The Summer Slowdown

[00:00:00] Hello, and thank you to everyone for tuning into today’s episode of The HireWell Update. I’m your host, Ryan Ross, vice president of our corporate functions team, and this is my co-host. I’m Emily Canna, director of our go to market recruiting team. Before we kick off the show, you can find all of our content at talentinsights.hirewell.com
Or if you’d like to learn more about hire wall or service offerings, check on our website, www.hirewell.com. Hey there, Em, it’s been a minute since we’ve been on here. How are you? It’s been, it’s been so long. It’s been long to the point where I feel like that was the first time we both like confidently said our new names.
I know, right? How strange. Which I noticed yours has fully changed in our system too. Fully changed. I don’t know who you talk to to get that done. I’m still Emily Goor. I know the powers at be so I put in a good word, but hey, if you want me to put in a good word for you, I totally can. Put in the word. Put in the word. I know we don’t film live anymore, but we’re filming this the week after July 4th. Yeah. Yeah. We’re talking about summer things today, I think we both [00:01:00] had pretty slow weeks, just like resting, relaxing, celebrating the fourth, celebrating your babymoon. And that’s not the only thing that slows down during the summer.
You and I both do a little bit, but the job market does too. So that’s gonna be what we’re covering today in this episode of The Hirewell Update. Thank goodness we have finally reached the summer months it felt like for so long, and we were just kind of like wading through what felt like a very long and cold, well, at least cold Spring here in Chicago.
It’s always summer where you are, so I’m sure it doesn’t feel that much different for you. No, but I do think like when you’re saying like, thank God the summer months finally hit, I feel like you kind of like, I took some time off last week, like I said, but. Kind of like blink and it’s summer. Like it, it feels like the holidays just happened and I’m like, wow, I haven’t taken a day off this year.
And all of a sudden you’re like, it’s July 4th. So it was kind of a necessary, it’s necessary. We’ve finally reached the [00:02:00] summer months and I’m glad they’re here. I’m glad they’re here too. And we mentioned, you know, many of us are taking things slower. Yeah. We’re doing time out of the office.
We’re taking those long awaited vacations. A number of different things happen over the summer months, and we talk about this on The Hirewell Update often, with every season comes a lot of change when it comes to recruitment trends and summertime is absolutely no different. Yeah. But in today’s episode, what we wanna cover is the summer slowdown, and this is where we typically see trends in recruitment over the summer months, what those look like, what those are.
So that’s what we’re gonna be chatting through today. Yeah, that’s right. I think like included in the relaxed vibes of summer in general is a more relaxed pace of hiring. I think many companies. Observe, just a slowdown in hiring activity in general, and it’s often due, I’d say, to just key decision makers and hiring managers taking vacations like
we know the impact all too well. I think, like, you know, in terms of like delayed interview [00:03:00] processes, like longer timeframes for offer approvals, as key decision makers are out of office. I think like, and I don’t even, I think you could get into a whole deep discussion about people taking time off in the US but like we also work with company companies internationally.
I just talked to a client in the UK this morning. They take vacation, I think a lot more seriously than we do in the US. yeah. That summer, that summertime off for them is essential. And it’s not just a couple days. It can be a couple weeks. Yeah. I think they’re like, yeah, we’re going some somewhere for like a week and a half.
Okay. You know, we’ll see. We’ll see how to keep things moving. But yeah. It is so true. And we don’t just see that slowdown happening with folks that are sitting in the hiring position, but, candidates are typically less, available for interviews too because again, they’re going on vacation, which is, you know, obviously something that impacts their availability as well.
Just like anyone, they’re not gonna be super [00:04:00] readily available to take an interview while they’re sitting on the beach. Yeah. Or things like that. But what’s interesting is while we see some slowdown, there’s also some folks in the job market that become a bit more available, like recent grads that are seeking their first time role.
So it’s a bit of a paradox. Yeah. Bit of a paradox from that perspective. But I think if we look at the job market in general, it typically slows down both on the candidate front and on, you know, the hiring manager front as well. I know I keep reminding my team too, to ask candidates. Like you said, like candidates the same thing.
You know, like timeline to transition roles. And also it’s an important time of year to ask do you have any preplanned travel coming up? You know, we’re trying to schedule a great candidate and they’re like, oh, I forgot to mention I’m leaving the country for two weeks. Okay. Not, you know. Well, that’s good to know.
Have fun. it’s interesting too, I feel like different sectors kind of experience things differently. [00:05:00] Totally. Yeah, I think that in terms of sectors, you know, it’s interesting, there’s certain sectors that are really tied to seasonal changes. So think things like hospitality, tourism, even retail, we tend to see those, industries really increasing their hiring demand.
So it’s great to be a job seeker if you’re looking to be in that industry or those industries for sure.
But part of what we see in terms of that impact is also a scarcity of talent in those areas. So companies that are looking to hire might feel like there’s, you know, a tight bottleneck in the market in terms of available talent because it is that like seasonal time where a lot of hiring happens.
Yeah. So the top candidates. May be off the market, they could have a ton of competing offers going on. I think if you are an organization that’s looking to hire in those areas during this time, it’s absolutely critical to make sure that you’re identifying yourself as a top company, especially when the talent pool is tight.
It’s such a good point. Kind of brings me to our next point too, like take [00:06:00] advantage of the slowdown.
You know, while hiring may slow the summer period, it can, I mean, it can be a period where recruitment teams focus on more strategic planning for even the second half of the year, which is wild to think that we’re now in the second half of the year.
I think the next time we do this, it’s gonna be like the holidays. Yeah, no, that’s, that’s wild. I mean, I, I think like, you know, strategic planning for the second half, including like reviewing hiring forecasts, like optimizing your recruitment processes and building talent pipelines. For future needs or for job seekers, spend time strategizing on your search, like focus on organizing your efforts.
Definitely networking. Can’t say that enough. Or just like brushing up on certifications, even if stuff’s not moving super quickly. Take advantage of kind of the, I don’t wanna call it extra time, but refocused time. The refocused time. I love that. Yeah. I think [00:07:00] that, you know, a lot of times the slowdown scares people If you’re not in some of the industries that we’ve mentioned, maybe you’re not an early career seeker.
If you don’t fall within those categories and you’re feeling like, gosh, things are just really moving at a snail’s paces. That’s Something that happens often during this time of year. Yeah. But I think reframing things, like you said, refocusing and saying like, how else can I utilize my time when it comes to either my own recruitment efforts, if it’s for your personal job search or if you sit within talent acquisition, HR or, and or a hiring manager in that type of a seat.
It’s really time to like critically think about what your processes look like and how to continue focusing on those. If there’s one thing that’s for certain in recruiting though, and you know, a lot of things are uncertain or outside of our control in some ways. I already know what you’re gonna say.
You already know what I’m gonna say. It’s that these are trends. They are cyclical. Recruiting is a cyclical business, and there’s a lot of things that can impact what we see seasonally. Now, we can’t a hundred percent count on these trends year [00:08:00] over year. There’s a lot of things that go into impacting them, like the overall economic climate.
There’s specific industry demands that might change things, but in general, the summertime typically brings a pattern of things being a bit more relaxed, yet strategically focused. And I think if you’re experiencing any of the trends that we have discussed today, we’d love to hear from you.
So drop a comment, tell us what you’re experiencing, how you’re navigating the summer slowdown, what you typically do during this time of year. We’d love to hear from our audience. Yeah. And one more piece of advice I’d even give for candidates that are searching actually for both sides.
Just exercise patience.
I think it is important for both sides of things. ’cause I’m actually thinking about like. The summer slow down in general. I don’t mean to contradict the past five minutes that we just, you know, this whole discussion, but I know on the go to market side of things, we actually are quite busy and have a lot of open roles on our desk.
I will say though, that processes are taking a little bit longer this [00:09:00] time of year, so I think like the summer slowdown doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no open jobs, less hiring and no open jobs, but can just sometimes mean like a slowdown in the process. Whereas like we could usually get a candidate through a process and like a week or two weeks.
Having to move things around or pull in different interviewers because people are out of town or you know, I know somebody on my team’s been keeping somebody warm for three weeks because the decision maker is out of town.
So I think on both sides, exercise, patience and a little bit of grace.
You know, on the client side, if somebody has to reschedule or push something out, don’t interpret that as like, oh, well they’re not interested in my company. Like they are, but like, let’s respect that people deserve their time off, and deserve to have your summer slow down as well. So, absolutely would say, again, not to contradict, we actually are very busy and have a lot of open roles on our desk, so if you are hiring right now, great.
Come chat with us. We’re happy to, you know, tell you, you know, just data [00:10:00] about what the market looks like right now. Because we do have a lot of open roles. But again, I think both sides, candidate side, exercising patients, if a decision maker or hiring manager is out of town, does not mean they’re not interested in your candidacy.
And the same thing on the other side of things. If a candidate has to reschedule or push something out. Let’s respect that everyone deserves their time. Absolutely. Yeah, I totally agree with you and Em we’re experiencing something very similar on the corporate functions team. The volume is there in terms of the amount of open roles that we’re working on, but it is taking a longer time to kind of work through what the interview process looks like.
Typically, that time to fill ratio is a lot shorter. But this is something that we yes, will happen year over year, that things are going to slow down. So, like you said, exercising the patience, knowing that that’s probably gonna happen if you’re entering your job search right now, or if you’re looking to hire a position right now.
Gear up. It might take a little bit longer than it normally does, [00:11:00] but it, yeah, we’ll get there. I would be curious to look at that data maybe in a few weeks you say, you know, we track all the data of like time to fill roles. Totally. I do think, you know, and again, it’s out of our control, but I do think time to fill
is probably a little bit longer right now just because of both candidate and decision maker availability. But I do think people should take advantage of the summer slowdown. Everyone deserves a little time and it’s a good time to do it. Enjoy. They totally do. What’s your favorite way to experience the summer slowdown outside of work?
Outside of beach. Yeah. Have, yeah, I mean, like you said, I’m spoiled. Like in LA we’re at the beach. You can be all, all year round. In December and whatever, but you know, you can always, Winnie loo’s, that’s her tail hanging down. the beach is like my happy place, but it’s her happy place too. So whenever we can make it to the beach and just, you know, just the best.
What about you? Same, not the same beach. The beach here in Chicago. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve got a solid [00:12:00] like three or four months that I can go to that beach. You know it all too well. But that’s my favorite thing too. Put me next to some water and I’m happy it’s the best. No, I’m glad we got to talk about this.
I think, you know, it’s. Definitely we talk about this similar themes, like you said, it’s cyclical a few times a year during the summer, during the holidays, we usually have similar discussions. So exercise patience, exercise flexibility, and yeah, we’ll leave, we’ll leave you all with that. We will.
Absolutely. Well, it was great to reconnect, and to share what we’re experiencing that we’re feeling right now, both sitting in recruitment seats. I’m sure we’ll share a very similar message next summer. But what do you say you wanna take us home? Yeah. And let’s aim for, one more, one more meeting, perhaps.
We’ve got one more before baby gets here. Yes, I’ll be back. But that’s a wrap for this week’s episode of The Hirewell Update. Thank you all so much for joining us. As a reminder, you can find all of our content at talentinsights.hirewell.com, or if you’d like to learn more about Hirewell and all of our service offerings, check out our [00:13:00] website.
It’s www.hirewell.com. We’ll see you next time. Tune in. Bye y’all. Bye.