Oh! It’s finally that time of the year. Among gifts and greetings, the holiday season also brings some recruiting challenges. Whether it’s the urge to postpone interviews or taking a few extra leaves to make the most of the holidays with family, we put our holiday schedule before our work, and rightly so. While holiday fatigue is one thing, for some companies, this season comes with an opportunity to do more business, and finding the right helping hands during this time can pose a significant seasonal recruitment challenge too.
Let’s discuss these challenges faced by recruiters during the holidays and the best ways to navigate through the season and hire top talents during the season.
What are modern recruiting challenges?
Before we get to the solutions, it’s necessary to have a perspective on the challenges faced by recruitment agencies during the holiday season.
Sourcing Candidates: Pulling top talents out of their holiday vibe
Sourcing candidates during the holiday season demands a nuanced strategy. With professionals taking time off and businesses winding down, it’s evident that traditional recruitment channels will feel turbulence. This is especially the case for passive candidates, who often put their job search on hold for the holidays. Thus, it's crucial to identify alternative sourcing channels that remain active. Leveraging social media platforms and professional networks to maintain a steady influx of potential candidates is one way, but recruiters need to look within their current database to discover hidden and compatible candidates. Modern sourcing tools and AI driven recruitment platforms, can streamline the process by offering insights into active job seekers despite the seasonal lull.
Identifying Candidates: Beyond the Surface
Identifying candidates that match the job goes beyond skill matching during the holiday hiring frenzy. Behavioural and psychological factors are prominent in the selection process. AI candidate matching tools that consider a holistic view of candidates, incorporating their soft skills and aptitudes alongside technical abilities, become invaluable when discovering ideal candidates. This approach ensures a more thorough candidate evaluation, leading to hires that align not just with job requirements but also with the company's culture and values.
Bias in Recruiting: A Seasonal Challenge
Holiday recruiting can inadvertently amplify biases in the hiring process. As festivities unfold, unconscious biases can influence decisions. To counteract this, talent intelligence platforms can analyse and flag potential biases in job descriptions. Ensure that the language used is inclusive and unbiased, fostering diversity in your candidate pool. A commitment to fair assessments will contribute to building a diverse and dynamic workforce, promoting innovation within your organisation.
Candidate Experience: Balancing Speed and Quality
Maintaining a positive candidate experience during the holiday rush is crucial. Here, the challenge lies in balancing the need for a simplified recruitment process with an enhanced quality of candidate interactions. Streamlining communication, providing clear timelines, and using technology to facilitate efficient scheduling creates a balanced candidate experience. A user-friendly application process, coupled with timely feedback, further contributes to a positive candidate experience even during the bustling holiday season.
5 Tips For Recruiting During The Holiday Season
The recurring challenges during holidays remain common for both individual recruiters and recruitment agencies. The solution too, is quite certainly, same for all. Here is how to top the seasonal hiring process with powerful AI recruiting tools for optimal results.
Fine Tune Your Job Descriptions
Crafting job descriptions that stand out and communicate the job offer clearly is important. When developing a job description during the holidays, take some time to fine-tune your job descriptions to resonate with potential candidates searching for seasonal opportunities. Use AI recruitment software like Skima AI job description generator to analyse industry trends and tailor your descriptions to attract top talent efficiently. Ensure clarity in outlining seasonal roles and expectations, utilising keywords that align with the holiday spirit and the specific needs of the role.
Automate (Almost) Everything
Automation will make your work during holidays an absolute breeze. From applicant tracking software to talent intelligence driven candidate matching and screening, automation and more can significantly reduce time-consuming tasks. Streamline sourcing, screening, and communication processes with top AI recruiting tools. This not only speeds up the hiring process but also allows recruiters to focus on building meaningful connections with potential candidates during the busy holiday season.
Be Virtual
The holiday season often brings about increased virtual interactions. Then why physical interviews? Zoom and Google Meet are some of the most common tools that can help you conduct free candidate interviews and enhance your virtual recruitment processes. There are also AI based recruitment tools that can schedule virtual interviews, assessments, and onboarding. Being virtual not only accommodates the preferences of seasonal candidates, but also broadens the talent pool by eliminating geographical constraints. Virtual hiring processes, powered by advanced tools, ensure efficiency and inclusivity.
Enhance Candidate Experience
A positive candidate experience is paramount, especially during the holiday rush. Use AI-powered tools to optimise recruitment software, providing a seamless and user-friendly experience for candidates. Tailor automated responses with a touch of festive cheer, ensuring that candidates feel valued and engaged throughout the hiring process. Enhancing the candidate experience contributes to building a positive employer brand, attracting top talent now and in the future.
Don’t Slow Down: Maintain Momentum
In the midst of festivities, it's essential not to let the hiring momentum slow down. AI tools for hiring can play a pivotal role in maintaining a steady pace. Use recruitment analytics and AI-driven insights to identify potential bottlenecks in the hiring process. Optimize your recruitment strategies based on real-time data to ensure that you don't miss out on top talent amidst the holiday hustle.
Need Help With Optimising Your Holiday recruiting strategy?
Struggling to fine-tune your holiday recruiting strategy? Skima's talent intelligence unearths top talents from your existing candidate database. With AI -powered features like Propensity to Join and Relevancy Score, Skima brings clarity to hiring decisions. Use AI-driven insights to identify potential candidates efficiently, ensuring a seamless and informed recruitment process. Let Skima help you optimise your holiday hiring success.
