Amazon is one of the leading e-commerce platforms, with numerous customers and a large workforce to meet their customers’ needs. Their success, especially in hiring, is not news either. However, you might wonder how such a big company coordinates its high-volume hiring process and hires efficiently each time.
If you’re asking this question, or you simply want to implement a strategy like Amazon’s high-volume hiring, you’re in the right place! Tag along as we uncover the secrets of this volume hiring process and how you can adopt it to optimize your hiring.
An overview of Amazon’s volume hiring techniques
In 2020, the news of Amazon hiring 75,000 more employees to meet the rising demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic broke the world of business. Many companies and business moguls were stunned at how the company could pull such massive hiring off despite creating about 100,000 new positions in the month prior.
On paper, this feat might have appeared challenging. However, with the right strategies, they were able to pull it off without reducing the current pay of their workers. A closer look at Amazon’s high-volume hiring process would show you that the techniques were quite simple. Safe to say, you don’t have to be a multibillion-dollar company to have this kind of success in your hiring.
Here are some of Amazon’s high volume hiring techniques which helped streamline their recruitment:
- A structured hiring strategy: With high-volume hiring, there’s no room for a lack of structure, as it can be very easy to lose sight of your goals without the right direction. Amazon understood this and applied a hiring structure comprising on-demand recruitment with the company brand as the centerpiece to attract candidates familiar with its vision.
- Integration of technology: Amazon was able to integrate technological advancements that became popularized due to the pandemic into its recruitment. For example, it harnessed online applications, phone screen interviews, and online assessments to evaluate candidate skills.
- Competitive benefits: When hiring new employees in 2020, Amazon offered candidates more benefits, thus encouraging talent to apply to their roles. For example, the company allowed its workers two weeks of paid time off, unlimited unpaid time off, and doubled overtime pay, among other benefits.
- Quality-centered hiring: Despite the number of candidates the company was hiring, Amazon didn’t compromise on its quality. Even with the pandemic, it conducted online assessments, guided in-person and virtual interviewing, as well as a comprehensive application process.
These strategies, among others, made Amazon’s high-volume hiring process a smashing success. As a result, the company was able to meet its recruitment goals, hire talented individuals, and boost its image in the process.
Benefits of high-volume hiring
Like Amazon, you can apply high-volume hiring to access a wider talent pool, which, in turn, increases your chances of recruiting better talent. Below, we will discuss some more benefits of high-volume hiring:
1. It supports scalability
High-volume hiring helps companies upscale their workforce to meet business demands, seasonal needs, or expansion plans. Companies can use this hiring technique to adjust their workforce size and proficiency to meet market needs or new company goals.
2. It encourages faster recruitment
High-volume hiring strategies typically involve using automated systems to assess and hire candidates. This helps reduce the time to hire while ensuring adequate candidate evaluation. Not to mention, by hiring more candidates at once rather than in batches, you can save time from onboarding multiple groups of recruits. This ensures you meet the ever-changing market and company needs in due time.
3. It boosts employer branding
Hiring in large volumes lets numerous candidates know about your company and goals. By implementing effective recruitment strategies, your company can build a reputation as one focused on quality and excellent candidate experience. As a result, more talent would be attracted to your future job posts, which automatically expands your reach.
4. It creates room for improved talent quality and diversity
The wider your net, the higher your chances of attracting quality candidates who fit the job description and can align with your goals. High-volume hiring works with this theory, allowing you access to more candidates from diverse backgrounds with different views and ideas. This creates room for creativity and innovation within your workforce in the long run.
Potential risks and pitfalls of high-volume hiring
As beneficial as high-volume hiring is, it has its cons as well. So, before implementing it, it’s always a good idea to take note of the pitfalls of high-volume hiring and take steps to curb them.
Below are the potential risks of high-volume hiring:
Insufficient candidate evaluation
Due to the large number of candidates and pressing market demands, it’s easy to adopt a less thorough candidate evaluation process. As a result, you could end up hiring candidates who don’t meet your standards, leading to an overall decrease in your company’s productivity.
Heavy strain on hiring resources
Hiring a large number of candidates requires a good number of hiring resources, including a well-equipped HR team and training equipment. If these resources aren’t readily available, the HR team can be overwhelmed, leading to inefficiency or even inadequate training.
Increased risk of employee turnover
If you rush the hiring process, there’s a risk that candidates will not fully understand their roles or how they align with your company’s goal. This can lead to subpar candidate experience, low motivation, and little to no understanding of what to expect from the position. In the end, there’s the potential for the newly hired candidates to leave their jobs due to unmet expectations and lost motivation.
Strategies for streamlined screening and selection
You can avoid the potential risks of high-volume hiring by streamlining your screening process and ensuring it is thorough. The following are strategies for optimizing your candidate evaluation and selection process:
1. Leverage technology and automation
One major strategy that boosted Amazon’s high-volume hiring strategy was incorporating technology into its recruitment. Adopting this strategy involves applying Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), high-volume recruitment software, virtual interviews, and automation to help you keep track of the entire process.
Additionally, you should can apply AI-powered candidate evaluation tools to help boost the candidate’s experience by answering any questions they have about your company and recruitment and handling your organization’s screening questions. You can also use resume screening software to save time when scanning and verifying candidate resumes.
2. Optimize your job descriptions and candidate application process
Your job description reflects your professionalism and attention to detail, which, in turn, says a lot about your company’s values. As such, it must portray both the open position and your company clearly and understandably. This ensures the candidates understand the role and how it aligns with your company’s goals.
Furthermore, you must streamline the application process so it can serve as a platform to screen the candidates even before interviews or skill assessments. This allows you to focus on those with the skillset and experience you’re looking for.
3. Apply pre-employment assessments
Pre-employment assessments are one of the best ways to evaluate your candidates’ job fit before interviews. Applying these tests lets you know who can actually do the job, so you don’t waste time or resources during interviews and training sessions.
An excellent pre-employment assessment software has tests that can also help you measure your candidate’s skills and culture fit. You can also employ scenario-based questions in your skills tests to check if your candidates’ can perform a real day in the life aligning with your company’s standards.
4. Implement structured interviews
Structured interviews provide detailed guidelines for conducting candidate interviews, using standardized questions to ensure fairness. This strategy also ensures consistency in the process, as the interviewers have directions on what to ask candidates and how to grade their responses.
How to maintain quality with high-volume hiring
It can be daunting to keep track of all the candidates and their skills when evaluating hundreds of them. But with the right strategy and an efficient evaluation tool, you don’t have to settle for less in your recruitment.
Vervoe gives you the opportunity to assess numerous candidates and check for core skills, expertise, and proficiency levels. And the best part is, you can evaluate them simultaneously. This means you can have the efficient hiring process you need despite the number of candidates you’re screening.
With Vervoe, you have access to comprehensive skill assessments, which you can customize to fit any purpose or position. This provides a level ground for testing your candidates and ensuring fairness and consistency.
Our AI-powered testing platform uses job simulations to give the candidate an immersive, day-in-the-life perspective of the role. This makes your assessment even more effective, as you can evaluate candidates based on how well they can handle common challenges in the role.
You can also leverage Vervoe’s AI to automate tasks like answering common candidate questions, saving your HR team time and effort. In addition, you can customize the look of your assessments, representing your company with its logo and brand colors.
Vervoe combines the effectiveness of advanced technology and pre-employment assessments to optimize your recruitment. From our applicant tracking systems to comprehensive hiring resources and assessment library, you have everything you need to conduct a successful high-volume hiring process with ease.
Hire more for less with Vervoe
Amazon’s high-volume hiring strategy is one of numerous success stories today. By implementing the right processes, applying thorough candidate evaluation, and leveraging technology to optimize the process, your story could be next.
With Vervoe, you can make your volume-hiring goals a reality. Our platform has various features, such as intuitive AI, applicant tracking systems, job simulations, and anti-cheating technology, to make your hiring hassle-free.
Ready to implement your high-volume hiring strategy? Start with a free trial on registration with Vervoe today!
