The Best and Worst Times to Hire Leaders
Recruiting senior leaders requires careful consideration of timing, market conditions, and organisational readiness. For CEOs, business owners, and senior HR executives, choosing the right moment to recruit can significantly impact the success of your search for key leadership roles.
Why Timing Matters
The timing of your recruitment process can determine your access to top-tier candidates. Initiating a senior leadership search when candidates are actively open to new opportunities can help your business attract and secure talent more effectively. Conversely, poor timing can limit your options and delay crucial appointments.
When planning your recruitment timing, it is crucial to understand what motivates senior candidates to consider a career change and to identify when they are most open to approaches from executive search firms or responsive to recruitment adverts.
Understanding Who’s Involved
Recruitment involves three primary stakeholders: the hiring organisation, the candidate, and often, the executive search or headhunting firm facilitating the process. Each of these parties has unique considerations that influence the ideal recruitment timing.
The Hiring Organisation’s Perspective
Businesses must consider their internal calendar and resources when planning senior recruitment. Certain times of the year can be less suitable for specific roles due to competing internal priorities. For instance, hiring a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) around the financial year-end may strain internal resources and negatively impact both recruitment and onboarding effectiveness. Where multiple roles are being recruited, it is often wise to prioritise hiring the most senior leader first so they can play an active role in shaping or selecting the team they will lead.
The Candidate’s Perspective
Senior leaders are influenced by factors like bonus cycles and critical project timelines. Bonuses, typically paid at year-end or early in the new year, can prevent candidates from considering new roles due to potential financial loss. Candidates also face resistance to move during busy periods when key projects or significant responsibilities dominate their workload. Research consistently shows increased candidate engagement after holidays such as summer and Christmas, periods when individuals often reflect on their career paths and discuss potential changes with family.
The Executive Search Firm’s Perspective
Executive search firms and headhunters play a pivotal role in aligning these considerations. By proactively engaging with passive candidates throughout the year, search firms reduce recruitment risks and maintain robust networks of potential talent. An experienced search firm leverages these networks strategically, timing outreach to coincide with periods of heightened candidate receptivity, thereby improving recruitment outcomes and efficiency.
Optimal Recruitment Periods
January to March typically provides ideal conditions for executive recruitment due to renewed budgets and motivated candidates following year-end reflections. September and October also offer advantageous conditions as businesses focus on strategic year-end positioning. Meanwhile, quieter periods such as June to August and November to December, although less active, are suitable for strategic preparation, pipeline building, and planning.
Practical Advice
Effective senior recruitment often requires several months from initial planning to final appointment. Clearly defining success criteria, aligning internal stakeholders, and building a robust candidate pipeline are essential steps. Utilising quieter recruitment periods to set groundwork significantly enhances your hiring effectiveness when peak periods arrive.
Summary Considerations
There is no perfect time for senior recruitment. However, recognising seasons of higher candidate engagement and aligning recruitment activities with organisational readiness significantly increases recruitment effectiveness. Effective recruitment requires thoughtful planning and consideration of all stakeholders involved - the hiring organisation, the candidate, and the executive search firm.
For tailored advice on your next senior leadership hire, G1 Search offers expert executive search and recruitment support specifically suited to your business needs.