Why You Need To Recruit Passive Job Candidates

Anyone who is in the recruiting and hiring game will agree that finding the right people for your company is a tough job. By implementing an effective hiring strategy you can increase your chances of hiring top talent. One tactic that will help drive your company to long term success is to actively recruit passive job candidates.

Passive job candidates make up approximately 79% of the world’s working professionals (TheUndercoverRecruiter.com). A passive job candidate can be defined as someone who is not actively searching for jobs, but they might be interested in making the move to your company if you’re able to woo them over. These candidates have nothing to hide and no reason to move, so you have to make it worth while – better pay, advancement opportunities, remote work opportunities, work-life balance, etc..

On the flip side, the other 21% of professionals are active job candidates. An active job candidate is someone who proactively searching for a job. They are unsatisfied with their current position for any number of reasons. These job seekers are sending in applications and are fully committed to finding a new job.

It’s wise to try to appeal to both active and passive job candidates. Active job candidates will find your job postings, but you’ll have to reach out to passive job candidates. By appealing to passive job candidates you will drastically increase the number of people who may potentially want to work for you. It’s no easy to task to tap into the huge talent pool of passive job candidates. You’ll have to  make a few tweaks to your hiring strategy.

To recruit passive job candidates you have to grab their attention. Personally reach out to these skilled professionals and let them know about the position and tell they why they need to make the switch. Here are a handful of ways to grab the attention of a passive job candidates:

• Social Media – Engage with your audience on social media. If a passive job seeker likes what they see, they’ll also notice the job ads that you post via social.
• Employee Referral Programs – Your best recruiters already work for you. Establish a reward program where your current employees actively recruit top talent for you.
• Talent Pool – Tap into your talent pool and stay connected with the people you hope will someday work for your company.
• Employer Brand – Build an employer brand and company culture that makes people dream about working for your company.
• Job Descriptions – Write captivating job descriptions that encourage passive job candidates to apply for the job.

If you want to hire the best person for the job, invest the time to actively pursue passive job candidates. Convince them why you are the best employer in the world and you’ll create a team that’s better than ever.