Think job seeking slows down during Christmas? Think again: during the holiday’s lull candidates actually have time to look more. Plus, if everybody automatically assumes it’s not a good time to advertise open positions, you’ll have less competition vying for candidates’ attention. Find more information on job advertising at the end of the year in this blog!
Recruitment advertising before Christmas – creating a head start during the holidays
Christmas holidays are coming and we’ll get the impression of cosiness and lots of free time. This may lead to the conclusion that posting job ads at the end of the year are simply no longer worth it. After all, potential applicants are already on vacation and want to enjoy the Christmas days without having to deal with the search for a possible new job – right? Not completely true. While they’re taking a break from work, you can perfectly target passive candidates who are up for new challenges, so definitely the time is now!
When do most candidates actually apply?
An interesting study by Institutes Index Research gives a good insight into the job responses over a year of time. Between 2014 and 2016, the research institute, which focuses on HR and recruitment, analyzed the response to 15,500 job ads from more than 12,000 companies. One of the aims of the study was to find out when companies can expect the best response from applicants to their job ads. It is no surprise that the first quarter of the year is by far the best when it comes to applicant responses. In this period, almost two-thirds (about 62%) of all published job ads were successful.
Over the course of the year, these figures decline. The reasons given for this include psychological factors. Thus it is to be assumed that the readiness for reorientation as well as the motivation for the application initiative is larger by the start of the new year than in the course of the remaining year.
So what is the best time to start advertising your jobs and why place ads now?
1. The candidate’s journey
As we all know, applying for a job is not as easy as buying a pair of shoes.
What everyone has in common in the search for a new job is that there are always several points of contact between a candidate and the respective company before the application is made. This can be, for example, in the form of a sponsored post on a job board, or an interesting company video on their social media network, followed by a visit to the company website, which then leads to a visit to the career site and hopefully to an application. Often there are further steps in between so that on average 5-7 virtual touchpoints are needed before a candidate applies and for some very scarce audiences this could even go up to 12-15 touchpoints. Looking at the timeline of this pre-application phase before the first applications are received we can conclude this takes multiple weeks or sometimes even months for a candidate to move towards application. It’s no surprise, then, that according to the 2017 Staufenbiel Recruiting Trends, a full 39% of companies take 4-8 weeks to fill positions, followed by 29% where it takes even up to 8-12 weeks. This means that for more than two-thirds of companies, filling a job can take almost an entire quarter.
So those who only post their job ads on short notice risk leaving key positions unfilled for longer than necessary. It is advisable to become active already before the Christmas season and to develop points of contact for the enterprise, which can be converted later into successful applications.
2. The job advertisement market
Since companies receive an above-average number of applications in the first quarter of the year, it can be concluded that the volume of advertisements also increases in the months before. More and more companies want to try to attract as many applicants as possible for their open vacancies and also target passive or latent candidates. Creating these touchpoints months ahead is definitely a trend rising on the market. This leads to increased competitive pressure in the market, especially in industries that are severely affected by the shortage of skilled workers, such as engineering or IT. If you do not want to miss out, it is advisable in this case to start placing job campaigns before the Christmas season in order to attract applicants early on so you do not miss out on the momentum.
3. Working on your Employer’s Brand
The trend over the last couple of months is a more stuck market when it comes to recruitment. The number of open vacancies is getting higher month after month while good, qualitative candidates are tougher to find. How companies position themselves could be the key to success in attracting talent in this market. And there we see another big opportunity looking at this time of the year. While people of course will spend time with their families in their free time it is also used by reflecting on the year. Potential talent is scrolling more online which creates the perfect opportunity to work on visibility as an Employer and spread around interesting messaging. Taking use of the timeframe where people scroll more on Social Media in their time off is the ideal way to display advertisements about your company and why you are an interesting Employer of choice.
Posting recruitment ads – the time is now (or actually, needed at all times.)
In order to make the most of the increased willingness of candidates to apply at the beginning of the year, recruiters should already start addressing candidates before the Christmas holidays. The more attention is generated for one’s own company and open jobs, even before the intensive application phase in the first quarter, the higher the chances of successfully generating applications. Particularly against the backdrop of a longer pre-application phase, increased procurement competition at the beginning of the year and optimal budget deployment, it is advisable to use the Christmas period to place job ads and to work on your Employer’s Brand
The perfect time is now!
Do you want to use the time until the end of the year to approach suitable candidates? Get in touch with us – In a personal consultation with our experts, you will get insights into our different products and find out which of these suits you best.
