Why you shouldn't pause your recruitment before Christmas
Every year around mid-November, hiring quietly stops. Not officially; nobody announces it. Vacancies just drift into "we'll pick it up in January", and January arrives with the same roles open, the same gaps in the team and everyone else's vacancies competing for the same people. If you're planning for next year or trying to use what's left of this year's budget, December is one of the better months to hire, not one of the worst. Here's why.
Budgets that don't carry over
In a lot of businesses, unspent hiring budget disappears on 31 December or at the end of the financial year. A role filled in December is a role paid for from this year's money and productive from the first week of next. A role parked until January is a business case written twice.
The candidate pool is more active than you think
The idea that nobody looks for a job in December is a myth that suits the people who've stopped hiring. Plenty of candidates use the quieter weeks to decide that this is the year they move, update their CV and start conversations, precisely so they can begin something new in January. They're engaged, they've thought about it, and there are fewer employers talking to them.
Hiring managers finally have diaries
For most of the year the slowest part of recruitment is the interview slot. In December, the meetings thin out, project pressure eases and the people who need to make decisions can actually make them. A process that takes six weeks in October can take three in December if you let it.
You beat the January rush
January is the busiest month for job adverts and for candidates, which means the most competition for both attention and people. A role advertised in the first week of December gets read; the same role advertised in the first week of January is one of hundreds. Starting now means offers accepted before the rush rather than during it.
New starters are productive when it matters
A hire made in December, with notice served over the holidays, starts in January or February already known to the team, onboarded and ready. A hire made in January starts in March or April. That's a quarter of output, and a quarter of the manager's time, decided by whether the advert went out before or after the Christmas party.
Momentum is easier to keep than to restart
A recruitment process that pauses for six weeks doesn't resume where it left off. Candidates in the pipeline move on, hiring managers forget the brief, and the whole thing restarts from the advert. Keeping it moving, even slowly, through December is far cheaper than rebuilding it in the new year. If capacity is the problem, recruiters on demand exist for exactly this shape of gap.
How Vermelo helps
If your own team is winding down but the roles aren't, we can carry the hiring through: an embedded recruiter for the weeks you need, or a Project RPO for a January intake that needs to be recruited now. Either way, the plan for next year starts before this one ends.
Ready to make your next hire before the year is out? Get in touch. 01892 553360 | info@vermelorpo.com