A Tale of Two Cities: Lessons for High-Volume Hiring

Imagine two cities...

The first is a city that simply “happened.” Over time, houses popped up in different neighborhoods, stores found their places where land was available, and parks were squeezed into whatever space remained. There’s a downtown, and scattered suburbs—what some might call “bedroom communities”—surrounding the core. The layout is organic but chaotic, making commuting a daily puzzle for residents. The city functions, but its growth feels haphazard, as if it was pieced together without a guiding vision.

Hiring is the one thing that sets the stage for everything else that's good or bad in an organization. Great hiring leads to productivity, engagement, innovation, and retention. Poor hiring does the opposite. The transformative power of hiring goes beyond merely filling positions. The quality of hires shapes the viability and future performance of your business.

It’s time we elevate the importance of hiring by giving it the focus it deserves, a concept we explore in-depth in our new guide to building your ideal hiring process. Improving our hiring is more urgent than ever in today's complex, competitive job market.

Building the ideal hiring process is no longer a luxury; it's a strategic imperative. A well-designed hiring process is not one-size-fits-all. It needs to be custom-built to meet your organization's immediate needs while maintaining the flexibility to evolve with changing business goals and market conditions.

But here’s the challenge: how do we balance all the moving pieces to create a process that delivers both speed and quality, leverages technology without losing the human touch, and adapts over time? This article will explore the four essential pillars of a great hiring process. For a deep dive on this topic, you can also check out our Ultimate Guide to Building Your Ideal Hiring Process.

There may not be the level of vacationing in the U.S. that there is in Europe in August, but there can be some slow days. Some people take PTO; hiring may slow; and there are fewer conferences and conventions. 

There’s quite a hubbub going on regarding the job cuts at Intuit. If you missed the controversy, the company is laying off 1,800 people, and saying that many of those are being let go for underperformance. 

Retention starts with recruiting: the wrong person hired to do a job is likely to leave fairly quickly, regardless of how hard you try to engage them.

Chances are, you’ve tried multiple levers to cut down on turnover in your call center, warehouse, or other high-volume hiring location. Chances are also decent that those efforts aren’t working. We’ve heard of employers who feel like they have “tried everything” but still have above 100 percent turnover. (For more about reducing turnover in high-volume positions, check out this free guide.)

Hiring takes precious time and resources: Most companies spend an average of 42 days filling a position and another 90 days to onboard. When all is said and done, it can take up to 12 months for new hires to reach their full performance potential, even when given the most thorough training — so it’s no surprise many companies are on a constant quest to hire faster.

Hiring can make or break an organization. A staggering74% of companies say they’ve hired the wrong person for a position — a mistake that can be incredibly costly and time-consuming. According to Harvard Business Review, 80% of turnover is due to bad hiring decisions. 

Every company has its own unique hiring strategy, with some methods working more effectively than others. And while career sites, job boards, and recruiters all have their place in the process, these tools don’t always solve the top challenges of today’s talent acquisition leaders: hiring candidates who lack soft skills, are a poor fit for the role, or change their mind about the job.