Career Opportunities | The January job search surge - a gift for recruitment and talent teams

The January job search surge is upon us, like the rush to make New Year’s resolutions and a boom in packed gyms nationwide. January goal setting and new motivations come hand in hand with looking for new career opportunities.

What does this mean for Recruitment and Talent Teams as applicants think ‘new year, new opportunities’?

In this insight, we summarise the labour market outlook and share tips to fine-tune your recruitment strategy for the road ahead.

The state of play

The UK labour market December overview revealed that the estimated number of vacancies fell for the seventeenth consecutive period by 45,000 between September and November to 949,000 vacancies. The longest consecutive run of quarterly falls ever recorded.

The labour market is still tight, but candidate supply is rising as companies apply caution to hiring with an uncertain economic outlook. From September to November 2023, most industry sectors showed quarterly falls in the number of vacancies in the UK*.

With vacancies down, redundancies more prevalent and candidate numbers on the increase, this presents an opportunity to focus on attracting quality talent. It is also an opportunity to review candidate screening practices and how you filter out unsuitable applicants. Stating the obvious, there is likely to be a higher volume of applications in January and potentially longer if market conditions prevail.

Tips to embrace the January job search surge

1. Review your job adverts and job descriptions. The tendency to add in additional requirements of the role is tempting but won’t always attract the right quality and quantity of candidates. What is the real need of the position? What are the essential skills required and those that can be developed over time?

2. Are you capitalising on your employer brand to nurture candidates with meaningful content specific to your audience? Consistency from your careers site to your ATS and having consistent recruiter packs, job descriptions, application forms and automatic trigger emails will create a consistent on-brand experience and a big difference to candidate engagement.

3. Wasting less time at the candidate screening stage frees up time to focus on hiring the most suitable candidates and reducing time to hire. Create screening forms to rule in/out candidates’ applications automatically. Consider customised application forms for vacancy groups and an assessment form within the campaign to view and rank candidates on your terms. More information can be found here.

4. Is the job advert getting the take up of activity required? If not, revisit it and understand why. Know what candidate sourcing activities are undertaken are which are producing the best outcomes. A free Candidate Attraction 80-page report will help you understand what sourcing channels deliver the best results – by sector and company size. Grab your copy here.

Toolbox

Here are some free resources to help you further:

Webinar: Creating a Successful Employer Brand – From Basics To Boom
Free Download: Complete Guide to Faster, Smarter Recruitment Software

Be part of the latest Candidate Attraction Survey

By participating in the latest Candidate Attraction Survey, you will receive a complimentary copy of the 2024 report straight to your inbox once it is available. Your copy to learn from, benchmark your success with peers and shape your candidate attraction strategy for the year ahead.

Anyone who completes the survey before 12 January can enter the prize draw to win £200 of Amazon vouchers. 

Take Part in the Survey

Source: *https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins
/jobsandvacanciesintheuk/december2023