<\/p>\n
Every year, we see some version of the same thing happen.<\/p>\n
A firm wins a major project in late September. The work is scheduled to begin in November. Recruiting starts in October\u2014once someone has time to write the job description, get the position approved, and figure out who should be involved in the interviews.<\/p>\n
The role is specialized: a photogrammetrist, licensed surveyor, LiDAR production lead, GIS manager, or another hard-to-find geospatial professional.<\/p>\n
The search takes time. The offer goes out in December or January. The candidate gives two to four weeks\u2019 notice, and suddenly it\u2019s March before that person is fully onboarded and productive.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the project has already been underway for months.<\/p>\n
The work gets covered by existing employees. Teams stretch. Deadlines get tighter. And some of the margin you expected from that project starts disappearing.<\/p>\n
Nobody necessarily did anything wrong.<\/p>\n
The problem is that project timelines and hiring timelines don’t move at the same speed.<\/strong><\/p>\n Whether your fiscal year ends September 30, December 31, or somewhere in between, the basic challenge is the same.<\/p>\n Budgets are approved. Contracts are awarded. Projects are scheduled.<\/p>\n But specialized hiring doesn’t happen on that timeline.<\/p>\n Finding the right person means finding someone who has the right experience, is interested in making a move, and is actually available when you need them.<\/p>\n And in geospatial, the best candidates are often already working.<\/p>\n They may have projects they don’t want to leave in the middle of. They may have a notice period. They may be waiting for a year-end or spring bonus. Or they may simply need time to consider whether changing jobs makes sense.<\/p>\n Even when everything goes smoothly, there can be weeks\u2014or months\u2014between identifying the right candidate and having them start.<\/p>\n The more specialized the position, the larger that gap can become.<\/p>\n Hiring a GIS technician and hiring a licensed surveyor, experienced photogrammetrist, senior LiDAR specialist, or geospatial practice leader are very different searches. The qualified candidate pool gets smaller as the requirements become more specific.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why waiting until the work officially starts can put you behind before you even begin recruiting.<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the biggest opportunities for companies is to start thinking about hiring before the project is officially awarded.<\/strong><\/p>\n You know what you’ve bid.<\/p>\n You know your historical win rate.<\/p>\n You probably have a pretty good idea of the team you’ll need if you win.<\/p>\n That’s enough information to start a conversation about the hardest positions.<\/p>\n This doesn’t mean hiring people for projects you may never win. It means understanding the market before you need to act.<\/p>\n For a difficult-to-fill position, starting early may simply mean identifying potential candidates, understanding compensation expectations, and determining how realistic your timeline is.<\/p>\n If you don’t win the work, you’ve spent some time having conversations.<\/p>\n If you do win it, you’re already ahead.<\/p>\n Not every position needs the same lead time.<\/p>\n When you’re looking at your anticipated hiring needs for the next year, rank positions by difficulty to fill<\/strong>, not just by when you expect the work to begin.<\/p>\n Licensed professionals, senior-level technical specialists, leadership positions, and highly specialized geospatial roles may require significantly more time than entry-level or more readily available positions.<\/p>\n Those are the searches to think about first.<\/p>\n A simple question can help: \u201cIf we needed this person tomorrow, how long would it realistically take us to find them?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n If the answer is three months, six months, or longer, waiting until you have an immediate need isn’t really a hiring strategy. It’s a reaction.<\/p>\n Sometimes the biggest hiring delays aren’t caused by the candidate market at all.<\/p>\n None of those things require a project award.<\/p>\n Getting them settled ahead of time means that when the opportunity comes through, you can actually start recruiting.<\/p>\n And if your organization has headcount or requisitions that expire at the end of the fiscal year, it’s worth understanding what happens to positions that aren’t filled.<\/p>\n An approved position that sits open may not simply carry forward. In some organizations, it has to be justified and approved again.<\/p>\n That can turn a delay into a much bigger problem.<\/p>\n There are also seasonal patterns worth considering when you’re building your hiring plan.<\/p>\n Mid-November through early January tends to slow down.<\/strong><\/p>\n Candidates are less likely to make a major career move around the holidays. Decision-makers take time off. Interview schedules get harder to coordinate. And candidates who are expecting a year-end bonus may be reluctant to leave before it pays out.<\/p>\n Searches can absolutely continue during this period, but they often take longer.<\/p>\n If you need someone to start early in the new year, waiting until December to begin the search can create a difficult timeline.<\/p>\n The beginning of the year can bring a noticeable shift.<\/p>\n Bonuses have been paid. People are reassessing their careers. New budgets are in place. And candidates who weren’t interested in making a move in October may be more open to a conversation in January or February.<\/p>\n For employers, this creates an important opportunity.<\/p>\n But that opportunity is much easier to take advantage of when your requisitions are already approved and your hiring plan is ready.<\/strong><\/p>\n The companies that consistently hire well aren’t necessarily moving faster than everyone else.<\/p>\n They’re starting earlier.<\/strong><\/p>\n Before the next budget year begins, take a look at your anticipated workload and ask:<\/p>\n You don’t need to have every answer.<\/p>\n You just need enough information to identify where hiring could become a bottleneck.<\/p>\n At GeoSearch, we work exclusively in the geospatial industry. We understand that hiring a surveyor, GIS professional, LiDAR specialist, photogrammetrist, geospatial manager, or other specialized professional isn’t the same as filling a general business position.<\/p>\n The candidate pool is specialized. Many of the strongest candidates are already employed. And the timeline from first conversation to start date can be longer than companies expect.<\/p>\n That’s why we encourage clients to bring us their hiring forecast\u2014not just their open positions.<\/strong><\/p>\n Tell us what you’re bidding on. Tell us what you expect to win. Tell us which roles you know you’ll need and which ones you’re still trying to figure out.<\/p>\n We’ll give you an honest assessment of the market, the likely timeline, and which searches are worth starting early.<\/p>\n After 38 years focused exclusively on geospatial recruiting, we’ve seen where hiring timelines tend to get stuck.<\/p>\n Your project may have a start date. Your hiring strategy should start before it.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you have projects on the horizon and aren’t sure when you should begin recruiting, let’s talk.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every year, we see some version of the same thing happen. A firm wins a major project in late September. The work is scheduled to begin in November. Recruiting starts in October\u2014once someone has time to write the job description, get the position approved, and figure out who should be involved in the interviews.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":19282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employer-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19284,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19279\/revisions\/19284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/19282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geosearch.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Hiring Timing Problem Is Structural<\/h2>\n
Start With Your Forecast, Not Your Award<\/h2>\n
Start With the Roles That Will Take the Longest<\/h2>\n
Get the Internal Pieces Ready Before You Need Them<\/h2>\n
\n
Don’t Ignore the Holiday Hiring Slowdown<\/h2>\n
January Through March Is a Different Story<\/h3>\n
What Should You Be Doing Now?<\/h2>\n
\n
Start the Conversation Before You Need the Hire<\/h2>\n