Slowdown or no slowdown, companies particularly those in the technology space are often required to hire talent in large numbers for a new project, division or initiative. Though seemingly simple at the outset, doing the same in such a manner for optimal effectiveness and minimal dissent does require few basic tenets to be adhered to. In this article we try and outline a way of doing mass recruiting in a systematic and effective manner through the inputs of senior HR professionals.
According to C N Kumar, Founder of Advantage Opportunity Search and Services, which has handled mass recruitment for many, a well known company in Bangalore, “The first step according to me is the HR function of the company being clearly aware of the company’s business, its USP and strengths. Once this awareness is there, the next requirement is a clear understanding of the various tools available and their relative effectiveness. Once both are there, a plan can be drawn up outlining the entire process thus making it very systematic and probably more effective.”
STEP –1 (REQUIREMENT IDENTIFICATION)
The HR team needs to closely interact with line managers and clearly identify specific skillsets or competencies to look for and the numbers. The team also has to clearly secure line function involvement in the recruiting process. Once this is done, the word gets out through a mix of various channels listed below.
STEP – 2 (TOOLS AVAILABLE)
The tools available at the command of a HR professional when undertaking mass recruiting are:
1. recruitment advertising 2 campus 3 job fairs 4 employee referrals
5 placementconsultants 6 existing in-house database
STEP-3 (COMPONENTS OF THE PROCESS)
Whenever embarking on mass recruiting the first thing to remember is to be prepared for an overwhelming response in terms of quantity and being geared to do the chaffing objectively and quickly. Here is how one can go about doing the same.
Having a pre-screening deskWhichever vehicle you use, it is destined to generate responses of which quite a few would be clearly not in line with the requirements identified. The first priority is to eliminate those responses from getting to the later stages of the process. For this purpose a pre-screening desk could be deployed with adequate number of personnel depending on the numbers expected. The pre-screening just involves going through the resumes and only allowing those matching few fields to proceed to the next stage. The same should be done in a very objective manner and nicely to avoid frayed tempers.
Pre-set standard testing processThe candidates filtered through screening need to be then subjected to a standard test designed with the need for recruitment and the numbers to be allowed onto the interviewing process in mind. The ones who get through are then allowed onto the interviewing process.
Simultaneous interviewingOnce candidates come through the testing process, the HR team and the line functional team should be ready for the interview process to be done simultaneously in multiple rooms. Usually this is a mix of functional (technical) and personal questions/assessment. As each interview might take 30 minutes or so, doing so in simultaneous batches avoids clogging up or undue waiting of the candidates.
At the end, a clear set of prospective employees emerges.One another thing to remember in this whole process is that the entire mass recruiting process from start to finish should be completed quickly. Typically for freshers it takes 6 weeks for this entire process and for those with experience around 10 weeks. Within this, care should be taken to ensure that the candidate travels through stages of this process fairly quickly. And very importantly at each stage of the process, the filtered out candidates need to be treated with sensitivity so the entire experience becomes positive and comes across as fair and objective. Before we end, please do not forget that the process should be designed in such a way that quality is not compromised for numbers at any stage.
The businessgyan editorial team wrote the article with inputs from Shamita Chatterjee of Think Harbor, Archana of iBackOffice and C N Kumar of Advantage. Feedback can be mailed to massrec@businessgyan.com
Issue BG9 Dec01
