Hiring one new employee is a recruiting need. Hiring 20 people before next month can become an operational challenge.
Maybe a new customer increased production requirements. A second shift is opening. Seasonal demand arrived faster than expected. A new production line is coming online. Whatever created the need, your plant now has a deadline, and simply posting 20 openings is not much of a workforce plan.
Georgia manufacturers facing a sudden hiring increase need to think about more than how many people they need. You also need to determine where those employees will work, which skills are hardest to find, how quickly people can realistically start, and how your operation will absorb a large group of new hires.
Here is where to start.
Determine Which Hires Production Needs First
Twenty openings do not necessarily mean 20 equally urgent openings.
Look at what has to happen operationally for production to increase. Maybe you need machine operators before additional packaging employees can make an impact. Perhaps a production supervisor needs to be in place before you can build out a second shift. Or maintenance coverage needs to increase because additional production hours will put more demand on your equipment.
Prioritize positions based on what could prevent the operation from reaching its production goals.
This also helps recruiting. Instead of treating the project as one large hiring number, you can focus first on the positions that unlock the rest of the workforce plan.
Be Realistic About Which Skills Are Available
A sudden hiring need can expose an important problem: the workforce you need next month may not be sitting in the applicant pool today.
This becomes especially important when the hiring plan includes experienced machine operators, maintenance technicians, quality professionals, skilled trades workers, engineers, or production leaders.
Determine which positions truly require previous experience and which could be filled by candidates with transferable skills and proper training.
If all 20 employees need highly specific experience with your exact equipment or manufacturing environment, the timeline may not be realistic. If some positions can be filled by people with related production, warehouse, packaging, or industrial experience, you have more ways to build the team.
Do Not Wait Until All 20 People Are Found to Start Hiring
Large hiring projects are easier to manage when recruiting, interviewing, offers, and start dates happen continuously.
If five qualified candidates are ready now, waiting until you have identified the other 15 creates another opportunity to lose them.
Experienced candidates may be interviewing with multiple employers, particularly for skilled manufacturing and technical positions. Your hiring process needs to be able to make decisions while recruiting continues for the remaining openings.
Staggered start dates can also make onboarding more manageable. Bringing smaller groups into the operation may give supervisors and trainers more time to properly introduce employees to safety procedures, equipment, expectations, and production processes.
Make Sure Your Hiring Process Can Handle the Volume
A company may be prepared to recruit two people at once but struggle when that number suddenly becomes 20.
Think through the entire process.
Who reviews candidates? How quickly can interviews happen? Who makes hiring decisions? How long does an offer take to approve? How many people can realistically complete orientation or training at the same time?
If any one of those steps becomes overloaded, candidates can pile up while positions remain vacant.
Before increasing recruiting activity, make sure the rest of the hiring process can keep pace.
Think Beyond Filling the Immediate Order
If the hiring surge is connected to growth, the real question is not only whether you can find 20 people. It is whether you can build a workforce that can support what comes next.
A new customer, additional shift, production line, or facility expansion may create future needs for maintenance, quality, supervision, engineering, warehousing, or other positions as production increases.
Look at what the operation may require 30, 60, or 90 days after the initial hiring push.
Planning ahead gives you time to recruit harder-to-find talent before those positions become urgent.
Get Additional Recruiting Capacity When You Need It
Your HR team may be perfectly capable of managing normal hiring volume. A sudden need for 20 employees is not normal hiring volume.
That is when additional recruiting capacity can make a difference.
Impact Staffing works with Georgia employers across manufacturing, production, skilled trades, engineering, warehousing and distribution, and office and administrative positions. We can help you identify hiring priorities, recruit for multiple positions simultaneously, and reach candidates beyond those responding to your own job postings.
If your Georgia plant needs to add a large number of employees quickly, contact Impact Staffing. We can help you build a recruiting strategy around your production timeline instead of waiting for hiring to catch up with it.