Recruiting Firm Owners: Don’t Buy into The “Business Is Slow In December” BS!

I hear the same thing every year around this time.  “Mike, it’s the holidays, NO ONE is hiring/leaving/giving new job orders this time of year”

HORSE HOCKEY!

Let me let you in on a little secret… It’s not your client base that is slowing down, it is probably YOU and/or your recruiters that are slowing down!

Don’t let this falacy spread around your recruiting office,you are only enabling your recruiters to much weaker performance than is necessary.  Sure, some decsion making may be a bit interupted, but people don’t suspend their growth plans in December.

Need proof?  I have tracked my key recruiting metrics for over 15 years.  Our marketing presentation to job order ratio and our recruit presentation to 1st time interview ratio remained the same or even IMPROVED in December.
 

Let’s look at some of the reasons why.

1. Many candidates that are due bonuses at year end want to leave once they cash their bonus check in December or January.  The time to recruit them is NOW.
2. Especially this year, I am hearing of more companies with active plans for expansion next year.  They are giving job orders now, or at the very least will tell you what they are looking for that is awaiting final approval for the new year.
3. Your competitors in the recruiting industry are going into hibernation between Thanksgiving and New Year’s because they are living the self fulfilling prophecy that December is slow.

For most of us business is up significantly and most of us are busy again.  Sure, not to the levels we were at our peak, but for most recruiting firms are clearly in recovery.  If you are not, it’s time to get aggressive.  The next few weeks can be phenomenal in building momentum into 2011!