Hiring in December has always been a tricky subject, and if you go back 10-15 years, most organisations would be firmly against bringing in new people over the festive period. But that mindset has certainly started to change. If you’re looking to get ahead of your competition for 2021, here’s why getting candidates onboarded early is the way to go.
It’s party season
Yes...the party season is almost upon us! Despite being a reason behind so many hiring freezes, Christmas functions are actually the perfect opportunity for new team members to get to know their colleagues outside of the office environment. And with regional offices often being flown in for national parties, it makes it so much easier to kickstart relationships with people they’d usually only chat to over the likes of Zoom and Slack!
January jitters
If you look at it from a candidate’s perspective, it’s no secret that settling into a new job is stressful. While it’d be impossible to remove all the stress completely, onboarding new starters at this time of the year (when projects tend to be winding down), means your new starter will hit the New Year on the front foot with those early jitters out of the way already.
The race for New Year talent
When it comes to the race for talent, the first couple of months of the year are usually very competitive. With this in mind, and other businesses focused on the Christmas break, it’s certainly worth taking the opportunity to get ahead of the competition early and land the market’s best. The other issue we’ve found with hiring in the New Year is that the process often gets stalled (more than any other time of the year). With so many people away on leave and a couple of long weekends in January/February, the chances are, hiring decisions won’t be made until key stakeholders are back up and running – blowing out time-to-hire metrics from weeks to months!
Looking to get ahead of the pack and take care of your hiring before the New Year? Get in touch with your local Potentia team – we’d love to help you out!