How long is it reasonable to wait between being informed you have a job and starting at said job? Is there anything I can do to hurry HR up without alienating them?

[ScummyMummy]

Hiya. I was interviewed for a job 2nd week in Jan and was offered and accepted it by phone the same day. V pleased and excited as it is first permanent job after qualifying as a social worker and in the field I really wanted but had not seen any openings for etc etc. Anyway- gave a months notice at my current temp job as I didn't want to muck them about and am due to go on short holiday over half term so, as I hadn't received a letter confirming appointment, I emailed HR to say please can I start week after that. This would be a full 7 weeks after being offered the job. Answer is no probably not, it will take lots of time to gather references and I shouldn't have given notice... I know for sure that my referees have been stars and have already delivered the goods reference wise so I feel that HR are acting rather leisurely to say the least. (There are certain job specific hurdles that have to be jumped through in my line of work- eg police checks- but they haven't mentioned these as hold ups.) Is this just the way it goes in the HR world? How long did you wait for a job to start and what do people think is a reasonable time scale? How do I hurry them up without making my name mud before I've even started? Would be v grateful for any advice.

Probably not a lot of use now but I would never give notice on a job without having the contract from the new job in my hand. Why not ask the HR dept directly when they anticipate that you will be starting? They must have some idea of how long this process normally takes? Have your temp job already found a replacement for you? If not, they may be happy for you to extend for a couple of weeks.

Try chasing your new line manager - it is in his or her interest to get you started asap. Have you filled in the CRB forms yet?

It takes forever at our place (NHS) these days, what with references, CRB checks and occupational health checks. Someone just started on our unit and she'd been interviewed in September, and it's taken at least 3 months to get social workers in post because of waiting for the CRB checks.

I'd phone and ask what the hold up is, but also call your new line manager and ask them too. It might be that a reference has gone missing between HR or something like that. No harm in nicely chasing.

I used to work in HR in the public sector and echo what SurferMum has said, the social worker reference checks take forever. I would expect HR to give you a rough estimate of how long it will take. FWIW I don't think CRB checks take anything like as long now as they used to do.

I would speak to your line manager-to-be too. Also ask if you can stay at your temp job for longer, can you?

From verbal offer to written offer to starting in the job I'm in now was about 2 months iirc, lots of reference checks, credit checks etc etc, expect there are even more for sw role.

Fwiw, I refused to hand in a month's notice on our rented house (we were moving) until I had a written offer and I think that's fairly usual, i.e. to wait until you've got the written offer before handing in notice. I know of someone I work with who started about 4/5 months after being verbally offered because it took them ages to get an offer to her and then she was on 3 months notice.

Congrats on your job though!

Thank you, everyone. I will definitely chase my line manager to be. I do feel a bit silly about giving notice before getting something in writing but one of the nice things about the temp job has been that I've felt able to be very open about my plans, so everyone knew i was going for interview and wanted to know what had transpired! My colleagues and clients have been so lovely that the last thing I wanted to be was unclear about what I was doing and i've been working really hard on doing good handovers etc and didn't want to go on holiday for a week only to come back for a few days/ 2 weeks or whatever. I just didn't envisage things taking so long, tbh. Doh. Oh well, a couple of weeks off would be quite nice I suppose, though the unpaid aspect is slightly worrying, especially if it has the potential to enlongate into months...

I work in HR, and think it is a bit off that they haven't been in touch at least, even if they cannot give you a definite start date.

I would make contact, and say that you are v excited about starting blah blah and when are you starting!!

Did you discuss start dates at the interview?