Proactive recruitment is based on forward planning and constant monitoring of the market. It involves forging relationships and sourcing talent to stay ahead of the demand. Instead of reacting to change, proactive recruitment involves anticipating the changes and preparing for them. It helps businesses deal with inevitable staffing changes.
Businesses employ proactive recruitment strategies to ensure a steady flow of candidates. Methods like marketing the brand and being active in a talent community come in handy when a staffing need arises. Companies that have the foresight to implement these strategies often acquire the brightest talent.
Proactive recruitment is about staying ahead of the game. Below are the core components of a proactive funnel:
Sourcing the ultimate talent: Connect with suitable candidates who would also find your organization’s culture appealing. Proactive recruiting requires you to contact passive candidates as part of your outreach. A research survey suggests nearly 73% of potential candidates you encounter are, in fact, passive candidates. They may be employed and not actively looking for an opportunity, but they still glance through job boards whenever they get a chance.
Interacting with potential candidates: This aspect of proactive recruitment can be a little tricky since you are simply connecting with candidates. Nevertheless, it is a vital step for forging relationships in the talent pool. You want your potential candidates to feel like more than just another name on the list, and hence, you must increase your efforts to improve the candidate experience.
Nurturing relationships: The job doesn’t end with simply just adding candidates to your recruitment pipeline. It is crucial that they feel valued as well. You should make efforts to keep these qualified leads warm. Regular messages or calls help maintain their interest.
You could also add them to your newsletter subscriber list to keep them updated about the organization’s achievements and journey. Upping your social media activity and sharing regular company and industry-related posts also does the trick.
Converting candidates to employees: If you’ve been on top of your social media game and have regularly engaged with your talent pool, the candidates would be well-informed and interested in working at your organization. They would have assessed how well their values match with your organizational goals and company culture. Converting them to employees would be faster and simpler.
With modern recruitment software like Freshteam, your organization can efficiently accomplish all of these steps and get the best results.
Proactive hiring can bring numerous benefits to an organization. It lays the foundation for enhanced hiring processes. Here’s why you would consider it:
Prevents bad hires and high turnover rates: Proactive recruitment gives recruiters and candidates more time to learn about each other. This could result in a better fit as both parties are not in a rush to go through the recruitment pipeline. This could also lead to better employee retention, as candidates make an informed decision after assessing the company values and culture.
Quicker recruitment: Unlike Reactive recruitment which occurs on a need-to basis, Proactive recruitment is an all-year-round activity. It cuts down the tedious process of designing job descriptions, publishing them on job portals, and reviewing resumes. You already have a list of pre-sourced/screened candidates in your talent pool. You simply have to reach out to them and get started with the interviews.
A better understanding of the market: Proactive recruitment allows recruiters to connect with the top talent in every field. Engage them with recruitment marketing activities like email campaigns, newsletters, social media and so on. By doing so, you have created a community you can go to when the need for talent arises.
Reactive recruitment refers to a hiring process initiated only when employees need to join a team. This method often puts too much pressure on the recruiter to source suitable candidates for a position as the requirement is urgent.
In a typical recruiting scenario, this is how reactive recruitment plays out in companies. There is a vacant position because of expansion or an employee leaving, and that’s when the hiring team posts the job opportunity on different channels. Once the hiring team is flooded with applications (or maybe not), candidates are screened, and the interview process begins. But since the clock is ticking, the team managers and recruiters are under pressure to hire a candidate. This isn’t an ideal scenario, is it? It slows down the entire process a great deal.
Reactive recruitment strategies belong to the bygone era. Sourcing for top talent when the need arises is not such an easy task. The way you recruit says a lot about your organizational dynamics and policies. Top candidates seek companies that are growing and making a significant impact in their industry. If you are a future-oriented and forward-thinking company, a proactive recruitment approach is the best for you. It is almost always cheaper, quicker, and ensures you are ahead of the game.
If you’ve been a reactive recruiter till now, there are multiple reasons to transition to proactive hiring.
Proactive hiring is about building a talent pipeline by engaging with suitable candidates even before you have the right opportunity for them. Candidates are very much aware of the employer brands, and if they are keen on working with you, they want to be a part of your talent pool.
The candidates usually look up information about the employer brand before they apply. A great employer brand translates to a reduced staff turnover, cost to hire, and time to hire. It also means higher qualified talent leads. These improvements could also be due to candidates carefully considering the employers they apply for.
We live in a world where technology has enabled us to connect and share information constantly; that’s precisely what proactive recruitment is all about – engaging with talent.
Some of the reasons why you should pick proactive recruitment over reactive recruitment are:
With Freshteam ATS, you effortlessly build a talent pool and find candidate information in one place. You can create each candidate's records that consist of your communication, notes, resume, and other supplementary documents. If they are previously not hired but were a brilliant fit for the organization, you can access information such as interview feedback to pick up a conversation.
The Freshteam ATS allows you to create an impeccable candidate experience. It gives you visibility into what you could do better and helps you regularly engage with candidates. Remember, organizations with a strong employer brand get 50% more qualified talent leads and hire 1-2x times faster.
Future planning must be a team effort, and it’s crucial to keep everyone in the loop. After the team has discussed long-term and short-term goals, this powerful dashboard tells each person what needs their input. The team can collaborate to leave comments, notes, or rates for candidates in the talent pool.
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