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The post-Christmas lull, often characterized by a slower pace of work, opens a window for talent acquisition leaders to step back and strategize. This period, oftentimes devoid of the usual hustle, is ripe for reflection, innovation and preparation for your talent acquisition strategies in the new year.
This period of “un-busyness” offers a unique opportunity to recalibrate recruitment strategies for optimized performance and enhanced employee engagement. Want to take advantage of the quiet time while those holiday goodies are digesting?
Read on for our tips–from deep diving into the past year’s performance metrics to leveraging cutting-edge technologies and cultivating a compelling employer brand, each section is designed to equip you with the knowledge to build a more dynamic, responsive and inclusive recruitment framework.
Whether you’re refining your approach to candidate experience or setting ambitious yet achievable goals, this guide serves as your roadmap to setting up a transformative recruitment strategy in 2024.
Talent Acquisition Tip 1: Reflection and Review
The quiet holiday period presents the perfect opportunity for talent acquisition leaders to reflect on and review past recruitment marketing efforts in order to optimize future strategies. By analyzing essential metrics, diving into data trends and documenting success stories, you gain valuable insights into what has worked previously and where there is room for improvement. This reflection allow you to enter the new year armed with the knowledge needed to replicate past triumphs and course-correct on less fruitful initiatives.
Year in Review
Begin with a comprehensive analysis of the previous year’s talent acquisition strategies, examining essential metrics like time-to-hire, cost-per-hire and employee turnover rates. Take time to consider the strategies that resulted in effective hires and distinguish the patterns found in less successful ventures.
Data Dive
Employing data analytics tools allows you to dissect trends, foresee future hiring needs and shape strategic decisions. It’s crucial to align your findings with industry benchmarks and evaluate how your organization stands in comparison.
TA Strategy Success Stories
Focus on documenting and dissecting the narratives behind successful hires who have made significant contributions to the company. Explore and identify the sources and strategies that lead these effective hires, thinking about ways to replicate and upscale such successes.
Tip 2: Sharpen Your Talent Acquisition Strategies
The post-holiday lull is the perfect opening to sharpen your talent acquisition strategies for the year ahead. Conduct quick competitive research, aud your candidate journey and evaluate your tech stack. This ensures your team enters the new year with an optimized approach.
Use this downtime to map out objectives for at least the next quarter, performing the preparatory work needed to hit the ground running come January. The quieter pace allows space to build a responsive plan to meet arising needs, poised to execute it flawlessly when activity picks back up.
Competitive Analysis
Perform a thorough competitive analysis to understand market trends, identify talent poaching opportunities and benchmark against industry best practices. You can also analyze competitors’ employer branding and talent retention strategies while things are slow, so you’re better prepared for the year to come.
Candidate Experience Audit
Review the entire candidate journey from job search to onboarding. Seek feedback from recent hires and candidates who dropped off to see what changes you may want to implement to streamline the application process, improve communication and make interviews more engaging.
Tune-up Your Talent Acquisition Tech Stack
Evaluate the effectiveness of current TA technology stacks and consider diversifying into new tools that leverage empathetic AI for more personalized candidate experiences. Take time to ensure your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and other software are up-to-date and fully utilized.
Pro tip: We have tons of options available in our marketplace.
Tip 3: Begin Filling Your TA Pipeline
While direct candidate outreach may not gain much traction during this slower week, talent acquisition teams can utilize the time to plant seeds for future hiring efforts. Quieter schedules present opportunities to network, analyze skill gaps and craft targeted outreach plans.
This is the perfect time to lay the groundwork for filling the pipeline once activity resumes post-holidays. The lower volume of requests this week grants space to customize outreach and ensure audiences are primed for future engagement.
Networking and Relationship Building
Use this quieter time to strengthen relationships with potential candidates, industry peers and universities. Attend virtual events or plan meetups that can lead to fruitful collaborations and talent discoveries. Check out their LinkedIn pages and engage with some of their latest content. Make sure that they think of you when business starts up again and won’t be surprised when you reach out.
Skill Gap Analysis
Conduct a thorough skill gap analysis in line with the company’s strategic goals, identifying emerging roles and skills needed in the coming year and beyond. Begin crafting role descriptions and qualifications for future openings.
Outreach Strategies
Develop a year-round communication strategy for engaging with passive and active candidates. Spend some time customizing messaging for different platforms, whether it’s industry forums, social media or professional networks.
Tip 4: Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing
Use the relaxed schedules and lowered work volumes to map out your recruitment marketing plans for the next quarter. The timeliness also enables you to evaluate your current branding, update value propositions accordingly, curate authentic content and collect social proof to enhance recruitment marketing initiatives. Getting ahead in these areas now preps for impactful engagement down the line.
Evaluating Employer Brand
Do a little self-snooping to assess how your employer brand is perceived in the market. Update your employer value proposition to reflect any new company initiatives, especially those related to DEI, work-life balance and innovation. You can also begin a story library of sorts, highlighting ones that show your company’s culture and employee satisfaction.
Content Planning
Create a content calendar specifically for recruitment marketing for just Q1, planning for regular updates, employee spotlight stories and behind-the-scenes looks into the company culture. Utilize various media, including videos, blogs and podcasts to broaden your reach.
Social Proof
Collect and feature testimonials, case studies and success stories from current employees. Showcase these stories on your career page, social media and other recruitment channels to provide authentic insights into working at your company. This slow timeframe is a great chance to ask for this feedback, due to everyone’s less-busy schedules!
The post-Christmas period offers an invaluable pause for TA leaders to gear up for the new year. By reflecting, strategizing and proactively preparing, leaders can ensure their teams are ready to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Use this time to build a stronger, more agile and more inclusive talent acquisition strategy that aligns with the organization’s evolving needs and goals.
Still hungry for more? We suggest downloading our 2024 Recruitment Marketing Planning Ebook. Consider it our little holiday gift to you!
For more tips on planning for your 2024 and many other tools to help your recruitment marketing efforts, visit our marketplace now. Happy hiring!
