Navigating Seasonal Trends in Industries

“Success in hiring starts with understanding when your industry’s people are most likely to listen.”

Notable Moments

00:02 – Seasonal hiring patterns in education

00:04 – Energy industry trends and maintenance scheduling

00:06 – Resources for researching hiring patterns (news, board minutes, unions)

00:08 – Mindset and timing in professional roles like physiotherapy

00:10 – Strategic workforce planning based on project end dates

00:11 – How we help organizations align recruitment with industry timelines

00:12 – Final thoughts on navigating shifting career interests and hiring seasons

When it comes to hiring, timing is everything. Seasonal trends shape job markets across industries, from education and energy to hospitality and healthcare. Leaders can get ahead by identifying project timelines, industry trends, and even board meeting minutes to build smarter recruitment strategies. For job seekers, understanding when companies are hiring gives you the chance to show up at just the right time. Whether you’re solving your next people puzzle or exploring your career options, this episode is your guide to thinking seasonally and strategically. 

Read the blog for more from this episode. 

Connect with Tim and his team:

Website: https://bestculturesolutions.ca/

LinkedIn: Best Culture Solutions, Inc

Instagram: @best.culture.solutions  

Email: [e-mail]

 

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome to the World at Work podcast where business leaders and job
seekers come together to create winning cultures and fulfilling
careers. I'm your host, Katie Courant, and I am so glad to be back
here with Tim Ditt, founder of Best Culture Solutions.
Tim, how have you been? I am pretty amazing. How
are you? I am well, and I must

(00:24):
say Pete Rose. He is no longer banned.
Big, big breaking news in the world.
Yeah. I guess so. I mean, for well, for people who may not have listened
to every show and have not heard this before, Katie is in Cincinnati, so that's
a big thing for her. I actually
met Pete Rose briefly when I worked at,

(00:47):
LaSalle steakhouse at Epcot at Disney World. He and this
is, like, 02/2002, '2 thousand '3. He came in without a
dining reservation, and LaSalle is one of the hardest
restaurants to get into. And he tried
to get in without a reservation, and he,
he he thought that the hostess would know who he was and get up

(01:09):
a table. And she didn't know anything about baseball. So
so it didn't quite work out the way he hoped. But I when I found
out what had happened, I was like, what are you doing? Like, you gotta let
him in. It's Pete Rose. But, anyway, we were fully booked, and and I had
to not get too upset. Yeah. It happens. And it
seems par for the course for his life over the years. You know?

(01:30):
It happens. But It did. Yeah. Goodness. Well
Mhmm. You know, Tim, I had been thinking a lot
about different seasons in
recruiting, and this comes to mind because I am
surrounded by educators. And Okay. In the spring,
it is very common that people start looking for

(01:52):
other grade levels, other districts, maybe advancement to
administrative roles. So there is this big wave
of educational, job
searches, hiring, and it made me very
curious if this is common in other industries and
what that might look like. And if somebody is looking for a

(02:13):
job, what's a good way to monitor when those
trends are coming? I mean, is that something that is out there
in other industries? Absolutely. It is. Like, I mean, one
great example, Katie, is, like, so I I live
in a city that is full of, oil and gas and energy.
Right? And so one of the things that happens every year is that everything

(02:36):
has to get maintained, and that usually happens around spring, summer,
fall time. They call them turnarounds or shutdowns where they maintain
equipment. So that way, they can keep it online and they can keep it
going. And, you know, I'm doing a a big project right now where we're trying
to find out nationally where are these hiring trends. Right? When are people hiring? When
are people not hiring? And it happens in many industries for

(02:58):
sure. So what do you think is
a way that somebody that might be looking for a job in a different industry?
If they're not aware of when that optimal time
would be, how could they start to, you know,
keep an eye out? Are there certain time frames? They're
obviously working with a recruiter who knows Yeah. Knows those

(03:20):
timelines. That would be a huge leg up. But is there, a
way that they could really catch on to when those
trends are shifting to their favor? Yeah. For sure. Well, the thing
is too is that, like, a lot of these these industries, these trends are known.
Right? So it's like, like, for instance, you mentioned education.
Right? And, I think people are very

(03:43):
it's clear when the education season is. You know what I mean? Like, it's like
it's it's fall to summer, and you know
when that is. Right? And I think, it's a little bit trickier with
things like the one I mentioned, or the the energy industry stuff, because it's never
at the exact same time every year. You can generally know that it's gonna be
around spring. You need to think about it for the year, and you generally know,

(04:03):
like, beforehand, probably about a
year, a year and a half beforehand what what's in on the books as far
as planned maintenance or planned projects that have to go on.
But, I mean, you know, one thing that obviously helps is that
you can look up, there's always different resources, right, that share
what's going on, what's, when it's

(04:26):
coming or, like, when new projects are coming, when they're winding down, and you
can you can do that. Now for the other thing, though, is that for a
lot of these types of jobs, like, especially if it's a job in the trades,
right, you're part of a trade union. And when you're part of a trade union,
they do a lot of the legwork where they find out where the projects are
and they dispatch you to them, or they they offer them to you.

(04:47):
And, you know, that alone is is a great source of information
if you're in a unionized position. Right? You can find out that way,
what's next or where you can go or or stuff like that. So there's
there's different ways that you can find out,
and and and there's always, like, a resource out there. I mean, that's the
beauty of living in the information age. Right? You can find out what's going on.

(05:10):
But a lot of it is very industry specific. Where it gets trickier though, if
you wanted to chat about this, is how do you plan for this from the
company side or the recruitment side? And how do you, you know, and how
do you, make sure you're ready for these events when they're coming? Right? And
that's where I I do feel like having worked on both sides of it, that
it's a little bit trickier on that side than it is on the finding a

(05:30):
job side, to be honest. It's it's can be a little bit more
tricky that way. That's a really interesting point. And I'm I'm
glad that you mentioned the piece about, you know,
looking at the projects and knowing those projects because it did
remind me that watching different news
breaking news if there's a huge project that is acquired

(05:52):
by, a business or board minutes. If there's
a board meeting, typically, before any movement is
made on a large project or hiring, it's gonna go
through, a board and they're gonna make that approval, and then it'll
lay out what that might look like. So I personally have done
that in a number of ways. I just I think that is a

(06:14):
way that people underutilize reading,
board minutes. I just Yeah. I find it very fascinating
personally, so I'm so glad you mentioned that because it did remind me. And
similarly, in in the travel industry, they have what's called wave
season. Typically, that's referring to when there's those
discounts or when there's a massive booking, especially at the beginning

(06:36):
beginning of the year. You know, hospitality, they wanna make sure that you're
traveling, that you are coming to their destination. So I think
it's very similar to your point where it's gonna come and go,
but a lot of that's gonna be dependent on the industry,
knowing what projects might come ahead. So now
shifting to the employer side,

(06:59):
what are some of those challenges that you feel,
do make it a more significant beast to battle?
So this is where it gets really tricky. Right? So I okay. So you're you're
highly involved in the education industry in America. So would you say that there's enough
educators or is there not enough? Goodness. These days, there are
definitely not. Not enough. Exactly. So

(07:21):
that is the exact same thing for a lot of industries. Right? And
so, you know, I think, you know, in
the education industry, I think it's a little bit more straightforward, you know, when school
season is. Right? And so you can find people as they're winding
down, they might be thinking about, you know, maybe they
wanna make a change. Right? Maybe they're not happy with where they're at, which school

(07:42):
they're at, or or they wanna get promoted or, you know.
And, when those seasons are coming and
going, you know, that's when you can put on your recruitment drives and just be
self aware of where the people are and what they might be doing and and
and, making sure that you make your case,
right, during those seasons instead of, instead of when

(08:05):
things are are, still going
on. Like, for instance, we do recruitment for physiotherapy. Right? And so what
really helps on, like, say and a physiotherapist is not really a
seasonal role, but here's where it gets seasonal. And this is where it's helpful to
know how the how the times of the year can affect your recruitment processes.
So in the world of physiotherapy, if you're trying to get new physiotherapists that are

(08:27):
coming out of university, the time
to go and make your approach to them is not, right
when they're doing their exams at the end of the year. They're thinking about this,
you know, as they're studying throughout the year. They're not thinking about at the end
of the year and they want to focus on their exams at the end of
the year. You need to get to them earlier in the year and make your

(08:47):
case. Right? So it can be industry specific for
sure, and it can be, and it can change depending on the
industry. And, and,
and, frankly, sometimes it's not always just related to specific
timelines. It's mindsets that go with being in that industry and how they think. In
the case of, like, a lot of the energy industry workers I was telling you

(09:09):
about, what you need to do is you need to,
you need to know when the projects are winding down. Right? So, like, we've done
stuff before. We look a year, a year and a half in the future, and
we get an inventory of all the projects that might be winding down or canceled.
So that way we can, for next year, already know where where

(09:31):
are these pockets of people, you know, all over the country or wherever you might
be that that might be looking for work at this time. So that way we
can go and make the pitch. So it's just
it's just really be about being self aware in your industry about when things
happen, but then also being self aware about how people think about those
things and how they plan for them and how further ahead they are and just

(09:51):
trying to, do your best to make your case at those
times. Right? That makes sense. Does that make sense? That does make sense. So
if there is a a leader that's trying to figure out how to
navigate this next, recruitment process, what's a way
that you have helped organizations navigate this piece?
Yeah. Good question. So one thing that we have done before, and and we're actually

(10:13):
doing something right now, is we've tried to take a look at,
you know, what is happening, in the future over the next year, year and a
half for certain, say, trades, and we try to and we get data on
when these projects are happening. So that way we can,
move forward and and and
try to make recruitment drives to to those places when when the

(10:37):
timing is right, so to speak. And so what we do is we'll find out
things like, you know, how many people are in this area,
When are the projects possibly ending? What do they get paid there now? Is there
is there a pay advantage by coming here? You know, all those types of things
to kind of figure out strategically, you know, where you have an advantage and
where you can go and then leveraging that vantage and saying, okay. So

(10:58):
if in Cincinnati, this project is ending and and a thousand people are working there,
then let you know, about a month or two or three before that
before that project is ending, let's start recruiting there, letting people know where their next
project might be, and making sure that we make the case, you
know, especially if it's like a project that, doesn't pay as well as yours, and
let's make sure they know that. Right? And let's let's get them in

(11:20):
the door and make sure that we can or get as many of them as
we can in the door because maybe not everybody wants to do that, but at
least you make your case and you make a strong case to the people that
are gonna be available. Does that make sense? It does. That's excellent.
So if there is a leader or even somebody that's
searching for that next position, what
would be the best way they could get in touch with you? Well, what a

(11:41):
nice question. It's simple. They can reach out to us on our website,
bestculturesolutions.ca because we are in Canada.
And, or my email, [e-mail], and
we are always happy to help figure out or solve
the people puzzle. Oh, I like that people. Mhmm. I just
thought of that now. The people puzzle. Right? They are, actually. Yeah.

(12:04):
That's a whole other episode, though. Right? That really is. Well, I
appreciate that, Tim. And, you know, I definitely think that
there's always gonna be those seasonal shifts, but being aware of
what's happening in the industry and, just
staying on top of your own interests. Sometimes those
ebb and flow as well. So I appreciate that you and your team are out

(12:26):
there helping people navigate those different shifts.
So until next time, it's been a pleasure. See you
again.