We are only a few weeks into 2023 and the competition for talented professionals is already showing. Many companies finalised hiring strategies towards the end of 2022 with a view to implement this as early as possible.

We’ve highlighted three key reasons why an early start is key to your 2023 hiring strategy.

New Year New Me

With lots of talented individuals having had time off coming in to 2023, it’s given people a chance to think about their longer-term aspirations and the pathway that will help them achieve this. This has led to a rise in the amount of people transitioning from being a secure employee to becoming a part of the curious majority – where they might not be actively searching for a position but are now open to the idea of change.

However, the further into the year we get, the more candidates will begin to discount change due to being heavily involved in projects or tracking well to achieve targets. So, if you know a new team member will greatly benefit the company, don’t delay and strike while the idea of change is fresh in a candidate’s mind.

The idea of a fresh start in a new company early in a new year can be very persuasive.

Settling in & up-skilling

Hiring later in the year can sometimes (but not always) lead to a prolonged settling in period for new talent. One thing to consider is that bringing someone new into the business with the end of year targets or deadlines looming may unknowingly, add pressure on them. This could lead to disappointment or a more difficult time mentally adjusting to the change if they feel like they’ve not managed to achieve goals in such a short space of time.

Whereas when hiring early in the year, especially in the first quarter, these targets can seem less daunting and not at the forefront of talk within the office. This can allow new team members to settle in and not feel under pressure from day one.

Competitive market

At the beginning of the year, lots of businesses are already advertising new jobs or searching for new talent immediately. If you’re waiting until later in the year to hire new team members, it can make it difficult in a number of aspects such as:

• already has a job offer
• currently interviewing elsewhere
• recently signed a contract or have only recently changed companies

You may see some of these potential candidates taking jobs elsewhere because they were already further into the hiring process before speaking to you. This could lead to delays in your hiring process or not being able to pick the person who you feel is best suited to the position.

Speak to our team to see how we can help you kick start your 2023 hiring. 

Call us on +44 (0)1606 212020

Email us at ​[email protected]

The hiring process is just that, it takes time to make the right assessments across technical skills and cultural fit into your business. However, so many companies can be ‘too busy’ to hire or just don’t see the value investing the time to work in partnership with recruitment companies. This means the crucial first steps of fully understanding what the requirement is, what the dealbreakers are, and what can/can’t be flexed in the ‘wish list’, can detriment the rest of the process, making it more time consuming. 

We have included below our key points to consider when recruiting:

1. Feedback both ways is important, this enables for tweaks to be made to the search if needed to find the right candidate. For example, feeding back to the client if the salary bracket isn’t aligned with the current market
2. The effect to the business in having the role vacant can be very costly and when you’re solely focussed on filling a role asap, the longer-term perspective can be overlooked 
3. Having a high volume of CV’s sent over defies the point of working with a recruitment company, especially when it is from multiple recruiters. This doesn’t increase the chance of hiring the position, you will ultimately be spending more time going through a lot of CVs that aren’t right for the role
4. The same role in one company will likely differ to another company due to factors such as the size of the company, whether they are part of a larger group, reporting lines in the business, sector differences etc so the recruiter should want to understand what this looks like in your business, approaching the role as a bespoke project.

At Delve, we will always aim to get the crucial information from our clients in person at the start, this enables us to see the environment for ourselves, understand the right person to fit to the business and build a transparent relationship with the client moving forwards.

For further information on our bespoke approach to engineering recruitment, visit our Engineering page or contact us on +44 (0)1606 212 020.