Why You Should Recruit Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s

For many businesses, Thanksgiving through New Year’s marks the start of a distinct period of business. They are involved in end-of-year wrap up, planning for next year, performance appraisals, and, contrary to what some think, recruiting.

Yes, recruiting between Thanksgiving and New Year’s!

Do candidates and employers halt a job search or recruiting between Thanksgiving and New Year’s? Some do, but other companies want to fill spots between Thanksgiving and mid-January. They don’t care to wait until the January to try to fill open positions. But some believe if they have been unable to hire someone by Thanksgiving why knock themselves out – just wait until after January 1.

That sounds like a New Years exercise resolution: I’ll wait ‘till after the holidays to begin exercising since there is no way I can get toned before New Years now.

Why Employers Should Recruit Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s

Despite the view of some employers, there are a bunch of benefits for progressive businesses to keep the recruiting ‘pedal-to-the-metal’ between Thanksgiving and New Year’s:

1. Kicking off a new project in January requires you to have workers in place before starting. Having a ready team in early January before beginning that new project means minimizing lead time for project startup, shorter delays and more effectiveness for your company.

2. Often unemployed tend to push off their job searches until after the end of the year. Consider that people who continue to look during this period to be assertive in their search, show signs of solid work ethic and willingness to work through hard times – both highly desirable traits.

3. Many workers need to make use of their personal days by year end – or lose them. So, taking a day off for an interview could correspond to that need. The candidates you are focused on hiring might be more at ease taking time off when no one expects they are looking for another job.

4. Most large firms complete seasonal hiring by this time and many others don’t trouble themselves recruiting this time of year. This makes the holiday period great for smaller firms to compete for candidates’ interest.

Four More Reasons to Recruit Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s

5. End of year is a time some workers use to consider their career status. This could make them more open-minded for making career or job changes. With the New Year close at hand, many people are open to a ‘new’ beginning.

6. Business becomes a bit sluggish during the year-end period for some organizations. Employed candidates have more flexibility to explore a job switch since they have fewer responsibilities or rush to complete work than other times in the year. This provides those workers more time to investigate new employment.

7. Fewer businesses recruit this time of year. Therefore your open spot will have less competition from other employers and should get more attention from candidates than other periods of the year. Often your position will get noticed by people who are actively looking for a new job and not just waiting to start after January 1st.

8. Some college students finish their studies and graduate now. But obviously the big college recruiting days don’t occur until Spring. Now is an opportunity to find enthusiastic candidates ready to start work immediately with few other employers beginning to compete for their attention.

How to Recruit Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s

Regardless of whether you actually do hire a new employee during the holidays, completing the essential groundwork for the position makes new projects start smoother. Establishing a recruiting strategy, characterizing the open job, developing a profile of the right candidate will help you be successful immediately after New Year. It’s much better to begin the first week of the year arranging interviews instead of trying to decipher who you need to hire right when you are trying to get that new project underway.

Prepare now, even if you don’t get someone started until February or March. There are many positions can take several months to fill.

Partner With a Staffing Agency

If you’re a post-acute care employer/facility, you only have so much time to dedicate toward recruitment, hiring and interviewing. Let Cornerstone Rehab do the hiring for you. Cornerstone is ready to bring your company the best employees. Contact us today to take the burden off your back!