As we get closer to the end of the year, and 2025 is almost within sight, it’s a great time to think about building your team and recruiting. Commonly, January, the start of the New Year and its associated fresh starts and resolutions, are perceived to be busy times for recruiting new employees. For many organisations it is, but starting early and preparing yourself now for hiring could be much more efficient and rewarding.
Applications to jobs in November and December are 3% higher than the yearly average.
Now, we don’t know, but this could be affected by the high amount of Christmas positions that are up for grabs in the retail and delivery sectors in the lead up to Christmas, but it does show that the year’s latter months are not a quiet time for recruiters. Hiring from September to December allows your new members of staff to join the team before the chaotic start of the New Year, meaning they’ll already by integrated into the business and their role come January. Having a new employee start in the build up to Christmas is also a great opportunity for them to mix with the team at festive social events.
90% of job seekers are passive.
According to the Office of National Statistics 90% of job seekers are passive, so they’re likely to act on the right opportunity when it’s presented to them. Many organisations push their job ads out in January as a reaction to the busy and chaotic time of meetings, new objectives, goals and budgets. The space is more crowded and there are more options for the candidate. Advertising your job in the months leading up to Christmas and the end of the year mean your potential candidates are more likely to be attracted to your job with less competition. And with less competition you avoid having to pay higher salaries to secure the right candidate.
It takes 6 – 8 weeks to fill a vacancy.
Adequate planning and preparation for your new team members is very sensible. Advertising, interviewing and selection can take months, and that’s without considering notice periods. Getting the process completed or at least under way, will allow your new employee to really hit the ground running in January, already being familiar with your organisation and with induction and training out of the way.
Project management applications rise by an average of 30 responses over the festive period.
Account management, sales and marketing were the other 3 areas to see this rise in response, and trends like that are really useful in giving recruiters a backing and genuine reason to get on with recruiting at that time. Perhaps there’s some of 2024’s budget to use up, so recruiting a new project manager could be a great way to use it up and save on next year’s training and recruitment costs.
Over the 5 days for Christmas, 49% of applications were made on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or Boxing Day.
Although these guys wouldn’t be starting until the New Year, this is an interesting stat, and shows that during the downtime of the Christmas break, people still have jobs on their minds. Fresh starts and New Years resolutions may be the driving factor, but by getting your vacancy prepared early you’ll be more likely to catch those proactive candidates looking for their next move before the New Year.
If you’d like to speak to one of our experienced Langley James consultants about hiring new employees, get in touch today.
