Volume hiring isn’t easy. As we discussed recently when breaking down some of the challenges facing companies looking to hire in volumes, there are many road bumps along the way! Thankfully, there are some strategies you can put in place to make things a little easier.
It’s unlikely to come as a huge surprise, but ensuring you’re effectively using data, insight and metrics to improve your volume hiring performance is a key strategy to set you up for success. But when it comes to measuring the success of your volume hiring, getting it right is critical.
We break down the metrics that separate the good from the great in volume hiring (and helps put you ahead of the competition!).
Defining (and aligning) your goals and objectives
Before you start any hiring campaign – volume or otherwise – you need to have a clear goal in mind of what you’re looking for. Take a moment to define your objectives upfront so you know everyone is on the same page.
Identify the number of positions you need to fill, the timeline for hiring, any specific experience needed as well as any critical skills and competencies.
Let’s face it, we all want to avoid any wasted time or duplication of work, so it’s best to set yourself up for success earlier on in your hiring process.
Tracking Application Rates
One of the fundamental metrics of any volume hiring campaign is the application rate for job roles or campaigns. Tracking the total number of applications you receive allows you to compare them to your hiring goals – and see if any improvements may be needed.
Be sure to review where applicants are coming from and how many of them meet the minimum requirements for the job. Low application rates for volume roles may be a sign that your job postings may need some improvement. The higher the application rate, the wider pool of candidates you’ll have to choose from.
Looking to expand your candidate pool for your volume hires? We’d love to help. With more jobs than anywhere else, we’re uniquely positioned to provide job insights to help you run more efficient volume hiring campaigns – and help you get more qualified candidates at the right price. You can learn more here, or we’d love to chat.
Assess the quality of hires
There’s no denying that when you’re in the midst of volume hiring, quantity is important. But quantity without quality is a false economy. You need to balance quantity with quality to come out on top.
That’s why assessing the quality of hires is crucial to measuring the success of your performance to determine if they meet, or better yet, exceed, your expectations.
Quality of hire is the metric that measures the effectiveness of the hiring process by evaluating the performance of new hires.
A high quality of hire means the hiring process has been successful in identifying and hiring the best candidates who are a good fit for the company. If you find yourself struggling with retention rates of new joiners, or they’re falling below targets, it may indicate you need to re-evaluate your hiring process.
Time-to-hire
A long time-to-hire may indicate that you’re missing opportunities and that something isn’t quite firing in your recruitment process. And in the battle for top talent, speed can make the difference in securing the best candidate, or not.
Time-to-hire looks at the time it takes to fill each position; from posting the job to the candidate accepting the offer. Analyse the steps in your process to see where blockers may lie, or where drop-offs are happening.
The shorter you can make this time-to-hire process the better – just be sure to balance this against applicant quality. An important metric, it can reduce the time and cost of hiring, while ensuring you don’t lose out on candidates who may be interviewing elsewhere.
A shorter time-to-hire might also mean you can reduce the impact of the hiring process on your company’s operations.
Cost per hire
Measuring the cost per hire is an essential metric to track when you’re determining the ROI of any hiring campaign.
First, you need to determine the total cost of your hiring campaign, any job board postings, recruitment software, staffing agency fees and any additional expenses. Then you can compare this with the number of hires you made to determine your cost per hire.
A high cost per hire can be an indication of inefficiencies in the hiring process, such as a lack of standardization in the recruitment process or a high turnover rate.
Diversity and inclusion
When building a successful, high-performing company, diversity and inclusion should always be a focus. It refers to the range of differences that exist among individuals in the workplace, such as race, gender, ethnicity, age, religion and sexual orientation.
Improving diversity and inclusion can be a challenging task, but here are a few ways you can tackle this; including making sure job descriptions are free of bias and use gender-neutral language, expanding your sourcing pool, offering inclusive benefits and training hiring managers on how to identify (and eliminate) bias in the hiring process.
Diversity & inclusion is important in helping a company ensure they’re attracting and hiring candidates from a wide range of backgrounds, experience and perspectives, which can lead to improved innovation.
Candidate experience
It would be remiss not to consider the overall candidate experience during your volume hiring campaigns, after all, a poor candidate experience can increase your cost per hire as well as damage your employer brand.
Candidate experience focuses on the satisfaction of candidates during the recruitment process; including communication, the experience during the interview and the impressions the candidates are left with of your organisation. Want to hire top talent? Make the candidate experience a focus.
Ready to take it to the next level?
With a focus on the right metrics, your company will be in a better place to take your hiring campaigns from good to great.
In a challenging hiring market and tough economy, keeping a close eye on these metrics can be the difference between great volume hiring campaigns and one that leaves a sour taste in everyone’s mouth.
Get ready to take your volume hiring campaign to the next level.
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