Doug Caiger, founder of Before You Hire

Who We Are

Before You Hire was founded by Doug Caiger after 25 years in recruitment and workforce operations.

It exists because businesses often move too quickly from pressure to recruitment.

A team is stretched. A manager is overloaded. Work is slipping. Capability appears to be missing.

The obvious response is often to create a role and start hiring.

But another person will only help if the role is solving the right problem.

Before You Hire works upstream of recruitment to independently review the requirement before salary budget and recruitment cost are committed.

Our core service is the Before You Hire Review, a fixed-fee independent review of one proposed hire before the role goes to market.

We look at the work behind the proposed role, where responsibility sits today, what capability is genuinely missing, where pressure is building and what response the evidence supports.

Every Review ends with one clear recommendation:

Proceed. Redesign. Strengthen. Pause.

Because we do not recruit and do not earn placement fees, all four recommendations are commercially equal to us.

The Review is grounded in our wider approach to SME Workforce Advisory, helping leaders make clearer decisions about Capacity, Capability, Ownership and Structure before additional headcount is committed.

For a deeper look at the discipline behind our work, see SME Workforce Advisory.

Four people in an office in breakout area

What Sets Us Apart

We combine 25 years of recruitment and workforce experience with one important difference.

We are not trying to sell you a hire.

Recruiters are valuable when the decision to recruit has already been made.

Our job happens before that point.

The Before You Hire Review independently examines whether the proposed role matches what the business actually needs, whether it has been designed around the work that needs to be done and whether the organisation is ready to recruit into it.

We look beyond the job description and examine:

Capacity
Is there genuinely more work than the existing team can sustainably absorb?

Capability
Is important skill, experience or judgement missing?

Ownership
Is work, responsibility or decision authority sitting in the right place?

Structure
Is the way work and responsibilities are organised contributing to the pressure?

Sometimes the evidence supports the hire.

Sometimes it shows that the role needs redesigning, existing capability should be strengthened or recruitment should pause.

Our value lies in helping the business know the difference before the decision becomes expensive.

See how the Before You Hire Review works 

Our Values:

Clarity before commitment
Understand the problem before committing salary budget, recruitment cost or organisational change.

Evidence before assumption
Test what the business actually needs rather than starting with the role someone thinks it needs.

Independence over incentive
Our recommendation is not influenced by a placement fee. Proceed, Redesign, Strengthen and Pause are commercially equal to us.

The right decision over more activity
The aim is not to create another project, role or piece of work. It is to help the business make the right workforce decision.

Frequently Asked Questions

For related definitions and terminology, visit our Glossary.

The Before You Hire Review is a fixed-fee independent review of one proposed hire.

It includes a focused 60 to 90 minute review discussion, followed by independent analysis and written findings within five working days.

The Review examines the requirement through Capacity, Capability, Ownership and Structure and establishes what response the evidence supports.

It ends with one clear recommendation: Proceed, Redesign, Strengthen or Pause.

See the full Before You Hire Review

Before You Hire came out of recruitment.

Twenty-five years working inside recruitment and workforce operations provided first-hand experience of where hiring works, where it does not and how often a business can recruit into a problem that another person was never going to fix.

That experience is why recruitment is not our product.

We independently review the requirement before recruitment begins.

If recruitment is the right outcome, you can take the reviewed requirement through your existing recruitment process. Where useful, we can also introduce an appropriate specialist recruiter through TEAM.

No.

Before You Hire does not source candidates, manage recruitment assignments or earn placement fees.

We provide independent pre-hire decision reviews and SME Workforce Advisory.

Where a Review concludes that recruitment should proceed, the client remains free to use their existing recruiter, recruit directly or ask us for an introduction to an appropriate specialist through TEAM.

Because our commercial outcome does not depend on whether you hire.

A recommendation to Proceed is worth exactly the same to us as a recommendation to Redesign, Strengthen or Pause.

That removes one of the incentives that can exist when the person advising on the hiring decision is also paid to fill the vacancy.

Our role is simply to help you make the right decision before the cost is committed.

Sometimes a proposed hire exposes a wider issue involving Capacity, Capability, Ownership or Structure.

Where that happens, we make it clear in the findings.

Any broader support would be discussed separately and only where it would add value.

There is no automatic follow-on engagement and no obligation to buy further advisory work.

No.

Before You Hire is based in the Thames Valley and works with SMEs across the UK.

Most review and advisory work can be delivered remotely. Where on-site involvement would add value, this can be agreed as part of the engagement.

For the core Before You Hire Review, the main client commitment is a focused 60 to 90 minute review discussion, supported by the relevant information about the proposed role and the problem it is expected to solve.

We then complete the analysis independently and provide written findings within five working days of that discussion.

Start with the free 5-minute Workforce Health Check.

It helps indicate whether the pressure is most strongly connected to Capacity, Capability, Ownership or Structure before you decide what action to take.

Start the Workforce Health Check

About to commit salary budget?

If you already have a specific role in mind, the Before You Hire Review gives you an independent view of the requirement before recruitment begins.

Book a Before You Hire Review

If you are experiencing workforce pressure but do not yet have a specific hire to review, start with the free 5-minute Workforce Health Check.

Start the Workforce Health Check

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© Copyright 2026      Before You Hire is a trading name of Recruitment Collective Ltd     Company number: 15066129