3 Months’ Notice Period – Implications for all parties!
October 11th, 2021
It’s time to move on in your career, you’re in the interviewing process for an exciting new opportunity, BUT you are on 3 months’ notice.
If you’re successful and are made an acceptable offer this week and resign on Friday, it’s likely you wouldn’t join your new employer until 17 JANUARY 2022! That’s an awfully long way off, 65 working days and, based on a 40-hour week, 2,600 working hours!
Is that good for you, the individual, your prospective employer or even your current company?
It seems more and more companies are insisting on increasing the notice period and not just for the most senior people; last week we spoke with a potential candidate earning £24k who was on 3 months’ notice!
Obviously, it provides good security for the employee, which is fine until they want to move on. It gives adequate time for the business to find a replacement (providing they can find someone on one months’ notice!) and maybe even facilitate a handover.
Many people feel they have holiday allowance they can use in lieu of notice, but companies don’t always allow that, so then even the most conscientious individual is bound to lose interest.
If the company is desperately keen to keep the person, they may use the period to make a counter offer (or maybe more than one!) and appeal to the person to stay, but people who accept counter offers can regret taking them and the company never feels the same about that employee afterwards.
It’s a difficult one for us recruiters. Companies obviously want the most suitable person to join, but many are balking at people with long notice periods.
Has the remote/hybrid working week changed the situation? Does having someone at home for 3 or even 5 days a week still working during their notice period make sense?
Doug Woodward
doug@recgc.com
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If you’re successful and are made an acceptable offer this week and resign on Friday, it’s likely you wouldn’t join your new employer until 17 JANUARY 2022! That’s an awfully long way off, 65 working days and, based on a 40-hour week, 2,600 working hours!
Is that good for you, the individual, your prospective employer or even your current company?
It seems more and more companies are insisting on increasing the notice period and not just for the most senior people; last week we spoke with a potential candidate earning £24k who was on 3 months’ notice!
Obviously, it provides good security for the employee, which is fine until they want to move on. It gives adequate time for the business to find a replacement (providing they can find someone on one months’ notice!) and maybe even facilitate a handover.
Many people feel they have holiday allowance they can use in lieu of notice, but companies don’t always allow that, so then even the most conscientious individual is bound to lose interest.
If the company is desperately keen to keep the person, they may use the period to make a counter offer (or maybe more than one!) and appeal to the person to stay, but people who accept counter offers can regret taking them and the company never feels the same about that employee afterwards.
It’s a difficult one for us recruiters. Companies obviously want the most suitable person to join, but many are balking at people with long notice periods.
Has the remote/hybrid working week changed the situation? Does having someone at home for 3 or even 5 days a week still working during their notice period make sense?
Doug Woodward
doug@recgc.com