The Watercooler

What Is Proactive Recruiting?

Want to be overwhelmed with unqualified candidates? Make knee-jerk hires that backfire? Struggle with vacant positions?

Of course not – who in their right mind would? But without a proactive recruiting plan, you may be setting yourself up for headaches like these and worse.

Low unemployment, critical talent shortages and a healthy economy have created a perfect storm when it comes to hiring. It’s taking longer than ever to find people with the experience, soft skills and cultural fit to thrive in your company.

In today’s conditions, the early bird truly does get the worm! Here’s how to hire successfully in a tight talent market – by building a forward-thinking recruiting plan:

What is a proactive recruiting strategy?

As the term implies, proactive recruiting is a multi-faceted approach to ensuring your organization has timely access to qualified candidates. While the components of your recruiting strategy will depend upon the types, timing and volume of your hiring needs, a proactive plan includes the following elements:

  • Anticipating your future hiring needs. Consider:
    • which departments are growing and will require additional staff;
    • vacancies internal promotions will create;
    • the impact of retirements and voluntary turnover;
    • how seasonal fluctuations affect hiring;
    • current skills you’re struggling to recruit for and future skills needed.
  • Analyzing your current talent inventory and (as accurately as possible) estimating the volume and types of people you will need over a two- to three-year period.  Only once you understand your requirements can you translate it into a smart plan.
  • Casting a wider net. Determine who your ideal candidates are for each type of job, and then consider which recruiting methods will likely work best. A comprehensive strategy will include the right mix of tools (e.g., social recruiting, direct recruiting, posting on major and niche job boards) to yield great candidates, quickly.
  • Updating your job descriptions. Take the time now to benchmark high performers and identify skills (hard and soft), competencies, core responsibilities and career paths for each job. This way, you’ll be primed to immediately post jobs and unleash your recruiting arsenal once you have a need.
  • Strengthening your employment brand. Building a strong brand takes substantial time and effort, but it can turn your company into a true talent magnet. This earlier post shares practical tips for improving your employment brand.
  • Improving your career site. Make your career site a destination for both active and passive talent:
    • Create job alerts candidates can opt into, so they’re the first to learn about new openings.
    • Add an opt-in career newsletter to build candidate relationships and/or a career resource library to encourage repeat visitors.
    • Share stories about your employees’ and team’s successes – so people can see what it’s really like to work for your organization.
    • Simplify your job application so that it functions well on mobile.
  • Creating a talent community. A talent community can help you build relationships with great people ahead of your hiring needs. When a job opens up, you may already have viable prospects within your community to fill your position faster. This earlier post explains the steps in starting a talent community.
  • Developing or expanding your referral program. Referrals are a prime source of high-quality candidates. If you don’t have a formal referral plan, resolve to design and implement one in 2019. And if you already have one in place, reach out to more people to boost your program’s reach and results:
    • Educational institutions, clients, vendors and industry associations are all potential referral sources.
    • Include your referral program in your onboarding practices.
    • Tell employees about your current and planned openings – and remind them that you welcome qualified referrals.
  • Developing a strong partnership with a national employment agency like PrideStaff.When you have an immediate need or hard-to-fill position, we are an indispensable ally in your search for great people. We can help you:
    • Plan your future hiring needs.
    • Update position descriptions now, so we understand your requirements and can quickly source candidates once you’re ready to hire.
    • Accelerate recruiting to speed time-to-hire, without sacrificing quality.
    • Prevent reactionary hiring and improve the quality of candidate matches.
    • Provide temporary support to prevent the disruption position vacancies cause.

PrideStaff uses a variety of proactive recruiting techniques, robust candidate databases and nationwide resources to deliver qualified candidates, quickly and cost-effectively.

It’s never too soon to discuss your hiring needs with us! Contact your local PrideStaff office today to get started.