Recruitment Plan

Team / department: [Team this plan covers] Plan owner: [Hiring manager or people lead accountable for the plan] Planning period: [e.g., Q1-Q2 2026] Last reviewed: [Date] Next review: [Date]

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1. Hiring goals and context

[State briefly why the team is hiring: the business goals this headcount supports and any constraints such as budget, runway, or office capacity.]

• What we are trying to achieve: [The goals these hires unlock]
• Total headcount this period: [Number of new hires planned]
• Total budget: [Fully-loaded budget including salaries, on-costs, and recruiting spend]
• Key constraints: [Budget cap, location, timing, or onboarding capacity limits]

2. Roles and headcount

[List every role you intend to fill, ranked by priority, with whether it is a growth hire or a backfill.]

Priority	Role	Growth / Backfill	Level	Target start	Salary range	Owner
1	[Role title]	[Growth / Backfill]	[Level]	[Month]	[Range]	[Hiring manager]
2	[Role title]	[Growth / Backfill]	[Level]	[Month]	[Range]	[Hiring manager]
3	[Role title]	[Growth / Backfill]	[Level]	[Month]	[Range]	[Hiring manager]

3. Hiring timeline

[Sequence the roles across the period so starts are staggered to what the team can onboard well.]

Period	Roles opened	Roles expected to start	Notes
[Month / quarter]	[Roles]	[Roles]	[Dependencies or risks]
[Month / quarter]	[Roles]	[Roles]	[Dependencies or risks]

4. Sourcing channels

[Where each role's candidates will come from, with an owner for each channel.]

Channel	Roles it serves	Owner	Notes / budget
Referrals	[Roles]	[Owner]	[Referral bonus or campaign]
Inbound / job boards	[Roles]	[Owner]	[Which boards, cost]
Direct outbound	[Roles]	[Owner]	[Sourcing tool or recruiter]
Agency / RPO	[Hard-to-fill roles]	[Owner]	[Fee terms]

5. Interview process and stages

[Define the loop before opening roles so every candidate gets the same stages. Adjust per role family.]

Stage	What it assesses	Who runs it	Target duration
Screen	[Must-have skills, motivation, comp, timing]	[Recruiter]	[e.g., 30 min call]
Hiring-manager interview	[Role fit and experience]	[Hiring manager]	[e.g., 45 min]
Skills / work sample	[Can they do the actual work]	[Panel]	[e.g., 60 min exercise]
Values / collaboration	[How they work with others]	[Cross-team interviewer]	[e.g., 45 min]
Debrief and decision	[Evidence vs scorecard, hire / no-hire]	[Panel]	[e.g., 30 min]

6. Scorecard

[Agree the four to six attributes that predict success before interviewing. Score each candidate the same way.]

Attribute	What good looks like	Assessed in which stage
[Attribute 1]	[Definition of strong]	[Stage]
[Attribute 2]	[Definition of strong]	[Stage]
[Attribute 3]	[Definition of strong]	[Stage]
[Attribute 4]	[Definition of strong]	[Stage]

Scoring scale: [e.g., 1 = no evidence, 2 = mixed, 3 = clearly meets, 4 = exceeds. Interviewers record a rating and the evidence behind it before the debrief.]

7. Budget

[The fully-loaded cost of the plan so finance can sign off.]

Cost line	Amount	Notes
Salaries (annualised)	[Amount]	[Sum across roles]
On-costs (taxes, benefits, equipment)	[Amount]	[Estimated as a percentage of salary]
Recruiting spend (job boards, tools, agency fees)	[Amount]	[Per channel]
Referral bonuses	[Amount]	[Per successful hire]
Total	[Amount]

8. Metrics and review

[How you will measure whether the plan is working, and when you will review it.]

Metric	Target	Actual	Notes
Time-to-hire	[Target days]	[Actual]	[Trend]
Offer-acceptance rate	[Target %]	[Actual]	[If low, why]
Funnel conversion	[Target per stage]	[Actual]	[Where candidates drop]
Source of hire	[Expected mix]	[Actual]	[Which channels worked]
Cost per hire	[Target]	[Actual]	[vs budget]

Review cadence: [e.g., a monthly hiring review to update actuals, unblock stuck roles, and re-rank the roster as priorities shift.]