Hiring Hourly Employees at Scale: Challenges and Best Practices - ApplicantStack

Over half the workforce in the United States is comprised of hourly employees. In 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that number as 80.5 million workers aged 18 and older, and many industries rely on hourly employees for maximum efficiency. Businesses that hire hourly workers at scale may face common challenges, but employing best practices can help overcome them.

What Industries Typically Hire Hourly Employees at Scale?

Industries that use hourly workers as the backbone of their workforce include:

• ​Health care
• ​Retail
• ​Hospitality
• ​Restaurants
• ​Manufacturing
• ​Construction

About 80 percent work in “service” industries: serving food, cleaning, repairing cars or homes, or providing customer care; the other 20 percent is made up of “industrial or goods-producing” industries: construction, manufacturing, food harvesting, or mining. These industries rely on hourly labor to staff multiple shifts that extend beyond a typical 8 am to 5 pm schedule, which is generally associated with salaried jobs. They may also experience increased demand for labor seasonally or in emergencies.

Challenges of Hiring Hourly Workers

Staffing at scale can present some common challenges, meaning “any structural or operational issue that prevents an organization from having the right number of people, with the right skills, in the right roles, at the right time.” These problems can include:

• ​Recruiting inefficiencies
• ​Slow hiring processes
• ​Seasonal demand spike
• ​Negative brand association
• ​Skills and training inadequacies
• ​Worker burnout
• ​Low retention

Applying Hiring Best Practices for Hourly Workers

Let’s examine each of these challenges and consider how hiring best practices can help.

Recruiting inefficiencies

Hiring hourly workers often happens via job postings on common job boards. A potential candidate’s first impression of the role comes from the job description. In their haste to get the job posted, companies often use vague, cliché-filled job descriptions that don’t properly represent the responsibilities. Job seekers need accurate language with specifics like expected duties, shift hours, and compensation. Misrepresenting the job in order to lure in more applicants only costs you time and money when you lose out on candidates who feel misled.

Slow hiring process

Efficiency when hiring at scale is the only way to ensure you can hire the right number of candidates and the best-quality candidates. Hourly workers can easily move on to the next opportunity if your process is lagging behind. By using an ATS like ApplicantStack, you can generate reports that show how quickly your hiring team addresses candidates in each part of the hiring process, and identify places where you can make improvements.

Seasonal demand spike

Even when your company anticipates a spike in demand, it can still pose challenges. Advance preparation, including rewriting job descriptions, addressing lags, adding more hiring staff, or streamlining your process ahead of the hiring push can help you be ready for the extra work.

Negative brand association

The popularity of job boards can be both a blessing and a curse for companies hiring at scale. It helps when your jobs are seen by many eyes, but negative reviews can be costly to your reputation, even if you feel they’re undeserved. Though you may not be able to address each negative experience directly, some you can resolve. Take people’s criticisms seriously and consider how you can change policies to help your brand be seen more positively by those job seekers encountering it for the first time.

Skills and training inadequacies

A big hiring push can lead to overlooked skill gaps and make it challenging to give new-hire training the proper attention. A robust onboarding program is the best way to ensure your new workers are introduced to the way you do business. Pair new hires with mentors who follow a company checklist to the letter, with oversight from other managers to ensure the trainers are following all the necessary steps. Workers who receive proper onboarding are much more likely to stay with the company in the long term.

Worker burnout

The high-demand environment of onboarding a large number of new hires can increase the workload and stress of current employees, especially if they feel undervalued and overlooked for their efforts. Burnout is more than just feeling stressed out – it’s a psychologically recognized “state of emotional, mental, and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged or repeated stress.” It’s vital to address their concerns long before they get to that point. Make sure there is an open-door policy with HR or management to address concerns and conflicts, and compensate your workers fairly, especially those taking on extra training roles.

Low retention

While you will always expect some amount of attrition in a hiring push, it’s important to look for patterns. Are there certain departments where you lose more workers than others? Do certain shifts have low retention? When workers cite their reasons for leaving, do they have characteristics in common? Track these statistics and address those concerns where they are obvious and have solutions.

When your business relies on hourly workers, hiring at scale can pose challenges, but there are effective solutions. By relying on advanced software and creating an environment where concerns are addressed early, you can employ best practices for long-term success.

ApplicantStack is designed for companies that hire hourly workers. It is easy to post jobs, review candidates, schedule interviews, and stay connected throughout the process. When your hiring process needs a revamp to ensure that every role is filled with a qualified worker, make sure to implement this applicant-tracking system that makes it easier.