At the beginning of the year, everything was aligned. You had a clean hiring roadmap, executive approvals, and a shared sense of confidence in what needed to be done. Budgets were signed off. Role requirements were locked in. There was even a healthy optimism around hiring velocity and employer branding. But now it’s Q3, and you’re staring at unfilled roles, frustrated hiring managers, and a growing gap between plan and progress.
So, what happened?
The truth is, most Q1 hiring plans are designed for clarity not for change. And in a market where job seekers are evolving faster than job descriptions and business needs shift with every quarter, that kind of clarity can quickly become a constraint.
At SRA, we’ve supported hundreds of Canadian organizations through hiring pivots just like this one especially in high growth, highly regulated, and cross province environments. And we’ve learned that falling behind isn’t a failure. It’s a signal. A cue to stop, reassess, and build smarter for the next stretch.
1. Why Your Q1 Plan Isn’t Working Anymore
Every hiring plan starts with structure. You build forecasts based on headcount needs, project timelines, revenue goals, and budget allocations. And usually, there’s alignment at least at the start.
But hiring doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Between January and now, your world has changed.
- Business priorities likely shifted.
- Budgets may have been reallocated.
- Some teams might have reorganized entirely.
- And the labor market especially in provinces like Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec has continued to shift beneath your feet.
You’re still executing on a plan that doesn’t reflect the reality you’re operating in today.
That’s not on you. It’s on the system. And the fix isn’t to try harder. It’s to think smarter.
2. The Q3 Pivot: From Execution to Recalibration
By Q3, most HR and Talent teams are in one of two camps:
- Still chasing the original plan, hoping things will stabilize.
- Starting to question what needs to change but unsure where to begin.
Here’s what we recommend at SRA: use Q3 as your recalibration window.
This is when data and patterns start to emerge. You can now see which roles are lagging, which sourcing channels are underperforming, and which internal blockers are slowing you down.
Start asking the questions that spark momentum:
- Are we hiring for the right roles or just the ones we planned for?
- What’s changed in our candidate market or value proposition since Q1?
- Which bottlenecks in our process are avoidable and which are structural?
- Are we expecting volume from recruitment, when we really need precision?
- Is our recruitment partner helping us think strategically or just filling requests?
SRA’s clients often use Q3 to reset expectations, reprioritize critical roles, and introduce new workflows that reduce friction. That’s what turns a reactive hiring cycle into a repeatable talent engine.
3. The Wrong Metrics Are Keeping You Stuck
We get it, stakeholders want to see numbers. But many of the traditional hiring KPIs no longer reflect reality.
Time to hire is often used to judge speed. But in most agency partnerships, it doesn’t capture what’s really in your control. There are internal delays, multiple rounds of feedback, competing offers, and shifting candidate availability.
That’s why SRA helps clients reframe the KPI conversation. One of the most important metrics we advocate for is:
- Time to shortlist: How quickly are we able to present verified, qualified, and interested candidates for a role?
Because that’s where real progress starts.
We also track:
- Interview to offer ratio: Are the candidates you’re interviewing the right ones?
- Drop off rates: Where are candidates exiting the funnel and why?
- Critical role velocity: Are the roles that matter most moving fastest?
When you focus on the right signals, you spend less time reacting to missed goals and more time driving outcomes.
4. Build Repeatability, Not Just Urgency
Urgency is part of hiring. But it shouldn’t be the system. If every open role feels like a scramble, something bigger needs to shift.
Repeatable hiring processes are what power consistent, predictable growth especially for companies expanding across provinces like Ontario, BC, and Quebec.
Here’s how SRA helps clients do that:
- Talent Pools: We build and maintain vetted pipelines for common roles.
- Role Intelligence: We analyze past hiring patterns and optimize for repeat success.
- Automation: We use tools to remove redundant steps and reduce candidate lag.
- Delivery Sprints: For time sensitive roles, we implement structured, high-speed sprints with pre committed delivery benchmarks.
Whether you’re a tech startup in Toronto, a healthcare firm in Quebec, or a national enterprise scaling in BC, we bring a recruiting model that scales with you without losing local compliance or candidate quality.
5. Your Q1 Plan Got You Started. Your Q3 Strategy Will Get You Ahead.
Planning isn’t the problem. Sticking to a plan when the conditions have changed is. In Q3, you have an opportunity to reset. To look at the market with fresh eyes, reassess your hiring levers, and bring in a recruitment partner who can match your speed and complexity. SRA is not just an IT recruitment firm in Toronto or an IT staffing firm in Canada. We’re a growth partner with national reach, local expertise, and a team that’s obsessed with making hiring easier, smarter, and faster.
Don’t Just Catch Up
Falling behind on your hiring plan doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It means you’re being invited to adapt, to rethink your strategy with clarity, intention, and the right support.
Q3 is not too late. In fact, it’s the perfect time to reset, re-prioritize, and realign your hiring engine with what your business truly needs right now.
At SRA, we work with growing businesses across Canada to do exactly that. Whether you’re looking to scale in Toronto, British Columbia, or Quebec, we offer more than just talent. We bring repeatable hiring frameworks, locally attuned insights, and a delivery mindset that puts time-to-shortlist, not time-to-stress, at the center of your hiring success.