It’s spring and recruitment is clicking right along. Candidates are now in full swing with their searches and they are willing to commute to do an in-person interview. However, something will change like clockwork on Wednesday June 21st; summer will arrive. Summer is a wonderful time for everyone. It means vacations. It means time with family. It means Fourth of July and Labor Day. But, it also means that candidates slow down their searches in lieu of life activities and they become much more difficult to reach. If you’re worried the upcoming slow hiring months, review our tips below.
1. Understand the Hiring Cycles
Though summer is a slower hiring phase of the year, it doesn’t have to be less fruitful. Candidates are doing their research as to when to submit their credentials and many of those applicants are submitting during summer so that the competition is less intense. For instance, Monster’s article Understand Recruitment Cycles to Give Your Job Search an Edge noted that, “Hiring slows down in July before picking up at the end of August. For those with nontraditional but impressive employment backgrounds, there's an advantage to looking in relatively slow hiring months.”
So, even though you may not get as many responses, those applications that you do receive could be worth more than the bulk of what you receive in January or February. Even though it’s tempting to ease up on your searches during summer, you should really be doing exactly the opposite. Working toward quickly hiring talent that wouldn’t normally apply could be a win for your organization.
2. Prepare in Spring for the Summer Lull
If you’ve been in the recruiting game for a while you already know that summer is going to be a challenging hiring time. Since you already have that knowledge, use it! Consider pushing out a targeted campaign to your ideal candidate population. For instance, back in 2014, Snagajob wrote a piece called Prepare your business for a slow season where they recommended that businesses, “Try slashing prices and creating special events to keep money moving. Play into the season with catchy themes to promote happy hours, open mic nights and two-for-one specials.
If you’re worried that your promotions won’t be successful alone, you could try partnering with a nearby shop. For example, an ice cream shop might partner with a nearby pizzeria to offer half-off hot fudge sundaes when you show your pizza’s receipt. This way, the ice cream shop gets a boost despite cold weather and the pizzeria can offer more value to their customers.”
Now we realize that recruiters can’t really offer two for one specials, but they can offer sign-on bonuses, relocation options and specifically targeted benefits for staff who join their organization during summer. Have fun with the campaign and make it fresh. If the creative is good, the employees will come.
3. Start Hiring Seasonal Workers Early On
Now that May has arrived the first trickles of summer employment ads are already hitting the job boards (and there’s a good reason for that). The closer you get to the actual date when you need seasonal workers the more competition will be out there for them.
Consider developing a pipeline of these sorts of hires and keep them engaged so that when summer starts looming ahead you will already have a pool from which to pull. You can do this by developing an internship program, a training seminar that pre-qualified hires, adding a talent community to your website or even running special promotions stating that you hire seasonally.
4. Pull Internal Records
Many organizations panic when a high-level search lands in their lap during summertime, but there is a great, easy strategy that those companies can employ; hiring from within. Just because your internal staff doesn’t know about the existence of a new role doesn’t mean they don’t want it.
Transitioning an employee from an entry-level role to one with more responsibly boosts morale and leaves you with an easier spot to fill as new grads are still searching for opportunities the summer after they completed their degrees.
5. Consider the Day of the Week
It might seem like a good idea to post an opportunity as soon as it comes across your desk, but that may not be the wisest decision you could make. Workopolis reported in their article, Data reveals the best time of year, day of the week, and time of day for finding a new job that per 10 years of hiring metrics put together by SmartRecruiters, Tuesdays are both the day when the most jobs are posted and the day when most jobs are applied to. Posting your job on Tuesday may bring up your average when it comes to applications. Just make sure to post early because per the same article, “Most candidates apply for jobs at approximately 2:00 in the afternoon.”
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