When to give notice/speak to boss?

[hillarypcof]

Hi all,

On Friday I had a successful Teams interview for a position within another NHS Trust 😃 They called me on Friday evening to offer me the job, but of course balls will not be rolling just yet, as they just wanted to give me the outcome before the weekend. I am chuffed to bits! It is career progression and a pay band higher.

My question is - what is the NHS recruitment process? Will they request reference straight away, or do I need to sign some form of offer letter before they start pre-employment checks?

My boss has known for a while that I was seeking development opportunities (which my current Trust could not offer me), so although news of my departure will not come as a shock to him, I don't think he was hoping for this news so soon. (We work as a small team of 3 - him, myself and my counterpart).

I do not wish to give my notice until I have it in a written document that my pre-employment checks have been completed, however I feel I would like to give him the heads up that my departure from the team is coming, to prepare him that he will most likely be approached for a reference sooner than either of us anticipated, and so that he can get the ball rolling slightly to fill my position. (It is a very niche area and I know he struggled to fill even the 2 roles that myself and my colleague are in!)

Is this a done thing?
What should I do? What would you do??

I know they say "there is no loyalty in business" but we do have a good working relationship and I will miss him and my little team!

Tia x

Congratulations! Usually the trust will write to you with a formal offer letter in the next few days (it may depend how quickly the recruiting manager submits their paperwork to HR, and how efficient HR is ), they won't be contacting your referees until you formally give permission to them to do so - unless you ticked the box on NHS Jobs to 'pre-give' permission but even if so I wouldn't expect HR to get their finger out that quickly! You'll also need to provide your ID documents (usually virtually at the moment), do an OH health screening questionnaire and also do a DBS check. Whole thing can take anything from a week to months and months depending on again the efficiency of HR, how much of a backlog there is especially in OH who may be a bit pressurised at the moment and also how long your referees take to reply.

Yes, it is usually considered polite etiquette to let your boss know that you have been offered the job and to expect a reference request, ahead of formally resigning. Otherwise the first he will hear of it is when the reference request lands in his inbox! Yes it's always a bit of an awkward conversation but that's normal and passing, and if your boss is a decent person and you have a good relationship I'm sure he'll be delighted for you!

Absolutely do not resign until you have the 'full offer letter' confirming the pre-employment checks are complete and giving you your full T&Cs of service, just on the off chance something goes wrong in that process. This is totally standard, no-one will be surprised that that's what you are doing, I work in HR and if asked we always strongly advise people to do this even if it means as the recruiting trust we have to wait a bit longer for a much-needed member of staff to start, as apart from anything else a lot of people have a one month notice period and we can't guarantee the checks will be done that quickly...

Hey @maxelly - thank you so much for your detailed response! I really appreciate your help.

That is really useful to understand the process/timeline of things. The recruiting organisation have been in touch this morning to obtain my ID checks/passport/utility bills proof etc; so hopefully this ball gets rolling soon and I can start my new adventure!

Thanks again for your post, it was super helpful! x