Turning up the volume

Volume recruitment is essential for larger organisations looking for sustained growth and development. Whether you’re hiring for a rapidly expanding business, setting up a team for a new location, filling ongoing staffing vacancies or providing a seasonal operation - tackling volume recruitment is vital.

By merging multiple roles into one single recruitment campaign, employers can save on advertising and marketing costs. But if you’re looking to hire multiple team members in one go, how do you ensure you’re getting the right people into the right positions? And how do you make sure you’re still delivering an exceptional hiring experience when there’s such a high volume of applicants?

Unfortunately, many businesses find it challenging to reach the right candidates, so it’s important to perfect the volume hiring strategy. We take a look at some top tips for ensuring everyone involved experiences a positive and rewarding process.

Considering the challenges

Running a volume campaign typically refers to hiring multiple employees in similar roles across an organisation, usually within a short time frame. Industries that might require recruitment en-masse include social care, call centres, logistics, retail, healthcare, hospitality, the police services and more.

Hiring in high numbers requires a markedly different approach from regular recruitment processes. It’s all about finding the best of the best, but many times over. Strategies need to be adapted throughout every stage of the recruitment funnel to handle the high volume of applicants in a streamlined and efficient way and to make the most of the opportunity.

Starting from the beginning, one of the biggest challenges can be candidate sourcing, which has the potential to cause a ‘bottleneck’ if you’re struggling to attract people to the roles. Finding enough high-quality applicants and managing the hiring process at scale can be challenging. It requires a clear outline of who you’re looking to attract, consistent recruitment practices, and the use of effective tools too.

While volume recruitment presents its own unique challenges, with the right strategies in place it can be highly rewarding for talent acquisition managers and the organisations they are representing.

Sourcing and attracting candidates

When you’re recruiting for multiple positions, it’s still essential to deliver candidates of the highest standard. This requires strategic thinking. Building a talent pipeline and a portfolio of qualified candidates, as well as leveraging referrals, can help organisations save time in the long-run.

But how do we attract candidates to the positions? It’s important to involve key stakeholders in the hiring process to ensure alignment with organisational goals. It’s also key to incorporate compelling storytelling. Candidates want to feel a connection with an organisation’s brand, values and culture. In addition, transparency about salaries, benefits, and upskilling opportunities is crucial.

When it comes to knowing where best to source talent for volume recruitment, crooton has a wealth of experience. Stephen Anderson, our Co-Founder and Managing Director, explains: “Volume recruitment is all about finding the right people who will contribute to your organisation's success. You need to match a strategic approach with absolute clarity on who you want to attract and why. Data-focused sourcing will help you discover and reach the very best candidates.”

As well as engaging with potential applicants through social media, networking events, career fairs, and through building relationships with local universities and colleges, there are other avenues to consider too. To reach further candidates, companies should consider job board advertising, search outreach, and digital employer fencing: a great way to access passive candidates in specific locations.

Managing the numbers

First things first, make it easy for candidates to apply. Utilise user-friendly online forms and streamlined processes to reduce drop-off rates. In addition, when you’re hiring in high volumes, there’s just no time for manual recruitment evaluations. Applicants should ideally be automatically screened and graded in the initial stages.

Stephen explains: "When you’re dealing with a large number of applicants, assessing each one in a timely and fair manner can be challenging. This is when automated processes and AI technology come into their own, helping you to identify great fit applicants."

During evaluation, applicant tracking systems and screening tools can assess which candidates match your agreed standards. Onboarding software solutions can streamline communication and track the progress of each candidate. It’s important to regularly review and check criteria to minimise any potential bias.

Ultimately, you need a solution that’s built with the challenges of volume hiring in mind and it’s crucial to choose the right technologies to automate administrative tasks. Don’t forget to continuously evaluate and refine your recruitment processes based on what’s proved successful too.

Need help from crooton?

Remember, volume recruitment is not just about filling positions quickly. It’s about finding the right people for the roles, enabling them to contribute to your organisation’s success and thrive themselves.

Here at crooton, we’re perfectly placed to provide you with the very best candidates. From recruitment mapping reports to help you to understand the jobseeker landscape, through to reaching passive candidates, and pre-screening, reviewing and managing candidates, we can develop a high-performing team that drives your business forward.