By Chelsea Babin

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the hire is so delightful. Since there’s no place to go, more talented technical employees will flock to your open positions! If you’re gearing up to hire a lot of technical talent in the New Year, you may want to consider getting a jumpstart on the hiring process now! Here are 10 reasons why starting your IT hiring now is a great idea.

1. Cut Through the Noise: The IT industry is truly a buyer’s—or in this case, an employee’s—market right now. There are a plethora of open positions just waiting to be filled. But, because very few people focus on hiring during the month of December, you can easily cut through the noise and find some talented, hard working technologists to add you your team before the New Year begins!

2. Ahead of Schedule: Who doesn’t love to be ahead of schedule? If you’re one of those people who thinks being early really means you’re on time and being on time is basically the same as being late, this reason should appeal to your inner mantra. Why do something later that you could make the time for now? Why put off the hiring process any longer when your IT team needs extra help right now?

3. Ready to Dive In Once the New Year Begins: According to recent research, the average hiring process for an IT position now takes 26 days. So, if you start looking for new technical talent on January 2^nd, you’ll be lucky to have someone added to your team before the end of the month. If you need to add technical employees to your team that are ready to dive in once the New Year begins, you need to start now rather than waiting until January.

4. Events to Get Acquainted: If you’re lucky enough to find new technical employees quickly, you can introduce them and have everyone get acquainted at your company’s upcoming holiday parties and celebrations. Because there are so many great, social events geared towards strengthening coworker bonds this time of year, it’s a great time to introduce new employees into the mix and speed up the “get to know” process.

5. Extra Time on Your Hands: For a lot of people, this time of year is spent winding projects down, brainstorming ideas for next year, and having less work to keep them busy. If you’re less busy now than you normally are, put the extra time on your hands to good use and spend it looking for the technical talent your organization needs.

6. Annual Review Season: If you’re a manager of an existing technical team, you’re probably in the midst of conducting annual reviews. During these reviews, you can get a better idea of where your team needs an extra set of hands and what skillsets would really be beneficial to have around. That knowledge can play directly into your current hiring process and you’ll be able to meet your team’s needs almost immediately. They may even start calling you Santa for pulling off this miracle!

7. Handle All Negotiations at Once: Because annual reviews are also often scheduled for this time of year, you can handle all salary negotiations at once if you hire new employees now rather than waiting until January. If your company prefers to set stringent raise and salary guidelines ahead of time this benefit won’t apply but, if your organization is open to and expects some salary negotiations during the hiring process and during annual reviews, it could be beneficial to deal with them all at once, now, rather than waiting until January.

8. Recent Graduates: Countless college students graduate in the month of December, so why isn’t there a hiring spree this month like there is in late May and early June? If you’re looking to hire entry-level technical employees or technical employees with Graduate degrees, there’s a fresh new crop this month who are searching for jobs at companies like yours!

9. Extra Hands During Sick Season and Holiday Season: If you start the hiring process now, you may have a few extra talented technical hands around during the holiday season when many employees often take off and the office could really use extra assistance. Additionally, December through February is often referred to as sick season because of how many people fall ill during these months. If you start hiring before sick season swings into full gear, you’ll have the extra hands around you desperately need when a bug starts making its away around the office.

10. Everyone Else Starts in January: Many companies take the time to set themselves apart from the competition when it comes to the technology they use, the products they create, the customer service they offer, and the company culture they cultivate. And, yet, every year, most companies wait until January to start their hiring processes. Want to really set yourself apart? Everyone else starts their IT hiring in January, start yours now instead!

Traditionally, December is a slow month for hiring. But it doesn’t have to be! If you’re planning on adding top technical talent to your IT team soon, the aforementioned ten reasons may convince you that waiting until January isn’t always the best bet and that there are a lot of benefits to getting a jumpstart on your technical hiring process now.