The following article was submitted by Lori Creighton from Greater Mankato Growth member business, Homestead Media. She writes about the benefits of using a proactive recruiting process instead of a reactive one.
Are you part of a Greater Mankato member business and have an interest in writing a guest blog for us? Send 500-800 words to [email protected] or reach out to Greater Mankato Growth with further questions.

HR professionals aren’t the only people thinking about recruiting. Recruiting is on the minds of business owners and executives who are tasked with implementing business strategy because they know that their ability to meet their business goals depends in large part on their ability to attract and retain the right talent. Recruiting is more difficult than ever in our low unemployment economy and traditional methods just don’t work like they used to. Part of the answer to getting better recruiting results is to change your approach and become proactive instead of reactive.

What’s the difference between reactive and proactive recruiting?
 
A reactive approach is transactional. The process doesn’t get put into motion until there’s a need. You post and promote the job. You get resumes or applications and you continue with your hiring process.
 
A proactive process is relational. A proactive process builds a talent community, or pipeline, with online touchpoints that help people get to know your company and your jobs. This allows you to connect and communicate with people who have the skills you’re looking for, often before you have a need. It’s a long-term strategy that can also support your current recruiting efforts.
 
Here are four reasons to switch to a proactive recruiting process:
 
1. Matches Up with Human Behavior
 
In our digital world, people search for and make decisions about their careers with the same behaviors that they use to shop for products and services. That means that they’re hopping around to different online destinations looking for answers to their questions and trying to address concerns that they have about making a change. When you provide the content that they’re looking for, you help them along in their journey, and you gain the opportunity to share the stories that promote your company as an employer of choice.
 
2. Expands Your Reach
 
Statistics vary on the number of people who are actively looking for a different job, but just about everyone would be open to your message. According to LinkedIn, 90% of professionals are interested in hearing about new job opportunities. Additionally, when you provide employees and your referral sources with a way to share your message through online content, you equip them to be advocates for your company to their own network of peers.
 
3. You Get Better Hires and Retention
 
When you reach into a deeper pool and give those people a chance to engage with you online, you’re going to end up with hires. When people learn about your company through digital interactions, they have more information on which to decide whether you’re a good fit for them or not. Better fit hires translate into better employee retention, too. If you’ve been transparent with the information you’re providing – sharing real stories and showing what it’s like to work at your company – candidates feel more like they’re joining you and they can align their purpose with yours.
 
4. Proactive Recruiting Creates Competitive Advantage

These days, you have to market to top talent just as you do to prospective customers. Speaking in platitudes and generalities doesn’t make you memorable or have any significant impact on a person’s decision-making process. Developing a proactive process that includes digital touchpoints that tell stories of your company and jobs, through the eyes of your employees, differentiates you from other companies vying for the same talent. You become memorable, and your message resonates with the right candidates.
 
How to Switch to a Proactive Recruiting Process
 
Even the biggest companies have had to transition to a proactive recruiting process incrementally. The best first step is to start telling employee experience stories. Employee stories give people an authentic look at what it’s like to work at your company while answering candidate questions at the same time.

Employee experience stories can be published on your company blog and promoted on your social media channels. The testimonials that come out of your employee stories have trust-building power when they’re sprinkled on your Careers page, beside your job postings and in social media posts.  

Employee Stories Give an Immediate Impact

While building a talent pipeline is a long-term strategy, gathering and sharing employee stories is something that you can do right now to stand out from your competitors going after the same talent. Support your Careers message and job postings with the voices of your employees and you will immediately bump up your credibility as a choice employer while stirring up goodwill with your current employees at the same time.

To learn more about about Recruitment Marketing go to www.homesteadmedia.net.