The Importance of Passive Candidates & How to Keep Them Engaged
In the current, ultra-competitive hiring market, it is critical to have a strategic action plan and act with purposeful velocity to connect with transformational talent. While many companies go after individuals who are actively seeking a new career opportunity and have a presence on social media and job boards, passive candidates must not be overlooked.
A passive candidate is someone who is gainfully employed and is not actively seeking new employment opportunities. Often, the passive candidate pool is typically where A+ talent resides. These are game-changing individuals often characterized by impressive skill sets and qualifications, stability, and a focus on excellence.
If you are interested in learning how you can enhance your recruiting efforts by engaging and connecting with passive candidates, keep reading to gain insights from our Director of Business Development and Marketing, Kyle Hullmann.
How to Identify & Connect with Passive Candidates
Identifying and connecting with passive candidates can be very challenging because these individuals are not active on job boards and may not have up-to-date LinkedIn profiles, which can be used to find candidates with desirable skills and experience. Even networking with passive candidates in-person can be difficult since you will often cross paths at industry events where the individual may be with their boss or colleagues.
No single email, job posting, or phone call will deliver this level of talent. It takes a project-based approach to yield results. To successfully identify and connect with passive candidates, you will need to commit time to research to fully understand common motivating factors of individuals who are gainfully employed. Additionally, it will be critical to develop a strategic plan and have a system in place for engagement over an extended period of time that features communications about the strengths of your company and the position. Outsourcing these efforts, whether to an internal recruiting team or a professional staffing agency like AllSearch, is an effective way to target the passive candidate pool. Headhunters with years of experience in the industry often have personal connections they can leverage to identify and connect you with candidates who are not actively seeking new career opportunities.
How to Keep Candidates Engaged During the Recruiting Process
When an exceptional passive candidate is in the recruiting process, it is vital to act fast and roll out the red carpet. When a candidate in the top 5% of the talent pool is considering your company, it is important to act with urgency. Remember that interest from a candidate of this caliber can be rare and is highly valuable. Consider the following tips to put your company’s best foot forward and keep passive candidates engaged:
- Keep the interview process under two weeks.
- Gain a true understanding of the candidate’s motivating factor for considering a career change and thoroughly showcase how your company can fulfill that factor.
- Have the candidate meet with members of your leadership team to eliminate thoughts like “we need to compare the candidate with a few others” or “they will still be around in a couple weeks.”
Questions to Ask Passive Candidates
As early in the process as possible, it will be important to ask passive candidates what their motivating factors are for speaking with you about your company and open position. Whether they mention work-life balance, lack of advancement opportunity, new management, acquisition, or another factor, you must lean in on this information throughout the recruiting process, even to the point of being creative and thinking outside of your typical process and offer package. Other questions to consider asking could include:
- What motivated you to accept your current position?
- Does your current position excite you and fulfill your career goals?
- Does leadership value your ideas and opinions?
- What is one thing you would change about your current role to make it better?
- Have you obtained your dream job? If not, where do you see yourself in five years?
Partner with AllSearch to Get Connected to Passive Candidates
Exceptional talent is rare and does not last long. Get the competitive edge by tapping into the desirable passive candidate pool to fill your open positions! At AllSearch, our dedicated team of construction recruiters, HVAC recruiters, insurance recruiters, and other specialized headhunters are trained in the most advanced recruiting techniques to help you connect with top candidates. Visit our website or connect with us on LinkedIn to learn more about our recruiting capabilities and team!
Contact: Kyle Hullman, Director of Business Development and Marketing
Phone: 888-427-3977 x107
Email: kyleh@allsearchinc.com