The stark reality of today’s talent market hits hard – long open job positions and loads of unqualified applicants with companies fast losing credibility, loyalty and patronage. 

With very few top candidate matches, the bitter truth is that some of the best candidates are often already employed and not motivated to change roles anytime in the future, i.e up until a consequential change in their life circumstances. 

With the Passive Candidates accounting for about 75% of the workforce and their performance being 9% higher than that of active candidates, it may be time to get creative with sourcing these candidates and build a strong talent pipe-line of top-notch talent to drive strong business value and growth. 

What is a passive candidate?

Passive candidates are those who are employed, fairly content, and aren’t on the lookout for a job. They aren’t applying to positions or looking for recruiters who can map them to suitable roles. That said, they would be open to a good career opportunity, were it to be presented to them. 

Passive candidates are an often overlooked talent community due to their absence in the inboxes of recruiters and on the overcrowded career platforms, which serve as the regular abode of active candidates. However, they bring far too many benefits to an organization for them not to be considered significant in their talent acquisition strategy.   

Why do we need a hiring strategy for passive candidates?  

Hiring exemplary candidates is a painstaking yet rewarding process. So, if recruiting highly qualified talent is a top priority for a company, they must build a robust strategy around sourcing passive candidates as they are highly qualified, innovative and loyal, driven more by intrinsic motivators than the active candidates.  

Here are a few reasons why sourcing passive candidates must be integral to the overall Talent Acquisition strategy: 

• Passive candidates often possess niche, hard-to-find and hard-to-train skills, in both business and technology, by virtue of their being part of a team or organization for a long time
• They are 120% more likely to make a strong impact at a company
• They have a higher rate of conversion as they aren’t likely to be interviewing with multiple companies like active candidates
• They are also twice as efficient as active candidates with them requiring less training and time to be productive on the new roles 

How to find passive candidates 

Passive candidates are hard to find, given that they aren’t looking for jobs actively and so don’t frequent the usual places that job seekers do. In order to find passive candidates, recruiters would need a better handle on their drivers and priorities (more flexibility at work, meaningful work, more learning opportunities etc.), reach out, engage and build long term relationships with them, evolving a fool-proof passive sourcing strategy over time.  

#1 Build a strong Employer Brand 

Having a strong employer brand is a necessity in the current job market. The top talent of today are selective about the brands they work for, showing a clear preference for companies that they share values with such as diversity, equity, sustainability, and social responsibility.

Exceptional learning and career development opportunities are also very important to the millennials, making it necessary to highlight them as being part of the rewarding work culture. Demonstrate living these values with the current employees being the brand ambassadors, using their social media handles (LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook etc.) and word of mouth to convey the impactful initiatives run and the benefits derived. Leverage the company social media handles to broadcast CEO messages, positive employee experiences as well as customer testimonials on the value added by the company’s products and services. 

#2 Employee Referrals

Employees are the strongest promoters of a company and often are the best sources of top-notch talent. Since they are well aware of the company culture and practices, they are able to judge and refer the most suited candidates to a role which leads to higher retention and performance on the job. Create an attractive referral program, enabling the employees to bring forth their top candidates, strengthening their credibility and the relationship further, fostering a  work culture of collaboration and belonging.  

#3 Social & Career Networking 

Passive candidates clearly don’t frequent the places that active job-seekers do and so recruiters must step up their scouting game to find them. They must look for innovative platforms to connect and engage with top talent who are looking for career experiences but have not necessarily decided to move roles yet.

Social networking events and other professional events such as conferences and summits etc, serve as great places to network with such candidates. Creating talent communities and enabling face-to-face meetings in informal settings, using tools like MeetUps and EventBrite help engage, create and sustain long-term relationships with passive candidates who are thought leaders and potential candidates for the companies to influence and onboard. 

#4 Innovative Candidate Outreach     

Knowing that highly qualified talent are highly unlikely to reach out to companies or recruiters requesting for face-time or more information on well crafted job posts, it is important to create innovative outreach strategies. Creating innovation platforms, such as Hackathons and open innovation quests is a great way to start the outreach process. Partnering with and sponsoring events of core Tech and Business communities is also a great way to find those hidden gems of talent. These not help connect and network with the brightest talent, who can be nurtured to be brand ambassadors and prospective employees, it also helps the companies tap into a rich and diverse network of talent, creating a talent pipe-line for strong business growth.  

#5 Attractive Job Posts

Considering that passive candidates aren’t really pouring over job posts on career platforms or on company websites, it is important to employ techniques where they pop-up on their regular networks (LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter etc.) and when they do, they attract and hold their attention. Towards that, it is imperative to have a good understanding of the target audience’s needs and wants and create customized appealing posts and other branding content to get them interested in the company. It could be great learning opportunities, a balanced work-life culture or better benefits. Direct sourcing and personalized messaging on LinkedIn and other social media also helps connect and engage with them. 

#6 Fast-track hiring    

Passive candidates aren’t looking for a career opportunity and so, if the recruiter does find any, it is upon them to attract the potential candidates with an impressive sales pitch. Not only is it important to grab their attention quickly, it is equally important to start with a simple, structured and rationalized application process with fewer steps and an easy and intuitive interface. In order to keep them engaged with higher chances of conversion, ensure that the hiring process is expedited to onboard them with a delightful experience at the earliest. If passive candidates form an integral part of the talent acquisition strategy for an organization, they should invest in a fast-tracked process for hiring and onboarding them faster than the regular candidates. 

Wrapping Up

Companies are finding it hard to sustain growth and profitability in the face of rising employee & customer expectations, adverse business conditions and limited options in the talent market to staff their highly complex roles. 

To offset these challenges and strengthen the Talent Acquisition Strategy, it is key to embed the passive candidate sourcing into it early on, helping proactively attract and hire exemplary candidates. 

However, it isn’t enough to get the sourcing strategy on point with the passive candidates, it is just as crucial to ensure that the candidate experience is a phenomenal one followed by an engaging and rewarding work culture, focused on providing incredible life and career experiences to its employees.  

In the tight, candidate-driven labor market of today, the passive candidates may indeed be a life-saver for organizations with the positive impact they have on the business in terms of financial value, innovation, collaboration and the enriched work culture.

FAQs on Hiring Passive Candidates