After everything that’s happened during the last couple of years, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to recruit the right people.
Pandemic restrictions caused countless job losses, The Great Resignation resulted in record numbers of people quitting their jobs or retiring, and now we’re at a point where there are literally more job openings than there are candidates.
At the same time, there are still many people desperate for work after getting laid off in 2020, and candidates are more likely than ever to exaggerate during interviews, lie on their resumes, and say whatever they feel is necessary to get hired.
This has created horrible situations for employers, who struggle to find candidates to fill vacant positions, or hire unqualified people and have to go back to the drawing board countless times.
Luckily, there are many common-sense solutions to these problems, and one of them is to consider recruiting passive candidates.
So, if you’re desperate to figure out how to deal with your recruiting issues, then you should definitely keep reading.
Because in this article, I’m going to explain what passive candidates are, why they’re a good option, and how you can go about recruiting them.
What Are Passive Candidates?
I know it might sound like a bunch of HR jargon, but the term “passive candidates” simply refers to people who are not actively applying for jobs.
You’re not going to find these people’s resumes in your inbox, and most of them are probably happy in their current jobs, but they might also be the best possible people for the positions you’re trying to fill.
While they might not be looking for a job, that doesn’t mean they’re not open to job offers or completely closed off to the right opportunity, should it present itself.
In 2021, a survey from Workable asked hundreds of workers in the U.S. if they were looking for new opportunities, and more than 37 per cent said they’re “Passively open to new opportunities”.
That being said, before we talk about how to go about recruiting passive candidates, let’s look at some of the reasons why they can be so desirable.
Why Are Passive Candidates a Good Option?
When you take a moment to think about it, there are a ton of obvious reasons why passive candidates are a good option.
For one thing, if they’re happy enough with what they’re doing to not even bother to look for work, then chances are their employer is happy with them, as well, and that’s probably because their performance is good, and they’ve proven themselves to be valuable assets.
In addition, if they’re not looking for work, then they’re probably not interviewing with other recruiters or companies, and that means you’re not going to have as much competition.
Moreover, they’re much less likely to lie on their resume, or bullshit their way through an interview, as they’re not desperate for work, or even looking for it, so they’re more likely to be confident in their abilities, level of job security, and potential for promotion.
I could go on, but I think that’s more than enough to explain why these candidates are so attractive.
So, now that you know what passive candidates are, and why they’re such a good option, let’s discuss how you can go about recruiting them.
Tips for Recruiting Passive Candidates
1) Social Media
You’re probably not going to find passive candidates on Indeed, Monster, or Workopolis, and even if they are on there, they’re not likely to respond or even check their account.
In my experience, when it comes to finding passive candidates, there’s no better place than social media, and there’s no better platform than LinkedIn.
A survey from Jobvite asked hundreds of HR professionals and recruiters about current hiring trends, and 47 per cent said they use social media to get in touch with passive candidates.
But you don’t need to pigeonhole yourself to just one platform, either.
It is possible to find candidates on other social media sites besides just LinkedIn, such as Instagram, Facebook, etc., but it can be significantly more difficult, as these are not work-centric platforms.
Regardless of the method you use to find potential candidates on social media, it’s important to try to look them up on other platforms, as well.
This should give you a better idea of what they’re all about, how you can entice them to consider your offer, and how to personalize your correspondence with them to make it that much more effective.
2) LinkedIn Recruiter
I know I touched on LinkedIn in my last point, but I felt it was important to mention this specific tool and explain how valuable it really is.
LinkedIn has well over 800 million members, so trying to parse those results for top-tier passive candidates can be overwhelming, to say the least.
But with LinkedIn Recruiter, you can narrow down the results and make them a lot easier to manage.
Now, I don’t want this to sound like a sales pitch for LinkedIn, but honestly, I use this tool a lot, and as someone who does quite a bit of recruiting, it’s saved me a ton of time.
This tool gives you access to advanced search filters, so you can target only the kinds of candidates you’re looking for, offers recommended matches based on the criteria you’ve set, and allows you to message users, even if you’re not connected with them on LinkedIn.
It also allows you to do things like save message templates and do bulk messaging, but if you’re recruiting passive candidates, those probably aren’t the best methods, and I’m about to explain why.
3) Personalize Your Messaging
One of the most important recommendations I can give when it comes to recruiting passive candidates is to really take the time to personalize your communications with them.
If you’re just making templates and bulk messaging hundreds of people, the results you’re going to get will be dismal, at best.
Remember, these people aren’t even looking for work, which means they’re probably not particularly open to responding to contrived messages from recruiters.
That being said, if you are truly interested in a passive candidate, you’re really going to have to work to get their attention.
Chances are they’re already getting dozens of messages from other recruiters, and they’re likely getting a little bit sick of it if they’re even paying attention to it at all.
So, I know it’s time-consuming, but if you’re serious about recruiting passive candidates, you need to find out as much as you can about them and do whatever you can to ensure your communications with them are genuine and don’t sound forced.
4) Get to Know the Candidates
As with any recruitment process, getting to know the personalities of the candidates you’re considering can be just as important as understanding their qualifications.
Often, understanding who a candidate is can be even more important than knowing what they can do.
So, once you’ve got some interested candidates who’ve agreed to participate in your recruitment process, try to look beyond their resume by asking them some questions that will help you get to know their personality, instead of just focusing on their credentials and experience.
Not only is this just following best practices for recruiting, but it will also let the candidates know how interested you are in ensuring they’re a good fit for the position, and that can entice them to want to take the job you’re offering, or at least make them more interested in it, which is especially important when you’re dealing with passive candidates.
Here are a few examples of these kinds of questions:
- Tell me something about yourself that isn’t on your resume.
- What are the one or two traits from your parents that you most want to ensure you and your kids have for the rest of your life?
- Tell me about two people whose lives you positively changed. What would they say if I called them tomorrow?
5) Consider Hiring a Recruiter
This might seem self-serving considering what I do for a living, but to tell you the truth, when you’re trying to recruit passive candidates, this sort of thing is nothing short of a full-time job.
At the same time, recruiters like myself have a lot of experience communicating, conducting interviews, and doing things like reading people and understanding their body language.
For the most part, we know when someone’s lying, we know when someone’s not a good fit for a position, and we have a skill set that not every business owner is going to possess.
So, if you’ve been looking into recruiting passive candidates, and you’re starting to realize you really don’t have the time, or you’d rather pay someone else to do it, then maybe you should consider hiring a recruiter.
More than likely, they’re going to be able to go through this process in half the time it’ll take you, and they’ll have a skill set that will allow them to achieve significantly better results.
Are you interested in recruiting passive talent, or struggling to fill vacant positions, but feel like you don’t know where to begin, or just don’t have the time? Contact me to find out how I can handle your entire recruitment process and ensure you end up hiring the right people.