After the 2020 recruiting season just about came to a stop in March, I saw a ray of hope early in November. While I hoped to see the usual limited activity before the holidays, I wasn’t holding my breath. Instead, it came in the form of a tsunami. The first week of November was refreshing, with 4 new opportunities, then 4–5 the next week and more the following week, adding more and more all the way to Christmas. We even had people interviewing between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. And, employers were hiring, not just kicking tires. It was activity welcomed by our candidates, employers, and especially by me.
I figured COVID would keep a lid on hiring until mid-April 2021. After telling candidates that they needed to hang in there a little longer, the November, December, and early January blitz saw us helping new and current candidates with making sure their profiles were complete, testing designer’s skills, presenting candidates to employers, setting up phone interviews, and arranging on-line meetings in place of in-person interviews. Zoom has filled that need for now, and maybe it will continue that way after COVID as employers and candidates start with virtual meetings versus spending a lot of money to meet in person.
The end of January has brought a more normal pattern of fewer new or renewed job orders, and candidate/employer inquiries are moving at a slower pace. The tsunami of openings that are still unfilled remain, albeit with a lower urgency than before. My guess is that, like every year, employers are in their budgeting and planning stage, and they may not want or need to add overhead until their building season picks up, usually around mid-April. I haven’t figured out why November and December were a bonanza of new opportunities and candidates, but I’m not too concerned unless we head into more lockdowns this year. My hope is that hiring will once again surge in April and our industry will have a great 2021.
Will we see another hiring tsunami in April? Your guess is good as mine, but I wouldn’t be too upset if it happened...