What is a passive candidate?
Generally recruiters and those working in the recruitment industry knows who a passive candidate is. For those who still have doubts, let me explain it in very simple words.
Passive candidates are those who are not actively looking for a change in their jobs. They are probably happily employed and have the history of career stability.
Now, recruitment is a tough job. Analyzing the job requirements, manually screening the applications, shortlisting, follow ups with the candidates, with the hiring manager and finally selecting the right candidates. It’s a tiring process. Though, these days, AI automated recruitment tools are making things a lot easier. These tools are helping recruiters to get rid of the mundane tasks and focus on much more productive work.
Recruiting passive candidates is even more difficult. How would you find and then convince someone who don’t even want to change his/her current job to take up another job. Difficult right!
Before you go on to recruit a passive candidate you need to source one.
How to source Passive Candidates?
Own recruiting database:
If you have been recruiting for sufficient number of years. It is likely that you have your own database of candidates to whom you have approached in the past. Dig into that and find the ones who are suitable for the job and approach them again.
Google resume search:
You can search google specifically for resumes. To narrow down and to make the search results more accurate, make sure to search for the word “resume” in the title and the Url.
Like, (intitle:resume OR inurl:resume)
In the search results you will see “resume” either in the title or the Url. This type of search comes very handy. It’s common sense for most candidates to either title the web page containing their resume with the word resume or save their resume using the word resume.
WhatsApp groups:
You must have been added to a lot of recruitment related WhatsApp groups. Post an inquiry into it. Ask if anyone from the group knows someone who might be suitable for the job. Take full leverage of these type of groups, they are really helpful.
Recruit Passive Candidates:
Build relationships:
Be proactive, start by building relationships with your target audience. Keep them engaged. This way when you will approach the candidate in the future, the probability of them replying will increase. You won’t come across as a total stranger. The candidate will remember you by the previous conversations between both of you. This way you will also come to know about their career goals and skills. Make use of social media tools. It’s fantastic to create your network.
Give better offer:
Remember these candidates are probably happy with their current position. Unless you offer them something better than what they already have, you are likely to face rejection. Offer cannot be just in terms of money. Pitch them the opportunity. Show them that the opportunity at your business is better; tell them about the growth opportunities, about the company culture. Involve your hiring manager and set the expectations.
Employer branding:
As I said earlier, for a passive candidate, it’s not just about the money. They won’t consider your offer if they found that you have a bad company culture. Bad reviews of your company online and the game is almost over. Therefore in modern recruitment era, building good employer brand is extremely important. Work on it. Be persistent as it takes a lot of time to create good employer brand.
Thank You!
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With an overall experience of more that 3 years, Akshay Moon is someone who specializes in content marketing and has always managed to create quality content. He is currently working with Rezoomex as a Digital Marketing Executive.
Passionate about sports, particularly obsessed with cricket, anything related to the game is enough to attract Akshay’s attention.