How to Create a High-Volume Hiring Strategy

Having multiple positions to fill in a short period can be seriously stressful. The main challenge you might encounter during this process is screening applicants quickly while maintaining candidate quality.

That’s why developing a high-volume hiring strategy is essential. Though it requires lots of time and resources, this strategic approach can help you meet your recruitment goals. For example, you can leverage artificial intelligence (AI) tools for candidate assessments and use automation to screen job seekers. 

Below, learn more about creating a high-volume hiring strategy by centralizing all your data and hiring workflows and using the right software.

Challenges of high-volume hiring

Some of the problems with managing large-scale recruitment include:

Screening a high volume of applications

Managing an overwhelming number of candidates is the top hiring challenge that talent acquisition leaders think they will experience over the next 12 months, according to our 2024 Hiring Insights Report. The average corporate job, for example, receives 250 applications. As you can imagine, that number skyrockets for high-volume roles.

If you advertise multiple open roles, you could potentially hear back from thousands of candidates. Screening such a high number of applications, as is required in industries like healthcare, can put a lot of stress on your talent acquisition teams, requiring a lot of their time, effort, and resources.

Maintaining quality while hiring quickly

If time is tight, you might not be able to screen multiple resumes or conduct background checks as thoroughly as you’d like. However, rushing through high-volume hiring can reduce the quality of candidates in your recruitment funnel, resulting in bad hires and increased turnover.

Scheduling and coordinating interviews efficiently

Talent acquisition teams spend 35% of their time scheduling interviews, according to our report. This percentage might rise during high-volume recruiting periods, meaning your hard-working team has to work even harder!

That’s just the start of it. After scheduling, your talent acquisition team needs to carefully coordinate interviews to identify the best talent, which can take up even more time.

Key high-volume hiring strategies

High-volume hiring can be tough for any recruitment team. However, with the right high-volume hiring strategies in place, you can reduce the time to hire without sacrificing quality.

Automating screening and application processes

Research shows that while the ideal resume length is 475-600 words, many exceed this range. In fact, around 10% of resumes are 1,000 words or more. Now, imagine reading through all these documents during a period of high-volume recruiting!

Automatic resume screening can make your life so much easier. It involves using the latest technology to scan documents for keywords related to skills, experience, or other factors. As a result, you can save time and quickly find qualified candidates to progress to the interview stage.

Leveraging AI tools for candidate assessment

Candidate assessments let you evaluate job applicants based on their skills, background, and other criteria. However, this manual process can take weeks or even months, especially if you’re trying to fill multiple roles.

AI recruitment tools automatically check assessments for you, reducing your workload. They review candidates’ answers and compare them to your job description and other information, helping you find qualified applicants in a fraction of the time.

Building talent pools and pipelines

A talent pool or pipeline is a database that contains the names and contact info of the people most qualified for different job roles. It might consist of current job applicants, former employees, people in your professional network, and referrals from existing staff.

Building a talent pool is a great way to quickly access talent during high-volume hiring. You’ve already vetted these people, so you might find it easier to find a match for an open position, improving the time to fill.

Streamlining interview scheduling

Simplifying interview scheduling frees up time to focus on higher-value tasks, such as candidate engagement. Automation tools can help you achieve this goal.

GoodTime, for example, lets candidates schedule interviews without contacting your team, speeding up this part of the recruitment workflow. Our software has other features specifically designed for high-volume hiring, including the ability to contact multiple applicants simultaneously through SMS, WhatsApp, and email.

Using data-driven hiring metrics

High-volume hiring is almost impossible without the latest data-driven recruitment metrics. Analytics tools can help you track candidate performance at different stages, such as interviews and assessments, and find out if they’d be a good fit for a role. You can also make real-time adjustments to your recruitment processes by identifying patterns and trends in candidate data.

Some of the best metrics for high-volume recruiting strategies include:

• Qualified candidates per opening (the number of candidates who have the appropriate skills, background, and experience for a role)
• Source of candidate (where job applicants heard about your job)
• Candidate Net Promoter Score (cNPS) (measures how satisfied job applicants are with your recruitment process)

Building a scalable process for high-volume hiring

High-volume hiring is often temporary. However, you’ll want to create a repeatable and scalable workflow to make this process easier in the future. Here are ways to handle spikes in recruitment more effectively:

Optimize job descriptions

Clear job descriptions help candidates understand what you’re looking for. That can reduce confusion early on in the hiring process and prevent your team from having to provide more information, which can slow everything down. For example, listing all key responsibilities for a role will set clear expectations and discourage unqualified job seekers from applying for that position.

Use the right ATS

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is one of the most powerful weapons in a recruiter’s arsenal when creating high-volume recruiting strategies. As the name suggests, it tracks applicants at different hiring stages, allowing you to manage job applications and find high-quality candidates. Plus, most of these systems have resume screening tools, so you can spend less time wading through documents.

Some of the best applicant tracking systems right now include:

• Workday
• Greenhouse
• SuccessFactors
• Lever
• iCIMS
• SmartRecruiters
• Jobvite
• BambooHR

Use interview scheduling tools

Interview scheduling tools like GoodTime are just as essential as application tracking systems. Because they allow applicants to schedule their own interviews, you can improve the candidate experience and reduce administrative tasks.

These tools also allow you to view interview schedules in your organization, helping you plan your time and know when to bring in additional staff. This results in a more effective talent acquisition strategy.

Prepare your team

You’ll need all the people power possible during high-volume recruiting periods, so teach your team key skills like time management and problem-solving to help you achieve your goals. Also, make sure everyone understands their responsibilities when filling multiple roles. You could delegate critical tasks to more experienced team members at this busy time so your workflows run more smoothly.

Best practices for efficient high-volume recruiting

Although high-volume recruiting involves filling roles as quickly as possible, you’ll still want candidates to have a good experience. Here are some ways to achieve this balance:

Communicate clearly with candidates

Keeping applicants updated with the latest information can help you build trust throughout the recruitment process. For example, be transparent about how long it will take to complete certain tasks, such as reviewing resumes and setting up interviews. This can result in a better impression of your company.

Centralize data and hiring workflows

Keeping all the data you use during high-volume hiring in a single location can make it easier for team members to access the information they need for talent operations. For example, instead of using several analytic tools, you can invest in a single system for recruitment insights that helps you manage high-volume workflows.

Creating a positive candidate experience

It might be difficult with so many applicants, but try to personalize your communications with candidates as best you can — even if you just include someone’s first name in an email. Personalization can go a long way with job applicants because it makes them feel valued.

Also, respond to queries from candidates as quickly as you can. Job applicants often expect fast responses from hiring teams, and taking too long to answer a message could cause someone to drop out of your recruitment funnel. If possible, aim to reply to communications within a business day.

Overcoming the obstacles of high-volume hiring

Filling multiple roles in your company at the same time doesn’t have to be challenging. Consider adopting a structured, technology-driven approach to high-volume hiring to make this process easier for everyone involved.

A good high-volume hiring strategy includes leveraging AI tools, using data-driven insights, and streamlining tasks like resume screening. That way, you can improve the time to hire without negatively affecting the candidate experience.

We believe high-volume hiring success comes down to the technologies you use. GoodTime, for example, automates the entire interview scheduling process, allowing you to focus on more critical tasks in your recruitment workflow.

Our high-volume hiring software fully streamlines interview coordination for corporate and high-volume roles, helping you schedule one-on-one meetings, multi-day panels, and more. We even handle messaging, reminders, and interview selection. Plus, candidates can schedule their own interviews for a day and time that suits them.