At Foresight, we bang on about proactive recruitment all the time. The other day, it dawned on us.

Not everyone knows what proactive recruitment means!

It’s easy to do that. Operate in a vacuum and believe the World thinks the same way.

So, what is proactive recruitment and why should you care?

I’m going to paint with a very broad brush here, and give you the outline of the proactive recruitment model.

What It Isn’t

There’s a misconception in recruitment. A big one.

Recruiters everywhere think that by picking up the phone and calling candidates first, they’re being proactive.

Oh, how I wish it was that easy!

That’s not being proactive. That’s doing your job, unfortunately. 

What It Is

Proactive recruitment is… the Holy Grail.

Being in control of your process.

Capture hiring demand ahead of the need arising. Turning this data into actionable information. Then acting on it.

By doing this, you’ll be able to fill the role when the need arises – proactive.

Not filling the role after it has gone live – reactive.

Let me show you a reactive recruiter vs proactive recruiter handling a role.

The Reactive Recruitment Model

The Proactive Recruitment Model

This is the philosophy we live and breathe. The philosophy our customers have adopted. 

It centers around a recruitment teams ability to capture known hiring demand.

Simple As That

I didn’t go into fine detail here about how to capture this known hiring demand, or what to do at each point after you have the data. 

If you’d like to know how to get started on the path to true proactivity, then check out the next post in this series – The 5 Steps to Recruitment Planning