Why Summer Is the Perfect Time to Rethink Your Hiring Strategy

Summer might seem like a season to hit pause, but for smart business leaders, it’s actually one of the best times to step back, reassess, and plan ahead.

That includes your hiring strategy.

While your team may be cycling through vacations and the pace of business feels slower, this quieter stretch of the calendar offers a valuable window to refocus.

At The Lee Group, we’ve seen firsthand how companies that take time in the summer to evaluate their workforce needs are the ones best positioned to hit the ground running in the fall.

Here’s why summer is the right time to rethink your hiring approach (and how we can help).

Less Competition for Top Talent

Many companies hold off on recruiting until fall, which means summer presents a unique advantage: less noise in the hiring market. That gives you a better chance of grabbing the attention of high-quality candidates who are quietly exploring their options or looking for a change before the year-end push.

And with many professionals open to flexible work or remote roles, you don’t need to wait for the “perfect timing” to find the right fit.

Time to Build Your Talent Pipeline

Even if you don’t have immediate openings, summer is the perfect time to start building your bench. Think of it as preseason prep. Whether you’re forecasting Q4 growth, planning new service lines, or anticipating retirements or resignations, now is the time to partner with a staffing firm to build out a talent pipeline tailored to your needs.

That way, when you do need to hire, you’re not starting from scratch or scrambling to find someone in a rush.

Opportunity to Evaluate What’s Working (and What’s Not)

Take a look at your current team structure. Where are the bottlenecks? What positions have been hardest to fill? Where is your internal team stretched too thin? And what roles could be filled temporarily or outsourced altogether?

Use this slower season to conduct a staffing audit.

You might uncover opportunities to:

• Shift responsibilities across your team
• Create new job descriptions aligned with growth
• Add flexible staffing support to reduce burnout
• Identify which positions should be filled full-time vs. temp-to-hire

A Strategic Onboarding Window

Bringing someone new into your team mid-summer has its advantages. With fewer deadlines and distractions, you have more bandwidth to focus on training and onboarding. That means your new hire will be ready to contribute more meaningfully when the pace picks back up in the fall.

Not sure where to start? Use this quieter season to download one of our free workbooks to evaluate if you know when you need to hire, crafting the perfect job description, and performing next-level interviews.