The Last 30 Days: Holiday Hiring Trends Flipping?
Two years ago, we published a decidedly in-your-face-article about how the holiday season is where executive hiring deals go to die. This wasn’t a flash in the pan sort of situation, but rather a reflection on years of experience working to get hiring deals over the finish line before holiday schedules start to make it a near-impossible task. At the time, that made a lot of sense even anecdotally; when you think about the sheer number of stakeholders involved in executive hires, combined with the shifting holiday schedules of time off and personal travel, it’s a tough situation to navigate. That’s not even to mention the idea that in the holiday season, candidates generally are ready to settle down for a bit—the opposite of a cross-country move for a new job.
Maybe it won’t come as much of a surprise that this long-held hiring maxim is just one more part of life in 2020 that’s been completely upended. In truth, we’ve seen clients who normally start to slow down with year-end hires actually get much more bullish about filling executive roles. Some of those roles went unfilled throughout the uncertainty of the first few months of the pandemic—companies just weren’t comfortable with hiring. Other roles have gone unfilled because the candidates themselves were feeling the unease of an unprecedented situation.
Whatever the case, this year, allow us to amend our previous statements about the holiday season killing hiring deals to this: If you’re thinking about hiring, you have to act. Now.
The Tire Kickers Are Getting More Serious
Back in June, the pandemic was still relatively fresh and its impacts were yet to be fully understood. Certainly, we’re far from any real clarity about the pandemic as a whole, but we are seeing some major shifts away from the hiring trends we observed back in June. Job reports were strong then, and waves of unemployment that had rocked other industries seemed to have missed the outdoor industry. That meant a lot of top-tier executive candidates weren’t necessarily looking to make a move—they still had their jobs—but overall uncertainty had forced them to open up a bit more to the idea of exploring a new opportunity.
Jump forward to November, and those tire kickers might finally be ready to think about taking the plunge. From our vantage point, it looks like candidates are becoming more comfortable with life in the time of COVID—aren’t we all? Even as shutdowns continue to ebb and flow, the realities of social distancing, remote work, Zoom job interviews, and everything else that comes with coronavirus have started to feel… Dare I say, “Normal?”
We’re not the only industry insiders who have noticed this trend. Outdoor brands are kicking into high gear to meet this pent-up demand among candidates and seizing on the opportunities the situation has created.
This Holiday Season Could Be a True Hiring Gift
Think about it this way: even with all of the doom and gloom we’ve shared about holiday hiring, there are some real advantages to filling an executive position at the end of the year. Just last year, we wrote about the power in a simple question at a family holiday gathering: “What’s new?” The allure of starting a new year with a new job, maybe even a new home and everything that comes with it, is strong for the right candidate. How much stronger would that notion be in 2020 of all years?
More than that, though, the infrastructure every organization has had to build this year to accommodate remote work presents even more potential to hiring managers. If coordinating busy holiday travel schedules was a major hurdle in years past, that’s all but gone this year. Zoom is the new way of the world, and it’s no disadvantage to hold interviews remotely; candidates expect that at this point. And the challenges those candidates face—finding time off work with a good excuse to travel for an interview, or making sure a trailing spouse can find work in a new town—are likewise diminished by the commonality of remote work in 2020.
For my money, that’s something to be truly thankful for—and it’s an opportunity worth seizing. And with so many other outdoor companies jumping on it, there’s a strong chance that any hiring manager who waits until Q1 2021 to move forward with the hiring process could find themselves behind the ball.
The good news? It’s not too late to get to work. If you’re ready to embrace the new normal and get important executive jobs filled by the end of the year, start with that same blog article we wrote last year for some tips on building a proven process to land your #1 choice. Then give us a call to put that process to work and find the talent you need to thrive in 2021.
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About the Author: Tony O’Neill is the Founder and President of Highline Outdoor Group — the purpose-driven executive search firm for forward- thinking outdoor industry and sporting goods companies and brands.