Hyper Growth Recruiting: 6 Tips for Fast-Growing Companies

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Contents

• Definition: Hyper Growth
• What challenges does hyper growth bring?
• 6 tips to bring more structure to your recruiting
• Frequently asked questions

TL;DR

Hyper growth means an annual growth rate of 40 percent or more, and it puts recruiting under extreme pressure. Six structuring moves, from applicant management through to onboarding, keep it manageable. Six tips help you create structure: an applicant management system instead of Excel, multiposting instead of manual posting, social media reach for passive candidates, a convincing career page, a smooth candidate experience and a well-thought-out onboarding with buddy programs.

!Hyper Growth Recruiting

Author: Dominik Becker · Published: 29 March 2022

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Some companies grow strongly, and then there is hyper growth. That is the term for firms that expand out of all proportion in the shortest possible time. What does that mean for recruiting? Quite simply: everything has to happen at turbo speed. We have a few tips on how to fire up your recruiting boost.

Definition: Hyper Growth

Before we take a deep dive into the topic, let us first clear up: what exactly is hyper growth? At what point does a company's growth count as disproportionately large? There is actually a benchmark for that. The World Economic Forum defines hyper growth as follows: companies that achieve an average annual growth rate of up to 40 percent or more belong to the circle of high-flying growth companies.

In principle it is of course good news when a business celebrates growth. But when firms pull off an unusually fast growth sprint, that is more than challenging, especially for recruiting. Everything has to happen at once. New people have to be found and hired around the clock. And not at a normal pace, but at what feels like supersonic speed.

What challenges does hyper growth bring?

On top of that, hyper growth mostly affects startups that have not yet built a dedicated HR department. So the people in charge of hiring new staff are usually still very inexperienced in recruiting. That carries risks: the processes are unstructured and delays creep in. Or talent is not recruited as precisely as it should be. And the longer it then takes until new hires are fully productive.

But that is exactly what is fatal. After all, the whole point is for new employees to reach full performance as quickly as possible. Otherwise valuable potential goes to waste. Are you a recruiter at a hyper growth company, or at an organization that is at least growing faster than in previous years? We have put together a few tips on how to keep a cool head at all times. Even when everything around you keeps moving at turbo speed.

!Hyper Growth Recruiting Tips

6 tips to bring more structure to your recruiting

#1 Say goodbye to Excel and co.

We can hardly bring ourselves to say it, but in recruiting many processes are still run with Excel and co. Application documents are sent to the recruiting team by email, and communication also happens through Outlook. That wastes a lot of time: the more people are involved, the longer the email chains that build up. At some point nobody can keep track anymore and everything takes longer than it needs to.

And that is quite apart from the fact that this form of applicant management is also highly questionable in terms of data protection. For example, because under GDPR application documents have to be deleted in a consistent way once the recruiting process is finished. But how are you supposed to make sure of that when countless copies of applications are sitting in the inboxes of colleagues from the different departments?

The solution: use an applicant management system to bring structure and speed to your recruiting. In the tool you create a single applicant file that everyone can access, that only authorized people can view, and that can be deleted automatically at the end. Communication with the department also happens directly in the applicant management system. But in an orderly message feed, not in dozens of emails whose distribution list grows and grows. Through a built-in email tool you can also manage the communication with candidates. The huge advantage: you do not have to jump from program to program, but keep an overview of every communication thread in one tool. So there is neither a tangle of messages nor a data protection problem.

#2 Posting job ads manually is a thing of the past

Tip number two: take advantage of automation. Sorry, what? You still post your job ads manually on individual job boards? That can be done far more efficiently if you rely on multiposting. Here you do not post your job ads one after another, but on several job boards at the same time.

That works easily with a multiposting tool. Just tick a few boxes in the system interface for which job platforms your job ad should go live on. The tool takes care of the rest automatically. It could not be simpler. Another advantage: job ads placed through a multiposting tool are considerably cheaper, because you benefit from volume discounts that the provider of your applicant management system has negotiated with the individual job boards.

#3 Do not focus only on active job seekers

But your ads can be posted through your multiposting tool not only on job boards, but also automatically on social networks like Facebook and Instagram. That expands your target audience in one move. Because while on Monster and co. you only reach talent that is already looking for a job, through social media you also address the people who are not looking yet, but are certainly tempted by a new career challenge.

Because on Facebook and co. your job ads are shown not only to active job seekers, but also to these potentially interested candidates. A so-called targeting algorithm makes that happen. And it can do even more: you can specify very precisely who your job ads should reach. For example, define the industry, the experience and the interests of the people who should see your job ad. That way you only address talent that is a good fit for your company from the start.

#4 Wow talent with a top career page

But even if you increase your reach through targeted social media recruiting: did you know this? These days, talent usually no longer applies directly to a job ad. Instead they look for more information about an employer online. As a rule they head to the career page, which is why you should absolutely link to it in your job ad. Because here they get more detail than in a job listing.

For example on these topics:

• Values and culture
• Diversity management
• Health management
• Work-life balance
• Career prospects
• Learning and development options

But talent is often disappointed by career pages. While companies create polished, high-gloss presences for consumers on the web, they often serve applicants a rather lovelessly designed career page. No wonder candidates feel treated as second class and drop out.

Yet today it is no longer any kind of magic to create an expressive employer presence with clear values, goals and authentic insights. After all, that is what career page builders with ready-made blocks and HR widgets are for, which you can design individually. Just choose the right order for your content, adapt the text and design to your corporate identity, and you have an outstanding career page with minimal admin effort.

#5 Win people over with an inspiring candidate experience

But even the smartest career page is no use if you put candidates off with complex and drawn-out processes during the application. Sadly, talent keeps abandoning the application, for example because there is a lack of modern, mobile-friendly ways to apply. That makes it all the more important not to scare off mobile talent with endless application forms that do not really fit the job.

Our tip: adapt your application forms individually to a role and only ask for what is truly relevant. For mobile applicants, also skip the upload of references and the writing of a cover letter. How on earth are they supposed to write a motivation letter on a small smartphone screen? Or better still: use the quick-apply function. Here mobile talent leaves only a name and email address as a first lead that you can then follow up. It may feel a little unfamiliar at first, but this way you no longer let any applications slip through the net.

Later in the application process too, you should show your easygoing side. For example, let talent choose whether the job interview should be held by video or live on site, give feedback quickly afterwards and do not keep applicants waiting too long.

#6 Leave nothing to chance during onboarding

It is also important that the onboarding phase in fast-growing companies is no less efficient. After all, employees join a culture that is constantly changing. They are always meeting new colleagues, and team structures and processes keep shifting. They have to be prepared for that from the start. Above all, employees should never feel left alone in the turbulent environment of a hyper growth company.

This is where buddy programs help: in their first weeks, new hires get an employee, their "buddy", at their side. This person knows the company inside out and can help with questions about everyday work, the culture and the organization. Regular team events, shared meetings and celebrations are also important for settling in at the company.

If you take our tips to heart, all of this makes a decisive contribution to taking hyper growth in your stride. You'll see.