Hiring for the Holidays: Top Tips to Prepare For The Holiday Season

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it’s time to prepare for the holidays. Now is the time to develop a strategy for keeping candidates engaged and hiring operations on track during the busy season. 

This year, preparation is more crucial than ever before due to the current constraints on hiring and labor in the U.S.. 

The lingering labor shortage—in addition to more permanent changes in employee attitudes and behavior—is making it difficult to fill open jobs. Plus, modern employees now demand a more professional, efficient, transparent hiring experience powered by best-in-class technology

Add this to an already hectic season where it’s historically difficult to get in touch with candidates and keep them on the line? That’s a recipe for disaster. 

Hiring for the Holidays

Thankfully, we’ve thought through everything you need to consider to get your operations and team holiday-ready for what is sure to be a unique hiring season: 

• Do you have enough bench strength? 

Available workers remain scarce and many employers wonder how they’ll hire enough people to cover holiday demand. Make your best guesses about headcount as early as possible and get moving on those hires ASAP. If you’re looking to keep holiday hires for the long term, check out our best tips for retention-friendly hiring. 

• Can you speed up the hiring cycle?

Keeping candidates’ attention right now is hard enough—the holidays only compound that. In this kind of environment, nimble hiring practices and quick decision-making is key. Consider speeding up your hiring cycle during the holidays—particularly for high-priority candidates—to push them through before they lose interest. 

• Can you automate processes to save work? 

During the holidays, the hiring show must go on (even if your own hiring team is short-staffed). Find ways to automate your operations—like automated communication or instant notifications for screening progress—to keep hiring cycles on track while people are out. There are tons of tech solutions and services out there to help with this. 

• Do you have the customer support you need to succeed? 

These days, your hiring “team” consists of so much more than recruiters, hiring managers, and HR professionals. Your hiring “team” is also the technology, services, and tools you pair with your people! 

During the holidays, you’ll be relying on your employment screening solutions more than ever before so make sure you’re using employment solutions with responsive, high-value support. You’ll need them on the line to help keep hiring on track if you run into any issues. 

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Want to learn more about labor trends and top tips for hiring in the current labor market through the holidays and beyond? Check back on the blog next Monday as the America Back to Work series continues.