🏝 🌞 Subtle reminder that paid time off season is here! But it will SUNBURN your hiring plans unless you prep a little now: 🥵
If you’re reading this, the biggest culprit to hiring bottlenecks is probably YOU. Here’s 4 ways to cut the cord.
(you can thank me later)
We all subconsciously (or, consciously) countdown the days–no, the minutes–to our next summer getaway and the chance to flip on our sandals and the “Catch Me If you Can” PTO message in our email tools.
In the rush to ensure everyone is updated and nobody is surprised to learn you are totally off grid (except, somehow, for instagram), we forget sometimes that our candidates — those desperately hard to pin down keys to our team’s future success — also may have PTO plans.
As well as our bosses, or that one person in the Rewards team who you talk to except once a year when you need a strange offer letter exception.
And, Murphy’s Law clearly states that at least one important person will be unavailable to you during PTO season at precisely the moment when you desperately need them.
So, here are four simple things to discuss out loud and often about hiring processes at your company and within your teams as we chase headlong into another (hopefully) blissful summer as gorgeous as the AirBnB homepage.
Four Tips to Keep Summer Hiring Sizzling
- Discuss in advance who will back up interview team members when they’re OoO.
2. Double-up interviews NOW to train backups what to do in their interview step when asked.
3. Review approval loops and ensure no single-points of failure. 🤐 Watch out for “secret PTO” black holes in requests or approval chains (where people take off with no OoO message and cause needless delays)
4. Bring up the need NOW for eventual “battlefield promotions” in the rare case where “everyone” is out of the office and a salary exception needs to be made or some one-off needs to be granted.
Somebody (head of people or the department VP / C-level leader, for ex) should be predetermined as able to make these calls but only in the absence of the normal decision maker. Think of them as the “designated survivor” who can make a tough call and figure out later.
Takeaways
The biggest culprit to hiring bottlenecks is probably YOU.
Yes, If you care enough about hiring to be reading this but you are probably the one person who everyone assumes will “always be there”. You are probably unknowingly working 50 weeks a year.
Give yourself permission have not only a backup, but share the responsibility now. Your sleep monitoring app will thank you as well as anyone who has the pleasure of spending time with you on holiday.
Don’t lose candidates to time or mismanagement. Don’t force people to work on PTO because the approval processes or interview training was not thought out in advance.
Enjoy the Summer and Happy Hiring 💥