Written by Milly Woodward

Your business’s success depends on recruiting the right talent and having the right people at the right time can make or break a company- no matter the size. When looking at recruiting on a large scale, people often become confused as to what strategy they need to approach their recruitment campaign with: these are often split into Volume and regular recruitment.

What are the key differences between regular and volume recruitment campaigns?

The term volume recruiting often refers to a larger group of candidates who are looking for the same role, for example, if there is a new project that requires 10 administrators to start in 4 weeks’ time you would run a volume campaign to fill these positions.

On the contrary, a regular recruitment or ‘corporate’ recruitment campaign tends to mean that there is a single role that needs to be filled. To fill a position like this a recruiter needs to find a singular candidate who is suitable for the role although there will usually be multiple candidates involved in the recruitment process until the singular most suited candidate is offered the role.

What are the key differences?

The different types of campaigns will affect all stages of the recruitment process from interviews to the onboarding stage.

The interview stage:

For volume campaigns, some employers will run group interview stages where candidates will be interviewed alongside others to reduce the time spent interviewing. Alternatively, some employers will conduct 1 stage interviews, which will cover all areas of an interview- it may include speaking about the candidate’s work history to occasionally including skills testing ie process following exercises or roleplay scenarios. When conducting a volume campaign time is often of the essence to a greater extent than a regular due to the likely high volume of applications- if the process takes an extended period of time candidates can often become uninterested.

In a regular or corporate campaign, there is often a lesser number of applicants so the process can be more in-depth. Recruiters will invite a select number of top candidates for interview, there may be multiple stages of an interview to assess the suitability and commitment of top talent.

Candidate selection

Within a volume campaign due to the larger quantity of candidates, the selection process can occasionally become more complicated. By having a clear set of criteria for suitable and qualified candidates it can help employers decide which candidates are best suited to the campaign.

In regular recruitment the selection process can often be based on more factors ie compatibility with hiring managers, general managers, etc, it can also be based on who is most qualified for the role or which notice period suits their needs- there may also be negotiations over the contract including salary whereas in a volume campaign, these are often set in stone.

We at Pertemps are able to support you in deciding which type of campaign is best suited to your recruitment needs so get in touch at hello@pertemps.co.uk