Best Time of Year for Hiring

Traditionally, the new year used to always be the start of the recruiting season.  Although that reputation is not quite as prevalent as it once was, many companies still recognize this time as being the best time of the year for acquiring top talent for their organization.

There are a few of the reasons for this thinking:

1.

Budgets.

Many companies see the return of their budgets at this time of year.

Most companies have their fiscal years aligned with their calendar years.

There are also those departments that want to use their money to hire before it is taken away from them later in the year in order to fund an underperforming department or business unit.  

2.

Top talent.

It is bonus season and bonus payouts are paid as long as the individual is still employed by the company.

Once candidates get paid for completing their yearly mandates, they are much more likely to investigate new opportunities.

These high performers are the ones your company should be trying to attract, not the employees that are surfing job postings throughout the year.

3.

Cost savings.

There are a couple of aspects to this.

Firstly, the company will receive a full year of new talent working for them on the current mandate instead of someone joining a company partway through the year.

Secondly, with new hires having received their bonuses from their previous employers, their new companies are much less likely to be required to pay a signing bonus as the employee is not walking away from a bonus partway through a year.

4.

Accelerating the hire.

January and February are the times of the year when most employees, managers and executives are in the office, so interviewing, hiring and on-boarding is a much faster process and it is usually a much more effective process then later in the year. 

For these reasons, progressive companies understand that this time of year is best for hiring.

Prepare yourself accordingly.

Farewell,

Mike