A Complete Guide to Proactive and Reactive Recruitment

Your recruitment strategy determines the kind of working culture you are going to have in your organization or enterprise since it is directly related to screening and hiring. Is it a quality hire or hire in a hurry but this all depends on the recruitment workflow?

In this blog from CROX RPO, we are going to provide you with a complete guide regarding Proactive and Reactive recruitment and the major differences between both.

Proactive and Reactive are the two different ways to approach candidates. Even before a hiring need occurs, proactive recruitment focuses on finding, connecting, and attracting the relevant candidates. And finding new employees for positions is what we call Reactive Recruitment.

Proactive Recruitment Meaning

So, what is exactly Proactive Recruitment? It is a process of finding, interacting, and attracting relevant candidates to meet the requirements.

In this, you just create a solid talent pipeline and choose them when you need to fill any vacancy. Interviewing candidates for a particular position is not all about interviews but it adds a layer of communication between the recruiting managers and potential employers.

Reactive Recruitment Meaning

This is the opposite to proactive; it is basically filling a vacancy when there is a rise in the demand for resources. This is the most used and conventional of recruitment. The idea of Reactive is actually demand-based and hence it is more pressuring and disorganized. The hiring process begins only after there is a need to replace employees. Employees face immense pressure to find the best and most skilled candidate for a particular requirement.

Measures for Proactive Recruitment

According to a survey over 70% of candidates passively look for jobs. It means they are interested in chances but aren’t actively looking for or applying for jobs. Hence, it makes sense for recruiters to engage with prospects, proactively and anticipate recruiting needs, given the length of the hiring process and the cost per hire both are increasing. Here are some following measures that would help you in proactive technical recruitment planning:

• Give priority to market inspection. Just analyze current trends and market requirements.
• Conduct interviews because you never know when a requirement arises.
• Keep an eye on the major activities of your business
• Try to sell the firm’s image and employer branding to job seekers.

Proactive Recruitment Strategies

The ideal proactive recruitment strategy might differ it all depends on the industry, what kind of role there is etc. Here’s what you need to do.

• Finding the best sources by working with hiring teams. Online posting, creating a solid pipeline, and word-of-mouth marketing can be useful for sourcing candidates.
• Contact the top candidates in your pipeline. Try to get familiar with it before making the decision to call the candidate.
• Just carry on engaging with all potential candidates. Make sure you stay in touch with them via phone calls, email, or any other social media platform to make sure that you don’t forget them.
• Invite all the potential hires to apply so that they can join your team. Just outline the advantages that can have while working in your enterprise or organization and how you can help them to grow as a professional. In this way, an organization can achieve all the success in a quick time frame.
• Provide better applicant experience and lessen the candidate’s effort. Ask only relevant questions rather than making the interview process lengthy and unnecessary.

Reactive Recruitment Measures

Reactive Recruitment basically focuses on filling all the vacancies and these are totally unstructured. As we already know the labor market trends are uncertain and it is likely to result in resource generation for the company. However, here are some measures suggested by our experts that can help in fixing all the quick rushes:

• Observe the trends in short-term employment
• Perform reviews and re-examine all the sick leave and poor health factors
• Keep a regular check on Headcounts. Just notice whether it is freezing, decreasing, or increasing.

Difference Between Proactive Recruitment and Reactive Recruitment

To sum it up: here are three-point differences between Proactive and Reactive Recruitment.

• Proactive Recruitment is preparing for the future. On the other hand, reactive recruitment depends on the execution when there is a requirement of filling particular vacancies.
• In proactive recruitment, you already have a solid pipeline of candidates who are willing to join the organization, it enhances candidate retention and overall experience. However, with reactive recruitment the vacancy still remains unfilled for a prolonged time, creating loss situations for the firms.
• When you proactively monitor the recruitment workflow of your enterprise, it decreases the hiring time and operational cost contrary to that reactive recruitment builds pressure and increases the chances of poor hiring.

Conclusion

Summing it up, it’s evident that proactive hiring is ideal for every company and it should meet the talent acquisition requirements of the firm. This enables recruiters to connect with the best people across different industries at less investment and improved communication. There are multiple proactive recruitment examples that suggest leaving the regressive hiring method and moving forward with more planned and well-executed planning methods for effective smooth recruitment workflow.