Reactive vs. Proactive Hiring

How do you recruit? Would you say your methods are reactive or proactive? Why? What does that mean? Which makes the most sense? Which is the most successful? It matters in the grand scheme of things especially if recruiting is you or your company’s main source of income and livelihood. Today, we’re going to examine both sides of recruiting, what they mean, the outcomes, and which is best suited for YOU! Stick with us - this is an important topic to tackle.

Reactive Recruiting

Reactive recruiting is the least aggressive form of recruiting. A reactive recruiter is waiting around for an open position or active candidate and is never hunting - always awaiting the best outcome to fall into his/her lap. According to a blog on the subject, “taking a reactive approach to anything work-related is fraught with dangers, and this is particularly true when it comes to hiring new employees. After all, recruitment is a stressful enough exercise without piling more pressure on your already weary shoulders. When we wait for roles to become vacant before actively seeking suitable candidates, we are putting unnecessary pressure on the recruitment team to deliver in a short space of time. And unless we’re extremely lucky to find the perfect candidate who just happens to be out of work at that moment, then our recruitment process may end up looking like this.”

It’s true. Taking the lackadaisical approach to anything in life is never a good idea, especially recruiting. Recruiting is a hunter’s game and awaiting those vacant roles leaves you playing catch-up later when those awesome candidates are accepting offers elsewhere or being scooped up by proactive recruiters. Furthermore, “reactive recruitment occurs when the recruitment process is only initiated once a request for a new member of staff is made internally. Also known as passive recruitment, this method of recruitment often puts an unnecessary time-pressure on sourcing the right candidates for the position as the need for a replacement or new team member is immediate” (recruitee.blog). Let’s take a look at the typical reactive recruiting process from the aforementioned blog:

• Employee leaves role/company expands workforce

• Recruiters start looking for suitable candidates

• Weeks go by

• Employee notice period ends

• Interviews start

• Successful candidates begin their notice period

• Weeks go by

• New employee begins onboarding process
  

What’s the first thing you notice? All of the “weeks going by?” Yep. So much time during this recruiting is passed idly by with no action. That’s the key here - no action. Certainly not the best approach….

Proactive Recruitment

Proactive is the style that’s going to get you the results you deserve. It’s where hunters thrive and the weak will wash out. You have to be deliberate and calculated and never wavering in your proactive search. Check out this great understanding of what it means to recruit proactively…“A proactive recruitment strategy is when you actively seek candidates that may be suitable for roles within your company even when there are no roles to fill. You plan ahead for the eventuality that someone at some stage will inevitably leave the company or that the company may decide to create new departments or expand existing ones” (VSource).

“Typically, a proactive recruitment funnel looks something like this:”

• Source

• Engage

• Nurture

• Convert

Sound familiar? If you said yes, that’s because ApplicantOne is a proactive hiring solution. Check out this great quote from one of our Senior Recruiters, Nathan Lewis on the topic of AO’s recruiting style:

“At ApplicantOne, our recruiting services division actively recruits passive candidates in a busy, candidate-forward ecosystem. As the economy continues to flourish, unemployment rates remain at a steady and low baseline. Therefore, the number of active candidates looking for opportunities has declined in recent years.

This presents recruiting with interesting challenges, all of which can be answered if one has the experience and tools to aggressively pursue a busy, satisfied candidate market.

Ideally, once a candidate has been contacted and informed about an opportunity, a relationship is built and a conversation will happen. If conducted in a friendly, truthful, and respectful manner, the relationship between a candidate and recruiter can turn into an interview, and an interview can evolve into a hand-shake between a candidate and a Client looking for their next world-class candidate.”

Interested in ApplicantOne? Request a Demo today!