Even considering their current employment status, passive candidates can still be an excellent source of top talent. Passive candidates make up 70% of the global workforce, while the remaining 30% are active job seekers. They can be little more difficult to recruit; however, the time and effort spent is considerably worthwhile. Passive candidates often have the valuable knowledge and skills that are crucial to success, and therefore important to many organizations.
What Exactly is a Passive Candidate?
Simply put, a passive candidate is someone who’s currently employed full-time. While they may not be actively applying to jobs, there’s a good chance that passive candidates have thought about making a move (immediately or in the future). Grabbing attention from this type of candidate requires creativity, as well a strategic persistence. As you learn and practice the best recruitment strategies for attracting passive candidates, you’ll become an expert in commanding the interest of this promising group.
The Best Recruitment Strategies to Attract Passive Candidates
1. Get Personal
Do you dread it when a candidate ignores or simply deletes your emails? If so, it’s important that you look into personalizing your communications to guarantee that you’ll win their attention. Every line you write matters—perhaps most importantly the subject line and the start of your message.
Reference personal details that you know about the candidate in your message to build a relationship. Lurking them on social media beforehand is fair game. By looking through their public profiles, you’ll likely find out about any hobbies, activities and volunteer work they participate in. You can strategically work these interests into your messaging when presenting them with job opportunities.
Adding a personal touch like this gives your emails an extra allure, and inspires them to shift gears in their careers and choose you to help them with it. It also shows that you did your homework.
2. Refer to Your Applicant Tracking System
Your applicant tracking system is a goldmine of candidate information. In your recruiting software, refer to your list of suitable passive candidates to see if any of them would be interested in your current openings. Review the candidate’s qualifications, strengths and any communication correspondence you may have had in the past (again, keeping in mind point 1 mentioned above).
The information you already have stored about these candidates will help you connect with them. Are they currently employed at a similar job, but perhaps with less growth opportunity? Does their current role have a longer commute time than the one you’re offering? Know all of your selling points when you’re trying to attract a passive candidate to a new role.
3. Create a Strong Employer Brand
This whitepaper by Linkedin shows that having a strong corporate brand attracts top talent. The more a candidate knows what to expect about your client’s brand, the more likely they’ll be to consider the organization as an employer. If you can convince passive candidates that your client’s values will have a positive impact on their overall life satisfaction, chances are better that they’ll consider a switch.
The study also revealed that a strong employer brand is particularly important for companies looking to attract junior-level candidates or candidates from younger demographics. Some elements of a strong employer brand include: well-written job posts, engaging social media content, and exciting videos of the workplace and its employees.
4. Share Interesting Social Media Content
Share valuable and interesting content on social media about the opportunities you have available (or coming up) so that you stay on top of the candidate’s mind. By doing this, you can also potentially attract passive candidates you hadn’t even thought about.
The reality is that even employed individuals like to keep their finger on the pulse of the job market. You’ve put a lot of effort in writing detailed job posts—why not leverage them and infuse your personality into the communication as well? If you share consistent content that wows and delivers real value, it could sway candidates to consider your client’s organization as their next opportunity.
Put Yourself in Their Shoes
What are the things that would encourage you to consider a role and company? What would it take for you to leave your current role to pursue a new one? Once you start thinking like a passive candidate, you’ll understand how to attract them to your jobs.
Want to know how Mindscope can help you engage passive candidates effectively? Get in touch with us to learn what our applicant tracking system can do for you.