Proactive recruitment: how to reach out to candidates, and why you should
Candidate recruitment can be a lengthy process. Shifting through hundreds of CVs, conducting multiple stages of interviews — it isn’t easy to find someone perfect for your role. But there is another way: proactive recruitment.
We’ll take you through what proactive recruitment is and how to reach out.
What is proactive recruitment?
Proactive recruitment means identifying skilled individuals and building relationships with people that are a good fit for roles you need or might need in the future. This is usually carried out before a position is advertised, or before the position is even open!
That way, when you have a position to fill, you already know the right people for the job.
Proactive recruitment can be done via email, social media sites such as LinkedIn, or on the phone. Using your employer brand to attract candidates is a part of proactive recruitment.
Reactive recruitment vs proactive recruitment
Reactive recruitment requires a slightly different approach to the sort of recruitment we are used to. Active/reactive methods aim to find candidates for new roles that have just become available. They are designed to fulfil an immediate need in the business. Positions usually need filling within a certain timeframe, which could cause businesses to rush and select the wrong candidate.
On the other hand, proactive recruitment aims to plan for the future.
Why proactive recruitment is the way to go
Proactive recruitment can be an effective way to get the right candidates for your upcoming role. Because the process isn’t always looking for a specific job role, this can be a great way to chat with lots of potential employees and identify their individual strengths. This could result in a new role being created that you didn’t know you needed, and not limiting your candidates to one specific job.
Another benefit is that proactive recruitment helps establish relationships with potential employees. Direct communication can help you decide whether they’ll be a good fit within the company, and start the connection off right. If you follow this process for all of your new employees, this can create an incredibly friendly and open atmosphere for the business.
As well as establishing relationships, reaching out to individuals personally will make you and your company stand out, therefore increasing interest in your business. After being contacted via proactive recruitment methods, individuals will often research your company and imagine themselves working for you.
How to proactively find candidates for jobs
Use social media
Social media gives us many opportunities to find out about candidates before you reach out to them. 79% of job applicants use social media in their job search, and 1 in 10 are successful in acquiring a new job. You can easily perform candidate screening based on their previous work experience to see if they’d make a good fit
Send a message
When you have discovered a candidate, the next step would be to send them a message. Make sure messages appear personal and written by a real human being, rather than an automated message from a bot. Here are two example of proactive recruitment messages for inspiration:
- ‘Hi there, I came across your profile and noticed how much great experience you have within the XXXX industry. I work as an XXXX at XXXX and feel you’d be a great fit. Are you open to new opportunities?’
- ‘Hi XXXX, I work at XXXX and noticed your current role looks great to us. We’re not currently listing any jobs on our site officially, but I think you’d fit in well at XXXX. We have an incredible culture and can offer benefits such as XXXX. Let me know what you think, and I can send over some further information to you.
It helps to make each message personal. You could include the exact role you are referring to when mentioning that you think they have relevant experience, such as a Digital Marketing Executive or Bar Waiter. You can even include their name in the subject line for an extra personalised touch.
Create a careers page
If you haven’t already, create a URL dedicated to your candidates. Make a page that you can direct the individuals you reach out to that outlines your company’s culture, the benefits, and also encourage them to share testimonials of employees to showcase career progression if employees are available. Make sure the page reflects life at the company and anything else you think might be relevant to showcasing what it’s like to work with you.
This can encourage potential candidates to know a bit more about the company values and the structure of the business.
Ask for their information
Make sure you know what information you’ll need straight away. You can include in your first message that if they’d like to hear more, they can reply with their personal email and phone number, that way you can open up the communication more directly and keep in touch with future offers.
Why you should take on proactive recruitment and candidate screening
Using this method makes candidates feel appreciated and recognized. You’ve gone out of your way to seek these individuals out, and take an interest in their skills. It can make candidates have an increased level of enthusiasm and engagement for working with you and is a unique approach. With competition so high, especially within the high-churn industries, its important to be proactively reaching out to candidates, understanding their values, skills interest and aligning that with the company and role.
As you have built up a relationship with every individual when it comes to screening, you already have background knowledge of each person. Have a brief and casual chat beforehand, and when it comes to official interviews, you’ll have got to know them in both an informal and formal setting.
Proactive hiring is a candidate recruitment method that can benefit your company in many ways. At Placed, we understand the power that proactive recruitment can have, and our app is built with this in mind. Use our industry leading features, including detailed candidate profiles that not only highlights their experience but also personality traits including their fun facts and deal-breakers, to find candidates for jobs today. Get in touch with our team if you have any questions.
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