Are you experiencing fast growth in your organization?
The early stages of growing a business come with a lot of adjustments and developments. So when it comes to building a strong talent pool that can take your organization to the next level, there are a few things to keep in mind.
In this guide, we’ll go through 8 tips to hire at scale without leaving gaps in your workflow or jeopardizing the company culture.
What it means to hire at scale
The term scale means increasing the rate of business growth with minimal input.
When applying this concept to recruitment, it goes back to building your team and employing the right people who can boost your overall performance.
Each member plays a role in the long-term running of your organization. Whether you’re a high-growth startup or a small business experiencing exponential growth, employees are central to your culture and output.
Don’t compromise the company culture
According to a survey from PwC, 72% of leaders and employees agree that the company culture is directly related to successful change initiatives.
Some of us might be guilty of prioritizing the short-term gains over the long-term to fill a demanding role.
But you’ll find that the quality of candidates you acquire is more important for sustainability.
If you have employees that aren’t a good fit with your culture, it could put your other team members at risk. Examples of such consequences include:
- Lower team morale
- Reduced performance
- Decreased productivity
Testlify’s CEO, Abhishek Shah, also suggests that:
“A person with one year of experience can be worth more than one with two years if they have that learning attitude”
While it’s important to find those who have the hard skills and qualifications for the role, it’s equally important to select applicants whose personality and values align with your organization.
8 tips to hire at scale without losing quality candidates
We’ve listed 8 tips to scale your hiring and talent acquisition process. Each of these is applicable to growing organizations of all sizes.
1. Identify the skills gap
This is the gap between the ideal skills for the job and the current capabilities of an employee.
Sometimes, there may be employees in your team with untapped potential and hidden competencies that can be unlocked with sufficient resources.
The insights gained from conducting a skills analysis open up opportunities and competitive advantages you may not have initially been aware of. Once you’ve identified where the gaps are, it’s easy to bridge them and set yourself up for success.
2. Establish your workflow
All tasks become more seamless to complete and manage when you have an established workflow.
As a result, it’s easier to achieve your HR objectives at a faster rate.
However, every organization is different. That means your approach should be tailored to meet your most unique and complex needs.
Here are a few ways to establish your workflow process:
- Know what resources you have that are available
- Identify the core tasks that can be automated
- Train your team
- Write down the ideal workflow of your organization
3. Outsource to experts
In the long-term, it saves you both time and money by allowing you to focus on your main tasks without compromising the quality in other areas.
If you don’t have enough HR tasks to hire full-time staff or the business hasn’t reached a certain level just yet, it’s worth outsourcing to external experts. This is one effective strategy to keep costs at a minimum while you’re scaling.
4. Set your expectations
To hire at scale and ensure you’re attracting the right type of workers, it’s important to set the right expectations.
For example, make the following clear for each job description you create:
- Job position
- Duties and responsibilities
- Company culture
- Work benefits
Another way to reaffirm this is when you have your interview with a potential employee.
When you’ve set the expectations and presented the opportunity in full transparency, you’re more likely to attract the right type of candidates.
5. Advertise the job vacancy
Recruiting with the objective of reaching out to the best-qualified candidates is not too different from marketing. In both aspects, you’re trying to reach an audience.
Advertising on the relevant channels can help improve your outreach as well as build employer branding and awareness. You also have the chance to appeal to not only active job seekers but passive job seekers too.
The only downside of this method is that it can be costly for startups and small businesses.
6. Referral programs
Referral programs are where you give people an incentive to refer you to someone who they know could be a good fit for a job opening you’re trying to fill.
The advantage of this strategy is that you tap into your network and connections with the people you already know. Therefore, there might be a good chance that they already share similar values and interests to that of your organization.
7. Keep in touch with all candidates
Whether it’s a previous applicant who failed a candidate assessment or someone who recently resigned, keep in touch with all of your candidates.
Even if they’re not a good fit now for a current job opening, their skills could be better suited for another similar role. In which case, if the need for this job position ever arises in the future, you’ll have someone you can reach out to.
8. Use a range of candidate assessments
Making a hiring decision purely based on the information in a candidate’s resume isn’t the most effective approach. It doesn’t quite prove that they’re a good fit for the company culture and if their job skills are as good as it’s shown.
A better approach would be to use data and unbiased information to verify their application.
In other words, using the right candidate assessments.
These allow you to objectively evaluate a person based on their performance, competencies, and how they apply their skills in the work environment.
Scale talent acquisition using Testlify
Candidate assessments provide organizations with a competitive edge in finding applicants who are qualified for both the job and company culture.
With a data-driven approach, you’re more likely to hire those that are a good fit in both aspects.
Instead of relying on what’s been said in resumes, you have the opportunity to verify it by evaluating them based on their job skills and performance. That’s one effective way to improve your hiring decisions and attract long-term employees.