The Christmas break inherently has the greatest potential to disrupt productivity and results – especially if companies need new staff. 

We always remind clients of the need to start recruitment planned for the New Year, before Christmas. Why? Let’s say that they miss year’s end recruitment and start searching and recruiting in late January/early February (along with all of their competitors). They’ll make an offer by the end of February – this is because the process of interviewing and selection typically takes around 4 weeks. The candidate will give a month’s notice which brings us up to the end of March which starts to get close to Easter. By the time the new addition to the team has been inducted, settled in and is fully productive you’re a good 4 months into the next year.

Don’t delay and get ahead of your competition. Other than avoiding an unnecessary drop in productivity, there are distinct advantages to recruiting before Christmas.

1.) Quality people will be uneasy about their current employer. 40% more people change jobs in January than any other month, but their decision to look for another position will be made before that time. People start to make the decision about 6-8 weeks beforehand– yes, that’s just about now.

2.) Most companies don’t recruit before Christmas. There are fewer searches competing for your ideal candidate in November and December. Every year, the volume of recruitment and search activity drops in November and picks back up again in late January.

So not only will there be less companies recruiting, there will be more candidates looking!

3.) The new employee arrives refreshed after the Christmas break. We all know that productivity and motivation take a small hit before every holiday, on the flip side we also know that most of us hit the ground running once we get back in the saddle. We’re fully rested, refreshed and eager to get going, especially if you’re starting a new job!

4.) Your new employee will be out of the market, on leave and oblivious to other job ads and also to other employers looking to poach him or her away while you were preparing all the paperwork.

At the end of the day, instead of having your new candidate becoming productive at the end of April, he or she could be contributing half way into February. Especially this year If this didn’t make you think twice, consider the current economic environment. Job vacancies are up, viable candidate numbers are down – it’s tough. Good people are hard to find and they’re even harder to find when there are that many more employers looking for that same top performer.

If you’re looking for new talent going into the next year, please don’t hesitate to give us a call on (+61) 03 8617 8120 or drop a line at athoseby@1stexecutive.com.au or fill up our form to discuss how we can help you