Planning Your 2027 Hiring? Why the Conversation Should Start Before Christmas

The best time to plan next year’s hiring is in the final quarter of this year, while budgets are being set and before the January rush. A practical 2027 plan sets out which roles you need and why, when each person must start, the mix of temporary and permanent staff, and a budget that reflects April’s wage and employment law changes. Starting the conversation with your recruitment agency before Christmas gives it time to understand your business, so it can move quickly when good candidates start looking in the new year. Below, we set out how we help employers across Scotland’s Central Belt plan ahead, and what to have ready.

Why should you start planning next year’s hiring now?

Most businesses set next year’s budgets in the autumn. If recruitment isn’t part of that conversation, the money for the roles you need often isn’t there when you need it. We regularly speak to employers in January who know they need people but haven’t yet agreed the budget, and every week of internal discussion is a week added to the hire.

There are four reasons the timing matters this year in particular.

• Candidates move in the new year. In our experience, registrations rise considerably in January, it’s one of the busiest months for candidate enquiries and registrations.
• Permanent hires come with notice periods. A candidate who accepts a role in February may not be free to start until April or May. Planning in October gives you the time a permanent hire actually takes.
• Costs change in April. The Autumn Budget is on 28 October 2026, and the government has asked the Low Pay Commission to recommend new minimum wage rates to take effect from 1 April 2027. Further Employment Rights Act reforms are also due to take effect during 2027. Each of these affects what next year’s roles will cost and how you plan them.
• The labour market has shifted. Scotland’s unemployment rate rose to 5.1% in May to July 2026, up 1.7 percentage points on the year, according to the Scottish Government. More people are looking for work, but in our experience that means more applications to sort through, not necessarily more of the right people. You can read more about how we filter high application volumes.

None of this means you need to recruit now. It means the decisions that make January hiring work, such as the roles, the budget and the brief, are best made before Christmas.

What should a workforce plan for 2027 include?

A workforce plan doesn’t need to be a long document. For most of the businesses we work with, one page answering six questions is enough to start a useful conversation.

1. Which roles do you need, and why? New growth, replacing people who are likely to leave, or covering a known busy period. The reason shapes the type of hire. A role created for a new contract is different from one replacing a long-serving colleague.
2. When does each person need to start? Work back from the start date, not forward from when you’ll get round to advertising.
3. Temporary, permanent or temp-to-perm? Busy periods and uncertain demand often suit temporary workers. Roles you know you’ll need long term usually justify the time a permanent search takes.
4. Who is likely to leave? Turnover is a planning input, not a surprise. Last year’s leavers are the best guide to next year’s. Our guide to employee retention for Scottish businesses covers how to reduce it.
5. Can any gaps be filled from within? Some roles are better developed internally than recruited. We cover this in how to upskill your employees.
6. What if the year goes differently? Plan for a busier and a quieter version of 2027, and decide in advance which roles you’d hold back or bring forward. Our article on building an adaptive workforce goes into more detail.

When we sit down with an employer to plan ahead, the most useful thing they can bring is honesty about uncertainty. A plan that says “we’ll probably need two more, possibly four” is far more useful to us than no plan at all.

How long does recruitment take for different types of role?

The right time to start depends on the kind of hire. In our experience, the three broad types work to very different timelines.

Temporary roles. For temporary warehouse and logistics staff, we find active recruitment works best around four to six weeks before your start date. Go to market much earlier and good temporary candidates take other work rather than wait. Our Christmas warehouse staffing timeline sets out that process week by week.

Permanent roles. A permanent hire has two clocks: the time it takes to find and offer the right person, and their notice period.Typical time from brief taken to person starting can be  8 to 10 weeks, dependant on notice periods.

Notice periods are set by each candidate’s contract and usually grow with seniority. The notice periods we typically see is one month for many roles, three months for senior or specialist roles.

Specialist roles. Qualified accountants, engineers and other specialists often take longest, because the people you want are usually already employed and not actively looking. Specialist searches can take typically two to three months, and roles such as accountants, engineers are the harder to fill roles, although our success rate remains high and we are regularly praised on our determination in working on those harder to fill skills.

Our 2026 salary surveys for accountancy and finance and engineering show what these candidates currently expect.

If a permanent or specialist role needs to start in spring 2027, the search realistically needs to begin in the first weeks of January. That’s why the planning conversation belongs before Christmas.

How should you budget for recruitment in 2027?

A recruitment budget is more than salaries and agency fees. When we help employers plan, we suggest building it from five lines.

• Pay and on-costs. Salaries or hourly rates for each role, plus employer National Insurance, pension contributions and holiday pay. If any of your roles are paid at or near the minimum wage, allow for the April 2027 increase, which is expected to be confirmed around the Budget on 28 October.
• Market rates. What you’ll need to offer to attract the right people, which may be more than you paid last time. Our 2026 salary surveys for warehouse and logistics, manufacturing, office support, HR and marketing are a useful starting point.
• Recruitment costs. Agency fees or charge rates, advertising, and the time your own team spends screening and interviewing. Our article on the real cost of recruiting warehouse workers yourself compares the visible and hidden costs, and the same principles apply across other roles.
• Onboarding and training. The time it takes for a new starter to become fully productive, and who on your team supports them.
• The cost of not hiring. Overtime, missed orders, and pressure on existing staff while a role sits empty. This rarely appears in a budget, but it’s often the figure that makes the case. Our guide to justifying a new hire covers how to present it.

 

We’d also suggest a small contingency for replacements. If three people left your team last year, plan for at least three replacements again unless something has changed.

What should you bring to a planning conversation with a recruitment agency?

A planning conversation isn’t a commitment to recruit. It’s a chance for your agency to understand your business before there’s any pressure, so that when you’re ready to hire, the groundwork is already done. We would always rather have this conversation in November than in the middle of a January rush.

The clients who plan well do enjoy a structured and agreed timeline, that suits their business as well as gives them a very specific commitment from the agency. Those clients who call in a hurry have the exact same level of support, but the structure will differ as the timeline may need to be rushed, dependant on the customers deadlines, however given our recommendations to plan early and January being the best time for attracting new candidates, a planned approach gathers great momentum and success.

To get the most from the conversation, it helps to have the following ready:

• Your draft list of roles, even if it’s provisional, with rough start dates.
• Last year’s experience. Which roles took longest to fill, which hires didn’t work out, and why.
• Pay, hours and parking patterns for each role, including any flexibility on shifts, hybrid working or part-time hours. Flexibility is often what widens the pool of candidates.
• Your budget position. Whether it’s agreed, pending, or depends on how the first quarter goes.
• Who needs to be involved in interviews and decisions, and how quickly they can turn feedback around.
• Anything that’s changing, such as a new site, a new contract, new systems or a restructure.

 

It’s a two-way conversation. You should also come away knowing what the agency is seeing in your sector, what candidates currently expect, and how it would approach your harder roles. Our guide to what to ask a recruitment agency before you appoint them covers the questions worth asking, whichever sector you recruit in.

How can Allstaff help you plan your 2027 hiring?

We work with employers across Scotland’s Central Belt from our Glasgow and Paisley offices, recruiting temporary, contract and permanent staff in warehouse and logistics, manufacturing, engineering, office support, HR, marketing, and accountancy and finance. We’ve been doing this for over 40 years.

 

If you’re starting to think about next year, we’d be glad to talk it through, with no obligation to recruit. We’ll listen to what you’re planning, share what we’re seeing in your sector, and give you an honest view of realistic timelines and costs for the roles you have in mind.

Request a call back and one of our team will be in touch.

Frequently asked questions

When should I start planning next year’s recruitment?

Ideally in the final quarter of the year, alongside your budget. That gives you time to agree the roles and costs before January, when candidate activity typically picks up and permanent hires begin serving notice.

What should a workforce plan include?

At a minimum: the roles you need and why, start dates, the mix of temporary and permanent staff, likely leavers, any roles you could fill internally, and a budget that covers pay, recruitment and onboarding costs.

How far in advance should I contact a recruitment agency?

For planning, as early as you like. A conversation before Christmas costs nothing and means your agency already understands your business when you’re ready to hire. For active recruitment, temporary roles usually need four to six weeks, while permanent and specialist roles need longer because of search time and notice periods.

Should I plan for temporary or permanent staff?

It depends on how certain the need is. Temporary staff suit busy periods and uncertain demand. Permanent hires suit roles you know you’ll need long term. Temp-to-perm can work well when you want to see someone in the role before committing.

How will April 2027 changes affect my recruitment budget?

New minimum wage rates are due to take effect from 1 April 2027, and further Employment Rights Act reforms are being introduced during 2027. Check the confirmed rates once they’re announced, and take advice on how the employment law changes apply to your business.