In a perfect world, you get to identify your ideal candidate early in the hiring process. They have the perfect combination of skills and experiences and a personality that will thrive with your company’s culture. There’s only one problem: they aren’t an active job seeker.
Maybe you met them when they applied for a different position in the past, or you learned about their expertise through a mutual professional connection. In either case, they haven’t chosen to throw their hat in the ring themselves, making them a passive job seeker at best. This means you can’t rely on them to leap into a new position right away. Instead, you have to reach out to them.
Are you looking to increase your communication with skilled passive job seekers? Engaging your existing candidate database to find potential employees who already know who you are. If this is a process your business is looking for assistance with, the Talent Direct service from nTech provides an efficiently managed solution. Here are five ways to get started.
In many cases, passive job seekers are primarily content in their current role. While they may be open to new opportunities, they are also fine with staying where they are, so a canned email or cold call about a position isn’t necessarily going to catch their interest.
Instead, you need to strive to make a personal connection. If you’ve met the individual before, discuss those previous experiences and mention why you were impressed with what they have to offer. If they are not part of your current network, then see if a mutual connection is willing to coordinate an introduction.
When communicating with passive candidates, transparency is essential. You should never attempt to sell them on a role that doesn’t exist or reframe a current opening as something it isn’t.
Attempting to lure a passive candidate with an incomplete truth will typically backfire. Once they learn that you skewed the information, your reputation is damaged, and they may discuss that point with other skilled professionals too.
Typically, the hiring manager is in the best position to connect with a passive candidate. If they will be supervising the new hire, establishing a relationship early in the process may make the role more enticing.
If you usually use recruiters to communicate with candidates, consider shifting your approach to get the hiring manager involved early on, especially if you are targeting passive job seekers.
Since a passive job seeker isn’t in a hurry to land a new role, they aren’t going to jump at every opportunity. Instead, they are going to work diligently to determine whether what you have to offer makes changing jobs worth the risk.
If you want to attract passive job seekers, then you need to provide them with clear value. One method is to embrace social media as a platform for sharing helpful information or highlighting what you offer employees and not just a mechanism for announcing vacancies.
Highlight aspects of your company culture, discuss professional development options, and talk about recent innovations. All of these points can make you a more attractive employer, increasing the odds that they’ll apply.
When you think you’ve found the ideal candidate and they happen to be a passive job seeker, you may be inclined to concentrate on them specifically. However, if you do this to the detriment of conducting more searches or keeping an eye on a diverse talent pool, you may let another top candidate slip through your search.
While engaging with a passive job seeker can reap dividends, a single person should never be your whole focus. Instead, make all communications about deepening your talent pool overall, allowing you to cultivate a strong database that will serve you well in the future.
If you are interested in learning more about engaging with passive job seekers, the professionals at nTech can help. Contact us to learn more about our hiring services today and see how our expertise can benefit you.