Say the words high volume hiring and many recruiters will start to twitch from anxiety. Once commonly associated with hourly workers, high volume hiring extends to include salary employees as well, with the level of volume contingent on the company and industry in question. In a recent presentation, Evercore, a global independent investment banking advisory firm shared its latest numbers, citing some 200 plus campus hires and 75 to 100 more advanced positions in the U.S. alone.  

There are a few reasons that recruiters cringe at the idea of high volume campaigns, but mostly, it’s due to the speed required. Whether staffing retail workers for an impending holiday season or sweeping through college students and recent grads for internships and entry-level roles, high volume hiring often involves filling multiple positions in a limited timeframe. Very limited. No easy task, this puts added pressure on recruiters already eager to find the right candidate for each opening, making the goal quantity and quality. To speed up time to hire, while remaining efficient, consider the following tips:

1. Decide what matters most

Having already mentioned two key factors influencing high volume hiring programs, there’s one more to contemplate: price. Before building a new strategy, or revising what’s in place, rank speed, price or quality by what’s most important. Remember, hiring fast won’t necessarily come cheap while saving money might not produce quality results and vice versa. An informal poll during that webinar presentation mentioned above indicated that quality and speed take the top spots with cost mattering less.  

2. Goldilocks what exists

In most high volume scenarios, certain strategies will feel too small, others too large and with any luck, one will be just right. Part of staying prepared for the next round of hiring involves knowing where the pain points or bottlenecks slowed the process down. Future needs might include another 50 roles on top of the 200 that happened this year, or maybe the whole operation will double. Smart hiring includes knowing when to let a tactic expire in order to try something else on for size.

3. Partner up

For specific initiatives within high volume hiring, such as diversity and inclusion or military recruiting, look outside the company for potential partners. In working with designated organizations, recruiters can gain access to previously unreached and untapped talent pools. At the same time, this approach will reinforce the company’s commitment to hiring diverse candidates and promote its employer brand in a way that’s reflective.

4. Improve necessary infrastructure

Being successful and speedy necessitates a strong ATS, and not all systems can tackle high volume with ease, something Evercore learned when it received 3500 to 4000 applications for its internship program alone. Without a lynchpin or cornerstone, the entire operation is at risk. Consider whether the current ATS can support needs, do things like bulk resumes and provide accurate reporting and helpful insights. If not, make a change.

5. Emphasize events management

So much of high volume hiring takes place involves hosting and attending recruiting events, that relying on pen and paper instead of a dedicated technology would slow everything down. Look for a solution, like Oleeo, that allows candidates to check-in and upload materials on-site from a mobile device or tablet. Once their information gets captured, recruiters can follow up and facilitate the next steps.

6. Talk fast

Candidates crave communication and updates about their status, with no concept of how many others are competing for these roles. Busy recruiters rarely have time to chat, let alone personally contact each and every candidate applied. Chatbots can help as a stand-in, handling some of the day-to-day by fielding and answering questions and keeping candidates both active and engaged, without piling on the recruiter. Think candidate experience.

7. Enlist automation

With just a handful of recruiters responsible for filling upwards of a hundred positions at any given time, there are parts of the process ripe for automation. This means employing a technology that can screen candidates and move them from application to interview in minutes. With smarter technology empowering this stage, application to hire can be cut down to only three days, from an average that hovers around 36 days.  

High volume hiring is both a race to the finish and carefully orchestrated initiative with lots of moving parts. To balance factors like quality against time to fill and cost per hire, recruiters need to underpin the foundational pieces ( job descriptions, compensation, qualifications, ATS) with best in breed technologies that facilitate and automate more strategic functions including event management, candidate communication, and advancement through the process. What results will be a more efficient process, more effective efforts and that desired number of quality hires – maybe even in record time.

Become a pro at high-volume recruiting with this resource pack from Oleeo: https://info.oleeo.com/high-volume-recruiting-resource-pack.

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Jeanette Maister

Jeanette Maister is Managing Director and Head of Americas at Oleeo. At Oleeo, Maister drives growth, influences the product and helps customers leverage technology to transform their recruiting efforts.  Prior to Oleeo, Jeanette spent most of her career as a recruiting practitioner holding leadership roles at Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers, IBM, and Gartner. A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis with an MBA in Management from Columbia Business School, Jeanette was recognized as a 2018 IT Women of the Year finalist. She also received the Stevie silver 2017 Female Executive of the Year and the 2017 SmartCEO Brava Award.