Does it feel like recruitment is drastically slowing down?
After all, the beginning of 2022 saw a major movement in tech recruitment due to the Great Resignation, rising salaries, and greater demand for highly skilled tech talent.
Now as businesses slow down over the summer period, many organisations will be halting their recruitment efforts entirely.
August is the second slowest month for hiring behind December, according to an analysis of ten years of hiring data.
However, in our opinion, there’s never been a more important time to get a head start in your recruitment efforts.
How can you take advantage of the summer slow down to get the best talent and prepare for September?
The new year, predictably, is one of the busiest periods of recruitment (also coinciding with when most businesses have a fresh budget to spend), followed by the autumn months.
Alternatively, spring is a somewhat consistent time to hire but not busy (given that graduate hiring is an area of focus), with summer seeing a considerably more relaxed hiring period.
Both job seekers and hiring managers/employers are either going on holiday during summer or increasing their leisure time after work – meaning that fewer job opportunities are being posted and fewer job seekers are looking for new jobs in their free time.
There are also logistical concerns to contend with.
For the interview process, companies might generally prefer to have their hiring manager, relevant team members, and a senior manager available, which is unlikely to be easily scheduled during the summer period.
Additionally, if there is no urgent need to fill a role, companies might opt instead to wait until the busier September period.
Attracting and retaining talent in the competitive hiring market of tech isn’t easy, and for businesses looking to get ahead of their competition, summer offers an ideal opportunity to work on their employer branding.
75% of applicants report being concerned about an employer’s brand before submitting an application – branding is essential, but what can you do in the brief summer slowdown to build an employer brand that can help to attract and retain talent?
Company culture links back to your vision and values as a company, and how actions you take link with what your company does, how your employees feel, and how wider decision-making is determined.
In short, company culture is the foundation of any great employer brand.
Areas that can often inform company culture include:
Not only are these areas linked to the vision and values of a company, but they are also highly appealing to candidates and employees – 83% of millennials are more actively engaged when they believe their organisation fosters an inclusive culture.
What makes your company unique?
This is what your EVP can answer as part of your employer branding, which is why it needs to be clear, targeted, and authentic.
So, what value do you truly give to employees?
This usually won’t be just one factor but will instead be a portfolio of benefits – salary, compensation, training, development – that show appreciation for an employee and their skills, experience, and contributions to achieving business goals.
The following areas contribute toward a solid EVP, according to The Corporate Executive Board Company:
Once you’ve formed your EVP, you or your recruitment partner can properly convey this to candidates as part of your wider recruitment efforts.
Regardless of a perceived (or even self-fulfilling) quiet period in hiring, tech talent will always be at a premium.
In fact, the high demand for tech talent has also seen salaries rise considerably to match – this is true for roles from entry-level data engineers up to directors of software development.
Now is the ideal time to partner with a specialist recruiter to secure skilled tech candidates, rather than waiting for a busier period in which you’ll be contending with fiercer competition.
One of the best ways to get a head start is to re-evaluate your expectations when hiring for a role.
Is the role you’re hiring for listed as requiring 7+ years’ experience when it could be five instead? Could the role be hybrid or fully remote (and give you access to a wider talent pool)?
Casting a wider net by evaluating which elements can be adjusted can significantly help your hiring efforts.
Work with a specialist recruitment partner
It can be extremely hard work trying to tackle the above areas at a time when demand is significantly higher than supply in tech – this is where a recruitment partner would come in.
Finding the best recruitment partner for your business and its hiring needs can be as simple as looking into the agency’s testimonials, screening techniques, market knowledge, and approach as a talent partner.
Given that tech is such an innovative and fast-paced industry, having a specialist recruitment partner can really make the difference in providing a more proactive approach.
In other words, rather than seeing periods as slow or less productive, the ideal recruitment partner will capitalise on the time when other businesses may slow down to provide the best talent possible for your business.
The quiet period for everyone else could be your most productive and significant recruitment period – it’s all about what you do to prepare.
Whether you’re taking the next month or so to focus on employer branding, or whether you’re having a full recruitment strategy overhaul and working with a recruitment agency, the summer slowdown doesn’t have to be detrimental.
Come September, your business could already be strides ahead of your competition with the right preparation.
Get in touch with Remit to secure the best tech talent when you need it most.