The Busy Firm. Weeks Until We Hire fell from 31 weeks to below zero by July: demand had outrun the team. If nothing changes it sinks to about −12 weeks. Hiring on the trigger brings it back to 16 weeks by February.
Illustrative. Juniper Ridge Advisory is a fictional firm with a full year of modeled data, analyzed the way we analyze yours.
How to calculate it
The number of weeks until demand, growing at your current Growth Rate, reaches 85% of available delivery hours. Compare it with your hiring lead time: time to fill the role plus time to ramp up. When it's shorter than the lead time, you're already late. Alongside it, track senior hours on junior-level work: the share of senior hours spent on work a less expensive role could do.
Utilization at 80%, growing 25% a year, reaches 85% in about 13 weeks. If hiring and ramp-up take 15 weeks, the hire should have started two weeks ago.
Hiring always starts after people are already overwhelmed.
Hire on the trigger, not on pain, and push work down to the right level.
Money: carrying a hire before the work fully arrives.
Cash. Check Cash Reserve before hiring early.