January and February are some of the busiest months for managers when it comes to hiring new employees. This is because it’s generally a time when new projects kick off, budgets have been set and monitoring sales is critical. Furthermore, staff may have taken extended leave, and some may inform you that they won’t be returning to work at all.
While hiring permanent employees during this time is indeed common, doing so isn’t necessarily best practice and can actually result in a less than ideal candidate being chosen for the role. To give your business the best chance of finding the best candidate for the position, it pays to consider beginning your search for staff in spring, before they begin work in January.
If you know that you’re often left scrambling to fill roles at the start of the year, here are three reasons why you should consider beginning your hiring process a few months earlier.
Bigger talent pool
January and February is a time when many employees take extended leave, meaning that the talent pool you will be selecting from during this time is likely to be significantly reduced, as people are unlikely to be searching for a new role while away on summer holidays.
The start of the year will also see your current staff and managers on leave, making it difficult to coordinate interviews and seek approval of new hires. This could curb your ability to make a timely offer, and there’s a chance your prospective candidate could get snapped up in the meantime.
To avoid missing out on candidates who are most qualified to undertake the work you require, consider beginning your search around September or October. You will have a better chance of reaching passive and active candidates with the skill set you are looking for.
More time means less chance of a bad hire
Finding the perfect candidate for a role can take weeks or even months to get right: this often involves thorough interviews, testing, background checks, reference enquiries and other verification such as work rights and police checks. If you are hoping to hire a permanent employee to begin straight away, you need to consider that it can often take a month or longer to find the right person.
If you don’t leave enough time for this process, you run the risk of being forced to hire a sub-par candidate simply for the sake of filling the role. By beginning your search for candidates during spring you will be able to perform a more rigorous and thorough hiring process, ensuring that you can choose the best candidate for the role.
Allows for a more organised and thorough on-boarding
Another major benefit to securing candidates in spring is that you will have some flexibility with when you can ask them to begin working.
For example, you may wish to on-board a person into your team immediately, having them start work in the spring months. This will see them undertake training and be competent by the time Christmas comes around, which is when some of your long-term staff may take longer leave.
Alternatively, you can request that the new hire begin work in January, giving you and your business the chance to prepare accordingly for their on-boarding. Training and handover documents can be created, appropriate hardware can be set up and additional changes that need to be made in preparation can be handled.
Because new candidates are so often sourced in January, they are expected to hit the ground running, seeing them miss out on important training or start work before their computer is even correctly set up. By securing a candidate for a position in advance, you have the chance to create a properly structured on-boarding process, set up their desk, phone and email address, so they can begin work in January without any delays.
