Recruiting a project team: 14 questions to ask before you hire

The executive committee has just approved the implementation of a new ERP system. The launch is in eight weeks, and the project manager still has no business analyst, no test lead, and no replacement for the controller who needs to be freed up for 50% of their time. Recruiting a project team under these conditions is an exercise most organizations end up improvising. Here are 14 questions to help you avoid improvisation.

The market figures cited are from public reports by PMI and TechnoCompétences; the effort benchmarks are based on PlanAxion’s observations from its own mandates.

According to the PMI Talent Gap 2021 report, the global economy will need 25 million new project professionals by 2030, meaning 2.3 million people must be onboarded every year just to keep up with demand.

Why is recruiting for a project team different from standard hiring?

Recruiting a project team differs from permanent hiring because the roles are temporary, the skills are scarce, and the timeline is dictated by the project, not the job market. You are looking for people who can deliver in 12 months and then transfer their knowledge before moving on. You won’t find this profile through a standard job posting.

The scarcity is well-documented. The 2025 PMI Talent Gap report identifies 39.6 million project professionals worldwide and projects a shortfall of up to 29.8 million by 2035, with demand rising by 64%.

In Quebec, competition for these profiles extends well beyond the tech sector. According to the 2025-2028 sectoral diagnostic by TechnoCompétences, the province had 257,000 ICT professionals as of May 2024, and 46% of them work outside the ICT sector: in manufacturing, municipalities, and financial cooperatives. Your competitor for an ERP analyst is just as likely to be the factory next door as it is a firm in Montreal.

Here are the key figures to keep in mind before launching a campaign:

• 25 million new project professionals required globally by 2030 (PMI, 2021).
• 2.3 million people to be onboarded annually to keep up with demand (PMI, 2021).
• 39.6 million project professionals active in 2025, with a potential gap of 29.8 million by 2035 (PMI, 2025).
• 257,000 ICT professionals in Quebec as of May 2024, with 46% working outside the ICT sector (TechnoCompétences, 2025).
• 25% to 50% of internal super-users' time must be freed up during testing phases, according to PlanAxion’s observations.

What are the 7 questions to resolve before posting a single job?

Before posting, you must determine the campaign’s goal, the number of people needed, the team composition, the balance between internal and external staff, the benefits offered to seconded employees, the job descriptions, and the compensation policy. Seven decisions, and none of them fall solely under the purview of HR.

1. The goal of the campaign. Are you looking for expertise that is missing from the organization, or simply extra hands to handle a peak workload? The answer determines whether you target contractors or permanent staff, and the tone of your job posting.

2. The number of people. Is this a one-off replacement, a corporate strategy, or a resource plan for the entire project portfolio? Without a consolidated capacity plan, you will end up recruiting twice for the same need.

3. La composition de l’équipe. Internes ou externes, débutants ou chevronnés, spécialistes ou généralistes ? Prévoyez dès maintenant le transfert de connaissances, sinon l’expertise repart avec le dernier consultant. Les rôles clés d’une équipe de projet servent de grille de départ.

4. Permanent staff seconded to the project. Who will be reassigned from business units, who will cover their roles, and will they have a position to return to when the project ends? You already know how these employees work. That is an advantage no external resume can offer.

5. Benefits for these permanent staff. Increased workload and responsibility call for recognition: salary, promotion, or career pathing. If your HR policies don’t account for a transition to project mode, your best internal candidates will politely decline.

6. Preparing job descriptions. Who defines the role, responsibilities, skills, and experience level? Include the work environment and your values. A seasoned analyst chooses a team just as much as they choose a mandate.

7. Compensation. An expert hired for 14 months will cost more than the permanent employee sitting next to them. This gap is normal, but it must be acknowledged and explained before they arrive, not discovered at the coffee machine.

How should you structure recruitment during the campaign (questions 8 to 10)?

During the campaign, three factors determine the quality of applications: the sourcing channel, the standardized interview grid, and the management approach—whether centralized or delegated to each team. The rest is just execution.

8. Receiving applications. Job boards, LinkedIn, headhunters, or the network of consultants already in place? Each profile has its own channel. An Oracle Cloud architect doesn't respond to the same ad as a test coordinator.

9. Preparing for interviews. Who builds the interview and evaluation grids, which managers conduct the interviews, and do HR get involved? A common grid ensures all candidates answer the same questions and face the same scenarios. Without it, you are just comparing impressions.

10. Managing recruitment. Centralized by HR according to established procedures, or delegated to each project team? Centralization protects fairness; delegation speeds things up. Choose knowingly, then stick to it.

Recruiting the team doesn't end at the signature. Their software training should begin at the kickoff meeting, which assumes the recruits are in place by that date.

A project team isn't recruited to fill an organizational chart: it is recruited to meet a deadline, and then to move on while leaving knowledge behind.

What should you do after hiring to retain talent (questions 11 to 14)?

After hiring, four questions remain: final selection and agreement negotiations, onboarding and performance evaluation of new resources, retention incentives, and the policy for using consulting firms. This is where most organizations lose focus, and this is where departures begin.

11. Selection and agreements. Reference checks, followed by the negotiation of permanent, temporary, or service contracts. Who negotiates with consulting firms: procurement or HR? Decide this before receiving the first proposal.

12. Onboarding. Do you have an onboarding procedure, a performance evaluation grid, and a professional development plan? The quality of your recruits, measured after 90 days, is also the only honest metric for the quality of your recruitment.

13. Retaining talent. Compensation, benefits, atmosphere, values: why would your analyst stay with you rather than with your competitor who is already calling them? In a market where the PMI projects 2.3 million new roles per year, this question is not theoretical.

14. Consulting firms. What is your policy on using consulting firms, and have you worked with them before? These firms thrive on fixed-term contracts and have a network of resources ready to start. They simplify and accelerate recruitment, provided you know how to work with consulting firms.

Where should you start when recruiting your project team?

Start with questions 1 to 3: the goal, the number of people, and the composition, because everything else follows from these. A manager who has answered these in writing recruits faster and retains better than one who posts first and thinks later.

Selecting, recruiting, and retaining the team are among your primary responsibilities. You might as well treat them as such.

Frequently asked questions

How much time should you allow for recruiting a project team?

Plan for 8 to 12 weeks between defining needs and the start date for specialized profiles, according to PlanAxion's observations. Internal resources assigned to the project can be released faster, provided their replacement is organized. Launching recruitment after the kickoff meeting guarantees a start without a full team.

Should you prioritize internal resources or external consultants?

Both, in different roles. Internal employees know your processes and will remain after the project; consultants bring software expertise and experience from multiple implementations. The right question concerns knowledge transfer: what knowledge must remain in the organization, and who will absorb it before the external consultants leave.

Why are project professionals so difficult to recruit?

Because demand exceeds supply. In 2021, PMI estimated that the global economy would need 25 million new project professionals by 2030, and its 2025 report projects a gap of up to 29.8 million by 2035. In Quebec, 46% of the 257,000 ICT professionals are already working outside the technology sector, according to TechnoCompétences.

How do you measure the quality of project team recruitment?

By the performance of new hires after 90 days, measured using an evaluation grid defined before their arrival, and by the retention rate until the end of the project. Successful recruitment is also recognized by the knowledge transfer that takes place: if the departure of a consultant paralyzes a function, question 3 was not answered correctly.