What is a Hiring Surge?
A hiring surge occurs when a company has to recruit a large number of workers in a short time. Every business has specific processes to meet its usual, everyday hiring needs. However, diverse causes and circumstances may necessitate a quick revision to those routines.
Why does a company require an increase in hiring?
Businesses require a recruiting boom for a number of reasons, depending on the firm, its hiring processes, and even the time of year.
Seasonal
Every business, some more than others, is cyclical. Most shops, for example, know that the festive season (typically November through early January) is significantly busier than the rest of the year. When these seasons are understood in advance, most businesses change their recruiting plans appropriately. However, if a firm has an unexpected seasonal rise, it may need to adjust.
A software developer may not have expected their product to take off due to a specific holiday or calendar event, but they may need to hire more people if it does.
Expansion of the Company
As a company expands, so does its workforce. Expansions are considerably more challenging to foresee than typical sales growth. There will always be questions, no matter how thorough the market fit study is. Forecasting more employees than is required may be costly; therefore, firms frequently err on caution.
Fresh Funding
This is most frequent among startups, but it can happen to any firm, whether big or small. When a firm receives an unexpected increase in money, it wants to put it to good use by developing new goods and services or updating old ones. Regardless of where the money goes, more employees must use it.
5 Tips for Managing a Hiring Surge
Surges in hiring may be thrilling. After all, they are a sign that your company is expanding, but they also imply a lot of extra labour. If you need to hire a large number of people rapidly, it adds to the workload of your present workforce.
It is natural to feel stressed during a hiring spike. However, several suggestions and guidance are available to assist you in swiftly and efficiently interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new staff.
Put money into contract recruiters or staffing agencies
If you're recruiting because there's a lot of work to be done, your team might not have the time to go through application after application. If your budget allows it, hiring a contract recruiter or staffing agency may be worthwhile to help you handle a recruiting rush.
This saves time for your current workforce and avoids hiring new recruiters or managers. It also provides versatility. Staffing companies only charge you for successful hiring, and contract recruiters are only required to stay with your company until the project is over.
However, because both employment agencies and contract recruiters are unfamiliar with your company's strategic goals, they may not select individuals that are wholly aligned with your culture and values.
Pay Attention to Skill-Sets
A high unemployment rate indicates that the labour market is exceptional. With so many individuals looking for employment, organisations actively hiring will see workers from a broad spectrum of backgrounds. This might make handling a recruiting boom challenging since you may be unable to discover individuals with relevant employment experience in your field immediately.
However, focusing on experience is one approach to overcome this. You know the talents required for the role, and many qualified candidates have transferrable skills from seemingly unrelated occupations. Consider this an opportunity to establish a more diversified staff.
Simplify the Interview Process
You don't always have as much time to interview prospects while dealing with a recruiting spike. You may speed up the recruiting process while still discovering great applicants if you take measures to simplify your interview process. A speedier interview, however, does not imply a less thorough one.
Maintain consistency in the interview process at all times. Develop a series of questions to ask, include the same individuals, and create standardised criteria to evaluate prospects.
This will not only save you time during a hiring surge, but it will also provide you with interview standards to follow in the future.
It's also a good idea to create a list of features relevant to your company's current requirements.
Streamline your Background Checks
Never skip a background check if you're looking for temporary help. Terrible hiring may cost you extra time and money, which is especially important during a busy season.
Submit your screening requests as soon as possible because most background check providers perform checks in the order they are received. Ensure that you collect information pertinent to your specific background check. To minimise delays or mistakes, thoroughly review checklists of needed information before submitting.
Create an Effective Training Model
Like simplifying your interview process, a recruiting spike is a fantastic moment to overhaul your training approach. This will not only help you, onboard new staff successfully, but it will also make operations more efficient in the long run.
If you've been cautious about employing seasoned, adaptive personnel, they may not require as much guidance at first—experiment with shortening the time between training, shadowing, and working independently. Also, ensure you focus on the essential training skills, so you don't spend time on irrelevant material.
Online training tools that employees may use on their own time might also be beneficial. Consider providing certain training materials in this manner if it is at all possible to get employees to work quicker.
