Recruiting – Personnel selection: what are the best times to do it?
There is a need to fill a vacant position, a team receives a very specific request for a new profile, or the company has decided to focus on new business areas and needs to acquire new skills. These are all situations, among many others, in which it may be decided to launch a personnel search and selection in order to find the most suitable person or persons.
But beyond the simple business need, is there a right time to start a recruitment activity? Or rather: are there certain times of the year that we can consider more ‘profitable’ and in which the response from candidates might be higher or more ‘appropriate’? In short: does recruiting also live of seasonality? And how does this affect recruitment?
Not all months are equal for recruitment
As a matter of fact, beyond the needs that arise ‘hic et nunc’, we can say that there are some periods of the year that are more suitable than others for search and selection, and this applies both to companies and of course to candidates.
First quarter: January to March
Dividing the year into quarters, the first of the year, January to March, is definitely one of the best periods for recruiting.
This is due to the fact that candidates at the beginning of the year want to keep the good resolutions they have just made. And these often have to do with ‘changing one’s life’, which undoubtedly also concerns work.
There are those who are looking around because they want to make a career leap, those who want to earn more and have not found answers in this regard in the company they are in. Then there are those who have acquired new skills through their studies and want to put them to use. Or, again, there are those who have struggled over the previous year to maintain their work-life balance and want to focus on a job that allows them to devote time to their private life.
All these motivations make this period ideal for looking for staff. And this often also leads to an increase in vacancies. The demand is high, the supply is adapted and consequently the competition also increases.
Therefore, this quarter is ideal, but it is also very ‘crowded’.
Second quarter: April to June
After the first quarter’s ‘exploit’, the second quarter, i.e. the period between April and June, shows more of a calm. Many of the candidates who were looking for work have found it, and the companies themselves have exhausted or reduced their budgets for new hires.
This does not mean that people cannot be hired during this period, on the contrary, but that compared to the previous period, candidates will be less ‘available’.
In fact, one must consider, especially for the months of May and June, that those who can plan their holidays – and now with the reopening of the yellow zones this is an even greater need – and not everyone is inclined to look for work during this period. In fact, those who are hired in June may feel that they have to skip the summer or forego their planned holidays and may, rather, choose to actively search in the summer and not in June.
Third quarter: July to September
The summer months, in spite of popular belief, can be a great time to hire candidates or recruiting and this is not only in the tourism sector and other seasonal jobs, but in general.
August, for example, would seem to be an unsuitable month, but instead it is the time when a sort of New Year’s Eve begins for candidates. In fact, it is the time of year when new resolutions are made, in light of the fact that one may have gone on a trip and made career reflections. All in order to be ready in September.
Similarly, many graduates in the summer session choose to take a break after their exams, before trying to enter the working world at the end of the summer. So yes, there is not a huge demand for candidates but those that are there are focused, concentrated and more likely to be interviewed. Also, as we will say even better, there is less competition.
Fourth quarter: October to December
The autumn and the beginning of winter are indeed rather ‘convulsive’ periods, but this does not apply to the whole quarter. Consider that in December many companies close for the Christmas holidays or see their staff go on holiday, so it is definitely not the best time to start a recruitment process.
If you have to do it this quarter, it would be ideal to start recruiting in October and finish by mid-November. This is also true for candidates: many take advantage of the Christmas holidays to get away from it all and perhaps take a longer trip, so there is less demand, but, as we said, this will increase immediately afterwards in January.
Stay tuned to learn more about recruiting!
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