During the month of December, most students are busy with exams, final assignments, and holiday vacations. As a result, your December campus recruiting schedule will likely be quieter than usual.

While it may be tempting, this doesn’t mean you should go into cruise mode for the rest of the month. January recruitment season is right around the corner, which means now is the perfect time to start prepping for the busy times ahead.

Here are 3 ways you can get ahead of the game for the New Year!

Get organized

Take advantage of the slower period and organize your workspace, both physical and digital. Go through your desk and get rid of any old notes that you no longer need and file the rest. Also take inventory of the things you’re running low on, such as promotional brochures or business cards, and stock up now. This way, you won’t have to rush around during the busy season.

Over the course of the year, you may have strayed away from your organizational system. This is the perfect time to do some much-needed de-cluttering – labels or folders can instantly cut the junk filling up your inbox. For example, create an “events” folder to keep track of all of those campus event confirmation emails, and a “travel” folder to manage tickets and receipts. Try doing the same for your Google Drive or your project management app to eliminate the time you waste searching for key documents and tasks.

Tip: This article is chock full of great mobile apps that can help any ‘scrambled’ recruiter get organized!

Pause and reflect

As Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” With a little extra time on your hands, you can take a step back from the day-to-day tasks and think about the big picture of your recruitment strategy. Think about the tactics that worked well and what parts need improving. Once you’ve decided on the areas you want to focus on, come up with some realistic goals and create a prioritized plan so you can hit the ground running in January.

The SMART framework is an egg-cellent and effective tool for goal setting.

For example, if your goal is to grow your Facebook page’s likes, here’s what that might look like with the SMART framework.
For example, if your goal is to increase traffic to your job board, here’s what that might look like with the SMART framework.

  • Specific – Who? What? Why? “I would like to increase traffic to our job board in order to grow our talent pool and provide our company with a greater selection of candidates.”
  • Measurable – Do you want to increase traffic by 5%, 10%, 100%? Choose a specific number for the amount of growth you want to achieve.
  • Attainable – Make sure the number is realistic and consider what type of resources you have at your disposal to support your goal. For example, you could partner with TalentEgg to market your entry-level opportunities to a targeted demographic of students and new grads.
  • Relevant – Does increasing your job board traffic support your business’s objectives, vision, or values?
  • Time-bound – What deadline will you set?

Stock up on content

Before you get too caught up with campus recruitment, set aside time in December to prepare some content for your social media channels. This way, you’ll be able to create better quality work, rather than dashing off a quick tweet at the last minute. To create content that’s timely and relevant, think ahead to the key dates and events that will be coming up in the new year and tailor your content around it. For example, you could create promotional posts for your campus recruitment dates if you already have them confirmed.

Tip: Articles and videos are an egg-cellent way to engage students and grads during recruitment season. Developing content on TalentEgg.ca is a great way to provide insightful information to your potential applicants.

Of course, it’s important to maintain the image of spontaneity! Students and grads connect with brands that have a human online presence and if your tweets and posts appear too calculated, you risk losing their interest. Therefore, make sure to leave room in your content marketing schedule for more spontaneous content like pictures from a recent team gathering or updates on your organization’s latest accomplishments. These types of posts will highlight your team’s culture and values, and show prospective candidates how working for your company would align with their career goals.

With the holiday season right around the corner, it’s easy to get distracted and slow down in the last few weeks of the year. But if you take the time to do a little eggs-tra work now, you will be sure to have a smooth and successful recruitment season in the New Year!

Discussion: How do you keep busy during slower recruitment periods?

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