What Is High Volume Recruiting and What Are the Challenges?

Industries like retail, hospitality, nursing, and travel must often rely on high volume recruiting strategies to staff their organizations and meet customer demands.

But what is high volume recruiting exactly? It’s the process of filling a large number of job openings within a relatively short period of time, or on a continual basis. It’s typically used by organizations that need to quickly increase their workforce due to seasonal staffing waves (think daycare centers during the summer or retail stores during the winter holidays) or brick and mortar expansion, or to regularly replace employees due to factors like turnover.

But with high volume recruitment can come challenges. Let’s take a look at what they are and how to overcome them.

1. Timely Screening and Selection

When hiring in volume, it can be difficult for recruitment teams to manage the sheer number of applicants and interviews. Companies can have hundreds, if not thousands, of applications to review — and all within a very short amount of time.

This often leaves talent acquisition teams scrambling to find ways to screen candidates quickly without sacrificing the quality of the process.

Companies that are leveraging AI-led process automation and technology to fill open roles are meeting their high volume recruitment targets up to 90% more efficiently. Solutions like AI-powered scheduling and automated workflows allow TA teams to move candidates through the screening and interview scheduling process in as little as three minutes and to the final stages of hiring and on the job as soon as possible.

AI scheduling automates the scheduling process entirely, scheduling and even rescheduling interviews for candidates while syncing hiring team calendars, ultimately freeing up recruiters to focus on the people part of their jobs. Automated workflows minimize recruiter intervention as candidates automatically progress through a personalized application and hiring process, drastically reducing time to hire and enhancing the talent experience in the process.

2. Finding Qualified Candidates

Another common challenge hiring teams encounter with high volume recruiting is ensuring that they’re finding quality candidates in the large number of applications they receive. In some cases, the focus on volume can lead to rushed decision-making and a lack of attention to detail, resulting in hiring candidates who are not a good fit for the role and ultimately leading to a decrease in employee retention.

Recruiters therefore must find ways to efficiently screen resumes, conduct personalized interviews, and assess candidates' skills and experience as quickly as possible.

Companies that use conversational chatbots can rely on this AI-powered technology to guide candidates through relevant job postings based on skills and location, prescreen them for required qualifications, and move them on to the next hiring stage based on prioritized job openings. In this way, recruiters know that the candidates coming to them are the best fit for the role, allowing them to interview and provide offer letters much faster than if they didn’t have this technology.

3. Delivering an On-brand Candidate Experience

High volume recruitment can negatively impact a company's employer brand in a number of ways:

A company posting frequently open positions (or “evergreen requisitions”) may not actually have immediately available opportunities, which results in a negative candidate experience and can also give candidates the impression that they have high turnover rates.
High volume recruiting can make it more difficult for recruiters to personalize the experience for each candidate due simply to the fact that they have too large a volume of applications to go through.
The need to hire candidates as quickly as possible can lead to hasty hiring decisions, therefore increasing turnover rates.

All these examples can lead to a poor candidate experience, which ultimately impacts the company's reputation and makes it more difficult to attract top talent in the future.

To avoid this, companies must ensure that the quick hiring process is just as meaningful, streamlined, and personalized as it would be for any other candidate. Video assessments, for example, is a one-way video tool that helps candidates deliver a great first impression, streamlines the entire screening process, and saves time for hiring managers, recruiters, and candidates alike. With the ability to record (or re-record) the interview on their own time, get tools and tips 24/7 from the help desk, and take the interview from the comfort of their own home, video assessments creates a low-stress yet personalized way for candidates to showcase their authentic selves to recruiters.

High volume recruiting can be a daunting task for hiring teams due to the unique challenges it presents. However, with the right technology and strategies in place, companies can streamline their recruitment process and ensure they are hiring the most qualified candidates for the job.

Phenom High-Volume Hiring can help companies overcome these challenges by providing personalized candidate experiences, automating tasks, and using AI to identify best-fit talent. With solutions like Automated Scheduling, Video Assessments, Intelligent Chatbot, Automated Workflows, and more, Phenom helps hiring teams find best-fit candidates first and faster.

Ready to boost your volume hiring strategy and attract quality candidates? Book a personalized demo today.

Maggie Blehar

Maggie is a writer at Phenom, bringing you information on all things talent experience. In addition to writing, she enjoys traveling, painting, cooking, and spending time with her family and friends.