In the face of a shortage of skilled workers and the complex VUCA world, high volume recruiting – generating an immense number of applications – appears to be a barely surmountable challenge, comparable to climbing Mount Everest.
But that's not all: Following this, the time-consuming process of screening and qualification awaits to filter out the most promising talents, along with the careful management of all applications, the conducting of numerous interviews, the final selection of suitable candidates, and finally, sensitive rejection management. This concentrated workload often catches HR departments unprepared and frequently exceeds the capacities of HR managers. Our recent study "Opportunities and Risks of HR BPO" shows that many companies make a strategic decision in this situation: They opt for outsourcing in recruiting or are at least seriously considering this step. Because at the end of the day, all recruiting managers share the desire that neither the time-to-hire suffers nor the quality of the hires, and – not to be forgotten – the perception of the candidate journey in their target group. The central challenge can thus be summarized as follows: How do you transform high volume recruiting into sustainable success?
What was once simply known as mass hiring now appears in various forms: High Volume Recruiting, High Volume Hiring, Mass Recruiting, and Mass Hiring – at their core, they all describe the same phenomenon: the recruitment of a significantly large number of new employees within a limited period. The subjective perception of what "a lot" actually means varies considerably. For a young start-up, even 20 new hires can pose an immense challenge, while a global corporation might only speak of high volume recruiting from 500 hires within three months.
In addition to this individual assessment, there is also a frequently encountered, so to speak "official" definition that draws a quantitative boundary for high volume recruiting: In theory, one speaks of mass hiring when a company has between 100 and 1,000 open positions to fill.
The reasons for such high volume recruiting are diverse and range from ambitious international expansions to the opening of new production facilities domestically and the significant expansion of manufacturing capacities. However, beyond a certain company size, it can also simply be a welcome, organic growth that is reflected in a three-digit personnel requirement. In addition to the sheer volume of applications to be processed, compliance with guidelines also poses a significant challenge. For example, it is important to recruit in accordance with the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) at all times while simultaneously protecting the employer brand. Negligence, such as missed or impersonal rejections, can quickly lead to reputational damage. Regardless of the specific triggers, however, many HR managers share a feeling in the face of this mammoth task of high volume recruiting: the palpable worry of a seemingly insurmountable mountain of work that can hardly be managed with the existing personnel resources.
Recruiting such a large number of new talents entails a series of demanding challenges that need to be mastered strategically. First and foremost are the often scarce internal HR resources and the lack of time to establish sustainable processes from the ground up. The dynamics of our VUCA world – characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity – also negatively impact the willingness of potential candidates to change jobs. This already immense task of high volume recruiting is further intensified by the demographic-related shortage of skilled workers, which is slowly but surely expanding into a general labor shortage.
Let's take, for example, filling positions in STEM fields: Here, in many cases, there is hardly any way around active sourcing on social media. But to be successful as an active sourcer and to use this recruitment method efficiently requires time – time for the careful building of the right networks. This problem is compounded when the sought-after skill set needs to be identified and acquired not just once, but thirty times or even more frequently, as is typically the case in high volume recruiting. Another challenge not to be underestimated is the necessary cooperation with the works council, whose involvement in the recruiting process – depending on the company structure and guidelines – may be mandatory and entails additional coordination and approval loops. The subsequent steps in the recruiting process also experience a progressive increase in effort due to high volume recruiting – the careful screening of a flood of applications, professional applicant management, and the countless interviews to be conducted add up to a Herculean task that can push companies to their limits both in terms of time and personnel.
Given a mammoth task such as filling several hundred positions per year, outsourcing this complex process to a specialized HR agency often proves to be a smart decision – not only from an operational but also from a business perspective. If you are considering a partnership with an HR or recruiting agency, you should carefully check in advance whether their recruiters have the relevant networks in your specific professional fields. A look at profiles on professional networks such as LinkedIn and Xing can provide valuable insights here. Equally crucial is the question of verifiable references in the field of high volume recruiting, because only a few players in the market master the art of seamlessly scaling the successful filling of individual positions to the recruitment of hundreds of positions per year. In addition, the size of your potential HR service provider's recruiter team is an important factor, as a large team of experienced HR experts can significantly shorten your time-to-hire – an invaluable advantage in the fast-paced competition for talent. Another, not to be underestimated, advantage of cooperation lies in the use of highly automated and AI-supported systems. Some advanced HR agencies already successfully use these cost-intensive but essential tools in high volume recruiting, thus offering a decisive competitive advantage.
Specialists provide you with an entire team of experienced high volume recruiters. The process begins with the SEO optimization of your job advertisement. Ideally, this reflects your employer brand in an attractive way. Good HR service providers revise your job advertisements before publication according to the latest SEO criteria so that they are optimally found in Google search. Agencies often also have carefully maintained talent pools with thousands of resumes that are precisely matched with your job profiles. This matching is done in a professional agency using artificial intelligence.
Of course, modern personnel marketing measures are also used. For example, landing pages are created for a positive candidate journey, target group-relevant channels are selected for job posting, and advertisements are placed in suitable social media channels. Google Ads and programmatic advertising also play an important role here. For particularly hard-to-fill profiles, active sourcing is used. Sometimes, as part of direct outreach, an entire, well-coordinated team can even be recruited to ensure your high volume recruiting project. The main advantage here is that this team is already optimally aligned.
Once suitable talents have been found, the tasks of applicant management come to the fore. A professional HR agency can either work in its own applicant management system (ATS) or directly in your ATS. To increase the degree of business process outsourcing and thus reduce the time burden on HR managers in your company, some HR agencies even offer to conduct interviews on your behalf.
The described high volume recruiting measures should be continuously tracked to ensure timely success monitoring. And for the numbers-driven management, you should define key performance indicators for a final report in advance. The term final report signals that you have successfully mastered your mammoth task. But true to the motto "after the task is before the task," a new challenge follows: the onboarding of several hundred new employees. This onboarding process is an essential component of successful recruiting, because without it, the entire effort rarely leads to long-term success. You can find this important topic here.
The foundation for successful recruiting work is laid in an initial briefing between your company and the external HR agency such as ARTS HR Lovers. During this conversation, you and your HR partner often discover valuable optimization potential. Mutual expectations can also be clearly defined here, because every company is unique. The agency's experience and sound market knowledge are, of course, helpful in this process. A deep understanding of your organization and its culture is essential, because this is the only way to find the right cultural fit among the applicants and thus ensure long-term success.
Precise communication and a perfect briefing are therefore the be-all and end-all for your project. We at ARTS HR Lovers ensure fast hires by providing you with our experts promptly and using proven HR systems and processes that optimally utilize AI-based profile matching. For example, we were able to successfully fill an impressive 550 positions with a placement rate of 90% for Autobahn GmbH des Bundes in high volume recruiting. If you choose ARTS HR Lovers as your recruiting partner, you will gain a strong partner with access to extensive knowledge and many years of HR experience covering a wide range of industries. You can dispense with additional internal HR personnel during one-time recruitment peaks and thus save costs. In addition, our service includes full cost transparency and regular reports on relevant KPIs. Please visit our High Volume Recruiting page, where you can also easily arrange a consultation appointment. We would be happy to help you get the most out of your project!
