New Year, New Career – The One That Got Away

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The Christmas and New Year holiday period is fast approaching and most Recruitment or Human Resources teams around Australia are currently looking forward to taking a break from writing vacancy advertisements, poring over resumes, conducting interviews and phoning referees.  It’s an understandable sentiment – these duties can be time consuming and often fruitless, leaving you right where you were when you began the process.  But you should ask yourself, is the Christmas and New Year holiday period your perfect opportunity to fill that vacancy you’ve struggled with over the past few months?

Consider this: according to research conducted by the independent market research agency 72point, nearly 40% of the UK’s working population plan to spend time over the Christmas and New Year holidays to look for new positions and further their career.  While this might not seem relevant to the Australian market, trends in Australia generally follow or closely resemble their UK counterparts.  If the theory holds, that means nearly 5 million Australians will be looking for a new employer over the holidays.

If this sounds unlikely, consider the following sentiments you’ve probably held yourself at one time or another:

  • “This year will be better than the last.” New Year’s resolutions are made by millions of people every year with the goal of bettering themselves, be it financially, physically, socially or psychologically.  A career change or taking a new position with a rival employer offering a better benefits package satisfies the desire better oneself in the New Year.
  • “I’ve finally got enough time and the privacy I need to safely browse for a new job.” While retail or hospitality workers are unlikely to have a significant amount of time off over the Holiday period, in general, most businesses will be closed for a week or two over the Holidays.  It would be naïve to think that your employees will spend all of this extended time away from the office at barbecues with friends and family.
  • “I wish I had more money to spend on presents for my family” Families are often strained financially over the holidays and what better way to increase your financial security than to look for a new job?  With bank accounts dangerously low, many people will start looking a new job that offers more financial security.

This is the reason why you should push aside your instincts to start wrapping up around the office and begin a recruitment campaign, especially if you’ve had a tough vacancy you’ve been struggling with.

If you’ve been looking forward to winding up your recruitment operations and starting fresh early in January, it’s highly likely your competitors are thinking the same thing. Take advantage of their absence in the market to recruit for that difficult role or to sure up your workforce with some new recruits.

If you’re concerned about undertaking a labour intensive recruitment campaign over the holidays, it’s a great time to take advantage of Employment Office’s unique recruitment service.  We’ll build your custom recruitment web page and integrated online application form. Our team of experienced and professional copywriters will write the content and deploy all of your advertising and you’ll be able to quickly and easily manage your candidates through our exclusive user friendly candidate management system, SCOUT.

Don’t spend the new year wondering about the one that got away, let Employment Office professionally manage your recruitment campaign over the holidays and start 2013 off the right way – with all of your vacancies filled!