they have not secured even an interview for a position for which they considered themselves to be highly suitable, based on the notice period criteria.