E-Innovation
Career changes “peak” in January
- January is a peak time for career change as people choose to act on New Years’ resolutions and search for new careers. Employers should take note of the seasonal recruitment patterns and trends as timing is crucial and could affect the quality of the candidates you attract.
- Recently the job hunting habits of over 2.5 million jobseekers were carefully analyzed to gauge the peak time for applying for jobs. Almost a quarter of all jobseekers apply for jobs in their lunch hours at work on Mondays and Tuesdays. However, this is in sharp contrast to when the majority of employers post their job advertisements.
- Over 20% post their adverts on Friday afternoons at around 5pm hoping that they will be looked at by keen jobseekers over the weekend. To ensure your jobs are seen first by applicants, companies should be advertising on Monday mornings when the majority of people are searching for jobs.
Seasonal patterns in the recruitment year
- January is the busiest month for permanent job placements; a trend which is consistent year-on-year, closely followed by September.
- In terms of registrations of new candidates, again September is the peak time, closely followed by January when the New Year’s resolutions often include career changes.
Plan your recruitment for 2009
- During the peak months, employers are in a better position to negotiate salary terms. When there is more competition for each job, businesses are in a stronger position to offer standard salary packages and they should expect to pay less for a candidate in January and September.
- Conversely, in months where there are less jobseekers on the market, such as December, they may have to pay more to secure their top employee. Employers should not be put off recruiting in December however as there are still advantages. They will have more time to interview and assess candidates; they will waste less time interviewing unsuitable recruits and this is an excellent month to hire someone new and complete their induction in time for the New Year.
- During the very busy recruitment months, they might have to spend more time interviewing and vetting prospective employees and this can be time consuming and costly.
There are definite recruitment trends to take note of and by acting on seasonal recruitment trends employers could save a great deal of time and money in 2009.