Department leaders, HR and talent acquisition professionals often find themselves in front of borderline impossible tasks - hiring many qualified people simultaneously in a short period. Even though their jobs revolve around sourcing candidates and identifying the most compatible talents, that is anything but an easy responsibility.
It depends on multiple factors - job seekers' availability, industry trends, competition, a company's performance, the employer's reputation, and the period of the year. For instance, November and December are typically the worst time for both those looking for a job and those hiring employees.
That's when people are preparing for the holidays and finishing the old year. Not many are eager to start a new job and gain additional responsibilities when everyone is planning a vacation.
The beginning of the year, known as Q1, is traditionally considered the preferred period to look for new employees. There's a sense of a fresh start in the air, and departments usually have renewed budgets.
Moreover, recruiters and hiring managers have more time to prepare recruitment for Q1 if they start planning in November and December, and they'll likely encounter a surge in available job seekers. But no time is perfect, as companies will face more competition when recruiting at the beginning of the year, considering that many employers think this way.
Yet, they often have no choice, having to address the launching of a new department or expansions. If mass hiring awaits you and you have mixed feelings about where to start, here's everything you should know.
The Definition of Mass Hiring
Mass hiring refers to the situation when a company or an organization must hire a vast number of workers in a limited time frame, sometimes in only 20 days. This process involves weeks of thorough planning, establishing infrastructure, and fostering engagement across the organization to ensure skilled and qualified employees and positive candidate experience.
But what number is enough to classify something as mass hiring? There's no definite minimum amount to define recruitment efforts as high-volume.
That depends on each organization, and it can vary from dozens to thousands of workers.
For instance, if a small company of only 15 employees typically hires no more than two people a year and must employ three workers in one month, that would fall into the category of batch recruitment. On the flip side, Google hires over 1000 people every month, meaning that's normal for their company and doesn't meet the criteria to be called mass hiring.
Therefore, that also means that this recruitment type is more about the process than accomplishing a specific outcome. Indeed, the goal is to hire a substantial number of new workers, but it's also much more complex than that.
The background work of mass hiring requires extensive planning, collaboration within the company, and internal assessment. Successful and effective batch recruitment campaigns demand great work long before the interviews start rolling out.
However, companies often overlook the fact that high-volume hiring goes beyond the selection process and employing people. It also encompasses onboarding, training, and retention strategies.
Although mass hiring is a stellar strategy for increasing a company's workforce fast, it includes various significant risks, primarily negative candidate experience. But you can avoid these challenges by adequately planning your steps and being consistent.
Here's what you get from doing mass hiring right.
Benefits of Mass Hiring
Batch recruitment helps companies meet their fast growth and development objectives, expand to different locations, address the need for additional departments, and handle big projects. Many businesses spend significant money and resources on conducting mass hiring but accomplish even more significant gains.
The following are the most common advantages of mass hiring done right.
Cost-effective
Although you may assume that the investment in high-volume recruitment is more significant than the return, you can lower expenses this way. Standard hiring typically requires investing in advertisement and infrastructure for attracting and employing one person.
On the other hand, this recruitment type allows you to simultaneously use the same job ad, promo material, platforms, and resources for multiple people. Hence, you will invest nearly the same in mass hiring advertising and selection process as in standard recruitment. Yet, you'll get more employees and cover various job roles and positions in the company.
Becoming More Tech-Friendly
The use of HR technology is the industry's future, and mass hiring will encourage you to learn more about it and implement it in the process. Even though advanced tech is just as significant in standard recruitment, you will likely need multiple tools for collaborating with different departments, groups, associations, candidates, and organizations.
Job boards won't be enough in mass hiring because you will receive dozens of resumes daily and communicate with just as many people. That requires a comprehensive platform that keeps all the contacts and data in one place and streamlines your workflows.
Whether you like it or not, the process will force you to research various tech solutions and systems to find one that addresses your unique goals and needs. But as a result, you'll become more tech-savvy and discover the software you can use for future purposes and recruitment processes.
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Reinforce Company Branding and Awareness
Mass hiring includes reaching hundreds of people in a short time frame and raising awareness about your company. More businesses, groups, and individuals will hear about you and your missions, values, and objectives.
That leads to increased branding and word-of-mouth activity, which could help you convert more leads and strengthen your market position. Thanks to that, you can expand your talent pool and database, connect with more people, and accelerate your future recruitment efforts.
However, keep in mind that you must be careful about the impression you leave on each person you come in touch with, as that could determine whether they'll want to work with you. People will never forget the language you used, how much attention you gave them, and whether you treated them well.
Just because it's mass hiring doesn't mean you shouldn't put the same effort into communicating with others as you would in standard recruitment. Give everyone the same attention and positive experience to ensure people have a good opinion about your company and perceive you as the employer of choice.
Top 7 Tips on How to Hire 100 People in 60 Days
Hiring 100 people in 60 days is a formidable challenge that might leave you thinking, ‘How do I do that?'. After all, it isn't only about finding 100 candidates and having them sign a job contract.
These people must be qualified, skilled, and motivated to work with your company. If you settle for hiring anyone who meets your criteria even remotely, you could end up with many incompatible employees unable to perform their jobs well.
That's why it's always vital to highlight that mass hiring isn't only about the astounding objective of recruiting multiple people simultaneously. Instead, it's about reaching and identifying compatible applicants who can excel at the job.
However, inexperienced recruiters and teams might opt for the path of least resistance and hire everyone with the minimum relevant skills and competencies. But the ideal candidate should also be a stellar culture fit and passionate about working with you.
So, how do you accomplish such a demanding objective in such a short time?
1. Build a Cohesive and Synergetic Hiring Team
Skilled people are your greatest asset when implementing mass hiring (or any other recruitment, for that matter). Without them, you'll likely not reach half the goals you set or choose the best match.
Hence, everything starts and ends with a cohesive team that combines different skills, competencies, and expertise. Start by identifying whether you'll include professionals and leaders from multiple departments or only HR functions.
The most important is for the team to be on the same page and collaborate effortlessly. Their synergy should push you to the goals and carry out the hiring strategies.
These professionals should be in charge of overseeing the project, conducting interviews, and shortlisting candidates. Since this group should be the core of mass hiring success, they should know each member's work and communication style.
That way, they can trust one another, preventing disagreements and misunderstandings. If your team only consists of TA professionals, employ additional staff to evaluate incoming calls and pitch job openings to potential job applicants.
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2. Establish Clear and Concise Guidelines About the Candidate Profile to Target
Transparency and stellar communication are vital for defining the job description and relevant details. Your team should agree on the crucial aspects of the job roles and tasks new employees will perform and discuss them with recruiters.
You can organize Q&A sessions and ensure everyone adds their input to get the ideal candidate profile right. For instance, they should determine the minimum experience the job applicant should have and the skills and knowledge necessary for the job.
They can organize these sessions throughout the selection process to discuss the shortlisted candidates and who seems like the best fit. But it would help if you also invited your business partners to determine compensation, employee benefits, career paths, performance metrics, and training programs.
Moreover, you can use existing employees in similar roles you're hiring for as a comparison. These conversations help you understand how to pitch the job openings to the candidates and what criteria they must meet to be shortlisted.
3. Use Referrals and Social Media Platforms to Source Candidates
Employee referrals are always an excellent method to accelerate mass hiring and find qualified candidates who fit the company culture. Since no one knows a company like its staff, this is the safest way to reach compatible talents interested in working with you.
But you can also use social media to share job postings, information, and news. For instance, you can find many passive job applicants using LinkedIn Recruiter if you keep them engaged and share relevant data about the vacancy.
After finding compatible candidates, contact them and explain why you're interested in their background and if they're willing to discuss the offer further. That could help you acquire job applications from hundreds of talents and schedule screening calls with them.
4. Use SaaS Technology to Accelerate the Process
SaaS stands for Software as a Service and refers to a cloud-based software delivery method. Recruiting SaaS plays a significant role in facilitating and accelerating mass hiring as it allows you to automate various assignments, such as job postings, candidate screening, and interview scheduling.
As on-demand software, it's cost-effective and easy to use and upgrade when needed. You can use a SaaS-based ATS and CRM to speed up the selection process by enabling smoother communication with candidates, teams, and stakeholders.
An ATS can help you keep all candidate and recruitment data in a single dashboard. In contrast, a recruitment CRM can help you manage leads, collaborate, and import job applicants directly from LinkedIn.
5. Leverage an ATS to Screen Candidates Faster
As mentioned above, ATS is a powerful tool in simplifying the recruitment process, and it will come in more than handy in mass hiring. This platform allows viewing all vacancies and job applicants in a holistic dashboard, searching various candidate criteria at once, and screening incoming resumes.
For instance, you can pre-define the filters and job requirements, giving ATS guidance on identifying and ranking the most compatible job applicants. As it's AI-powered, this platform will send data-driven recommendations on talents who fit the ideal candidate profile and make your decision-making easier.
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6. Eliminate Bottlenecks by Streamlining the Interview Process
Opt for a standardized interview process instead of experimenting with questions or asking every candidate something different. Your team and recruiters should determine the scoring system in advance and adjust it along the way.
You can streamline the process and eliminate bottlenecks by allowing every job applicant who scores a three in the initial assessment call to skip to on-site interviews directly. That way, recruiters and hiring managers interviewing them could extend a job offer right away.
7. Provide an Adequate Onboarding Process
Well-rounded onboarding and introduction training are still necessary for mass hiring, and you should never skip this step. Prepare it in advance and allow new workers to choose between two different dates to ensure flexibility.
Consider developing two-week group onboarding and training sessions for every team. Consult with relevant departments when crafting the content and guidelines to make sure your new employees are ready for work.
Top-notch technology will be beyond helpful if you're conducting mass hiring and must recruit 100 employees in only 60 days. Discover how Manatal's SaaS recruitment software can help you speed up and facilitate the process and reach your objectives.
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