How can companies meet aggressive hiring targets?

One of the challenges that recruiters face while working for any organization is that the hiring intensity can change at short notice. For instance, management could one day decide to hire aggressively, which would immensely increase the workload of the recruiters. This means that not only does the pace of hiring need to increase, but the quality also needs to be maintained. However, this is easier said than done. This is why companies need a well-crafted and strategic approach to ensure that they can meet aggressive hiring targets without affecting the quality of recruitment in the process.

So, today, we will understand why companies feel the need for aggressive hiring targets and what the best strategy is to achieve them. 

Why do companies put aggressive hiring targets?

Rapid Growth

One of the most common reasons why companies opt to hire aggressively is to achieve rapid growth. There are several scenarios where companies want rapid growth, such as:

• Massive Round of Funding: One of the most common reasons companies want to hire aggressively is because they have received massive funds from external or internal investors. This prompts them to hire aggressively to increase growth, revenue, and profits.
• A high-demand product: If a company develops a product or service that is a perfect market fit, there is a sudden increase in demand for the said product or service, which is why companies need more employees. For example, if there is an increase in demand for any SaaS tools, a company would need more engineers (to build and maintain features), sales reps (to sell the tool), and customer service (to solve customer complaints).
• Market Expansion: A company may be looking to expand into a new market. The market could be a new geographic location, a new segment of the same industry, or a new industry altogether, which requires hiring more employees.
• Post-merger integration (PMI): Another reason companies hire aggressively is when they acquire new companies. After this, they need to hire people to fill some critical gaps and ensure that the two companies can blend cultures.

Also Read: What is Predictive Validity and how it should be used in workplace?

Backfilling High Turnover

The second reason why companies hire aggressively is when they are experiencing a high turnover rate, with employees leaving rapidly, which means there is a huge shortage of employees across the company. Some common causes of high turnover are:

• Resignation: One common cause of high turnover is employees resigning and leaving for other organizations. There are several reasons for this, including better pay, senior roles, remote working flexibility, or better cultural alignment with the employees’ values.
• Layoffs or restructuring: Sometimes a company conducts mass layoffs or restructuring due to a dip in revenue and profits. However, companies may sometimes realize that they have laid off too many employees, prompting them to hire aggressively to keep the operation running smoothly.
• Toxic Culture: One of the key reasons for a high turnover is when a workplace has a very toxic culture, which leads to a lot of employees quitting at an alarming rate. 
• Leadership Changes in Company: Whenever a company undergoes a leadership change, either through acquiring new ownership or a change at the executive and management level, this can prompt several employees to either quit or be laid off. 
• Seasonal or Contract Work Ending: In several industries, such as retail, hospitality, and logistics, many seasonal or contract workers leave after a specific period, such as the end of a peak season. So, before the peak season arrives, companies need to rehire these workers.

Also Read: The Ultimate Guide to assess Software Developers

Digital or Business Transformation

In the business landscape, pivoting is a phenomenon that has become more common as companies look to transform themselves to remain relevant in the competitive market. For example, the podcast company Odeo pivoted to become Twitter (now X) and Garmin, which made high-quality GPS units before pivoting to make world-class fitness watches. In recent years, several companies have transformed digitally as the introduction of Artificial Intelligence prompted companies to make necessary changes,

Also Read: Biggest Hiring Challenges in 2025 and How IaaS Can Help

Some examples of these transformations are:

• Moving from legacy systems to cloud-based platforms
• Adopting AI and automation
• Shifting from in-store retail to e-commerce
• Changing the business model entirely (e.g., from selling products to offering services)

There are some differences between a digital and business transformation, which are shown in the table below:

Type	What It Focuses On	Hiring Needs
Business Transformation	Changing how the company operates (structure, culture, offerings)	Strategic roles, change managers, operational leaders
Digital Transformation	Upgrading tech and processes using digital tools	Engineers, data scientists, cybersecurity experts, product managers

Also Read: The Rise of Remote Hiring And How IaaS Fits In

Diversity & Inclusion Goals

In recent years, several studies have indicated that having a more diverse team leads to increased revenue and growth. For instance, a McKinsey report in 2020 found that diverse teams were likely to outperform less diverse teams by as much as 48 percent. Companies that have managed to integrate DEI into their recruitment have done so by making aggressive hirings.

These measures include:

• Resisting Pipeline inertia: Pipeline inertia occurs when companies continue to hire from the same external source even when the source may not be as effective as before. To combat pipeline inertia, companies need to diversify their recruiting channels by conducting DEI hirings.
• Leadership urgency: In a corporate setting, any substantial change has to come from the top. Therefore, leadership urgency in observing DEI metrics can go a long way toward fulfilling these DEI hirings.

Also Read: How To Reduce Time-to-Hire with IaaS

Meeting Strategic KPIs

In any company, there are strategic KPIs(Key Performance Indicators) that indicate whether the company is on track to meet its goals for the financial year. These metrics relate to revenue growth, customer acquisition, product development, and market share, among others.

The reasons why aggressive hiring targets are needed to meet strategic KPIs are:

• Revenue Growth: Strategic KPIs are critical for any company, and if aggressive hiring helps achieve them, then revenue growth could easily be far more than the recruiting cost of the employees.
• Faster Time-to-Market: Another situation where aggressive hiring for strategic KPIs becomes relevant is when these KPIs are needed to launch new products that might bring significant growth, revenue, and profits to the company.
• Brand Awareness: Aggressive hiring targets can help companies increase brand awareness and lead generations. For example, by hiring more content creators and digital marketers, a company can increase its social media presence and lead generation.

Also Read: Why Hiring DevOps Engineers Is Hard

Investor Pressure

One reason that is often not stated for aggressive hiring targets is investor pressure. As mentioned earlier, a huge injection of funds usually leads to aggressive hiring. However, that is not always the case, with investor pressure being one of the reasons. Here are a few instances where investor pressure can lead to increased hiring.

• Post-Funding Obligations: When a founder pitches their company to an investor, they promise to fulfill certain obligations if they get the funding. One commonly cited promise is an aggressive increase in growth and revenue, which is only possible if the number of employees increases drastically, sometimes multi-fold.
• Board of Stakeholder Expectations: Board members always expect to increase their profits and revenues. However, when these dip, board members might pressure the founders to hire more people in a bid to increase the company’s growth.

Also Read: How to create a fair cognitive ability test?

How to meet aggressive hiring targets 

Aggressive hiring targets always place considerable pressure on every stakeholder of the organization. This is why companies need to have an efficient set of processes that must be followed diligently to ensure that aggressive hiring targets are met.

Set Clear Targets 

The first step before a company starts hiring aggressively is to define clear targets related to the number of hires, deadline, and role prioritization. The first step is to decide the number of hires the company needs and the deadline by which these hires need to be completed.

An example of this is shown in the table below:

Department	Role	Headcount Needed	Deadline
Engineering	Frontend Dev	5	May 30, 2025
Sales	SDRs	10	June 15, 2025
Marketing	Content Manager	2	May 30, 2025

Also Read: What is Customer Service Orientation and how to assess it?

Companies should also know which roles to prioritize based on the organization’s demands. Ask questions like:

• Which roles are critical to business goals?
• Which ones have longer ramp-up times or are harder to fill?
• Which ones can be filled later without major impact?

Also Read: What is Internal Recruiting and how does it benefit a company?

Aggressive hiring targets should be measured by certain metrics such as:

• Time-to-fill
• Offer acceptance rate
• Interview-to-offer ratio

Lastly, recruiters should get the final go-ahead from all the company’s stakeholders. For example, hiring managers should analyze whether the hiring numbers and deadlines can be achieved realistically or whether the finance department has the budget to complete these aggressive hiring efforts. 

Also Read: What are pros and cons of Personality Tests in hiring?

Optimize Your Hiring Process

Since aggressive hiring needs to be qualitative, quantitative, and time-sensitive, the recruitment process has to be optimized to mirror these features. The first step towards optimizing your hiring process is to audit your recruitment strategy.

Auditing your process means analyzing the entire recruitment process end-to-end and identifying the bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Ask questions such as:

• How many interview stages do candidates go through?
• How long does it take from application to offer?
• Where are people dropping off (e.g., ghosting after interviews, not accepting offers)?

The second step involves eliminating all the less important requirements of the interview process to make it short and standardized. For example, companies have started using structured interviews where each candidate is asked the same questions. This not only reduces the time of interview but also eliminates bias seeping into the recruitment process.

Companies can also use tools like ATS(Applicant Tracking System) to track every part of the recruitment process and automated scheduling tools such as Calendly and GoodTime to schedule interviews.

Also Read: What is Caring Culture and why it is necessary in the workplace?

Boost Sourcing Channels

As mentioned earlier, companies that depend on pipeline inertia, i.e., hiring from the same source, usually experience inefficient hiring. This is why companies should boost sourcing channels to diversify their workforce. The table below shows the channel and description that companies need to tap into.

Channel	Description
Job Boards	General and niche platforms
Social Media	Organic posts & ads
Referrals	Tap into employees’ networks
Communities	Industry-specific groups
Events	Virtual/in-person hiring fairs
Sourcing tools	Direct outreach

Rewards can be a game changer among these channels if done right. A good referral strategy can be boosted by following simple processes such as:

• Offer a referral bonus (and pay it quickly!)
• Make it easy: share ready-made job descriptions with links
• Create a fun internal competition or referral leaderboard
• Ask employees: “Who’s the best person you’ve ever worked with?”

Companies should also tap into niche communities for specific roles such as developers (Stack Overflow, Dev. to, GitHub, HackerRank), designers (Behance, Dribble, UX Mastery), and marketers (Superpath, GrowthHackers, Marketers Chat (Slack)).

Lastly, companies should focus on engaging with their past employees or with those candidates who were rejected previously. Following up on these candidates can help companies to fulfill aggressive hiring targets.

Also Read: What are pros and cons of Emotional Intelligence in hiring?

Offer Flexible Packages

During aggressive hiring, it is the company that is at the short end of the stick, as it is they who need employees quickly. This is why offering flexible packages is a great way for companies to attract top talent in a short span of time. Flexible Packages include things such as: 

• Work location and hours
• Benefits and perks
• Equity and bonus options
• Time off
• Growth and development support

Also Read: What is Salary History and why do companies ask for it?

A great option in a flexible package is the option for employees to work from home, the office, or in a hybrid setup. This helps them attract a wide range of employees, such as talented but might not want to relocate and prefer work-from-home as their setup.

The next step involves remuneration. It is here that companies can offer equity along with salary to ensure. The additional financial remuneration might motivate them to take the job and put in extra effort.

Along with these measures, companies have also started using Interview as a Service  (IaaS) companies to further improve upon the recruitment process. One such great tool is BarRaiser, which has changed the hiring game for companies.

Also Read: Best Interview as a service platforms in 2025

These IaaS companies offer end-to-end hiring solutions, helping recruiters navigate through all the phases of the interview process. Before the Interview, the recruiter can create a structured questionnaire by simply asking our tool based on the role, the length of experience, the number of interview rounds, and the interview length.  

During the interview, our product analyzes it and gives helpful suggestions to the interviewers on what questions to ask and how to maintain the speed of the interview, it also analyzes the recruiter to ensure the interview process is not discriminatory in any way. Our tool can raise an alert if the hiring manager is asking for information which may be pertinent to the Interview or the job description. This ensures perfect checks and balances in the system.

We also provide interviewer training to ensure organizations have the perfect team for the job. Furthermore, we provide IaaS, in which we will conduct the entire interview process on an organization’s behalf.

Using BarRaiser, we guarantee quality hiring that will bolster diversity and inclusion. BarRaiser is the best AI interview platform, featuring structured interviews, AI-generated interview notes, and tools to ensure quality hiring while eliminating biases from the recruitment process. With BarRaiser’s support, you’ll be well-equipped to build a strong team of sales associates who will drive sales and deliver exceptional customer service.