Looking for talent in summer: 5 reasons why it’s the best time for recruiting

Looking for talent in summer: 5 reasons why it’s the best time for recruiting

To start a selection process in the summer, yes or no? Is it the right season? These two questions, along with many others that are closely related, can come up every year in the minds of recruiters who are not quite sure if it is appropriate to hire in the summer – regardless of whether the type of work is seasonal or not – or if perhaps it may prove more profitable to postpone everything until September.

In this article, we’ll try to figure out if summer is a good time to hire (spoiler: it is), why, and how to behave compared to other seasons. As well as understand if it is the most appropriate time to focus on active or passive candidates.

In the meantime, it must be said that the cliché that it’s the worst time is almost entirely debunked, and this applies roughly to all industries. Of course, there are some where this statement corresponds more to the truth, others where we could say “it depends”, but the summer season has many advantages that can help the recruiter to place valuable people who have all or almost all the characteristics sought to fill a particular vacancy.

And this depends, first of all, on the fact that summer is a time of the year when there are no big events and trade fairs; there are few competitions to participate in, so there is less pressure, the pace is much milder and, even if the amount of work has not decreased, you can face everything with greater relaxation, also because fatigue and the desire to escape play a significant role. For this reason alone, i.e. to be able to carry out a recruitment process with a slower, more thoughtful approach, but which also goes deeper, summer could be the ideal season for recruiting.
But the reasons certainly don’t end there.

5 reasons to hire in the summer

Often a recruiter is in doubt as to whether or not to start a selection process because he or she thinks that everything should be concluded before the company closes for the 2 week vacation or before he or she takes the coveted rest. Beyond the fact that you can also design the process in such a way as to arrive at a good point before the break, and then pick up where you left off, there are several reasons why a selection during the warmer months can prove to be really profitable.
Let’s look at them together.

1. There’s less competition, and a job ad can be even more successful.

If it is true that many companies decide not to start selections in the summer – for all the concerns we mentioned earlier – it is also true that this could work in favor of those who do, and this is because there is less competition from more emblazoned companies, which have a stronger employer branding or who work better with social media communication. Therefore, your website announcement, a well-developed career page, multiposting on various job boards – perhaps done by relying on ATS software such as Inrecruiting – could attract many more candidates than is usually the case and the candidate person journey be much less arduous than it usually is.

Just as you might “give” your selection a longer period of time than during other months of the year when there’s an urgency to find a replacement for a resigned colleague or the extra resource to get a project going with a new client.

If an ad stays on the web longer, it is very likely that more people will see it and you will receive more applications. Or even applications that are a better fit for the job.

2. September is often considered the real start of the year

summer-recruiting

Put yourself on the candidate’s side: for many, summer is yes, the time for vacations, great reading, cultural outings, seaside, mountains, and fun, but it’s also a time when you have more time and check how things are going even ahead of September, which is often considered the true new year with lots of good intentions. That’s why many active candidates might be even more attentive to ads and vacancies and passive candidates might be much more likely to listen to what you have to offer. Perhaps, in the latter case, you might cross paths with their latent, but not even self-declared, need to turn their career around.

3. People have more time to apply and attend interviews

If there’s less pressure in the company, there’s also pressure in the lives of candidates who may have more time in their vacation weeks to apply for ads, search for them, and be more active on social media. All of this can be good for your recruitment process: you may have an easier time scheduling an online interview or a phone interview as well as you may receive more applications than you would expect at this time of year.

4. Recent graduates are even more likely to be looking for opportunities

Many students graduate in the summer session, between June and July. This means that, once they’ve obtained their coveted degree, they may be looking at the job market right away. They have recently completed their course so they are not yet disappointed by any rejections, applications they have not received, but they are much more energetic and confident in the future. If you know how to intercept them at the right time and on the professional channels on which they have just signed up (LinkedIn, just to give an example common to many new graduates), you can ensure a good pool of talent to contact.

5. Less pressure on the whole selection process

Conducting a selection in the summer could also work to the advantage of the company to organize the process better. While the first interview is the recruiter’s responsibility and therefore much easier to organize, when it comes to the second or third interview with the manager or general manager who wants to see all potential candidates, it may be more difficult to find free slots in busy schedules.

In the summer, with less frequent meetings and less pressure, you may be able to manage this phase more smoothly without having to squeeze in everyone’s schedule.

From the most sought-after positions in summer to seasonal workers

And while the reasons for recruiting during the warmer months are clear, what are the most sought-after people? The study carried out by Assolavoro Datalab, the Observatory of the National Association of Employment Agencies, identified 30 professional profiles that are particularly in demand between June and July 2023. These include: software engineers, systems analysts, IT analysts, project managers, electricians, logistics managers, receptionists, chef, metalworkers, warehouse workers, room waiters, lifeguards, etc.

Summer is also the time when people hire seasonal workers, those on temporary contracts, who are very often needed if not essential during times when several people go on vacation.
So if your company needs to focus on summer hiring and therefore the time is short to complete the whole selection process, you must focus on some important aspects to cross the needs of those who seek experience for a short time and those who are looking for work in and for this time of year.

One way to make your company more attractive to job seekers in and for the summer may be to focus on employee “referrals.” What do we mean? It is known that those who work in the company, often, are the best people to communicate the company culture but not only that: they know the needs you have. Therefore, offering interns bonuses to encourage people they know to apply could be profitable both to speed up the hiring process and because it happens through the ‘suggestion’ of someone we trust.

As a recruiter, you can also take an active approach to those who have worked in the past summers by contacting them directly and proposing, if you feel that they enjoyed the job and are planning to return, a raise over last year’s, as well as showing everything that happened during their absence. If these people have already found work and you have remained on good terms, you can try asking if they have colleagues, acquaintances or friends to introduce you to.

hiring summer

Equally important is simplifying the selection process since time is short and you’re looking for seasonal workers. Instead of time-consuming one-on-one interviews, you can focus on group interviews where you don’t have to ask all the questions you would have asked face-to-face, but where you can get an even better understanding of how a prospective candidate behaves when they’re around other people and if they’re a team player, perhaps by using role playing exercises.

Summer is the best time to recruit passive candidates

We’ve mentioned some of this, but it certainly deserves further study, since the summer season is perfect for recruiting passive candidates, i.e. those who are not openly looking for work. They will hardly read our ad or look for information on the company website. Here, then, are some tips on how to behave.

Try to establish a relationship

At a time when there is less pressure, it may be easier to reach out to a candidate who is not looking for work, but has more time to respond to an Inmail message sent on LinkedIn or an email.

Summer is a time of year when you can play on timing and the ability to break down the initial wall of distrust to get the best sense of what you’re proposing. If you know how to catch the person’s attention, after reading the resume carefully and after evaluating their skills, interests and professionalism, you will certainly have a better chance than you might have during more crowded times of the year (Christmas or the beginning of the year).

In addition, you could also focus on establishing a dialogue. How? By contacting the passive candidate to comment on what he or she has posted, to offer him or her some reading you have done, in short to share value and then – he or she will have noticed anyway that he or she is talking to an HR – to clarify the reason for your interest in him or her.

Turn summer into an advantage

During any time of the year, if a passive candidate is not looking for new opportunities, he or she may be less likely to meet with a recruiter; either because of the difficulty in taking time off for the designated day or because they can’t give up their lunch break to interview. Summer, with its milder times, might be ideal for a search and selection process that suits the pace of passive candidates and their needs.

Transitioning from one job to another is smoother in the summertime

job-transition

For passive candidates, often the biggest hurdle is the cost of moving from one job to another, the so-called job transition. That’s not just to be weighed in terms of money, with the “old” company likely to make a fuss if the notice period isn’t met, but also energy and time with all that it could entail on a personal level.

If your company is farther away from their home or even has to move to another city, the candidate still has to deal with a possible family, with or without children. Summer, however, plays into the hands of the candidate because moves can be easier to plan – because perhaps the candidate’s partner is on vacation and the children are at grandparents’ or spending the days at summer centers – and even if the route from home to work increases, usually in the summer public transportation is less busy and therefore faster and there is also less traffic.

Summer is undoubtedly a less hectic time to “change life” and if, as a recruiter, you show yourself willing to help the passive candidate you have decided to hire, you will undoubtedly have a better chance of getting him/her to accept what you are proposing.

Finally, to better manage the whole process of summer search and selection, you could make your life easier with an ATS software like Inrecruiting that helps you to know immediately and in an intuitive way the cluster of candidates you are in contact with and the figures that are right for you. Request a demo.

Still not sure it’s a good season to be recruiting?