What is the Difference Between Proactive Recruitment and Reactive Recruitment?

So, you’re driving along the road, pushing the speed limit in order to make the meeting you’re running late for while trying to make sense of the notes you scribbled late last night and stuffing the piece of toast you hastily made on  your way out the door into your mouth at the same time.

And then you get a flat tyre.

As you stand out in the rain, a cellphone which, of course, has no reception, dangling from your hand, you really start to regret not getting that spare fixed a month ago. Or last week. Or yesterday. Anytime really, as long as it was before you desperately needed it.

And that, in a nutshell, is the difference between reactive and proactive recruitment. Of course you’ll react to this scenario by getting a new tyre for your car, and a new spare for the boot. But that doesn’t cancel out the fact that you missed your meeting or had your new suit ruined as you waited in the pouring rain trying desperately to flag down a passing Samaritan.

Proactive recruitment means solving a problem before it actually exists, and it’s something that big multi-national corporations the world-over dedicate significant time, energy and money to. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of New Zealand businesses, the idea of having a department, or even a single person for that matter, whose sole responsibility revolves around actively searching for great candidates to fill future roles is nothing more than a pipe dream.

More often than not we, as business owners, find ourselves completely immersed in the day-to-day running of our businesses. We’re trying to cultivate clients, put out fires, and manage our existing staff. Until a dire situation walks up and slaps us in the face (a sudden influx of work comes in and you need more hands on deck, or an unexpected resignation leaves you short staffed) recruitment is seldom considered.

But when those unthinkable situations arise – reactive recruitment – you invariably end up hiring someone from a position of weakness. What are the chances the ideal candidate is looking for a new job at the exact same time you urgently have to fill a position? Slim at best.

As a consequence, you’ll end up settling for the best person you can find on short notice, without having had the luxury of time to thoroughly research them, and without having really put thought and consideration into the type of person you need in the first place.

Proactive recruiting is about thinking towards the future

It’s about looking at where you are today, and where you want to be moving forward, and then defining what kind of people you’ll need to surround yourself with to get there. You don’t need to have all the answers to achieve your business goals, you just need to build a team who do, and that’s where we come in.

We partner with clients at every stage of their business’s evolution, helping them prepare strategies to fulfill both their short-term needs, and their long-term visions. Looking for quality people who will make a great fit with our client’s businesses is what we do each and every day. We’ve got the existing relationships, the skills and resources, and the time and energy needed to find the ideal candidates with the attributes our clients are looking for.

Proactive recruitment doesn’t have to be a costly experience

In doesn’t involve continually posting expensive ads or running lengthy campaigns. But it does involve us constantly thinking about the best ways to utilise the talents of the candidates we come across, and looking at how they might be able to add value to our clients businesses. That process can be delivered with more or less urgency as needs dictate, but no matter what surprises come your way you’ll never find yourself under the pump, scouring the Situations Wanted section in the hope of finding any old ‘Joe or Josephine Bloggs’ who can help you out of a fix.

Decipher Group are industry experts in the recruitment of executive, c-suite level professionals, and governance leaders for New Zealand and Australian businesses. We’ve been connecting talented people to exciting opportunities for 15 years. Let’s talk.

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