Happy Wednesday, or whatever day you happen to be reading this blog! Today, we’re sharing another addition to our January Series: New Year, New Decade, New Trends. For the purpose of this blog, we’re talking to you, hiring managers. As you know, January is a big time for hiring and is a great month to start the hiring process. With such a saturated market, the odds of your company having multiple open positions with multiple applicants per position is high! While this is great, it’s overwhelming too.

When you start the hiring process as a hiring manager, you have some sort of expectation in your mind about who you want to hire, how many applicants you should have, and when you would like the position filled. It’s natural. However, these expectations aren’t always met because life gets in the way. Funny how that happens...Anyway, if you get through all of the nitty gritty of the hiring process and are prepared to actually hire someone (or multiple people at once aka “mass hiring”) it’s important to be prepared for the benefit your sake and the sake of anyone applying to your open positions.

Here are a few tips from our Recruiting team about Mass Hiring:

• Avoid a “Cattle Call” Approach to Hiring- Mass hiring is tough on everyone, but sometimes it’s necessary. If and when you must mass hire, it’s important to avoid what’s called a “cattle call” approach. No matter how many people you hire, you always want them to feel like an individual -someone who matters, is needed, AND wanted. Being lumped together in a large group where you’re all assigned numbers loses that personal, human feel, and makes you feel like you're just a big herd of cattle being pushed in and out of a corral. Here’s what Harver has to say about a “cattle call” approach:

Not only will candidates be discouraged by your recruitment process if you make it a cattle call. But just because you’re doing a mass hiring, doesn’t mean you can’t put the effort into making candidates feel like you’re considering them as individuals. If you have a cattle call approach to interviewing, you will waste time and energy on candidates who are not the right match. Instead, interview only those candidates who have already passed the initial assessment. That way you show them you care about them, enhance their candidate experience and don’t risk overlooking the best candidates in the crowd. When it comes to interviewing applicants, make sure you structure your interviewing process so that everyone you interview is treated fairly, and are asked the same questions. This way you can look for the same or similar answers, which will help you whittle down candidates, particularly if you have lots of them.

• Have a Robust Training and On-Boarding Plan Already in Place- If you’re going to hire in such a way where there are multiple new people coming into the office at the same time, you must be prepared to train and onboard! Seriously, it’s so important to have proper training and onboarding for one person, let alone a whole group of them. Before you even start thinking about hiring you should have some sort of plan in place where you know how many hires you need, when you need them, how you’re going to recruit them, and the cost. Once you analyze all of that data, then you can think about mass hiring. You never want to start a process of this magnitude with no prepared plan in place - that’s failure waiting to happen. You also want to consider what you want to happen after you hire these people. When do you want them to start? How long will they need training? Who is going to train them? Where are we going to put them? What equipment are they going to use? ETC. Until you know an answer to all of these questions you should steer clear of this hiring option. Here’s what else Harver has to say on Mass Hiring Plans:

One of the first things you want to do is have a mass hiring plan in place for this eventuality. And you will want to have people help you execute your mass hiring plan accordingly. You don’t necessarily need lots of recruiters to help you, although a few who can source and screen candidates is always going to be beneficial. But you might just need data analysts, or people who know the company well, and understand what kind of people you are looking for.

• Develop a Fast Screening Process- Having a timely screening process is key to really getting this mass hiring process to run smoothly and successfully. When you automate your screening process *wink ApplicantOne SOURCE wink* you’re able to get all of the nitty gritty out of the way and see which candidates really measure up and which don’t. One of our Recruiters, Nathan Lewis says: “because so many people might not be the right fit, [you] want to move quickly because of the sheer size of [the] candidate pool to find [the] right ones. [Furthermore], recruiting typically has a 1-2% hiring rate, so [out of] 100 candidates [there might only be] 1-2 rock stars, [leaving you with] less than 10 total, [decent] candidates.” If you find yourself in a difficult situation and need to hire...might we consider ApplicantOne SOURCE? We have three different hiring solutions for your hiring convenience and would be happy to assist with any and all of your hiring needs. Should you feel so inclined to speak to one of our sales executives, we recommend requesting a demo to learn all of the exciting details! *Shameless plug over...for now*.

• Leverage Technology- Our final tip for mass hiring is to leverage technology! Yes, posting on multiple job boards is great, but it’s easy to lose track of who’s who and stay organized. By using some sort of ATS or Applicant Tracking System, you can keep everything neat and organized in one place so you know exactly who has applied, who’s a great candidate, and who should probably apply elsewhere. This goes hand in hand with the fast screening process as it both aids and assists to help speed things along, especially when dealing with so many people at once, you want to leverage as much as you can for your sake as well as the sake of those applying. Remember, they want to work for you - so make the most of this process for them and never leave anyone hanging.

Have you ever mass hired before? If so, let us know how that went. Also, if you ever need help alleviating your hiring needs, consider ApplicantOne SOURCE! You won’t be disappointed.