HR Wheel for Recruitment Services from Clark Schaefer Strategic HR.

Creating a Strategy for High Volume Recruitment

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Last Updated on January 25, 2019 / Recruitment

Question:

Our organization is about to go through some very high volume staffing this year. What measures should we put in place to ensure that we will successfully meet our hiring goals?

Answer:

In this candidate-driven market, it is a must that you have a robust plan or strategy in place to accomplish your hiring goals and to measure the success of your efforts.

Below are a few strategies to consider as you develop your next moves. By incorporating these tactics, it will ensure greater opportunity of success in your hiring goals:

  1. Employment Brand: Your brand is a critical component to igniting candidates’ interest in your organization. Creating an exciting image of how great it is to work at your organization can make you stand out among competitive companies hiring the same talent. The great thing about your brand is that you have complete control of it – this is your chance to create a narrative that best represents what it’s like to work with you and your team. Ideas for developing your brand include:
    • Developing an easy-to-use link to the “Careers” page on your company website. Make it easy to find! Don’t hide the link in the bottom corner of the home page. And, include testimonials and videos if possible.
    • Create jobs posts that reflect your company culture, such as including your values or perks of working for your company.
    • Use social media – build out social media networks and create social media accounts for your company on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You also should be prepared to respond to on-line reviews, such as Google reviews, about your company to help manage your company’s reputation.
  2. Employee Referral program: Statistically, the best resource for candidates is from your existing employees. If you do not already have an Employee Referral program, or if it has not been very effective, take the time to set up or review your plan for opportunities to strengthen it for maximum results. Think about what would motivate your employees to recommend others to work at your organization? Money? How much money? Time off?
  3. College recruiting: Do you have a position that could benefit from hiring new college graduates? If so, get in touch with your local colleges and universities now. Don’t wait until it’s the end of the school year, as many institutions will have job fairs year-round. It is in the best interest of those schools to help find avenues for their students to find great jobs. Take advantage of those relationships and get in ahead of your competition!
  4. Niche job boards: Online resources are constantly evolving. Ensure that you are aware of all available job boards and posting opportunities that are relevant to your open positions.
  5. Training opportunities: If you are having trouble finding candidates that can come into your organization and hit the ground running, look for opportunities to recruit candidates that could be trained to be long-term and successful contributors.
  6. Partner with a staffing firm: Having a strong and effective staffing partner to subsidize your recruiting efforts will allow you to stay focused on other areas of your organization that require a high level of priority.

Now that you have your strategies in place, and you’re ready to start hiring, how will you measure success? Metrics are always an important tool for HR to determine the effectiveness of a company’s recruiting efforts. The right kind of metrics are crucial when it comes to high-volume recruiting. Below are some metrics to consider:

  1. Qualified candidates per hire: This metric measures the number of candidates hired compared to those who made it past the first stage of the screening. It will quantify the effectiveness of your selection process in determining the most qualified candidates to move forward in your hiring process. If you have a large number of qualified candidates who are falling out of your recruiting process, this will present the opportunity to review your screening criteria to be sure it is in line with the needs of the position.
  2. Source of hire: Tracking the source of your hires is critical. You want to know which sourcing method is generating the most return on your investment in both dollars and time. If you are using a source that only generates a few hires, you will want to evaluate if you are applying your budget most effectively.
  3. Recruiting life cycle: The recruiting life cycle starts at the beginning stage of posting for the position and continues to the day that the candidate is scheduled to start. It includes screening resumes, phone screening, interviewing, making the offer, and completing any background checks. Knowing how long that process takes will let you know when you need to start executing your recruiting plans.
  4. Interview to hire ratio: This measure is critical to comprehend. If you know how many interviews it will take to make a single hire, it will help determine the most effective amount of recruiter resources needed to meet your hiring needs in a given amount of time. A good tip would be to make it a practice to have a post-interview summary with the hiring manager(s) to better understand why or why not a candidate may have been selected for hire. Make sure the candidate profile you are searching for is in line with what the organizational needs.
  5. Offer acceptance rate: It is important to understand why every offer is declined and to track the responses. Knowing this information:
    • will allow you to address it early in the candidate life cycle, and it will help candidates self-eliminate themselves before investing more time in them.
    • will help determine if adjustments to the candidate profile need to be made.
    • will help determine if any organizational adjustments can be made to open up the opportunity for a wider candidate profile (e.g. work life balance concerns, pay, relocation).

Ultimately, high-volume sourcing requires high-performing strategies that rely on data-driven practices and not just HR best practices. Understanding the data will allow HR to engage in discussions with senior leadership from a level of authority which will help justify personnel and budget allocations needed for success.

Strategic HR provides a variety of resources to help you find the help you need. We offer outsourced recruiting, on-site contract assistance or contingency placement. We can create a plan that’s custom fit for your specific recruitment needs. Please visit our Recruitment page for more information.