Moving Recruiting as Fast as Retail During the Holidays

The holidays are a great time to keep your recruiting engine moving and to get your house in order for your next big hiring surge.

While most companies feel a significant drop in recruiting cadence around Thanksgiving (like with a lot of things), there is no reason to let your recruiting efforts slow down.  It’s true that you will have more logistics issues with the holidays before the year end, and it’s also true people seem a bit more distracted with the holidays.  But with a little effort on your part, you can still move on key hires.

 A good deal of people are planning to start a job search come January.  A lot of candidates will have year-end bonuses paid out and will be looking for something new.  If you can get on their radar and start a conversation before January rolls around, then you give yourself a great advantage over the competition - TIMING.  As once a candidate is on the market, you’ll be lucky at that point to garner any attention.

We recommend continuing at your current pace, making yourselves available to interview quickly.  Check to make sure your recruiting process isn’t too heavy, and see about possibly shortening the interview cycle by combining or eliminating unnecessary steps.

Or get really creative and consider turning your holiday festivities into an open house for potential candidates.  The overall slowdown and mood of most companies this time of year makes it a great time to be more personal.  It also feels good to start a new year fully staffed.  There are many reasons to keep things moving.

So take advantage of the holiday slowdown and make a power play for the talent you need.  Don’t forget to use this time to take a look at your overall success this past year, clean up your social media presence, and forecast where you’ll need to be this time next year.