South Yorkshire
01709 723 248
01709 723 248
South Yorkshire
01709 723 248
01709 723 248
Like many business activities, recruitment often slows down over the summer months. With existing employees and candidates taking holidays, it can be difficult to schedule time to look over applications, never mind arrange interviews. That is, unless your business is in the holiday/hospitality industry. In which case, you’ll likely have another problem where you’re not taking annual leave but you’re simply too busy to look at recruitment!
Either way, your recruitment habits are probably going to look a little different over summer.
To help you keep on track with your staffing needs, here are our top 5 tips for hiring success over summer.
There can be an element of spontaneity in the hiring process. You find a good CV and arrange an interview with that specific candidate. If they live up to their application, you’ll arrange a 2nd interview. However, over the summer, people’s availability gets limited by holidays. Your own hiring team will probably be taking time off, all at different times of course, so ‘winging it’ isn’t going to be so easy.
Dates - To prevent yourselves from going back and forth over dates with every candidate, arrange set interview dates in advance. You should have a couple of options so that if candidates are on holiday for one date, they can make the other. List these interview dates on your job posting for applicants to see. They will likely appreciate the advance warning as it helps them to organise their summer, too.
Budget – Ensure all costs are agreed upon beforehand, including recruiter fees if you are using a recruitment agency. Again, this preparation will save you time further down the line.
If planning interview dates ahead isn’t going to be feasible, the alternate approach is to think about video interviews. Many companies are opting for video interviews at the first stage anyway as it saves everybody time and effort until you get down to the final few candidates.
If you don’t already offer video first interviews, then now is the time to think about introducing it. Video interviews mean that you or the candidate could be on holiday, and still find time to sit down together.
You could even do a 2nd stage interview via a video call if necessary - for example, if an exceptional candidate can’t make your in-person video dates. It’s worth being open to the idea that interviews might have to happen over video call instead.
You might find your team is a little threadbare over summer. It’s not unusual to go weeks without a full team, because there’s always one or two people off at a time. If you don’t want business to slow down, you might want to consider temporary workers to cover your staff shortage.
This is partly why summer internships are so useful. Finding someone to take care of the simple tasks frees up everyone else’s time – so they can cover for those away on holiday. Even if summer is actually a peak time for your business and your staff are not going on holiday, you might need the extra hand temporarily, to see you through the busy period.
Temp agencies mean that you can find and hire temporary team members very quickly if needed. Even if you only need someone for that one week where three people are off at once.
If business is indeed slowing down over summer, you don’t have to sit there twiddling your thumbs. You could use the extra time to work on your employer brand and make your company a truly attractive place to work. This is especially useful if you’ll be picking up recruitment over the autumn months, ready to start the new year with a bang.
Define your employer value proposition. Refine your application and interview process so that it’s as stress-free a process as possible for candidates. And plan a smooth onboarding journey for new team members.
If juggling holidays and covering team members’ workloads is enough work for you, you can get outside help for any recruitment tasks. A staffing agency can take care of advertising vacancies; processing and shortlisting applications; and even conducting first stage interviews if you like. The best agencies will keep you regularly updated so that you don’t feel out of touch with the process.
If you have a vacancy or two you need to fill this summer, let us help you. Register a vacancy using our online form, or contact our team on 01709 723 248.
Back to Elevation News