Planning next year’s hiring? Take a moment to pause

Autumn is traditionally the time when companies prepare for the year ahead. Business strategies take shape, budgets are set and, alongside them, plans are made for how many new colleagues to hire. Yet this is precisely when many companies make a mistake.

Recruitment plans all too often start with a list of vacancies. Far fewer companies ask what capabilities they will need from their people.

Our daily work with companies and candidates in Czechia and Slovakia also shows that plans most often run into three obstacles: the availability of people in a particular region, salaries and the workforce capacity a company can realistically count on.

Define the competencies you need from candidates

Consulting firms have long highlighted the same point: growing companies focus on the competencies their people will need, rather than job titles.

In practice, however, there is still often a gap between theory and reality. According to surveys, only 51% of European HR professionals consider strategic workforce planning a high priority. At the same time, 39% of employers do not know what capabilities and skills their employees will need in two to three years.

Start with capabilities, rather than years of experience. Identify what your existing team can cover and what expertise you will need to find in the labour market. If you are introducing AI into production, for example, “five years of industry experience” tells you very little. You need someone who can lead change and handle pressure. Only once you have clearly defined the competencies you need does it make sense to consider how many people to hire and where to find them.

Account for regional differences

Your recruitment plan must reflect candidate availability in the location where you will be hiring. Before approving the plan, check how many suitable people live within commuting distance, who else is competing for them in the region and what those employers offer for every key role. Commuting matters beyond recruitment, too: according to Slovak data from Alma Career, an easier commute is among the most common reasons people leave a new job within their first year.

Check that your salary budget reflects the market

Even if you find people in the region, you need to offer competitive terms. Yet salary budgets for new employees are often based on last year’s figures, while the market has moved on. Candidates’ salary expectations rise accordingly, particularly in the most sought-after occupations.

If your plan assumes below-market pay, you risk one of two outcomes: recruitment takes longer or new employees soon leave for another employer. According to the Alma Career data mentioned above, higher pay is the most common reason people change jobs within a year of joining, even among those who were satisfied in their previous role.

When preparing their budgets, companies should therefore check whether their salary expectations are realistic for the specific role and region. Rising costs are not limited to salaries, either. The budget should also include items that may not be immediately obvious in a spreadsheet: overtime and additional payments when staff are absent, benefits, transport or accommodation, as well as the losses a company incurs when a position remains unfilled for months.

Money is not everything, however. Our conversations with candidates show that the speed of the recruitment process, a clearly explained role and trust in their prospective manager also influence their decisions.

TIP: Read our article Why some key positions remain unfilled for months.

Plan for capacity, not just headcount

Our experience with temporary agency staffing in manufacturing and logistics shows that planning for 50 new employees does not automatically give you the capacity of 50 people. Staff turnover, attendance and absences, seasonality and production peaks all come into play. Some new employees will leave within the first few months, while others will be absent, leaving actual capacity below what the plan suggests.

The plan should therefore address not only how many people you need, but also how you will maintain operations when orders fluctuate, during seasonal peaks or when suitable candidates are unavailable. Alongside recruitment, it pays to plan for workforce stability:

Base your plan on actual capacity, not the number of full-time equivalents: Include expected staff turnover and absences.
Combine permanent and flexible capacity: Supplement your core team with people whose numbers you can adjust as demand changes, for example through temporary agency staffing.
Prepare for peak demand in advance: You know your seasonal and production peaks from previous years, so start recruiting with enough lead time.
Give new employees reasons to stay: Good onboarding and the first few months at the company determine whether a new hire becomes a lasting member of the team.

When the local market is not enough, decide on alternatives early

Sometimes, people with the required qualifications simply are not available in the local labour market. A construction company in eastern Slovakia illustrates what this looks like in practice. It had plenty of orders but too few skilled people, so it began losing business opportunities. Naturally, it first looked locally: it advertised on job boards, used social media and approached candidates directly. The results, however, were not enough.

Together, we changed the strategy and focused on Uzbekistan, where we found 80 suitable candidates.

We have had a similar experience in Czechia. A manufacturing company had spent an entire year unsuccessfully trying to recruit 15 specialists. A week-long recruitment trip to the Philippines ultimately secured 20 vetted welders, whom we selected from 142 candidates through online interviews and practical tests conducted in Manila. Our case study explains the recruitment process step by step.

Both stories have one thing in common: the companies turned to alternatives only after exhausting the domestic labour market. Yet international recruitment is not a last-minute solution: selection, testing, work permits, visas, relocation and settling in all take time. If you already suspect that the local market cannot support your plans, decide on alternatives during planning, rather than waiting until you start turning down orders.

“The labour market has changed. Today, it is no longer just about finding someone, but about finding them in the right way. Instead of waiting for candidates, we need to go to them and choose the right source of people for each situation, whether that is the local market, foreign nationals already working here or recruitment abroad,” says Marek Skička, Delivery Director SK at SYNERGIE.

Your workforce plan starts with your business plan

A workforce plan should reflect both your business plan and the realities of the labour market. Before approving it, answer the five questions discussed above:

Do you know which competencies you will need and what your existing team can cover?
Are people with these capabilities available in the region where you will be looking?
Does your salary budget reflect current market rates for those people?
Does the plan account for staff turnover, absences and seasonal fluctuations?
Do you have an alternative if the local labour market is not enough, and do you know when to use it?

The sooner you establish where you want to take your business next year, the sooner you can check whether you have the people to get there. The goal should be to surround yourself with employees who will actively help shape your company’s future.

We are here to help. We work with companies and candidates in Czechia and Slovakia every day, so we understand the realities of individual regions and industries. Get in touch, and together we will find the people for your bravest plans.