Generalist

”Summer – and July in particular – is usually considered a bad time to recruit new people in Finland, but it can actually be a really good time for companies to find new employees and for job-seekers to find a new job,” writes Marja Pylkkänen, the Managing Director of Alma Career Oy. It has been thought that as soon as people leave for their holidays and switch off their computers, they also switch off from anything related to work. This has changed now that smartphones have become more common. People check their personal email that they use for job-seeking, as well as social media, even while on their summer holidays. When you’re on holidays, you also have more time to think about finding a new job if you’re not satisfied with your current job, and usually this feeling just grows stronger towards the end of the break. Mobile job applications When it comes to recruiting people, summer is the best time to use mobile applications, as the number of applicants using mobile devices increases all the time. Last summer, for example, a third of applicants here at Monster accessed our website from a smartphone or tablet. In summer, there are fewer employers competing for a particular applicant and their attention, and applicants have more time to consider the vacancies. Take your time to build your message Successful recruitment now requires marketing and sales skills. What would appeal to applicants and draw them in? How do you write a personal message that stands out? Share it on social media to reach the right target group What’s most important is to motivate your staff to share your messages, in order to make them spread quickly and to the right kind of target groups. Interviews through video Technology helps here: the first round of the interviews can easily be done via video. You can record the questions beforehand, and the interviewees can answer them whenever and wherever it is convenient for them.