Job-seekers are looking for new opportunities also in summer

”Summer – and July in particular – is usually considered a bad time to recruit new people in Finland, but it can actually be a really good time for companies to find new employees and for job-seekers to find a new job,” writes Marja Pylkkänen, the Managing Director of Alma Career Oy.

It has been thought that as soon as people leave for their holidays and switch off their computers, they also switch off from anything related to work. This has changed now that smartphones have become more common. People check their personal email that they use for job-seeking, as well as social media, even while on their summer holidays. It’s nice to be tweeting while sitting on the beach with the sun on your face. Even if you’re not exactly thinking about work at that moment, an interesting message may prompt you to think about a new job.

When you’re on holidays, you also have more time to think about finding a new job if you’re not satisfied with your current job, and usually this feeling just grows stronger towards the end of the break. Decisions about jobs are much easier to make once you’ve come across a suitable position, and many applicants now have their CVs ready to be sent out, since they can be saved electronically in different databases and retrieved whenever needed.

Mobile job applications 

When it comes to recruiting people, summer is the best time to use mobile applications, as the number of applicants using mobile devices increases all the time. Last summer, for example, a third of applicants here at Monster accessed our website from a smartphone or tablet. This level of mobile users has been maintained since the start of this year, so I think we can expect the proportion of these users to be closer to 40 percent this summer. For this reason, I would say that summer is a great time for employers to start recuitment processes.

In summer, there are fewer employers competing for a particular applicant and their attention, and applicants have more time to consider the vacancies. If I use Monster as an example again, this is evident in the way that, in summer, a particular applicant will browse through more vacancies and spend a lot more time on our website.

Take your time to build your message

When we talk about recruitment through mobile devices, people tend to talk about the technology: mobile-friendly sites and different apps. It is less common to hear anyone mentioning how and where job-seekers use their mobile devices, the channels through which they can be reached and what kind of messages work in these channels. It’s worth thinking about whether the best time to reach applicants would be during the commute in the morning through news sites, or at lunchtime through social media. Is the target group best reached using a short and sweet tweet, a video clip on YouTube, an image on Facebook or a personal email from an employer?

The content of the message is more significant when it comes to mobile devices. When recruiting people, the aim of the message is usually to direct applicants to a page that offers additional information about the job. There are only few seconds to attract interest, and what works on a computer does not work on a mobile device. Successful recruitment now requires marketing and sales skills. What would appeal to applicants and draw them in? How do you write a personal message that stands out? Should you talk about the job or take a softer approach? What questions should you emphasise when the number of characters is limited, and what about hashtags? Repetition is needed, just like in any other type of advertising. 

Share it on social media to reach the right target group

You can create various taglines for Twitter and Facebook, and it’s easy to schedule posting them. What’s most important is to motivate your staff to share your messages, in order to make them spread quickly and to the right kind of target groups. Hopefully you will inspire as many potential applicants as possible to click on your message.

In the best case scenario, the link will open up a compact and informative job ad in a mobile-friendly format. It is a good idea to add links to further information, as this is what the interested applicant will be looking for. 

You should also check your recruitment pages to see if they display in the way they were originally published or if they show your current recruitment efforts, demonstrate your company culture and give voice to your employees. This raises the question of how to make it easy to apply for the job using a mobile device. Can people apply by sending in a CV or should they fill in a complicated application form, which may not even work on a mobile device?

Interviews through video

When you have found suitable applicants, it may be a challenge to schedule interviews. This is the reason why many recruitment processes are postponed until autumn. Technology helps here: the first round of the interviews can easily be done via video. You can record the questions beforehand, and the interviewees can answer them whenever and wherever it is convenient for them. All it takes is an internet connection and a device to conduct the interview. And best of all: the interview tools have mobile-friendly versions. Recruiting during the summer means that you can get on with your business more quickly in the autumn.

Wishing you all a lovely summer and successful recruiting,

Marja Pylkkänen,
Managing Director, Alma Career Oy