A study conducted by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute projects the need for around 3.8 million new manufacturing employees between this year and 2033.¹ This includes the light industry sector, which usually requires a large workforce to remain operational.
How exactly can employers meet the expected demands within the industry? The key is to learn how to tackle high-volume hiring efficiently. This article discusses tips and strategies to maintain momentum in acquiring talent.
What Is High-Volume Hiring?
High-volume hiring is a strategic recruitment approach designed to efficiently identify, attract, and onboard a substantial number of employees within a compressed timeframe. This complex process goes beyond traditional hiring methods. It usually requires organizations to manage large candidate pools while maintaining rigorous selection standards and operational efficiency.
In light industries such as manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, and assembly, high-volume hiring is more than just a recruitment strategy. Instead, it’s a necessary process to keep up with seasonal demands and production cycles that come naturally with the field.
Several key factors make high-volume hiring particularly crucial in light industries. Some of these factors include:
- Lower Barriers to Entry: Roles within the light industry usually require minimal qualifications. To keep up with the number of applications, it’s crucial to capitalize on high-volume hiring.
- Fast Production Cycles: As an industry that relies on rapid production schedules, employers must quickly scale their workforce to avoid delays. High-volume recruiting can help them accomplish this within short timeframes.
- Labor-Intensive Operations: Since many light industry tasks are manual, operations require a large workforce to meet metrics. To supply the workers needed, companies must resort to high-volume recruitment.
The Cost of an Inefficient Hiring Process
Recruitment can dictate the success of your operations. When your hiring process lacks the proper strategies needed to acquire top candidates, your business can potentially experience the following costs of an inefficient recruitment process:
1. Increased Turnover Rates
When organizations don’t have solid recruitment strategies in place, it can lead to an environment where new hires feel disconnected and may look for other job opportunities. This often results in a gap between what employees expect and what their roles actually entail. The root of the problem could be ineffective screening or a less-than-ideal onboarding experience.
2. Decreased Productivity
Employees not properly vetted, trained, or aligned with organizational needs usually perform poorly. Mismatched candidates require extensive additional training and supervision, which can consume considerable resources. This can eventually lead to decreased productivity levels.
3. Higher Recruitment Costs
Research found that organizations in the US spent 101.8 billion dollars on training expenditures alone from 2022 to 2023.² These costs can increase further when positions remain vacant for too long, and multiple recruitment attempts occur. When companies fail to hire efficiently, they will end up spending more on hiring.
7 Strategies to Effectively Tackle High-Volume Hiring
To help you maintain efficient recruitment despite a huge target volume, consider the following methods:
1. Write Concise Job Descriptions
To succeed in high-volume recruitment, you need to attract the right candidates. Find people with the right skills and qualifications by crafting precise job descriptions that communicate exactly what you’re looking for. These descriptions must transcend traditional templates by providing crystal-clear insights into:
- Role expectations
- Physical demands
- Required skills
- Organizational culture
Think of your job post as a targeted communication tool. Attract suitable candidates and filter out misaligned applicants by emphasizing necessary qualifications. Setting these expectations can also reduce delays in the early stages of recruitment.
2. Automate Screening Processes
The screening process is an essential step in recruitment. It identifies professionals who can be a good fit for the open position. Despite its importance, this step can take a lot of resources. To optimize this for high-volume hiring, consider using AI and applicant tracking systems (ATS).
Use sophisticated tools that analyze multiple candidate attributes while dramatically reducing the time and administrative burden associated with manual candidate evaluation. Adopt intelligent screening algorithms and program them to align with specific organization requirements. This can help you establish consistent, objective assessment mechanisms that minimize human bias and quickly identify top candidates.
3. Develop a Robust Recruitment Pipeline
The job market is a competitive arena where leaders and hiring managers continuously work to attract the attention of qualified candidates. Relying on the job market is not ideal if you’re hoping to conduct high-volume recruiting.
Instead, create a robust recruitment pipeline. Proactively move beyond standard hiring practices by looking for candidates outside traditional channels. For example, create dynamic connections with vocational schools and community colleges. This can provide you access to new professionals in the market.
Aside from reaching out to targeted groups, it’s crucial to keep an open mind when building your pipeline. Consider skilled individuals who don’t necessarily possess the usual qualifications, like educational attainment. This skills-based hiring approach will help you conduct successful high-volume recruiting.
Read more: Emerging Talent Trends in Manufacturing: What Recruiters Need to Know to Stay Ahead
4. Host Hiring Events and Job Fairs
Hiring events and job fairs represent powerful, immediate strategies for addressing high-volume recruitment challenges. They provide unique platforms to engage with candidates directly. They also allow job seekers to consider your organization.
Dynamic environments created during these events enable light industrial leaders to assess multiple potential employees simultaneously. They also give professionals insights into the organization’s job opportunities and career progression.
The engaging and informative experiences that hiring events and job fairs offer can be beneficial in catching candidates’ attention or creating a buzz on social media platforms. At the same time, they can improve your employer brand and hiring strategy.
5. Maintain Constant Communication
Effective communication is the backbone of successful high-volume recruiting. It is necessary to create positive candidate experiences while demonstrating your organization’s mission and vision. Leaders and recruitment managers must explain why candidates should choose your company over competitors.
How can this be done? Employers can leverage multiple technological platforms, such as:
- Automated email systems
- SMS notifications
- Chatbot interfaces
- Dedicated recruitment portals
With these tools, light industrial businesses can provide real-time updates to candidates. They can manage candidate expectations and create positive initial impressions that support long-term talent acquisition goals.
Ensuring constant communication reduces candidate uncertainty and establishes a foundation of trust and transparency. This can translate to an overall improvement in high-volume recruitment outcomes.
6. Use Data to Optimize Processes
The application process produces a lot of candidate data. To ensure an effective recruitment process, it’s important to use the acquired information to optimize your processes.
Data-driven recruitment optimization is a forward-thinking approach that enables light industrial businesses to refine and enhance their hiring strategies. It uses metric analysis and predictive modeling to identify patterns and forecast potential staffing needs. Whether you’re looking for bottlenecks or automation solutions, data can be helpful when partnered with advanced analytical tools.
7. Partner with Staffing Firms
High-volume recruiting is a norm in the industrial sector. But it can also be overwhelming – whether it’s ensuring a positive employer brand or investing in job advertising. If this is true for your business, consider partnering with a trusted staffing firm like Horizon America.
Strategic partnerships with specialized staffing firms can be an efficient solution to managing high-volume hiring challenges. They offer expertise gained from years of service within the industry. Moreover, staffing partners already have established candidate networks and screening capabilities.
Professional recruitment partners can supply:
- Comprehensive industry knowledge
- Advanced talent acquisition technologies
- The ability to rapidly identify and engage qualified candidates across diverse talent pools
This makes it easier to acquire high-volume professionals to meet your staffing needs.
Enjoy efficient hiring with Horizon America.
With more than 30 years of combined experience, Horizon America is a staffing firm that can ensure effective solutions for your unique challenges. Being close to the manufacturing industry helps us create personalized staffing services. Allow us to fill your teams with skilled professionals.
Contact us today to learn more!
Reference
- “Taking Charge: Manufacturers Support Growth with Active Workforce Strategies.” Deloitte & The Manufacturing Institute, 2024, themanufacturinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Digital_Skills_Report_April_2024.pdf.
