The Net Zero Hiring Playbook, guide 01 of 12
The 2027 Hiring Plan
Which of next year's hires your team can fill, which it cannot, and how to know before the budget is signed.
Most hiring plans get signed off in November and abandoned by March, usually in the week the first important role is still open and the project it was meant to serve has started without it.
The plan that survives starts from the work already promised, plans backwards from the day each person has to be useful, and is honest about which roles your own team can fill. Most of them, it can. Two or three it cannot, and October is a much better time to find out which than April.
Free, twelve pages, with a one-page template and a sign-off checklist at the back.
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Download the PDFStep three is the one most people skip. Put every role in a column before anyone writes an advert.
A workforce plan built from the work, in six steps
- 1
Start from the work, not the org chart. Every commitment for the next 18 months, and the capability each one needs, before anyone writes a job title.
- 2
Plan backwards from the day they must be useful. Ramp-up, notice, decision and search, in that order. A role needed in September 2027 opens in November 2026.
- 3
Sort every role into one of three. Fill it yourself, fill it with help, or find it. The middle column is where most plans lose months.
- 4
Test the market before you commit the budget. Four checks you can run yourself in an hour: depth, movement, competition and pay.
- 5
Budget for the market you are hiring in. Bands from live advertised pay, checked against the team you already have, with the cost of a late hire written beside the salary.
- 6
Five things that break a plan. The hiring manager's diary, dates that move, the person who leaves, approval chains and the competitor down the road.
Plus, at the back
- The plan on one page. One row per hire, filled in with the hiring manager in the room. Sort it by the date the search opens and the first few rows are next month's work.
- Ten questions before you sign it off. The checklist for whoever approves the headcount.
Who it is for
Heads of Talent, HR leaders, and the engineering and operations directors who own next year's headcount in energy, EV charging, storage, grid and hydrogen.
It takes an afternoon per hiring manager. The second plan takes less, because the first one becomes the template.
The Net Zero Hiring Playbook
One guide a month
This is the first guide in the series, with a new one for hiring leaders in this sector each month. Next is 02, Pay That Lands: setting salary bands for roles the market is short of, without upsetting the people you already have.
Also published monthly as a LinkedIn newsletter.
If you would rather run the plan without the spreadsheet, it is built into TalentPilot.