Many businesses depend on volume recruitment for a variety of reasons, whether it’s expansion, a new project or changing requirements within the company.
Either way, it’s important to ensure you are sourcing the right candidates to represent your organisation and your values. Volume, however, can sometimes make this difficult.
The following from Webrecruit covers back-to-basic tips of carrying out a high volume recruitment campaign, from preparation to candidate management.
1. Create a Plan
When putting together a plan for a large-scale recruitment project, you’ll need to set achievable targets. What’s also crucial is to plan way in advance, to ensure you are in control during the campaign, and are prepared beforehand.
The plan should also be flexible, to cover any potential factors (whether external or internal) that may affect your campaign objectives.
This planning stage is one of the most fundamental parts of the project, consequently, the more time invested at this point, the better your end results will be.
2. Set a Process
Ensure that you have process in place of how you will manage candidate applications. High volume recruitment can take a substantial amount of manpower and admin, so without a refined strategy, it can incur unnecessary costs and could last longer than first intended.
Therefore, everyone should be aware of what their responsibilities are, which should be part of a sound recruitment strategy. If you’re working with an agency, make sure they are aware of your internal processes to aid a seamless working partnership.
With high volume recruitment, an applicant tracking system can aid the management of large amounts of applications, as well as providing a way of producing various types of reporting on your campaign. This software will also centralise all the information on candidates, and prevent heavy loads of paperwork.
[Still looking to secure buy-in for an ATS in your company? Check out our free guide: How to Build a Business Case for Recruitment Software]
3. Manage Screening Effectively (and don’t forget the candidate experience)
Hiring can be a time-consuming task, particularly if there is a need to hire a large amount of employees at once. Working with a third party resourcing company can save you a large amount of time on such projects. They can take on heavy administrative duties, and pre-screen candidates for you, so you only see the most relevant talent.
At the start of the project, review in-depth the skills, competencies and personalities you are looking for to ensure a smooth screening process for recruiters.
Seek to have simple and concise screening criteria, to ensure a straight forward, efficient short listing. A solid screening process means less time spent on candidates who aren’t right for the job.
When communicating with applicants, don’t forget the candidate experience. This important part of your hiring process can be the difference between finding the right fit, and receiving a high number of drop-outs.
Alongside all plans must be a focus on hiring quality: if your quality-of-hire decreases, the objectives of the company will be affected. This is even more relevant for high volume campaigns, to avoid high turnover costs from hiring the wrong candidates.
4. Prepare for On-boarding
The recruitment process does not end at offer stage, so look at what you need for when your new employees begin their roles. With a lot of individuals to manage, prepare for what they will require at the beginning of their contracts, in order to get them up to speed as quickly as possible.
Remember to inform your candidates of these next steps once they have been hired, including any training programmes and new-starter information.
5. Report on Your Results
Measuring the success of your campaign is essential. Report on metrics such as retention rates for the first 3 -6 months, SLA (service level agreement) times, average cost of hire and length of time to hire.
Consider with your colleagues and any agencies you may have partnered with, what worked well within the strategy, and what didn’t, ready for your next high volume project.
