What autumn recruitment says about your business
As September draws to a close, you may have noticed a familiar pattern. People who spent the summer quietly thinking about a move have started updating their CVs. Conversations that were put on hold have picked up again. Roles that attracted little interest a few weeks ago may now be bringing in people worth talking to.
It’s easy to put this down to the “fresh start” feeling that comes with September. That may be part of it. But as we head into October, it’s also worth considering what this activity reveals about your business. Do you hire with intention, or only when a gap becomes impossible to ignore?
Many small businesses recruit reactively. Someone leaves, the workload builds up and a vacancy is advertised in a hurry. There’s rarely much time to step back and think about what the business really needs next. The focus becomes filling the immediate gap rather than making the right long-term decision.
Autumn recruitment can bring this into sharper focus. When strong candidates become available, businesses can find themselves meeting excellent people without a clear picture of whether they’re the right fit for where the business is heading.
The businesses that tend to handle this best think about recruitment regularly, even when there isn’t a vacancy. They have a reasonable sense of how their team is likely to evolve and the skills they’ll need over the coming months. So when an outstanding candidate appears unexpectedly, there’s already enough clarity to decide whether that person fits the direction of the business.
That clarity matters. A business that hires reactively can end up shaping its team around whoever happened to be available at the time. Over time, those individual hiring decisions begin to shape the business in ways that were never intended. Before long, the team reflects a series of urgent decisions rather than a clear direction.
None of this requires a detailed workforce strategy or a five-year hiring plan. It simply means making time, every so often, to think about where the business is heading and the people you’ll need to help get it there.
The move into October is a useful opportunity to pause. What does your team need for the rest of this year? Where are the gaps likely to appear as you head into next year? Are you clear about which skills would help the business move forward?
Thinking about these questions now gives you a better basis for the next hiring decision, whether a vacancy opens tomorrow or a strong candidate comes your way unexpectedly.
If that candidate landed in front of you tomorrow, would you know whether they were right for where the business is going, or would you still be working that out?
A thought to carry into October
The strongest recruitment decisions rarely begin when a vacancy appears. They begin much earlier, when a business has already thought carefully about where it’s heading and the people it will need along the way.
An experienced HR and people strategy professional with more than 25 years’ experience supporting founder-led SMEs. As the founder and Managing Director of Dakota Blue Consulting, I help business…
