Discover how employers can build a network of high-performers by targeting passive candidates.
Build a Network of Candidates Your Competitors Can’t Reach: Passive Candidates
Reaching passive candidates is the golden ticket for many recruiters. It is a tough pool to reach but, if you can tap into it, you have access to some of the most experienced and attractive candidates on the market. Their passive nature, however, creates a challenging roadblock for recruiting professionals. Building a network with a large number of passive candidates can help your team prepare for the future.
Passive candidates are people who are happy in their current role and aren’t actively looking to move, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t move for the right opportunity. These people can be utilized as a huge resource in a candidate-driven market (when candidates hold just as much–if not more–power than employers).
Building a Passive Candidate Pool
Rather than waiting for the perfect candidates to apply to the positions you’re hiring for, try to direct your efforts toward strategically sourcing talent. Attending events, trade shows, meetups, and other places to try and network with professionals in your field. When networking with a promising individual, think about the future. Even if you don’t have an applicable job for them right now, you can save their contact information in your ATS database (like Crelate, for example). Who knows, you may be looking for someone just like them in the near future.
Maybe only a small fraction of the workforce is actively looking for a new opportunity at any given time, a surprising majority of people are willing to talk to recruiters and learn more about potential career advancement.
Reaching passive candidates is all about meeting them where they spend their time online. This is the perfect time to leverage social media channels to reach this goldmine of candidates. LinkedIn is great, but taking advantage of other channels such as Twitter and Facebook is very useful to build an online presence, understand what people are doing outside of their professional lives, and to get in front of people who wouldn’t normally see your content.
Look to Other Verticals
Using word-of-mouth on social channels allows you to tap into another great source of passive candidates: separate industry verticals. By reaching out to qualified candidates in other verticals, you can find professionals who may be interested in joining a new industry for the career advancement potential it presents. These candidates still have valuable experience that can transfer to many industries and also provide new perspectives during the crucial decision-making.
Outside of reaching a new pool of candidates, looking outside of your usual vertical can save time and money on training. Many of the candidates you’ll find in other industries may use similar systems and processes to your clients, allowing them to hit the ground running.
If you’re ready to get ahead of the game and build a more proactive recruiting process, check out our eBook; “How to Build a Proactive Recruiting Plan.”
