A new staffing requirement often follows a business change: a project is approved, an employee leaves, a function expands, a new location opens or the organisation needs capability that is not available within the existing workforce.
Workforce planning connects that business need with the people, skills and capacity required to deliver it. Recruitment begins once the requirement has been defined, approved and translated into a role or group of roles that can be sourced.
For organisations that already work with us across payroll, HR outsourcing, Employer of Record (EOR) or another workforce service, a new staffing requirement should also be considered within the workforce arrangements already in place.
Establish the Business Requirement
A staffing request should begin with the business outcome the organisation is trying to support.
That could involve replacing critical capacity, expanding a function, resourcing a new contract, opening another location or bringing specialist capability into the business. The requirement should be defined in operational terms before recruitment begins.
At this stage, leadership should be aligned on the scale of the requirement, the function it supports, the intended start date, the expected duration where relevant and the business impact of leaving the position unfilled.
This gives us the context behind the hire and allows the staffing requirement to be considered against the organisation’s wider workforce priorities.
Translate the Requirement Into a Role
Once the business need is established, the next step is to turn it into a role that can be sourced and assessed consistently.
A job title provides limited direction without an agreed scope of responsibilities, seniority and required capability. The role should reflect the work the person is expected to perform, the level of responsibility, the reporting structure and the capabilities required from the outset.
For an existing position, this is an opportunity to reassess whether the previous scope still reflects the needs of the function. For a newly created role, the hiring manager should define the responsibilities, priorities and expected contribution before candidate sourcing begins.
The final scope should align the job title, responsibilities, experience, qualifications, technical requirements, location, working arrangements, compensation parameters and intended start date.
Distinguish Core Requirements From Preferences
A strong candidate brief separates what the role requires from what would strengthen a candidate’s profile.
Essential criteria should cover the experience, qualifications, licences, technical capability or language requirements required to perform the role.
Preferred criteria can capture additional experience or sector knowledge that would strengthen the appointment.
Trainable criteria should cover areas the business is prepared to develop after the employee joins.
This distinction gives us a more precise basis for sourcing and gives your interview team a consistent framework for evaluating candidates. It also reduces the risk of the specification becoming unnecessarily restrictive as the search progresses.
Align Budget, Approval and Decision Ownership
The commercial parameters and decision-making framework should be agreed before candidate engagement begins.
The organisation should have alignment on approved headcount, compensation parameters, budget ownership, interview participation and final hiring authority.
It is also important to establish how candidate feedback will be consolidated and how many interview stages are required.
For businesses where HR, finance, procurement, operations and functional leadership are all involved, defined ownership helps prevent duplicated review, conflicting feedback and late-stage changes to the requirement.
Build the Staffing Brief Around the Decision
The staffing brief should bring the business requirement, role scope and internal decision process into one working document.
For us, the most useful brief includes:
The business reason for the requirement
Role title and number of positions
Department, function and reporting line
Scope of responsibilities
Essential, preferred and trainable criteria
Required experience and qualifications
Location, working arrangements and working hours
Approved salary or rate parameters
Intended start date and duration where relevant
Interview structure and decision-makers
Headcount and budget approval status
Onboarding considerations
Nathan HR services already supporting the workforce
The value of the brief is the alignment it creates between the people requesting the hire, the people approving it and the team responsible for sourcing.
Where elements of the workforce structure are still being considered, share the requirement with us at that stage. We can review the role in the context of the timeframe, existing workforce arrangement and services already in place before the recruitment or staffing route is agreed.
Recruitment and Staffing Process
The next stages depend on the service required for the role.
For permanent recruitment, we support job advertising, candidate sourcing, screening and interviewing. Our recruitment platform also gives clients access to shortlisted candidate profiles, resumes, supporting documents and status information.
For temporary and contract staffing, we support hiring, shortlisting and interviews together with employment administration within the service, including contracts, onboarding, visa processing and payroll.
From there, the process moves through the stages relevant to the requirement: brief review, sourcing, candidate assessment, shortlist review, interviews, selection and onboarding.
Where the workforce structure still needs to be determined, we can review the requirement with you before the service route is agreed.
