As specialists in the manufacturing sector, we’re used to dealing with the ever-changing needs of our clients, particularly when it comes to volume. How many heads you need to hire can vary massively, whether due to seasonal requirements, an uptick in business, or other miscellaneous factors which might mean you need people on board – and fast.

Recruiting at high volume poses its own challenges and, as such, there are a few keys to running a successful campaign. Over the years we’ve proved ourselves as a high volume staffing specialist by implementing some of the following methods to building and delivering successful campaigns:

Eliminate barriers to applying

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to high volume is – you guessed it – receiving enough applicants! When we have multiple jobs to fill, we need to encourage people to apply for them, not offer more reasons not to. This means keeping our job descriptions succinct, the application process itself short and sweet, and not pressing for too much detail in the beginning stages.

As a high volume staffing specialist, we define the absolute must-haves of the role, whether it be experience, qualifications, location even, then make it as simple as possible for individuals to apply. As you can imagine, the longer and more complicated the application itself, the less likely people are to see it through; high-volume hiring means playing the numbers game to an extent, then getting into the details further down the line. The more you ask of them, the fewer applicants you’ll get – so eliminate these barriers.

Harness previous applicants

If you’re hiring en masse now, chances are you have done before – so get stuck into your database and try to harness some of the talent you’ve worked with in the past.

Get in touch with previous applicants, even previous employees, to see if they’re open to new opportunities; if not, they may be a source of information for someone who is. This will help you garner new talent from old data, resulting in new applications from dormant talent, increased referrals and word-of-mouth exposure as to the roles you’re working on.

Go mobile!

Welcome to the year 2021! Traditionally, recruiters and HR departments have relied on email or phone calls to get in touch with applicants but, when it comes to high volume recruitment campaigns, we’re looking for fast results and increased responses – so get in touch via mobile.

Text messages are less likely to be missed, are likely to be seen far sooner, and overall have a much higher open rate than emails. When building your number of potentially suitable candidates for a position which requires multiple heads, shooting someone a message directly to their mobile phone could be the difference between curating an awesome shortlist today versus having them drop in across the space of a week or longer. Going mobile elicits a faster response for faster results – plus shows your proactivity!

Set an efficient workflow

Nail your recruitment process, and high volume recruitment becomes tenfold easier. As your high volume staffing specialist, we take pains to understand (and relay to candidates) exactly what’s going to happen at each stage, from application to first interview, feedback, job offer, start date and onwards. Don’t include any stages which aren’t 100% necessary, but make sure you get everything you need throughout.

Once we’ve defined your workflow (and I can’t reiterate this enough): stick to it! With process comes efficiency so, when it comes to high-volume, make sure you move everyone through at the same pace and manage expectations throughout. This means every candidate knows when to be available, what’s expected of them, what they can expect from you, and keeps everyone committed to the same timeline.

Assemble the troops

Simply put, high volume recruiting is no job for one person. When it comes to sourcing, assessing, interviewing and paperwork for this many positions, there are a lot of man hours involved – it takes a team to do successfully. So, be ready to have some key employees who can dedicate time to this. Better yet, hire the services of a staffing agency who can not only add their own quality candidates to the pot, but will be well set to handle a lot of the graft for you too. Two birds, one stone.

We’re proud to call ourselves a high volume staffing specialist for manufacturing, industrial and pharmaceutical businesses across north America, from labour and operators to pickers and more – payroll included. Connect with NLG CEO Andrew Lavoie on LinkedIn or get in touch with the team to learn about how we execute successful campaigns on our clients’ behalf.

Any views or opinions expressed within this blog do not necessarily reflect the official policy of  NLG. Any points made are for general information only, and none should be relied upon as a basis for making any business, legal or other decisions. Neither NLG nor the author can be held responsible for any reliance placed by you on any information or material within this article.