Working on my boat
I took a head stagger back in the Autumn of 2017 and I bought a boat. I love fishing and it was always a dream of mine to buy a boat. Now this boat needed some work and turned out to be a bigger project than I thought. So having decided not to go on a holiday this year I saw it as an opportunity to maybe getting the boat finished.
Now anyone that works for themselves can appreciate the challenge of running a business and taking holidays. Do you run the work down and hope that it picks back up again quickly? What happens if your top customer calls you and has a vacancy that they want you to fill as quickly as possible?
You may think ach sure it’s quiet over the summer sure no one has vacancies to fill and everyone is away on holidays.
Why?
Well, you’d be surprised this is not true at all and the Summer can actually prove to be a very successful time to recruit top talent.
In recent years I think the tradition of closing up for two weeks in July or August has started to fade away and organisations have had to offer more flexible holiday arrangements to new hires. Even in construction sites are remaining open and people are getting smarter in the way they book their annual trip away. People are making bookings now start from May and run through to October.
So why is summer a good time to recruit?
For many of us, it is time to get away, time and to relax and chill. Because you are away from your busy desk, the phones not ringing, it’s an opportunity to reflect upon your life and your career plan. Moving outside your usual routine offers you that time come to contemplate where you are in your career and have you achieved what you wanted to achieve so far this year.
When you come back from your holidays you tend to feel refreshed. The time away in the sun has lifted your mood and you tend to feel a lot happier and you feel energised.
You are ready to take on a new challenge, you have a refreshed enthusiasm and many people see this is an opportunity or are open to change jobs during this time
Most of the job boards will see spikes in people checking out jobs over the summer period, the boss is away on holidays, no one looking over your shoulder, so its seen as an opportunity to nip out for a quick interview or meet a recruiter for a coffee.
University graduates have left University and are actively seeking jobs. So this is another reason why it’s good to recruit during the summer
How can I recruit successfully over the Summer?
It’s easy! Make sure and plan ahead. If you plan to use a recruitment service make sure that your recruiter is not going on holidays themselves. As an independent Recruiter, I found it easy to take holidays and manage recruitment campaigns.
Every morning, before I headed out to my boat I jumped on the laptop reviewed my emails, set up interviews and let top talent that reached out to me know that I was on holidays and I wasn’t ignoring them.
Keep everyone in the loop and let candidates know of the time frames of the recruitment process. They will understand as long as they are kept up to date in the process. If they really want the job or really attracted to your organisation they will wait for a hiring manager to get back from their annual leave.
Now it may not always go to plan but don’t assume that the best talent is not going to be available during the summer and that they will be away on holidays.
With good planning – clear lines of communication and proven methods and reliable resources at your disposal, the Summer months could just prove successful and you might just recruit a future leader of your business.
Even though I wasn’t 100% away from work during my holidays I still enjoyed my time off. The plans that were in place worked, candidates attended their interviews and job offers were accepted. I made great progress on the boat and I came back with a great sense of achievement and I wasn’t coming back to any surprises.
