The 90-Day Notice Period Problem — and How Companies Are Solving It

No conversation in Indian hiring produces more mutual frustration than the 90-day notice period. Employers lose candidates to faster-moving competitors; candidates lose offers to 'immediate joiners'; and everyone loses time.

Having sat in the middle of thousands of these situations, here's our honest map of what works.

For employers: buy the time or lose the candidate

The math is simple: a notice buyout of one or two months' salary is almost always cheaper than 90 more days of an unfilled critical role — and vastly cheaper than losing your first-choice candidate and restarting the search.

The strongest employers we work with have a standing buyout policy with clear approval limits, so offers aren't delayed while finance debates an exception.

For candidates: negotiate at resignation, not before

Most companies will negotiate notice down — but only when the resignation is real. Prepare a clean handover document before you resign; it's the single strongest argument for early release. Unused leave adjustment and buyout provisions in your contract are your other levers.

Whatever you agree, get the relieving date in writing immediately. Verbal assurances about early release have a way of evaporating in the final fortnight.

The structural shift underway

Quietly, the market is moving: a growing share of technology employers have cut notice to 30 or 60 days, having realised that 90-day policies hurt them as acquirers of talent more than they protect them as losers of it. Retention built on notice periods isn't retention — it's detention, and everyone knows the difference.