Every experienced recruiter knows that there are three primary recruitment times of the year: January when everyone is making their New Year’s resolutions, June when a lot of university and college graduates are looking for full-time jobs, and December when the holiday season hits. Since the holiday season is quickly approaching, it’s only fitting for a lot of companies to start actively thinking about their holiday recruitment plans. With that in mind, here are eight substantial reasons why you should think about hiring during the holidays.
1. Less Competition Means Greater Visibility for Your Company
By the end of the year, a lot of the major corporations—also known as your competition—have pretty much depleted a great deal of their hiring budget and other resources for the year. This means that they don’t have the time, money, or manpower to actually engage in an active or effective hiring process, which gives you the upper-hand. Smart recruiters know that the holiday season is the best time of year to reach out to prospective job seekers. It also happens to present endless opportunities to start recruiting potential candidates that are already employed, but might be dissatisfied with their current work situations. A glaring lack of competition gives greater visibility to your job postings and makes your company look far more appealing to jobseekers.
2. Higher Chance of Candidate Availability
Many people tend to take time off during the holidays. Whether it’s to spend more time with family and friends, prepare for the holidays, or simply because they have additional unused vacation days that can’t be carried over to the following year, there are plenty of reasons why people might not be at work. A lot of people are expecting phone calls from loved ones during this time of year, which presents a golden opportunity for recruiters to reach out to them and present them with an excellent job offer they can’t refuse.
3. The Holidays Are a Time for Self-Reflection
Taking into consideration all of the shopping, overspending, and time spent with loved ones, it’s no wonder that the holidays are a time of year when a lot of people tend to take the time to reflect thoroughly on the direction their lives are taking. For some people, this entails thinking about their future prospects, redefining their goals, and working towards accomplishing great things in the future. Prospective candidates are thinking about their current finances and possibly even creating strategic plans to help them achieve their goals within a certain timeframe. As a result, they’ll most likely be more open to recruitment provided that the right opportunity comes along and that’s where experienced recruiters excel.
4. Leverage More Time for Training New Hires
A lot of companies are under the misconception that the holidays are an inopportune time to hire new candidates. From conducting interviews to sending out job offers or rejections and then training them, there simply isn’t enough time during the holidays to dedicate to the hiring process. While this is certainly true in the retail, restaurant, and hospitality industries, the holidays are actually a much slower time of year for most major corporations and office workers. Since a lot of your clients are most likely taking time off or going on vacation in November and December, this is the perfect time to start hiring and training new candidates.
5. Prospects Are Usually More Active on Social Media
Recruiters peruse people’s various social media accounts to gain an understanding of their past work experience, their personalities, as well as their interests. This information is instrumental in reaching out to prospective candidates because you can use it to demonstrate why your company and the position you’re offering is a good match for that person. It can also help you build employer branding to showcase your company culture, create stronger engagement with your prospects, take the time to get to know them better, and determine whether they’re a good fit for your company before committing to hiring them.
6. Target Fall Semester Graduates
Far too many companies tend to overlook or are unaware of the fact that there’s a grossly untapped market in the recruiting game: fall semester graduates. People fresh out of university, college, or trade school are typically looking for jobs and are ready to be hired right out of school. They have a lot of drive and determination to work for prominent companies and they have the newly gained knowledge to help push your company forward.
7. Try Temp-To-Hire
Many temporary workers have a plethora of experience in a variety of different fields thanks to the ever-changing natures of their jobs. They usually go from working in one office environment to another across a wide range of industries such as legal, software, and so much more. Temp-to-hire recruiting strategies end up saving you a lot of time and money in the long run because temporary workers are typically already trained by their organizations and they usually bring a lot of experience to the table.
8. There Are More Incentives to Search for Jobs during the Holidays
Generally speaking, employers are most likely to give out annual bonuses during the holidays, if at all. Some employees who have been looking forward to or relying on their end-of-year bonuses might be extremely dissatisfied with it, especially if they feel that it doesn’t reflect their worth or the amount of work they actually do for the company. This might motivate them to seek other job opportunities. Also, some people might have accumulated unused vacation or sick days throughout the year and typically use them up during the holidays so they don’t go to waste. The extra time off means they have more time to answer phone calls and attend job interviews, which is why holiday staffing is so effective.
Resolve Recruit Inc. is an industry leading staffing agency in Canada. Based in Mississauga, Ontario, we’ve helped thousands of small, medium, and large businesses find the right staffing solutions to suit their needs. We take the time to thoroughly research and vet the top talent in each industry to guarantee that they’re matched with their ideal work situations.
Looking for a reputable and reliable staffing company to help you find the right candidates for your business? Contact us today to learn all about the staffing solutions we offer!
