Proactive Vs. Reactive Recruitment

Are you reactive or proactive when it comes to recruiting new candidates?  Reactive recruiting can leave you with more problems than solutions.  Unfortunately, reactive recruiting is the way that many companies go about bringing new people in.  They wait until it’s time to have new candidates in place and then hastily recruit the next available person (s) in order to fill the position.  Being proactive and having a plan to recruit the right people with the skills and talent you need can help ensure your company is successful.

Proactive recruiting starts with evaluating the skills needed for your company.  Do you need someone with banking or finance expertise?  How about someone with marketing or communications skills?  The positive effect of proactive recruiting is finding qualified candidates quickly, who have already been prescreened.  The negative affect is the loss and time qualifying someone for future reference, only to find that they have accepted another position in the meantime.

The traditional recruitment model, which can be defined as a somewhat passive model, typically follows this pattern:  one waits for a requisition to arrive, the job is posted for the world to see with little or no changes to what the hiring leader submits in the description. The recruiter then checks and screens responses that may be a few or hundreds depending on the position. The resumes are then sent off to the hiring leader who is quick to find what is wrong with the candidates to interview, and decisions are made on offers (that may or may not be accepted).  This approach is a result of a changing marketplace as it relates to both the recruitment and business processes.  Just as recruitment teams struggle with limited resources to get their job done, so do companies.  Time is hard to find and priorities are constantly changing.

There are three key components in developing a strategic, proactive recruitment team:  planning, execution, and results.  These three areas capture the essence of change for a team to shift focus from working in a reactive, environment to a best-in-class strategic, proactive partnership.

Planning: At the leadership level, this is the foundation for establishing a new approach for the team.  Planning takes on different forms based on the organization, but things to consider are analyzing workforce needs, using labor indicators to validate your assumptions, understanding the jobs in terms of what the person needs to do, setting expectations for the recruitment team and hiring managers, and finally managing volumes to maintain the new service levels.

Execution: The heart and soul of this framework is the ability to execute all critical components in the process including building relationships with hiring leaders and candidates. The hiring process must be articulated with clear roles and responsibilities by building a proactive sourcing model that incorporates both active and passive sourcing. Current up-to-date sourcing channels must be utilized. Introduction to networking and pipelining options for key positions in the organizations must be accomplished, and finally creating a best-in-class experience for each and every candidate.

Results: When the planning and execution process is done, it’s important to understand what is working and where the opportunities are for continuous process improvements.  The right mix of measures will help to validate the success and share information with key business contacts.  It is results like this that build the credibility of the recruitment team and may open doors to new funding sources.  Because recruitment is a continuously changing industry, it is important that process and practice are refreshed and updated on a regular basis.

A critical factor for success is having everyone on the same page, whether your model involves research teams, recruiters, coordinators, hiring managers, or just one-on-one relationship between the recruiter and hiring manager.  It is vitally important that everyone is clear on the process and using similar tools.  The investment in performance-based hiring offers a clear defined process that is flexible based on the team’s design and priorities for change.  Performance-based Hiring can help everyone – recruiter and hiring companies achieve success.

How Maizis & Miller Proactively Recruits Diesel Mechanics and Fleet Managers

With a dedicated team of recruiters focused exclusively on staffing for the heavy equipment and heavy truck industries for the last 20 years there is no wonder we are a leader in our trade.  We recognize the important of effectively utilizing technology for efficiency, accuracy, and speed in our search for qualified candidates. We maintain a high job search traffic by building a strong Google search presence with news associations, press releases, affiliate partners, and the creation of an industry leading resource and social community dedicated to mechanics – www.MechanicsHub.com.

We are proactively mining the best and brightest candidates throughout the year.  Our constant effort and exclusive networks allow us to find candidates that hardly ever touch the market. We find qualified candidates for employers in just a few weeks after employers have exhausted many months without results. We welcome you to trial our services without any commitment to find out why employers consider us the best in the business for Heavy Equipment and Heavy Truck.