High volume recruiting strategies become necessary as businesses, and technologies, continue to expand and improve. Handling large hiring volumes is never an easy task, and it has the potential to result in significant damage if done incorrectly.
On average, a low volume job receives 59 applicants per position, whereas a high volume position might reel in 250 potential candidates*. In either case, talent acquisition leads should still prioritize hiring top quality talent for the team. But 250 applicants (or more) is a lot to sort through. What are the best ways to narrow down such a large pool of candidates and ensure you hire only top quality employees who will be happy and productive for your organization?
In this article, you will find tips for best practices to help you streamline your high volume recruiting strategies, and hire top candidates quickly, and easily.
- Create a candidate pipeline.
If you’re facing extreme hiring goals, your critical first step will be to create a solid candidate pipeline. See our blog article on maximizing your talent pools for help! Some larger companies are, in fact, faced with the challenge of having too many applicants already.Their processes are slowed down by the sheer volume of resumes to sort through. Using objective pre-hire assessments and a structured hiring process can help increase quality of hire, time to hire, and other critical recruiting KPIs. - Optimize your talent acquisition process.
Is it obvious? Talent acquisition teams who are bogged down with administrative work and complicated workflows will have less time (and money, and energy) to spend on candidate engagement and evaluation. This means you might lose out on quality candidates or because you are too rushed, you may choose to hire individuals who are a bad fit for the role or your organization.Reducing the workload for your TA team is key. How? By employing tech to streamline human effort for screening, assessing, scheduling interviews, and reference checking. End-to-end solutions like Harver’s Hiring Process Optimization free up valuable recruiter and hiring manager time across the hiring lifecycle while also improving quality of hire. - Put forward a strong employer brand.
Strengthening your employer brand may be the last thing on your mind when you’re pulling in hundreds of applicants at a time, however if you’re choosing to go a more traditional sourcing route, attracting the right new hires is all about brand.Increasingly, employees at any business are personally identified with the work that they do, and candidates are more likely to apply to an opening at the organization with a strong company culture above a faceless job description. In any new employment ad you put out, make sure to show the values your organization prioritizes, photos of current employees, and other extracurriculars which make your business stand out. Learn the secrets of a candidate-centric recruitment process > - Smooth out the application process.
Two things to consider here: one, the cellphone has replaced the computer as the primary job-search device. Many applicants are going to stumble upon your company’s advertisement during their commute, while browsing in bed, or reading social media. Two, a long and frustrating application, no matter which device you’re using, can turn away top talent out of sheer inconvenience.A fast and easy application sets the tone for an enjoyable candidate experience. And this means more, qualified candidates will be sending you their resumes. In a high volume recruiting scenario it is advantageous to streamline your application process to minimize drop-off. For instance, high-volume industries like retail, restaurants, and hospitality rely on screening chatbots to engage applicants and speed up collecting critical information during the application stage. - Measure your time-to-hire.
A time-to-hire metric — meaning days between sourcing and onboarding a candidate — can let you know if there are any flaws in the recruiting process that need to be addressed, as well as how your recruitment team is performing. As the saying goes, time is money, and a longer time to hire means your company is shedding unnecessary funds with each hire. And in the worst case scenario, a top quality candidate may lose interest if the process takes too long.The global average time to hire is 24 days. Not all companies can meet this time frame, but it’s a convenient comparison for companies to go off. Measure your time to hire, identify any bottlenecks in process or personnel, and address them accordingly.
Final Thoughts: High Volume Recruiting Strategies
High volume recruiting is no easy feat, but it can be done, and done well. Get started by learning more about hiring at scale without sacrificing quality or speed, with Harver’s automated hiring solutions for hourly roles.
* 7 ways to improve your high volume recruiting strategy, Digital HR Tech
