How to Recruit Through the Holidays

by: Steven Haug, PhD

Now that we have made it to the holiday season, it’s time to consider how you can continue to be successful in your recruiting efforts when the normal recruiting cadence is disrupted.

Talking with both candidates and clients, the ECA team has heard several theories about hiring and job hunting through the holidays. Some candidates think that hiring managers will be taking time off and worry that their application will be lost in the pile that accumulates. Other candidates are eager to join a new company in January, after their yearend bonus is paid out, and hope to start and complete the interview process during the holiday season. Hiring managers sometimes worry that candidates will be checked out between late November and early January and won’t be available for interviews.

A 2019 Forbes article laid out the hard data, which did indicate that the number of new hires begins to drop in November, and bottom out in December, before climbing above the annual average in January. However, millions of positions are still filled during November and December.

Rather than halting hiring, the best practice is likely to adjust your cadence and try to outshine your competition. Here are two things to consider as you work to grow your team from late November to January.

1. Build Trust with your Top Candidates
2. Offer Dates for In-person Interviews

1. Build Trust with your Top Candidates

The holidays can be the perfect time to build trust with your candidates, giving you a leg up when they are weighing your offer against your competitors. Send your candidates a note acknowledging that you know these are busy times and that you’ll understand if they need to make an adjustment to the normal interview cadence.

This flexibility can go a long way toward developing a relationship with candidates. It gives them the sense that your company will be understanding when they have to pick their kids up from school or their mother from the airport. When candidates are making career decisions around the holidays, they may be considering work/life balance and flexibility more than usual. This is also a great way to highlight your company culture – something that is often difficult to accomplish during the interview process.

2. Offer Dates for In-person Interviews

The holidays are busy times with numerous non-work-related tasks that need to be accomplished. This means it is the perfect time for candidates to slip away from the office for a day or two without drawing much suspicion.

Early December can be a perfect time for candidates to visit the office. But be sure to caveat your proposed dates with a “we know these are busy times and are happy to be flexible.” That way, candidates can take advantage of what might be a slow time of year for them work-wise and make the visit, but they also won’t feel pressured to cancel family plans rather than ask for a post-holiday interview.