The employees you hire are critical in upholding and sustaining the productivity of your warehouse. Thus, this is not a job role whose recruitment you will be taking lightly. At the same time, you urgently need new employees to keep the productivity levels high. So, in such a scenario, you can use the following ways to speed up the hiring process for warehouse employees.

1. Be clear about the responsibilities and skills

Putting up a detailed job description is beneficial for both you and the candidates. This way, it can be ensured that you don’t spend extra time rejecting applications. At the same time, the jobseekers can move on to other opportunities if the description doesn’t suit them.

So, mention all the details in the job description, right from the day-to-day responsibilities to the nature of the role (part-time/full-time). Mention how many hours they will be working for and outline the maximum salary limit and leave policy.

2. Consider getting in touch with a staffing agency

The thing about staffing agencies is that they already have a huge database of suitable candidates. They have noted the details of these candidates and ran the necessary checks. Thus, there is a lot taken off your plate, especially when you are hiring a lot of people within a limited time.

In this regard, it is a good idea to go for a warehouse staffing agency. With their prior experience in warehouse recruitment drives, they will help you with the most suitable bunch of candidates to make the hiring faster.

3. Post the job description at more places

Apart from hiring a staffing agency, you can also try to get the word across by posting your job at more places. For instance, you can post the job description on the social media handle of the company. Maybe you can try the social network for professionals, LinkedIn, to attract more talent for your warehouse.

The point is to make sure your job description is visible at all those places where the prospective candidates are most active.

4. Mention a deadline for accepting applications

Many times, the candidates would simply go through a job description and save it to apply later. Now, some of them might completely forget to apply at all after pushing it off for later. Therefore, a good idea is to include a deadline in the job description.

Let the candidates know that you are only accepting job applications until a particular date and time. Any application sent after that will not be considered. It will urge more prospective candidates to apply right away.

5. Assess your company culture and hire accordingly

The new employee you hire will be working with your present group of employees. So, take time to understand your present employees and the kind of culture they are helping to build up in the company. Keep in mind that company culture is just as crucial in the warehouse industry as it is everywhere else.

Thus, when you assess your new hires, consider whether they can be a good fit in the present company culture.

6. Examine and expand the benefits offered

Of course, a good salary is attractive but the modern employee does not look solely for monetary benefits. Besides, without additional perks with the salary, your employee attrition rate will increase. And that means going through another recruitment drive! If the difference between your company and the others is mainly in the name and branding, it’s time to change things before you start hiring.

Therefore, highlight the benefits you offer in the job description itself. Do you offer an extra day of leave over the standard practice? Do you offer health benefits? Are you planning to welcome new candidates with a gym membership? Mention it all!

7. Ask your current employees for referrals

Your present warehouse employees will know other people who will be keen on taking up the job you’re offering. By tapping into the network of your present employees, you will find both freshers and experienced candidates in this field.

Maybe they know someone who wants to switch to a new company as a warehouse staff. Or, maybe they have a friend who wants to start working in a warehouse.

8. Ensure that your interview process is structured

A structured interview process is a must when you want to speed up your recruitment drive. It is important to have a clear idea in mind about the number of rounds you are going to conduct, and the questions you’re going to ask for every round.

Also, while you are preparing that structure, note down the most suitable answers for those questions. The candidates that tick the most boxes in terms of their answers go into the next round of interview, and so on.

9. Reach out to the candidates who connected in the past

If this is not the first time you are trying to hire warehouse employees, chances are that you still have the contact details of applications from the previous drive. Maybe a few of them could not turn up because of health issues or timing problems.

It is a good time to give them a call and see if they are still open to give an interview for your company. After all, they did apply for that job role the last time.

10. Keep track of and assess different stages of the process

After you are done hiring the staff, let your recruitment team assemble and find out the strongest points of this process. What were the factors that helped you the most in finding suitable candidates?

Did most of the recruited candidates come from a specific staffing agency? You can consider the agency again next time! Did the newly used interview structure help? Don’t change it for the next recruitment drive.

Hopefully, you now have some direction in terms of how to hire the right people faster for your warehouse. Now, go ahead and put the tips given above to good use and start hiring!