Companies have realized that they need to promote their jobs the same way they market their services and products if they want to keep their competitive edge. There are different strategies that a company can apply in order to attract passive candidates, those employees who are working but don’t necessarily plan to change their jobs. Are you struggling to get qualified candidates in your industry with your usual recruitment methods? If so, it’s time to broaden your hiring strategy.

A passive candidate is someone an employer is considering for a certain position, but who is not actively seeking a new position. Most passive candidates are content with their current position but could be open to switching jobs should the right opportunity arise.

Finding the right people to fill positions can be hard.

An online application process may be more convenient for you, but it also opens you up to a flood of applications that you have to wade through to separate the possible from the laughable, and that takes a ton of time.

It is highly probable that the people you want are not even applying for the job. These are

“Passive candidates”, and actually comprise 75% of the workforce. However, since passive candidates exert very little to no effort to find employment, they can be much tougher to identify.

You may be thinking that if they aren’t applying for jobs then they must not be interested in one. That is not always true. Many talented people are currently employed, but may still be interested in considering other work if the right one comes along.

Passive job candidates are people who are not actively looking for a job. They are content with their current employment but are open to a new job if the right opportunity presents itself. These types of candidates are attractive for many reasons. For one, since they are not actively seeking other opportunities, they will likely only be interviewing with you. This means that the time you spend interviewing and researching them is more likely to result in a hire than a candidate who is interviewing with ten firms. Also, they currently hold a position that is similar to the one you are seeking to fill, so training will be easier than with someone in a different field or with different skill sets. Since they are currently employed, they are not desperate to take just any job to pay the bills. They will only consider jobs in which they have a real interest. This makes it more likely that they will stay on for the long term and that they will be satisfied in the position.

The goal then is to find people who are not putting themselves out there and successfully engage their interest in working with you. Check out these Best 9 Strategies to attract passive candidates:

1. Build a Continuous Pipeline:

Since passive candidates aren’t actively seeking new employment opportunities, it’s vital for your company to take an active role. One of the best ways to do this is to develop a strong sourcing process that is designed to build and maintain a continuous talent pipeline that includes both active and passive candidates.

If managed properly, your company can tap into this candidate pipeline to fill even those hard-to-fill positions and improve overall hiring outcomes. There are a few things employers can do to ensure their talent pipeline includes high-quality passive candidates, including:

• Identify current and future hiring needs: Before you can build a successful talent pipeline that can help your company as it moves forward, you must first identify its current and future hiring needs. This requires an in-depth evaluation of company goals and objectives, a complete skills assessment and a full understanding of industry trends. You must also distinguish between which of these skills candidates must possess from the start and where the company can invest in training to equip workers with the right skills. Keep in mind that many skills can be learned on the job, but personality traits can’t be taught so easily. Start by holding meetings with supervisors and hiring managers to get a better understanding of the current skill needs of the company. Continue by conducting industry research to better understand emerging trends and technologies to determine what skills may be needed for the future of work within your company. With this information in hand, you’ll be better equipped to identify the characteristics, skills and qualifications your company seeks in candidates for both today and the future. This step, in turn, will enable you to build a talent pipeline that drives results.

• Hold on to unsuccessful candidates: Don’t make the mistake of immediately dismissing candidates that weren’t selected, especially those applicants who made it through one or more screening processes. While these candidates may not have been the company’s first pick for that specific job, it doesn’t mean that they won’t be qualified for other positions within the company, or even for future roles that may evolve over time. Instead of writing these candidates off, they should become a vital component of the company’s talent pipeline. In fact, studies show that candidates who previously applied for a job within a company are four times more likely to respond to additional job opportunities within that same business. Additionally, these candidates are already partially vetted and engaged, which can help to speed up the hiring process.

2. Look for Networking Events in Your Community:

If you are not already acquainted with local networking events, you can search for some that are relevant to your industry on websites such as Eventbrite or Meetup. There is nothing like meeting people in person to really make a long-term connection. You can use these meet-ups to scout potential candidates, but just as importantly, they can be used to pitch your company. Use these events as an opportunity to showcase anything that would attract potential candidates to come and work for you. Talk about the benefits you offer or your company culture. You can talk about the way you support career growth. Any positive impression you can make now will mean that follow-ups are more likely to lead to hiring results.

3. Share Your Job Opening on Online social media:

Social media is without a doubt one of the most effective ways to reach passive candidates. Facebook alone has nearly 3 billion active users, while more than 5 billion YouTube videos are viewed daily. The good news is that social media can help your company reach a wide range of potential candidates as they browse through their social media accounts. It’s important to realize the difference between various social media types and how to leverage these platforms to reach your target candidates There are many ways you can use social media to recruit passive candidates. You can start by creating an engaging post about the job opening and sharing it with your followers. Or, you can use online advertising tools to boost your post and get it in front of the right audience so that your reach extends past just your followers. You can narrow your potential audience in a way that gets your ad in front of the right eyes. You can also use social media to perform a creative search to look directly for candidates. Lastly, you can post jobs to a local community or industry group.

4. Write Engaging and Catchy Job Descriptions:

Sometimes going back to basics can greatly increase your chances of landing that perfect candidate. Review your existing job postings and make sure that you are attracting the right kind of candidate. A well-written, clear, and catchy description will increase the number of people who want to apply. Write the qualifications in a clear and straightforward manner so that you can attract the right candidates and dissuade nonqualified job seekers from applying.

5. Invest in smart sourcing solutions:

Fortunately, advancements in digital technology and automation have helped to simplify some aspects of the sourcing process. For example, email automation enables recruiters to enhance candidate engagement by remaining in continuous communication with prospective candidates. Here’s a look at other solutions that can improve sourcing outcomes.

• Analyze results: Today’s advanced technology allows your company to track nearly every aspect of the sourcing process, including application completion rate, social media reach and email response ratio. These sourcing metrics enable you to determine which communication methods, including email, social media, and phone and online paid ads, offer the best results or how many touchpoints are required to entice a prospective candidate to complete the initial application process. It’s vital to track these metrics on a continuous basis and to make adjustments to your current sourcing strategies as needed. This step will be crucial as the skills gap continues to grow and competition in the job market intensifies even more. You should also use digital tools to track online review boards and to assess the success of your employer branding efforts.

• Partner with an HR solutions company: There’s no denying the business leaders across industries are entering into uncharted territory as the market starts to fully reopen post-pandemic. It’s going to take time and resources to successfully navigate through these times. While sourcing prime candidates may be a top priority, there may just not be enough time and resources to go around.

6. Work on your employer branding:

Having a reputable employer brand is one of the best recruiting strategies as that helps in hiring the best candidates. At least 50% of people research employer branding even before applying for a job or accepting the offer. Therefore, a positive brand helps you attract potential candidates to apply and successfully onboard. Boost your employment brand by creating an impressive career page that talks about your culture, values, mission, employees, their journey, and finally, open roles. However, a career page can boost your employer's brand; you also need to encourage your employees to speak on social networks. Also, discuss with your marketing team about promoting your employment brand too. Google is the gold standard for employers because it puts a premium on employee well-being. This is common knowledge because Google has made a point of marketing the company as such. You can do the same by using employer-branding techniques. Position your company as the best workplace for your particular niche by emphasizing what sets you apart from other companies. It could be flexible work hours, extensive employee benefits, stock options, high compensations, and so on. Establish a unique feature of your company that makes it a desirable place to work, and send the message through your website, social networks, and events. Even if you are not actively recruiting, it pays to spread the word. It is even better if you manage to make it on a top list or another independent review article that puts you in a positive light. Potential candidates are likely to do some research before they decide to get on board, so you want to make sure your branding is exemplary.

7. Employee referral works excellent:

The other best, faster and cheaper way to hire passive talent is through employee referrals. This works exceptionally great because your employees would only refer qualified candidates. As per our Survey, 88% of recruiters found their best quality candidates through referrals.

8. Valuable Analytics:

Detailed campaign analytics are here for numerous things when it comes to the recruitment industry. By being able to summarize large numbers of candidates that applied for numerous positions and across a longer period of time, recruiters can become more aware of the trends, make predictions and ultimately become better at hiring. Tracking delivery, open and click rates, specially crafted analytics for your talent networks or any statistics related to the state of the job market, has a significant impact on the recruiter’s success. Therefore, checking which candidates are engaged the most by tracking campaign delivery, open and click rates or seeing which email resonated the best with a specific group of candidates (in this case we are talking only about passive candidates) can be extremely helpful when hiring for a newly opened position. Finally, there are plenty of tips available out there talking about the strategic aspects of recruiting passive talent, but our first advice is: to check your tools and all recruitment technology prior to creating any strategy. By learning how to use a recruitment tool, not only that you can shorten the hiring process, but we also saw now that you can become better at attracting passive candidates as well!

9. Make the application process easy and tailored to passive job seekers:

The last hurdle in targeting passive job seekers is to convince them to apply for the job. To do so, consider making the application process easy to access and to complete. Online applications that require excessive click-throughs or that are not designed for mobile access may discourage passive job seekers from completing the application.

Finally, if you get to the interview stage, there are a few things not to do when dealing with passive job seekers:

• Don't question them as though they are active job seekers. Don't ask "why should I hire you?" This may turn off passive job seekers.

• Don't expect that they have conducted extensive research about your organization-remember, you came to them, they didn't come to you.

• Don't try to lure them with a similar job. Lure them with a job that offers additional responsibility or the opportunity to develop new skills and abilities.

The Benefits of Passive Candidate Recruiting

Sure, active candidates make recruiting easier. However, in today’s fast-paced and competitive hiring landscape, sourcing passive candidates are essential for attracting the best and brightest talent out there. So, how can your company revamp its strategy to attract more passive candidates? These solutions will help you shift your talent acquisition and recruitment marketing strategy in order to build a sustainable and profitable business. Try them out!

We have built our reputation by providing a personal, flexible, and consultative approach to our clients and candidates. Our focus is on providing you with a culture fit and qualified candidate quickly.

To learn more about our staffing solutions, contact us today.