Dive Brief:
- While clever employers were already actively recruiting in October – and handing out job offers right around now, the holiday season – there’s still a chance for employers to take advantage of seasonal timing for recruitment, the Business Journals: How To Human Resources reports.
- Author Bob Corlett suggests that employers should take a look at “the golden recruiting window.” In 2016, that will be Jan. 4 to Jan. 22. “In early January, more candidates are resolved to look for work, while relatively fewer employers are ready to recruit,” he writes.
- For such a scheme to succeed, however, employers need to be acting now. The recruitment plan should be in place before you leave the office in December, ready to be launched the first week back in January.
Dive Insight:
When this plan is successful, employers can interview candidates and make job offers in January so that new hires can start work a few weeks later – rather than months later, which may occur if employers wait.
Almost all employers who “begin thinking about” recruitment in January end up with their new hires starting in April, Corlett says. Since it takes a serious amount of time and commitment to solidify any position openings (about three to four weeks at most large firms), this means employers won’t start recruiting until February – when everyone else will start recruiting as well. Top candidates will receive job offers from almost everyone else, bogging down hiring and leaving employers with second- and third-tier candidates.
“In this case, 90% of winning is just showing up at the right time,” Corlett says.
