December is a slow month for many industries.
In fact recruitment in particular is notoriously slow. Mainly because people just aren’t that interested in hiring someone, so close to the Christmas break.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Check out 7 of the most important things we should all be doing this December.
1. Recruiting People.
Personally, I don’t think the festive season should hold up any recruitment efforts.
Yes, you may be off for a week (or more) but that doesn’t mean candidates will stop applying.
And believe me; January is going to be a LOT more competitive than December, in terms of recruitment.
(It’s traditionally one of the most popular times of the year for recruitment/ job-seeking.)
Plus, even if you don’t have time to actually get a new recruit working for you, you can still offer them the job, sign contracts and plan for them to start afresh in the new year.
In fact, many candidates would welcome the fresh start in January.
2. Prepare Yourself for a Busy January.
January is traditionally one of the best times to recruit and that’s because of the whole “new year, new me” vibe.
Candidates are looking for new opportunities.
And therefore, companies are often forced to try and find replacements.
Plus, new budgets and strategies often come into play at the start of the year.
As you can imagine, this means that January is incredibly competitive for recruiters.
So, even if you don’t want to actually recruit people in December, you should definitely spend the time preparing for the busy month ahead:
- Get the go-ahead from all key decision-makers.
- Spend some time writing up job adverts/ job specifications so they’re ready to go.
- Get other tasks done so you have time in Jan to start screening CVs and calling candidates.
- Get your recruitment agency (or other supplier) up to date and ready to go.
- Consider other options, like social media recruiting.
You don’t want to spend your first two weeks getting yourself up to scratch after a lovely Christmas break. You could miss out on brilliant candidates.
3. Employer Branding.
Christmas is (often) the happiest time of the year! And it’s your BEST time to run some events for your employees and improve your employer brand – showing the outside world how fun you are.
This year, we’re running a few events for our team including:
- A Christmas Bake Off.
- A Gingerbread Man Decorating Competition.
- A Christmas Market Trip.
- Christmas Jumper Day.
- A Charity Wax-Off.
- Christmas Party.
And with every such event comes a new opportunity to take pictures and show how great your team are and show people why they would want to join you.
4. Consider Automation.
Hopefully, you’ll already have some kind of automated process working in the background when candidates apply for one of your jobs.
At the very least you need some kind of acknowledgement email to say “thanks for applying, we’ll be in touch.”
Over the Christmas period, it’s a good idea to set expectations for your candidates, let them know when you’ll be back in the office and picking up emails – and of course wishing them a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Make sure you don’t overpromise with these emails, so for example, if you say you’ll call people back first thing in January – actually do!
5. Consider Your Own Situation.
The new-year, new-me attitude I’ve already mentioned could also affect your company – so it’s important that you’re ready, should you lose any staff members.
Of course, Christmas is also the best time to remind your employees why they love working for you. And make sure you thank them for their hard work and dedication over the year.
Check out this blog to find out more about rewarding your employees this Christmas.
6. Say Hello!
So, we’ve talked about how the New Year, New Me attitude could make people want to leave your business, but Christmas cheer could actually also cause candidates to drop out of your recruitment process…
Things get a lot more fun around Christmas time – and this can make people feel nostalgic. They may start to question their decisions to move on and feeling of loyalty could arise.
This means that candidates could drop out of your recruitment process.
One way to combat this is to keep in touch with your candidates over this period.
Drop them a line to just let them know you’re still looking forward to working with them/ seeing them at interview etc.
These communications should be light-hearted and fun, reminding them why they wanted to join your company in the first place.
7. DO NOT Panic-Hire.
Finally, and this is a dead important point. Do NOT panic-hire in December.
It’s obviously not the end of the world if you don’t find someone before you break up for the festive break and making a wrong decision at this point will do more harm than good in the long run.
Remain calm and just make sure you’re ready for January!
Summary
Christmas is a funny (and fun) time of year.
Understandably, in many industries, things do tend to slow down – and that’s OK.
But if you’re struggling to decide what should be your priority, preparing for January should definitely be number one.
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Good luck.
