| | By Tony Restell
I’m talking about the
strange trends one
witnesses when year-end
bonuses are looking as
if they might be quite
substantial.
Remembering my days
in consulting – in the
boom years of the 1990s
– there came a certain
point in the year when
consultants would start
being much more cautious
in their endeavours to
find a new consulting
job. Amongst my
colleagues, the general
consensus was that you
should leave the
business by summertime
or resign yourself to
hanging in there for the
Xmas bonus.
But paranoia would
set in. No-one wanted to
lose their 20% bonus
because they’d been
caught in the act of
trying to move on. So
August/September became
a pivotal moment, after
which job-hunting
activity would be
undertaken in a far more
discreet manner. | |
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| | Certainly the enthusiasm
to move on was by no
means diminished, so
this seasonality had
more to do with actions
than intent.
In recent years,
though, this phenomenon
has been much less
pronounced. In both
banking and consulting,
bonus levels have been
very subdued –and so the
year-end paranoia has
been diminished. If
there’s no big bonus to
worry about, there’s no
reason to modify one’s
job-hunting behaviour.
Not so this year. In
both banking and
consulting we’re hearing
that bonus levels will
be good this year – and
indeed just the
perception that they
ought to be good is
enough to trigger this
behaviour. And
behavioural change there
has certainly been.
I’ve heard on the
grapevine that the major
consulting brands have
been generating far
fewer applications via | |
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| | their websites in the
last few weeks. So
they’ve become more
reliant on external
sources of candidates.
Yet recruiters are also
reporting that interest
in their online job
adverts has become more
subdued. And all this is
happening at a time when
consultancies and banks
have a greater number of
new vacancies to fill as
business continues to
thrive and resource
shortages worsen.
So what are the
implications and is
there a silver lining?
For any candidates
who are in a position to
interview in the coming
weeks, this is the
perfect time for you to
be applying. With
application volumes
subdued, the competition
you face is diminished
and there is great
pressure within
employers to have offers
made before the
Christmas party season
kicks in. So if that’s
you, don’t delay – start | |
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| | making your job
applications today!
For recruiters, this
is undoubtedly the
period when the
companies with the most
beautifully crafted
advertising campaigns
and the slickest
recruitment processes
really come into their
own. That extra time
you’ve been meaning to
invest in crafting your
ad campaigns… well now
is the moment to go that
extra mile. Forcing
candidates to fill in
those laborious forms
has been losing you
applications, so now’s
the time to accept email
CV applications in their
place for a few weeks.
It’s survival of the
fittest time.
Fortunately, there is
a silver lining.
When bonuses have
triggered this kind of
behaviour in the past,
there’s been a
corresponding surge in
candidate interest
levels over the
Christmas period and | |
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| | into the New Year.
Candidate activity
levels tend to rebound,
with January and
February some of the
most prolific months in
which applications are
made. Recruiters, eager
to replace staff that
exit as bonuses are
paid, tend to speed the
recruitment process
accordingly and so
higher candidate
activity levels are
matched by increased
recruiter interest.
So this boom-time
phenomenon will be a
short-lived affair, as
it always has been in
the past. Those
candidates able to
capitalise now will find
there’s no better time
to be applying for
consulting work; those
hanging in for their
bonuses will be making
up for lost time soon
thereafter.
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