Did you know that by 2030, the global talent shortage will likely be more than 85 million people, resulting in an estimated $8.5 trillion in lost annual unrealized revenue ?
With this war for talent raging across nearly every industry, we won’t be surprised if these statistics come true much sooner than expected, leaving recruiters scrambling to acquire the best talent for their clients.
Don’t bother posting a job ad on random online recruitment platforms . and keeping your fingers crossed is no longer a good strategy. The same goes for filling the company’s skills gap after the situation has become critical.
Recruiters need to be prepared in advance, rather than being at the mercy of the job market.
And how can they do that? By employing proactive recruitment strategies.
Let’s take a closer look at this term and understand how it can be a perfect gateway for your staffing agency to efficiently attract and retain top talent.
What is proactive recruiting?
“Proactive recruiting = staying one step ahead of hiring demands.”
This is a talent acquisition is a talent acquisition strategy that involves “identifying and engaging potential candidates prior to an immediate job opening or an urgent need for a new hire.
Or, better put, proactive recruiting means “always hiring,” so that whenever a vacancy arises, you already have a high-quality candidate ready to fill it.
“91% of talent professionals believe that people are always keeping an eye on the job market.”
Source: Indeed
Human resources professionals believe that people will always look for new and better job opportunities, despite the low employment rate. Using proactive recruitment strategies is the best way to attract these people.
Like any form of marketing, proactive recruiting follows a funnel design:
Step 1: Find
The first step is to build an ideal “candidate persona ” to identify the skills, experiences, and specific characteristics to look for in potential candidates. Recruiters can use a variety of methods to do this, such as online research, referrals, networking, data analysis, etc.
Phase 2: Engage
The next step is to reach out to potential candidates and introduce them to the company’s culture, values, and career opportunities. This step may involve sending personalized emails, calls, or messages on social media platforms.
Phase 3: Nourish
Recruiters aim to build long-term relationships with potential candidates, even if there are no immediate job offers. This involves regular communication, offering career advice, and opportunities to participate in events, webinars, or other initiatives.
Phase 4: Track
Hiring teams typically use applicant tracking systems (ATS) or candidate relationship management (CRM) software to keep track of potential candidates and their interests so they can easily reach out to them when relevant job openings come up.
Step 5: Convert
If the candidates’ profiles match the current job requirements, they are automatically notified of the vacancy. With good recruiting software at their disposal, recruiters ensure that each candidate is active in the communication cycle during their hiring journey.
Why move from reactive to proactive recruiting?
Not sure about switching from reactive to proactive recruiting? Maybe these tips will change your mind!
1. For an effective recruitment ROI
Every recruiter strives for a time- and cost-efficient hiring workflow, and it’s easy to see why. After all, cost per hire and time to hire are crucial metrics for determining the overall productivity of the hiring process.
“ The less companies spend to acquire top talent, the greater their ROI.”
When it comes to proactive recruiting, these metrics can be made even more efficient. Here’s how:
- The proactive approach helps to predict the needs of a company and the evolution of the labor market. This means that recruiters have the map of the entire market, so in case new opportunities arise, there is already a quick solution.
- When recruiters already have an established structure in place to meet hiring demands in advance, they only need to make a small change to adapt to current trends, saving a lot of time for higher value-added activities.
- Because recruiters track candidates’ availability, they can fill open positions more quickly and efficiently.
2. For the best possible involvement of candidates
Establishing a consistent commitment and genuine connection is one of the significant aspects of proactive recruiting. It allows recruiters to:
- Identify “ideal” candidates based on a definitive set of characteristics.
- Explore the market needs and build a plan that matches the requirements.
- Uses AI to automatically select and contact relevant candidates.
- Engage in niche communities to embrace diversity hiring .
- Successfully convert prospects into hires through connected recruiting strategies.
3. To access a diverse talent pool
The “other benefit of” implementing proactive recruiting strategies is that it offers the opportunity to build and manage a diverse talent pool.
In practice, this approach follows an “INK” structure:
- Identify talent with the required skills and qualifications
- Nourish a healthy relationship with them
- Keep an eye on their current and future employment situation.
In a sense, a proactive recruiting approach moves away from the notion of “just in case” and serves multiple purposes, such as:
- It introduces recruiters to the “possibilities” of future job applications, so even if they don’t know which candidates they might need, they know who to ask.
- It allows you to monitor the candidate’s availability and interests for a given position, so you don’t have to knock on every door when a new role opens up.
4. For better brand visibility
Proactive recruiting requires many external activities, such as creating valuable content, building a user-oriented career site, etc. to improve brand visibility .
The main objective is to…
- Communicate the core brand message (especially highlighting the employee value proposition).
- Introduce potential candidates to the company’s culture, goals, and investments that align with the interests and development of current employees.
Content such as job postings, testimonials, discussions, surveys, etc. strengthen the agency’s credibility and brand trustworthiness among its target audience.
10+ Proactive Recruiting Strategies You Should Implement ASAP!
1. Master the hiring workflow
Most recruiters focus only on the assessment aspect of the hiring process. They already know their goal of success from interview to offer stage, but they rarely zoom in to see the entire workflow.
Because proactivity applies to every stage of hiring, it requires recruiters to first know the basics, which means…
- Candidate Categorization : Not all candidates are suitable for the positions they have applied for. A quick review of their profiles can help you categorize them into a queue with automatic job alerts.
- Pre-screening : Candidates who fail this stage are likely lacking specific skills. You can consider them for alternative roles or place them in a monitoring queue for the next 6-12 months to see if they grow their skills.
- Phone Screening : Some candidates appear to be a good fit for the culture, even if they aren’t the right fit for the specific role. Put these candidates into an immediate review pipeline for your team members. If the candidates aren’t a good fit, be honest with them and note it in your database.
- Personal Interview : Rejecting candidates at this stage means they are probably not a good fit for you. But if they are, but the timing wasn’t right, queue them up for a follow-up scheduled every 6-12 months. During this time, they could improve their skills.
- Team Mentor : Candidates who reach this stage require more attention from you. When interviewing these candidates, ask them about their past work experiences, employers, interests, etc. This stage is also a great place to ask for potential references.
- Offer Stage – Believe it or not, you may be rejected by the candidate at this stage too. If this happens, try to understand why. Think about what you could have done better to improve the candidate experience.
- Onboarding : This phase is all about the candidates. Ask them to join your social networks, involve them in your posts, introduce them to your colleagues and, above all, keep your communication channel open for them.
2. Apply to the source by channel
Of course, every recruiter starts looking for candidates on job boards and various popular hiring platforms. However, to be proactive, he or she must transform his or her sourcing channels from a checklist for posting job ads to a strategy.
You should review the success rate of your job listings on each platform as part of your proactive recruiting strategy. By doing so, you will be able to separate each site for sourcing different types of talent, such as…
- For previous candidates – those who have applied for any job role in the past, their ATS database can be the perfect place to start.
- For Selected Candidates Sit down with your hiring manager and identify the companies you expect to receive candidates from. Then, list your target candidates and look for ways to approach them.
- Most of the candidates come from platforms like LinkedIn, indeed, Monster, etc. but most of them don’t get hired. These are called inbound candidates . Make sure you follow up on them and add them to your ATS database as soon as possible.
- There is nothing better than sitting down with your team members and employees and making a list of recommended candidates . If your employees are happy to work with you, there is a high chance that you will make the most of their network.
- Social candidates include all of your followers on social media accounts who regularly follow, like, and comment on your posts. If nurtured correctly, they can be turned into potential hires.
3. Build an “evergreen” talent pipeline.
The very definition of proactive recruiting is building a talent pool with high-quality candidates who can fill open roles whenever they become available.
But how can such an incredible human supply be created?
Simple: Whenever you come across a potential candidate, add them to your database. Collect their details, note them according to their skills and demographics, and reach out to them to create a healthy connection.
Additionally, you can use your career site to attract your target audience and invite interested people to leave details about upcoming opportunities, guest articles, press releases, etc. This way, you can build a community of potential clients and candidates.
Here are some more tips to consider:
- Most companies have specific roles that they hire for on a daily basis. Make sure your pipeline has at least a sufficient number of candidates for these roles.
- Celebrate a “pipeline day” at your agency. Assign a few members of your team to do nothing but proactively recruit all day, at least once every two weeks. This will ensure that you never run out of people.
- Show your target audience how they can work with you through events, online workshops, mini-vlogs, etc.
4. Harnessing the Power of Big Data
The luxury of modern recruiting is the availability of data that can highlight market trends and identify areas where new hires will be needed in the future, allowing for accurate planning and forecasting.
Using big data is like having a map to determine the accuracy of candidates who should be interviewed and hired for vital roles, the cost that should be spent on each stage, the time it takes to close the positions, etc.
By analyzing these KPIs, recruiters tasked with talent acquisition, management, and development can predict talent needs before they even arise, strategically shifting from reactive to proactive recruiting.
5. Turn employees into advocates
While recruiting is only about new hires, it would be wise to keep the importance of existing employees as they can significantly contribute to strengthening your employer brand.
For most candidates, employees are like advocates who share their stories online and are much more trustworthy than the brand itself.
If you want to implement proactive recruiting strategies, you must first turn your employees into advocates. But remember…
- Don’t miss out on initial employee training sessions to ensure consistent and reliable message delivery across platforms.
- You encourage your employees to participate, but you never monitor their commitment.
- Allow your employees to be free and creative when posting content online.
6. Build the best possible candidate experience
Providing the best candidate experience should be the focal point of your proactive hiring process.
And a good candidate relationship management system can help you do this:
- Create engaging emails and message templates and send them to candidates at the right time.
- Automate communication with every candidate in your database.
- Segment each candidate based on certain characteristics for quick search.
- Make the application process fun and easy for candidates.
Keep in mind that your candidates are real people who want to be recognized as such. Creating a positive connection with them can make your proactive recruiting strategies work.
7. Network, Network, Network!
When it comes to proactive recruiting, networking works a little differently than usual.
Sure, attending career fairs and conferences will introduce you to many excellent candidates, but your existing networks, such as those on Slack, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, etc., can work in your favor.
Additionally, niche communities, being less competitive than large sites like LinkedIn, can help you find more qualified talent in less time.
8. Get “hunters” on your team
There are two types of recruiters: farmers and hunters. For proactive recruiting, it is best to have many “hunters” on your team.
These are people who are experts at identifying hard-to-find candidates, getting their attention, and closing an opportunity for them. These recruiters are always on the cutting edge and work closely with hiring managers to deliver top-tier talent.
Unlike agricultural recruiters, who are best at weeding out candidates for “evergreen” jobs, she must look for team members who are quick to step up, take direction and make the most of any hiring request.
9. Know your “tech stack”
For efficient hiring, you and your hiring team need at least the basic #Rectech stack, such as…
- ATS to follow candidates
- Recruitment Marketing Tools to Attract the Right Talent
- Operational tools such as talent management software , interviewing, analytics, etc. to streamline hiring.
- Sourcing tools for CV database management, resume parsing , etc.
💡 Tip : Write down your intake goals and benchmarks to decide what’s missing from your stack.
10. Improve Content Marketing Strategies
Creating and promoting targeted content to attract talent is one of the significant contributions to proactive recruitment strategies.
Career advice, industry news, online events, employee testimonials, etc. are some examples of content you can use to engage your talent.
💡 Expert Tip: Open AI tools like ChatGPT are becoming very popular nowadays. You can use them to quickly create user-friendly content.
11. Track your hiring analytics
You can implement hundreds of proactive recruiting strategies, but if you don’t measure and analyze your hiring process, they won’t work.
Companies that use data and analytics can understand what is working and what needs improvement, allowing them to predict future trends and plan tactics effectively.
💡 Remember: Recruiting teams with mature analytics are twice as likely to improve their recruiting efforts. Make sure you are one of them.
Let Recruit CRM handle the hard work!
Recruit CRM is a leading talent acquisition software that helps HR professionals…
SOURCE – Finding the best talent with minimal effort
ENGAGE – Build authentic relationships with candidates and clients
CONVERT – Encourage job seekers to apply
TRACK – Manage the selection process
ANALYZE – Improve overall ROI
Remember, proactive recruiting is fast, but it can be even faster with the right HR software.
And Recruit CRM can be “that” software for you.
Don’t believe it? Find out what others are saying !
Conclusion
Proactive recruiting strategies do indeed pay off; however, to make them work, you will need to modify your hiring workflow.
Sometimes, this requires improving your online presence or leveraging your employee network (or all of the above)—whatever works for your business, make sure you make the most of it.
