Talent Acquisitionists usually deal with immediate joiners having a notice period. As Talent Acquisitionists we’re all familiar with the concept of notice period and on an average a Candidate has a three months’ notice period. But what do you do when you have a pipeline of immediate joiners with 3 months of notice period when you’ve got positions to fill immediately? Ever wondered how to tackle such a scenario especially when it is bulk or volume hiring?

If not; but are in a similar situation then we’re sure you’ll gain some valuable insights on how to deal with your situation or even if you find yourself in such a scenario in the near future. You’ve guessed right, with our popular WhatsApp Group Chat Wednesday’s discussion that focussed on, “What are the trends or tactics followed by Recruiters to get immediate joiners having 3 months of notice period?” As suggested by our Hyderabad Group member Sathya.  Here’s what we gathered…

Based on the conversation above we’ve got an out pour of responses. To name a few ask the candidate if there is a possibility for them to be released early, utilise the options available to you such as buyout, check their leave balance, most of all keep engaging with the candidate regularly, no 100% surety if the notice period can be negotiated unless the candidate is willing to do the same if provided with the favourable situations and many more. So let’s have a look at the key takeaways from two angles…

Candidate’s / Employee Perspectives

1. Ask the candidate if there is a possibility for them to be released early
2. Unable to leave early else they have to be absconds
3. Employees in India are not much aware about the employment laws

Decision Makers

1. Unless the employer waves off the notice period or offers the buyout notice period option to the candidate they won’t be able to join early
2. Offering JB might provoke the candidate to reduce NP but up to a certain extent as it's not their decision. 
3. Few Companies set 3 months’ notice keeping in mind that employees get “lock under offer”
4. Except for Handover of any pending deliverables they should relieve A.S.A.P. 
5. Knowledge leakage can be a huge threat; company intellectual property is the biggest theft at this point in time.
6. Few organizations need to understand and revamp certain NP policies
7. Employers mostly prepare agreements that are one sided. 

Recruiter’s Perspective

1. No immediate joiners trend is available
2. Evaluate your options
   1. maximum buyout 
   2. check leave balance and serve rest,
   3. keep engaging with the candidate regularly,
   4. explain components and variables and other benefits comparing current organization
   5. Joining Bonus
3. Recruiter may be ready to refund the damage cost of previous employer to the candidate
4. Early joiners can be given an X amount as Joining Bonus (JB)
5. As Agency Recruiters you have more flexibility by negotiating with the Client while explaining the scenario and convince them to modify their hiring procedure if required.
6. Don't Process CV with NP of 90/Days unless you have Predictive Hiring Requirement/Pool Hiring as there is an 80-90% probability of declines is much higher.
7. Business can't lose billing for 3Months, it’s better to go for Immediate Joiner with Premium Pay.
8. Understand that JB or buyout is the decision of candidates but reducing the NP is decided by the organisation and management.
9. Go for an immediate joiner with Premium Pay
10. JB has a very limited role to play in reducing NP
11. What JB can't, Jack Daniels (JD) can. JD means meet your candidate for a drink, lunch or dinner and it worked in most cases.
12. We must have "Employment at Will" where both employer and employee can leave without prior notice and get pay till last working day.
13.  Deferred Bonus is a good idea to encourage candidates to join early if linked to a project deliverable.
14. Add a "Deferred bonus" clause where the JB can split and candidate is eligible for half when he completes 6 Months and the other half in 1 yr.
15. Locking a person who has decided to leave, for 3 months is counterproductive
16. Back up for key resources is essential
17. The awareness about minimum notice period and guidelines /laws will help to minimise the practice of abscond, early release, unnecessary JBs and waiting for long period to join new employers.

Factors / Reasons affecting Early Joining

There are several things that can prevent a Candidate from joining your organisation early or vice versa. Sometimes even the circumstances of the Candidates importance at the currently employed organisation may have a bearing on the joining ratio hence it is essential to find out more about the candidates responsibilities. So here are a few aspects to consider in either of the cases.

Early joining of Candidates

1. A Candidates dependency in the current project matters not how much of JB is given
2. The dependability of the Candidate and his relations with his Management
3. Target Candidates already serving their notice period & check their project duration so that they can get early release
4. No 100% sure if the notice period can be negotiated unless the candidate is willing to do the same if provided with the favourable situations.
5. Except for Handover of any pending deliverables they should relieve A.S.A.P.   

The Buyout option

1. When using the buyout option ensure the Candidate is on Bench or not carrying much dependability, else the organisation won’t approve this option.

Well there you have it, all the information that you will need to act when you’re in a scenario where immediate joinees without 3 months’ notice period is had to catch. So if you’ve liked this discussion then ensure that you join us for them by following us @SourcingADDA.