Christmas time is here again…
Well, almost. Shopping centres are already dripping in green, red and gold tinsel – with Boney M’s Christmas album blasting on repeat – so surely that counts right?
The festive season is when recruitment sort of comes to a standstill, but only the actual recruitment side of things. The truth is that South African recruiters continue to work throughout the year-end period, in preparation for the opening of (job) hunting season in January.
So, here’s why recruiters don’t (really) get a holiday:
We’re Preparing
The whole “new year, new you” attitude results in a massive spike in job applications in the first few weeks of January.
An ideal first week of work for a recruiter would be to walk into the office and immediately get cracking on the recruiting front, something that takes preparation during the off-season.
So, here are a few tips to help recruiters prepare for the craziness that is January in the recruitment world:
- Conceptualise, design and sign off your January recruitment adverts
- Update your job specs for positions yet to be filled
- Schedule your festive season promotional material for digital marketing channels.
We’re Revising
The festive season break is when recruiters are able to sit down in a nice quiet spot, with a cup of stronger-than-necessary coffee, and go through what has been achieved (and not achieved) in the past year.
This is also a time when recruiters are looking at upcoming job vacancies, and which of their on-file candidates are best suited for the positions.
This is done so that, come January, these candidates can be contacted and made aware of the upcoming positions.
Apart from that, recruiters will often use the holiday period to look at the efficacy of their recruiting efforts – changing strategies that didn’t work as well as expected, and furthering strategies that brought the firm success.
We’re Branding
The recruitment firm that goes quiet over the year-end festive season is one that stands the risk of being forgotten.
Job seekers are thinking about their vocational futures throughout December, so the recruiters that will have the best chance of procuring these candidates are the ones who don’t let people forget them.
To this end, recruiters often use the holiday period to execute promotional branding for themselves and their firms.
This includes activities such as sending candidates seasons greetings, updating social media marketing content, and responding to enquiries from potential candidates via promotional communication mediums.
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