The month of December is filled with holiday parties and luncheons and thoughts turn towards spending time off with family and friends. December is not the month that comes to mind for recruiting talent, but it should be because there are a number of benefits to a strong recruitment push as the year draws to a close. December is the month when people reflect on the year, assess their successes and challenges, revaluate their work-life balance, and look to the future wondering what new possibilities lay before them. If top performers are not wholly satisfied with their current situation they will be considering their alternatives. While these individuals can’t be classified as actively looking for new employment they are thinking about it and should right opportunity present itself at this time of retrospective questioning they will look into it seriously. Typically, these individuals will prefer to start with a new company as early as possible in the New Year. This is great news for company that is actively recruiting in December, they will have their pick of talent as a vast majority of businesses do not do any recruiting is December at all! When recruiting in December you will find that you have significantly less competition as fewer employers are actively recruiting leaving and some also have policies that prevent any recruitment at all in December, this leaves the playing field wide open for the company that’s staging a strong recruitment push. With less active competition there’s a greater chance that your posting will be seen in December by a larger number of prospects. Many people become distracted in the whirlwind month of December and hiring managers are no exception, especially in the larger firms, they too get into the holiday mode and will not be putting in as much time and effort as they would otherwise do. Fewer active hours spent recruiting and longer decision times for an offer means smaller companies can step in to put an enticing offer in front of the prospect. A hard-fast rule of recruiting in December is to close the offer quickly; the process should not take more than ten days because if it does you’ll find yourself back into a competitive situation which is not ideal. December is a great month for recruiting because there are fewer industry events and conferences meaning hiring staff are not tied up nor are top prospects. More time is available for the focused recruiter to reach prospects in December and prospects are more likely to seriously consider the right opportunity at this time as well, it can be a win-win for all, except for the business not recruiting at all in December! A forward-looking recruiter knows that December is the best month to hire and has a December Recruitment Push strategy in place.
