There is a point in recruitment where I think most of us take a fairly big breath. The interviews are finished, you’ve checked references, made the offer and finally received the signed contract back. Thank goodness that’s done!
I know I’ve felt that way before, because recruitment takes a lot of time even when you have a good process. There are applications to review, diaries to coordinate, interviews, decisions, references and offers. And towards the end of the year, there are usually another 300 things happening in the business as well.
So when that signed contract comes back, it’s really easy to mentally tick recruitment off the list and move on to whatever is next. But of course, the person hasn’t actually joined you yet.
They might still have another four weeks in their current job, and this is a part of candidate experience that I don’t think businesses always give much thought to. We put a lot of effort into recruitment and hopefully quite a bit into onboarding as well, but there is this period in between where quite a lot can be happening from the candidate’s point of view.
At Christmas, that gap becomes a little more complicated again. There are notice periods, counteroffers, shutdowns, public holidays and people disappearing on leave. So I think it’s worth looking at what is actually happening between someone saying yes and walking through your door for the first time.
Once somebody accepts your offer, quite often the next thing they need to do is resign.
Depending on their relationship with their current employer, that might be fairly straightforward or it might be really uncomfortable. Their manager may be disappointed. Their colleagues start asking where they’re going and why they’re leaving. People tell them how much they’re going to miss them, and sometimes their employer starts trying to find a way to make them stay.
So while you’ve got the signed contract and you’re thinking, excellent, that’s sorted, they’re still sitting in the workplace they’ve decided to leave. They’re still seeing those people every day and finishing those projects. They may also be having conversations with their manager about what it would take for them to change their mind.
People can feel quite differently about a decision from one day to the next. Someone can sign your contract on Monday feeling completely certain that they’re ready to leave. Then on Tuesday they have a lovely lunch with their team, somebody tells them how much they’re going to miss them, and their manager reminds them how valued they are. Suddenly, they’re feeling a little emotional about the whole thing.
That’s quite human, and there is some current Australian research that shows why we shouldn’t necessarily assume an accepted offer is the end of the story. Robert Half found that 88% of Australian employers surveyed had experienced at least one candidate declining a job offer in the previous 12 months. That doesn’t mean 88% of job offers are falling over. It means most of those employers had experienced it somewhere in their recruitment during the year.
In separate research, 85% of Australian employers surveyed by Robert Half said they had made a counteroffer to an employee who had received an external job offer.
So if your new employee is sitting in their current workplace serving out their notice, there is a reasonable chance that their employer is having some conversations with them about staying. And that counteroffer isn’t necessarily just more money. It might be greater flexibility, a new title, a promotion or their manager promising to finally fix the thing that has been frustrating them for the last year.
Whether those promises actually happen is another conversation altogether, but from the candidate’s point of view there can suddenly be quite a lot to think about.
Quite a lot can be happening between accepting a job and actually starting it.
Your new hire is finishing their current role and saying goodbye to people they know, while also trying to imagine what this new workplace is going to be like. Changing jobs can be exciting, but it can also be really nerve-racking because they’re leaving something familiar for something they don’t completely know yet.
Businesses naturally tend to think about this period in quite an administrative way. We need the payroll information and super details. Somebody needs to organise the laptop and create system access. There are forms to complete and things to set up. All of that is important, of course.
But there’s also a person sitting there wondering what their new manager is really going to be like. They don’t know all the personalities in the team yet. They don’t know the little things that make up everyday life in the business, and they may still be wondering whether they’ve made the right decision.
So if they hear absolutely nothing from you for four weeks, there is quite a lot of space for uncertainty to creep in. I’m not suggesting you need to call them every couple of days and keep telling them how excited you are. They still have a job to finish, and they’d probably find that a little exhausting anyway.
There is quite a difference, though, between giving somebody space and disappearing completely.
I don’t think keeping a new hire engaged needs to involve lots of activity. For me, it’s more about reducing some of that uncertainty and beginning to build the relationship they’ll have with the business.
When the signed contract comes back, for example, have their manager give them a call. I’d much rather that came from their actual manager than the recruiter, HR or an automated email. This is the person they’re going to be working with, so it’s a good opportunity to start building that connection.
It can be a very simple conversation. Let them know you’ve received everything and you’re looking forward to them joining. Ask how the resignation went and whether there’s anything they need from you at this point.
If they aren’t joining for another month, you might also tell them when they’ll hear from you again. Perhaps there’s another quick check-in the week before they start. If you have a Christmas event and it genuinely makes sense to invite them, you could do that or perhaps introduce them to somebody they’ll be working closely with.
None of this needs to become a big formal program. It’s just making sure the relationship doesn’t suddenly stop because the contract has been signed.
I’ve talked about that sense of connection before in The Importance of Emotional Connection in Onboarding. What I like about thinking about onboarding in that way is that it reminds us that the employee experience doesn’t suddenly begin at 9am on their first Monday. It has been forming for quite a while.
From an HR point of view, we like putting names around different stages. We have recruitment, preboarding, onboarding and probation, and those distinctions are useful when we’re designing processes.
I don’t think the employee experiences them that way. They just experience what it feels like to join your business.
Their impression started with the job advertisement. Then there were emails, phone calls and interviews. They noticed whether people came to those interviews prepared. They noticed whether you kept them informed through the process and whether you did the things you said you were going to do. Then they accepted the role.
If your recruitment process has been warm, responsive and organised, and then you disappear completely as soon as they sign the contract, they’ll notice that difference.
Equally, if recruitment has been fantastic and they turn up on day one to discover nobody knows they’re coming, that becomes part of the same experience for them.
They aren’t thinking, recruitment was good but onboarding wasn’t.
They’re thinking, “this is what it’s like to work here”.
That’s why I think candidate experience is better considered as the whole journey into the organisation. The stages might help us manage the process, but the person joining us experiences one continuous relationship.
Preboarding is one of those HR words that can make something fairly simple sound more complicated than it needs to be. It’s really just the period between accepting the job and starting it.
I tend to think there are three things going on during that time: administration, certainty and connection.
Administration is all of the practical work happening in the background. Paperwork, payroll, superannuation, equipment and system access. None of those things are particularly exciting, but anyone who has ever started a job and spent the first two days waiting for a password knows that they matter.
Certainty is about removing some of the unknowns before day one. What time are they starting? Where do they go? Who should they ask for? What does the first day or first week roughly look like? Are they working from home or in the office? Is there anything useful they need to know about parking, dress or lunch?
You don’t need to send somebody an enormous list. It’s really about removing some of the things they might otherwise be wondering about, particularly the night before they start.
Then there is connection. Has their manager been in touch? Do they know who they’re going to be working with? Do they get the sense that people are actually expecting them?
For the more detailed onboarding process once somebody joins, I’ve covered that separately in Standardise Onboarding with these 3 Simple Tools. I don’t want to repeat all of that here, but I do think some of the groundwork can start before day one.
The time between accepting an offer and starting a new job is part of the employee experience too.
This is one area where I think businesses need to be a little careful. Sometimes we become very enthusiastic about preboarding and start sending people lots of things to read, videos to watch, training to complete or systems to learn before they’ve actually started.
There is a difference between saying, here’s a little information about the business if you’d like to have a look before you join us, and saying, here are six training modules we need you to complete before Monday.
If it’s something you’re requiring the person to do, then you need to think about whether it should actually happen once their employment has started and they’re being paid.
I think the purpose of preboarding is to make day one easier. It isn’t to quietly move day one forward by three weeks.
That distinction is worth keeping in mind because otherwise something intended to create a positive candidate experience can very quickly start feeling like work before the person has even joined you.
This is where the time of year makes the usual offer-to-start period a little more complicated.
There might be a Christmas shutdown. Their current employer might have one as well. Their notice period could finish at an awkward time. Their new manager may already have leave booked and other people in the team could be away.
Then you have the public holidays sitting right in the middle of everything. In New South Wales in 2026, Christmas Day falls on Friday 25 December, Boxing Day on Saturday 26 December and the additional Boxing Day public holiday falls on Monday 28 December.
So imagine your new employee starts on Monday 21 December. They work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and then there’s Christmas Day, the weekend and another public holiday on Monday. Quite possibly some of the people they need to work with are already on leave as well.
That doesn’t automatically mean they shouldn’t start, but I would ask what that first week is actually going to look like.
Sometimes we get very focused on the fact that we’ve managed to get someone started before Christmas. I’m not sure the date itself is the thing that matters. The more useful question is whether starting before Christmas is actually going to give that person a useful start.
There are definitely businesses where starting in December can be a really good option.
Perhaps December is quieter. The manager is still there, the key people in the team are around and there is actually more time to sit with somebody and explain the business and the systems.
That can be quite a nice introduction for a new employee. They have time to ask questions and get to know people without immediately being dropped into the busiest part of the year.
I’ve seen businesses where that quieter period is genuinely useful because people have more time for the conversations that tend to get pushed aside when everyone is busy.
So I’m certainly not suggesting everyone should wait until January. If you have the right environment for it, a December start can work really well, it just needs to be considered.
The other version is that somebody starts on the 21st, their manager finishes for the year on the 22nd, the person who was meant to train them is already away and the laptop isn’t there yet. Most of the team is either working from home or on leave, and then the business shuts down.
Technically, you’ve got them started before Christmas, but you haven’t really achieved very much! From the employee’s point of view, it can feel quite strange. They’ve left the workplace they know and walked into a completely new environment, but there isn’t really anybody around to help them understand how things work.
So if you’re deciding between December and January, I’d think less about the date and more about whether the business is actually ready for the person.
Will their manager be there? Will the people they need to learn from be available? Is there meaningful work they can do? Will their laptop and system access be ready?
If the answer to most of those questions is no, January might simply give them a much better introduction to the business.
It doesn’t mean you don’t want them there. Quite the opposite. You’re recognising that there isn’t much value in somebody starting three or four days earlier if you aren’t really in a position to support them.
There are also some very Australian practicalities to think about here. If your business shuts down over Christmas and New Year, don’t assume a new employee automatically understands what that means for them.
For full-time and part-time employees, annual leave starts accumulating from the first day of employment, including during probation. But obviously somebody who starts shortly before Christmas isn’t going to have accumulated very much leave.
The rules around directing an employee to take annual leave during a shutdown can also depend on the award or enterprise agreement that covers them. Fair Work recommends checking the relevant award or agreement before directing an employee to take annual leave during a shutdown, because the requirements can vary.
Some modern awards also have specific notice requirements for temporary shutdowns and provisions dealing with employees who join after the original shutdown notice has been issued. This is one of those areas where I wouldn’t assume that because an arrangement has worked for your existing employees, it automatically works in exactly the same way for somebody who has just joined. But apart from the compliance side, there’s a much simpler candidate experience point.
Don’t let it be a surprise.
Imagine resigning from your old job, starting a new one and then discovering that the business is about to close for two weeks and you haven’t properly understood what that means for your leave or your pay. That’s not a great way to start the relationship.
So have the conversation when you’re agreeing the start date. Explain what is going to happen and make sure the person understands what it means for them. Sometimes good candidate experience is simply getting the practical things right and talking about them early enough.
There are lots of conversations about creating a wonderful first day, and of course it’s nice for somebody to feel welcomed. But onboarding isn’t only about whether someone enjoys their first week. It also affects how quickly they can become confident and useful in the role.
I’ve talked before about a new hire who I initially thought wasn’t working out. When I stopped and looked properly at what was happening, I had to acknowledge that we hadn’t onboarded her particularly well.
She didn’t have enough clarity or structure. Once we changed that, things changed for her as well.
I talk about that experience in more detail in What To Do When Your New Hire Isn’t Working Out. That experience has stayed with me because I think we can sometimes be quite quick to look at the person and wonder why they aren’t performing, without first looking at what we’ve actually given them to work with.
Do they know what good looks like? Do they understand what they’re responsible for? Do they have the equipment and information they need? Have they had enough time with their manager?
Some of that obviously happens once they start, but you can make it much easier by getting the basics in place beforehand.
Their manager knows they’re coming. Their equipment works. Somebody is there to greet them. There is a plan for the first week. They roughly know what they’re meant to be doing and somebody checks in with them.They’re all quite small things.
But together they give someone the sense that people have actually thought about them arriving.
If you’ve just recruited somebody heading into Christmas, I wouldn’t overcomplicate this.
Once the contract is signed, don’t go into radio silence. Make sure their manager stays connected with them, let them know what is going to happen next and get the practical things organised before they arrive.
Then think honestly about the start date. If starting before Christmas means their manager is there, the team has time for them and they can begin settling into the business, that could be a really good start.
If it means they arrive for three days, can’t get into the systems and then everybody disappears for two weeks, perhaps January is going to be better. And if you do have a Christmas shutdown, make sure there are no surprises around leave, public holidays or pay.
You’ve already done a lot of work to get to this point. You’ve advertised, interviewed, checked references and made the decision. You’ve probably invested quite a lot of time and money in finding this person.
The last thing you want is for them to spend the next four weeks wondering whether they’ve made the right choice because nobody from the business has spoken to them. Candidate experience doesn’t finish when somebody says yes, and onboarding doesn’t really start at 9am on day one either.
There is this period in between where somebody is leaving what they know and preparing to join something new. At Christmas, that period just needs a little more thought than it might at another time of year.
We tend to look at recruitment, preboarding and onboarding as separate processes. Your new employee doesn’t. For them, it’s all part of the experience of joining your business.
If you think there may be some gaps between making the offer and getting someone properly settled into their role, we can help you look at the whole process and make it simpler and more consistent. Book a free discovery call.
Candidate experience is the impression someone forms of your business as they move through recruitment and into employment. Accepting the offer doesn’t end that experience. During their notice period they’re still making sense of their decision, so good communication and some early connection with their manager can help reduce uncertainty.
Keep it fairly simple. Have their manager contact them once the contract is signed, explain what happens next and check in again if there is a long gap before they start. You don’t need constant contact; you just don’t want them to feel as though the business has disappeared.
I’d think about administration, certainty and connection. Get the paperwork, equipment and system access organised, give the employee enough practical information to understand what day one will look like, and make sure they have started building a relationship with their manager or team.
It depends on what they will actually experience when they arrive. A December start can work really well if their manager and team are available and there is meaningful work to do. If key people are already on leave and the business is about to shut down, January may give them a much better introduction.
Explain the shutdown before they start, including the dates and what it may mean for their leave and pay. You should also check the award or enterprise agreement that applies to the employee rather than assuming your usual shutdown arrangements will automatically apply to a new starter.
