Just like the weather, hiring trends change with the seasons. The new year tends to start with a bang as many companies have a fresh budget to spend. The fall months are also regarded as a peak hiring season, before slowing down during the winter holiday season. And spring is generally viewed as a consistent, but not overly-busy time of year to hire.
But what about summer? Like life in general, the warm and sunny months are a relaxed time of year when it comes to finding new employees. In fact, summer is often said to be the worst time of year for companies to hire.
At KRESS, we believe that’s a silly myth. The conventional wisdom is that managers take more vacations during the summer and it’s harder to get a team together to conduct a face-to-face interview or make hiring decisions. There is certainly some truth to that, but for many industries, including construction and hospitality, hiring during the summertime is absolute necessity. Working with hiring managers, H.R. professionals, and employers across many industries every day, we find that summer is actually a great time to hire new staff, and you should be planning to recruit hard as the weather turns warm.
There are a few reasons why summertime is a great time to recruit workers. First, offices and workplaces in many industries do tend to slow down a bit during the summer. This is a fantastic opportunity for employers, because slowdowns often cause workers to get bored and begin considering their options. Instead of working hard, they’re browsing job boards, just seeing what’s out there
Second, let’s talk about the stereotype that managers like to take vacations in the summertime instead of hiring new team members. That’s an opportunity as well: less competition for the best job candidates out there! Act fast to get the best candidates off the market while your competitors’ managers are out of the office on vacation or simply focusing on other things.
If you don’t, you might wish you had. Summertime is undoubtedly the most popular time of year for families to move. If you need to recruit new talent from outside your immediate, local pool, it only makes sense to do it in the summertime when school is out and families are able to relocate more easily. Oftentimes, top job candidates will not seek out a new position if they aren’t prepared to move their family.
Once summer is over? Every September, KRESS has clients in September wondering where all of their job candidates went. Once school starts up, a lot of workers simply shut down their job searches until the end of the year at the earliest. For this reason, it’s critical not to pass up the hiring opportunities that summer presents. Otherwise, your search could drag on for months unnecessarily.
When you find the right candidate for your open position, contact KRESS for a full suite of pre-employment screening services. With our thorough and accurate background check, drug testing, and resume verification services, you’ll be able to rest assured that your candidate is exactly who he or she claims to be. Contact us today for a free consultation on the package that will best suit your needs!