Passive Candidates: Who are they and how do you attract them?
Three out of four UK businesses feel that hiring new staff has become harder in the past five years*. With this in mind, are you doing enough to tap into the passive candidate market?
As passive candidates account for 75% of the workforce, let’s spend some time understanding exactly what they are and how you attract and recruit them.
What is a passive candidate
A passive candidate is someone currently in employment who is not actively looking for a new position. Most passive candidates are happy with their situation but are open to hearing about new opportunities.
You won’t find passive candidates searching for roles online or using job boards. This means that you’ll have to make the effort to come to them. However, at least you know that they’re not searching for other positions for you to compete with. Which moves us on nicely to the next part of the blog…
How to engage and attract passive candidates
Manage your employer brand
Employer branding is a huge factor in attracting talent to your business, this applies to both active and passive.
By managing your employer brand effectively and showcasing who you are, what you offer and why your employees work for you, you have a higher chance of catching a passive candidate’s eye.
Consider this, people will often follow similar businesses on social media to keep an eye on their competitors, or because they enjoy the content you share. If you regularly share employer branding content, those following your company page for other purposes will have an open window to what you’re like to work for.
Don’t be afraid to reach out
This is where some businesses struggle, particularly those without a dedicated in-house resource.
Often this is when recruitment agencies or recruitment partners come in as they have access to sourcing software, allowing them to search for people who are a perfect match for your role. Using expertise and tools, recruiters can reach out to passive candidates who could be open to hearing more about your vacancy and wouldn’t have otherwise heard about it.
Recruiters may also have a pipeline of passive candidates who they have already made contact with.
Employee referral schemes
Employee referral programs are an effective way to attract passive candidates.
By providing incentives to your current employees, you encourage them to tap into their networks and refer friends or acquaintances who are well-suited for the role and align with your company culture.
Stay connected
Sometimes, you might find yourself in a situation where you can only hire one candidate, even though you’ve had a pool of exceptional applicants.
When providing feedback to those who weren’t selected, it’s perfectly fine to ask if they would be interested in future opportunities. While they might be actively seeking a job now, they could become a passive candidate by the time another position opens up. Make sure you stay connected with them on LinkedIn and engage with their posts. This way, when a new vacancy arises, they’ll remember you and might be open to exploring the opportunity.
Attracting passive candidates – the next steps
If you’re resonating with all of the above, but you simply don’t have the time or internal resource, this is where a recruitment partner can come in. By engaging with an outsourced recruitment team, you can use their expertise, time, networks, systems and resource to fill your roles, engage with passive candidates and create future talent pools.
Get in touch to find out more.
* https://www.smeweb.com/majority-of-uk-businesses-say-hiring-has-become-harder/