Mass recruitment, also known as bulk recruitment, is a challenging but rewarding process that helps companies grow fast and stay ahead.
However, it requires careful planning and execution. You need to consider candidate quality, fit, and satisfaction throughout the hiring journey.
In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into what a bulk recruitment strategy is and how to create an effective one for your company.
What is a bulk recruitment strategy?
Bulk recruitment is a process carried out by a company’s human resources department to fill multiple vacancies in the company.
The specific process may vary based on the company’s needs and the requirements of the job or jobs they need to fill.
Also known as high-volume hiring, this type of recruitment is particularly useful when the company needs to fill numerous positions in a short period.
The best way to mass hire is to create a mass or bulk recruitment strategy. Properly executing the strategy ensures you hire the most suitable candidates for your company.
When is bulk hiring a good idea?
High-volume hiring isn’t for everyone. Some companies may operate for decades without having to use mass recruitment.
Companies that turn to bulk hiring do so for various reasons. Some companies want to scale quickly, open a new unit, branch, or department, expand to a new location, or simply launch a new project.
For example, you’ll find companies that operate supermarkets turn to bulk hiring for their cashiers, sales, and warehousing personnel.
Similarly, banks often conduct mass hiring events to fill several teller positions, especially when opening a new branch.
Construction companies often use bulk recruitment strategies for new projects, where they need to fill dozens, sometimes hundreds, of vacancies in a short time.
How to create a bulk recruitment strategy?
Recruiters and hiring managers need a strategic plan to achieve desired outcomes. They should also be prepared to face obstacles during a bulk recruitment strategy.
Here are 10 tips to ensure a successful bulk hiring process:
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Create a bulk hiring plan
Planning ahead is crucial when creating a bulk recruitment strategy. It helps you establish your hiring goals, determine your budget, set your timeline, and identify your resources.
Additionally, you must evaluate your existing workforce and determine any talent gaps or needs.
By planning ahead, you can avoid any unexpected setbacks or delays and ensure a streamlined and efficient hiring process.
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Use digital portals
Today, the impact of social media on generating traffic from employees looking for jobs is massive. LinkedIn, for instance, is one of the largest job portals and a great social network where hiring managers and job seekers engage.
To increase the chances of filling multiple vacancies in a short time, consider posting your job vacancy on all social networks and portals.
However, try to use software to reduce the chance of getting or having to go through duplicate resumes. Candidates will often apply across several hiring sites to increase their chance of landing a job. What they don’t know is that this results in a waste of time and delays the hiring process.
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Hire in batches
One efficient way for high-volume hiring is to use the ‘batch’ process. It’s designed to find and hire multiple candidates for the same role simultaneously.
This process can save you valuable time and resources by conducting group interviews, assessments, and orientations.
Additionally, hiring in batches can create a sense of camaraderie and collaboration among new hires, ultimately improving their engagement and performance when they get hired.
Batch-hiring is a bulk recruitment strategy used frequently by call centers and educational institutions, like schools.
Whether you decide to use call center outsourcing or manage the hiring process yourself, batch-hiring is likely the way to go.
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Develop a fast screening process
To recruit new employees effectively, you need to screen candidates quickly and efficiently. You can use software along with automated skills assessments to improve and speed up the screening process.
Unfortunately, resumes can be unreliable and may contain personal information that leads to biases.
Candidates who score well on skills assessments are more likely to succeed in the role. Identify the top performers from a pool of candidates.
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Ensure effective interviewing
When bulk-hiring, the interviewing process can become a bottleneck, but there are alternatives.
Rapid-fire interviews can ensure at least one human interaction with each candidate. Group interviews provide an opportunity to observe communication skills.
On the other hand, one-way video and phone interviews eliminate the need for an interview panel.
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Establish hiring KPIs
To ensure your mass hiring process is successful, you need to identify the recruiting KPIs you’ll be measuring.
Doing so is an important step to help you plan and identify where you were successful and what you’ve done wrong.
Post hiring tips for a successful recruitment process
Your bulk recruitment strategy doesn’t end by finding the right candidates. You should offer a positive candidate experience to ensure interested candidates will apply again when you have another vacancy open.
Here are more tips to help you improve your recruitment and bulk hiring process:
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Follow up and engage
It’s important to keep candidates informed about their progress during the recruitment process.
Create a system to stay in touch with them and provide updates on their status, inform them of the next stages of the selection process, and offer guidance on how to prepare for it. You can use mass emails to do so.
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Plan the onboarding process
When you’re hiring a large number of people for the same role, mass onboarding can be a practical option.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that onboarding is a critical part of the hiring process.
Group the new hires together so they can go through the onboarding process together and meet their new colleagues.
You should also check in with them regularly to see how they’re doing.
If you have already asked your current employees to assist you with the mass hiring process, consider asking them to help with the onboarding and training of the new hires too.
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Set up group training and KPIs
When conducting bulk hiring, it’s important that everything you do is in batches or bulk. Training is no different.
Often, certain roles will require training when the new group or batch of candidates join. Call centers are a common example.
When hiring call center employees, a company will conduct training for 20 or more people all at once and then assess new employees.
It’s important to have training and development KPIs ready to assess those candidates.
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Ask new hires for feedback and referrals
Get feedback from new hires to improve your recruitment process. Use automated surveys for convenience.
You can also ask for referrals for future jobs.
Conclusion
A successful bulk recruitment strategy can go a long way in saving costs for your company and improving employee retention.
However, creating and managing a bulk recruitment strategy can be a stressful experience. Not only for the hiring team, but also for the candidates.
There is a lot of pressure to fill all the vacancies within a specific, usually short, time frame. Meanwhile, candidates are anxious about the outcome of the hiring process.
Moreover, companies rarely have the capacity or the massive HR team needed to create and manage a mass hiring strategy.
That’s why many companies turn to HR and recruitment agencies like Tawzef to help them and manage the process for them.
One of the most common HR challenges is finding skilled talents. This issues can sometimes be compounded when doing bulk hiring because of the large number of candidate applications.
But working with recruitment and manpower outsourcing companies like Tawzef, not only ensures successful mass hiring, but also means you can get additional services that help your company grow.
Need help creating a bulk recruitment strategy or hiring candidates in batches for your company? Our team is ready to help.
