Many of the companies we work with are hiring fewer people this year than they planned. A plan for twenty roles becomes a plan for three. It is tempting to think that hiring just became easier. It became harder, because each of those three decisions now carries the weight of several.
Each hire carries more weight
In a growth year, one weak hire in a batch of twenty is absorbed. Others cover the gap, and the manager has time to coach or replace the person.
In a lean year, the team is smaller and every person covers more ground. A wrong hire is felt within weeks. Work slows, a good colleague picks up the slack and starts looking elsewhere, and the manager spends evenings fixing things instead of leading.
There is also less room to try again. When the budget allows three hires, a failed one is a third of the plan.
Decide which roles truly need a person
Before you hire, test each open role with three questions.
- What stops if we do not hire? If the honest answer is “nothing for six months”, the role can wait.
- Can the work be split? Sometimes a role exists because of two or three tasks that could sit with people you already have, with a small pay rise that costs far less than a new salary.
- Is this the role, or the last person’s job? When someone leaves, companies often advertise the same job again. The work may have changed since that person joined.
The roles that pass these questions deserve all of your hiring attention.
Write a sharper brief
With fewer roles, each one tends to grow. The job description becomes a wish list: a marketer who also designs, a developer who also manages clients, a finance lead who also runs HR.
Agree the five things the person must be able to do. Everything else is a preference. If you cannot choose five, you may be describing two jobs, and the person who can do both either does not exist or costs more than two hires.
Test the work
When the stakes are higher, opinion is not enough. Add a short, realistic exercise to the process: a piece of real work that takes the candidate an hour or less. A support lead replies to two difficult customer messages. An analyst reads a small data set and tells you what they see. A developer reviews a piece of code and says what they would change.
It tells you more than another interview round, and it is fairer, because quiet candidates who do good work can show it.
Check the terms early
Lean budgets leave no room for a late surprise. Confirm three things before the first interview, not after the final one.
- Pay. Share your band and ask for the candidate’s expectation. If they are far apart, an interview will not fix it.
- Notice period. A candidate on ninety days’ notice joins a full quarter after they accept. Know this before you fall for them.
- Location and working days. Office, hybrid or remote is now a deciding factor for many people. State it plainly.
Ask for reasons in writing
Whoever is sourcing for you, an internal recruiter or an outside firm, should be able to explain in writing why each person is on the shortlist. Four or five plain lines: how the person meets the must-haves, what they have delivered, how they would suit the team, and whether the terms work.
If the reasons are thin, the search is thin. It is better to learn that from a note than from the first three months.
Slower is fine. Wrong is expensive.
A role that stays open for two more weeks costs you some output. A role filled by the wrong person costs you the search, the salary, the team’s time, and then the search again. In a year with three hires, that is most of the year.
None of this means hiring slowly for its own sake. It means spending the time at the start, on the brief and the checks, where it is cheap, and not at the end, where it is costly.
A short checklist for a lean year
- Each open role has passed the “what stops if we do not hire?” test.
- The brief names five must-haves and a pay band.
- Pay, notice period and location are confirmed before the first interview.
- The process includes one piece of real work.
- Every shortlisted candidate comes with written reasons.
