It’s December, so our thoughts are no doubt turning to mince pies and merriment. But a quieter spell shouldn’t be boring, or an excuse to be unproductive: knowing how to use your downtime productively at work will help you start 2021 ahead of the competition!
Here are our top tips on how to manage your Christmas downtime as a recruiter.
Attack that admin
Let’s be honest, us recruiters aren’t known for our administrative skills, are we? We love talking to candidates and clients, but do you always remember to close off jobs you’ve not placed, or update your candidate notes when you should?
Take some time over December to suss out which areas need a bit of love and attention, and get them sorted. You’ll be amazed at how great you’ll feel when you come back in the new year to a dazzling database with tidy task lists and clarity on your candidates. And once you’ve got it all spick and span, make it your new year’s resolution to keep it that way. It’ll save you so much time and frustration and give you more placement potential in 2021.
Reflect, review, revive!
How did 2020 go for you? Was it a stormer, or a bit of a stinker?
We’re all naturally reflective at the end of a year - both personally and professionally - so it’s the perfect time to tap in to that. Take some time to look back at what you did well this year, and what you could have done better.
If you’re new to recruitment, you’ll have picked up loads of skills that you want to develop next year, but which of these are most important to drive your success?
If you’re a bit longer in the tooth, it may be a case of needing to go back to basics a little: Take a step back and review your processes to see how you could be streamlining how you work and what you could be doing differently to make your daily tasks that bit easier. Having a clear plan for what you want to achieve will help you stay that step ahead, and revive any flagging revenue.
Candidates may be feeling all warm and fuzzy (because their boss has just dropped a load of cash on getting them hammered at the Christmas party), so now’s probably not the best time to approach them. However, it is the perfect time to assess who you’d like to network with in the new year and get your plan of action in place for when the January blues hit them (and your days get a lot more busy as a result)!
Set aside some time to research your market, making sure you know the trends to watch out for and what your candidate and clients' priorities are likely to be in the next twelve months. If you can increase your sector speak, your conversations will be far more worthwhile all round.
Sort your social
The most successful recruiters are marketers too, and this means being incredibly savvy on social. The ability to market candidates, jobs and yourself is imperative nowadays so if you want to be more effective next year, get your social strategy sorted.
It may seem a little daunting initially – how are you going to find time every day to share all this content? Don’t worry, you don’t have to! Christmas is the perfect time to get acquainted with a scheduling tool like Hootsuite, which allows you to pop your content in for the week when it suits you, and it’ll go out automatically at your selected times. Great for when things get busy again come January.
Speaking of which, who are you following? Take a look through and see if they’re relevant, or if there are any big players in your sector that you’re not following yet. Also, make sure that you’re in the right places: it’s all very well being brilliantly active on Twitter, but if people in your sector are heavy LinkedIn users, you’re just wasting your time. Being in the right place at the right time makes all the difference!
For more guidance on this, check out our guide on how to assess and improve your social media presence, and download our eBook below for tips on how to integrate these actions into your wider goals.
Remember to have fun!
Last but not least: recruiters work bloody hard. You don’t always get the credit you deserve and there’s a definite lack of understanding of what you actually do, and this can mean you’re often under a lot of stress.
Make sure you take some time to relax, enjoy yourself and switch off this Christmas…then take 2021 by storm!
