How to hire a lot of people, quickly: 7 tips for high volume hiring
Recently, the world of recruitment has swung, pendulum-like, across all industries. On one extreme, hiring freezes abound. And yet on the other, recruitment in certain industries has been cranked up to meet the hyper-inflated and unexpected demands of our current world.
We’ve covered ways to add value if you’re in the middle of a hiring freeze or slow down, but what about if you’re experiencing the other extreme? How do you hire a lot of people, and quickly? Slightly different from hiring through hypergrowth, these new roles aren’t to reflect the growth projections of the company, rather hyper-inflated demands on current services.
Here are seven tips for recruiters working in serious, and slightly unexpected, overtime – how to hire a lot of staff, quickly.
1. Hire for attitude, train for skill
This is a pretty solid nugget of advice at the best of times, but particularly applicable with high-volume hiring. Finding the perfect candidate is all too often a ‘needle in the haystack’ moment. Instead of finding a perfect resume, take time to look for candidates with a great attitude, enthusiasm, and energy.
Willingness to learn often falls out of a good attitude. Remember, you can teach skills but you can’t teach attitude! Similarly, and if you can, look for people who really want to work for the company, rather than just want to work. Of course, needs must but if you can find people who already know the business, onboarding will be easier and faster as they are likely already familiar with the culture and product line.
2. Fire up all your channels
Job seekers look online so make sure your online presence is lit. All jokes aside, beyond advertising on the job boards, make sure that your website is up to date, accurate and attractive.
Use social media as both an opportunity to show off your company culture but also as a new channel to attract candidates. Use hashtags like #jobfairy when sharing info about positions to maximize their proliferation across your network and beyond.
LinkedIn is an obvious choice, but Facebook and Twitter can also help you source new talent, with their strong cultures of sharing posts among networks. Even Instagram has proven to be effective, especially for companies looking for digital natives. Wherever you’re hiring, make sure you have the words “We’re hiring!” viewable on all your company profiles and avatars.
3. Be realistic about the job and write clear descriptions
How often do you see job ads posted, read through them, and then wonder what on earth the role is actually going to involve? Too often, we think! There’s no harm at all about being straightforward about the expectations of a role. While oftentimes the tendency is to wrap up a job spec in fluffy jargon, it’s actually going to put more people off than attract them.
Don’t mistake clarity for boring though – it’s still very possible to be clear and to the point, but still show a bit of personality. Remember – any opportunity to get a candidate excited about working for you should be seized with both hands!
4. Incentivize your staff to make recommendations
Networks are your friend. So are your staff’s friends. It’s all too often that positions are advertised in companies without their staff being made aware. Let your staff know what roles are available and encourage them to either apply themselves or recommend people. If you can incentivize recommendations, all the better! Your current employees know what is needed to do the job, so know who will be able to do it well. They aren’t going to recommend people who are going to make things harder.
5. Consider past applicants and employees
We’ve all recruited for roles where the final applicant won by a hair’s breadth. Dip into those archived candidates who you said you’d keep in mind for upcoming roles, but might have tidied away into a dusty (computer) file. It’s not a guarantee, but definitely worth an email.
Equally, for temporary surges in employment needs, it can’t hurt to check in with previous employees. People who left your company but understand the current pressure might be able to step in to fill the temporary void and ease your needs.
6. Dedicate the correct resources (even if it means getting temporary help)
Is it just you, or a small team, trying to manage this current surge of hiring demands? It’s important to make sure you’re properly supported in this time of increased demand. If your hiring team has been hit with a sudden burst of demand, they will likely struggle to keep up.
While we, of course, would recommend training your staff with the skill they need to make the correct hire (cough cough), for such pressing needs, it’s worth considering taking on some freelance hiring consultants to help.
7. Get the right tech to help
People rarely talk about the time spent on hiring, do they? How much time have you spent scaling through CV after CV or profile after profile on LinkedIn? At the best of times, this is a timely process, and if time is short, you should consider upgrading your tech stack to help you cope with this high demand. There’s a wealth of tech solutions that can help you with sourcing, screening, and tracking, which will shave valuable time off the whole process.
