November already?! 

It’s nearly time to Step Into Christmas! After last year’s last minute lockdown and general miserable vibes all-round, we couldn’t be more excited to be Walking in a Winter Wonderland this year. It’s widely believed that recruitment slows down in December and completely shuts down between Christmas and New Year. So, how can we make the best use of this extra time in December? With a little less sales mentality and a little more focus on creating connections, that’s how! 

Don’t let it be Lonely This Christmas 

We say it time and time again but, like most cliches, that’s because it’s true… people buy from people. Whether it be B2B or B2C, our decisions are always based on our experiences with the company doing the selling. It’s not enough just to be liked either, people have to trust that you’re telling them the truth. They have to believe that, whatever your service or product is, it’s genuinely going to solve their problems, and that you genuinely believe in that too. That’s where making connections comes in. We’ve got three tips for happy employees, clients and candidates. And some cheeky prospect schmoozing thrown in for good measure too. 

Odro’s Top Tips for Incredible Christmas Connections

Reflect 

Take ourselves as an example. In 2021 we had a rebrand, an office move, we launched a new framework and welcomed no less than 20 new team mates. It’s easy to look at what went right and who’s happy. But as we’re only a bunch of humans, it’s inevitable there have been mistakes along the way. If we don’t look at these and figure out what went wrong, why and who was left unhappy about it then we’re destined to make the same mistakes again. 

Although it’s obviously good business sense to look at the money side of things, it’s important to look at the relationships along the way too. No sense in having full bank accounts but no customers and no staff wanting to be here a few years down the line. How are your relationships with your customers and staff? Are they happy? Or are they going to be Rocking Around Your Competitors Christmas Tree next year? We’re not saying you need to give £1,000 bonuses and all-inclusive Christmas bashes, sometimes that means absolutely nothing if you’ve not genuinely checked in. You might find the answer is “All I Want For Christmas Is You… to acknowledge my loyalty”. Happy customers and employees will Stay Another Day. 

Personal branding

Okay so we’re well and truly over the “This is NOT FACEBOOK!” stage of LinkedIn. You should definitely post your Christmas pictures if you want to. Our LinkedIn connections were basically our extended colleagues during the lockdowns and forced work from home days. If people don’t want to see you living your genuine authentic life then they can unfollow but personal posts do better than most content on the platform these days because people are interested and care about what you’re up to. It’s nice to see the guy you worked with three years ago got engaged to the girl he’d just started dating when you worked there, or the lady you sold to at the start of the year finally got that puppy she was chatting about. Professional chats almost always slip into personal chats at times, whether you like it or not there’s going to be a deeper connection. Post your silly Christmas jumper! And on a less wholesome note, it also means when you’re back on BD and land in their inbox in the new year asking “Tell Me Baby Do You Recognise Me?” they say “yes, I do. But please don’t call me baby; this is a professional network, not Facebook!”.  

The modern day Christmas card

Placed a brilliant candidate in March? Send them a Merry Christmas message and check in with how they’re doing. The relationship doesn’t end once the role is filled and the money has hit your bank, well at least it shouldn’t. People don’t stay in jobs forever and if you’ve done a good job make sure they don’t forget you the next time they want something new, or something comes up you think would suit them! A smiley video of you in your Christmas jumper should be memorable enough but some Mistletoe and Wine action could work too.

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas 

There you go! Top tips to consider for creating incredible connections with employees, clients and candidates this December. And all for free as well, please remember this kindness when you're Driving Home for Christmas considering implementing video tech to your processes in 2022.