Recruiting during and after the summer holidays

There is a general perception among most HR professionals that most recruitment activities are generally less effective during the summer months than in the less sunny months. And there is some truth to that. The number of people actively looking for a new job always shows a dip during the months of July and August, simply because fewer people are at home. On the other hand, this is more than compensated for by a large number of people who normally do not actively search but who show more willingness to take action and change jobs during the summer holidays.

Year after year, there are always two peak moments when people have more time for reflection. During the holiday period and around New Year's Eve, we often consciously or unconsciously pause for a moment to reflect on our work and life. Am I still happy with what I am doing or is it perhaps time to take a new path? During normal working weeks, we are lived and the madness of the day rules. But as soon as we have time and rest, there is also more mental disk space to think about the future.

All of these things will be even more relevant during the upcoming summer vacation. Almost everyone knows someone in their network who actually wanted to change jobs or even had a complete career change in mind. Possibly partly a consequence of the corona crisis. But due to the exceptional circumstances of the past 14 months, people have opted for the security of their current job more often than they would have liked. That is of course completely understandable in such turbulent times. Not to mention the general reluctance to get to know all new colleagues, especially via video calling. But now that the economy is slowly picking up again and we are also going back to the office more often, these people will start to feel the itch to orient themselves on the labor market again.

The forecasts are that the labour market will become a lot more dynamic here and there in the coming period. Not only will employees be more willing to change jobs. Employers will also receive additional vacancies in the coming period now that more orders are coming in. During the coming summer period, which is usually a bit quieter than normal, there are opportunities to respond to this smartly. Think of rewriting your vacancy texts to make them more attractive for attracting new talent. Updating the werkenbij site to be able to convey the unique values of your organisation even better. Or optimising the onboarding process so that new employees are trained more quickly and feel at home within the company.

This coming summer presents a golden opportunity to enhance the overall candidate experience and prepare for the upcoming increase in turnover across the board. There are already sufficient signals that the labor market is tightening again. Not only due to an increase in vacancies, but also due to the continuing aging of the population that has been plaguing a number of sectors for years. Employers who sit back in the coming months will have more difficulty after the summer in bringing in new talent and/or filling the gaps of current employees who want to make the switch. If you wait until everyone is back from vacation and the labor market becomes even more crowded, there is a real risk that you as an employer will have to join the back of the line.