Depending on where you live, you might be experiencing colder weather during this holiday season, but that doesn’t mean that your business should put a freeze on hiring during the holidays. It is a commonly held belief that hiring during the holiday season is financially irresponsible and a waste of time, as many qualified candidates are busy with their own holidays. However, there are still many benefits to continuing the hiring process during the holidays. Over 100,000 temporary jobs are open at major corporations for extra manpower during the holiday season, and companies have reported that up to 25 percent of their temporary workers become permanent employees each year.
Regardless of when your business chooses to add new members to the team, it’s always important that you protect your operation with Employment Practices Liability Insurance. If you are not yet sold on hiring during the upcoming holiday season, take a look at these facts about hiring during the holidays.
Normally, we advise businesses to value timeliness in their prospective employees. While ordinarily it would be reasonable to expect potential new hires to respond quickly and be readily available, this likely will not be the case during the holidays. Whether they have a pre-planned vacation or they are just busy with their family, shopping, and everything else that goes along with the holidays, a slower response time is not necessarily indicative of poor communication or an apathetic applicant as it might be during another time of the year.
While many businesses hold on to the belief that November and December are slower months, that may not be the case anymore. John Challenger, CEO of the outplacement and search firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, stated, “It seems that business just keeps going through the holidays. There doesn’t seem to be the kind of letup that there used to be.” In addition, while some applicants may take a break for the holidays, you could instead argue that the applicants who choose to continue their job search through the holidays are more dedicated and could be very valuable for your company.
As every business knows, the process isn’t over once you’ve hired the employee: you then have to integrate the employee into your company and help them adjust to your company, both in terms of workload and in terms of company culture. The holidays offer a great opportunity for you to ease your new hires in and introduce them to your company. If your business has a Christmas party or your employees take time to volunteer during the holidays, it could help a new hire to get to know the team and get a feel for the company climate in a more low-pressure environment. In addition, if your company provides vacation time during the holidays, you can bring your new employees in during a shorter work week with a potentially lighter workload, which will allow them to ease into their new position.
At Axis Insurance Services, we aim to help our customers identify their exposures and protect themselves. Founded in 1999, we offer insurance programs to a wide variety of professionals and industries including attorneys, real estate, healthcare, architects, and more, and also have a wholesale division. We pride ourselves on offering flexible insurance coverage tailored specifically to each customer’s needs. To learn more about our solutions, contact us at (201) 847-9175 to speak with one of our professionals.