In times of hesitancy, it would be not that easy to find the right person for the specific position. Not only has it been reluctant in the public eye, with the advent of nomads, freelancers, and the rise of entrepreneurship, it has also been challenging to force people to think more focused to raise their career through a 9-to-5 job nowadays. These people, naturally, can be called passive candidates.
Just A few years ago passive candidate recruitment tips weren't the priority of the human resource agenda. Maybe because there weren't many vacancies floating around, meaning candidates couldn't have that wide spectrum of jobs.
Now the competitive market has led us to try seriously to engage passive job candidates. There are some reasons for it. Firstly, some passive candidates Might be more suitable for a specific vacancy than anyone actively looking for. Secondly, According to LinkedIn, approximately, 60% of candidates are “semi-passive.” And eventually, passive candidates comprise 75% of the labor.
However, for catching good but passive job candidates you need some handy strategies in time-crunch situations. Hence, recruiters must be out-box thinkers, and I want to name this way of recruitment as smart recruitment.
My personal experience proves that there is no single way to build intimacy with the candidate, but personalized messages. Writing personalized messages is a fruitful way if you want to get feedback from passive candidates. Establish a genuine connection with your candidate. This increases the chances of communicating with others generally.
Before writing, however, you should get some information about their characters and their backgrounds. Even writing “I checked your profile” or similar headwords, creates a sense of intimacy in your message. It helps you stand out from the crowd.
You can use built-in tools like LinkedIn Recruiter for your targeted search. If you do not find your favorite candidates, you may need to focus more on this form of a website. It is quite professional to contact these people and invite them to apply for vacancies. As a reward, it raises the ego of candidates from the crowd and creates a charismatic feeling about your company.
Overall, my personal experience is that there is no simple way to get the attention of passive candidates. The truth is, we have to be very creative in attracting the attention of those who are both highly capable and able to adapt culturally to us. But in the following I suggest some tips to engage them actively.
Qualified passive candidates will only contact you if HR specialists have valid and up-to-date information about their candidates. The more up-to-date information you dig up, the better candidates you pick up. Not only should this information be updated regularly, but it should also be optimized based on a weighting system to identify the most suitable candidates. Try to sort the database in an open-value order.
It may take some time and energy, but when you move on a database, you can be sure that the people you hire are qualified enough to work.
Would it be appropriate if we send our follow-up messages after 48 hours? Nonetheless, it is a polite deed when you send a follow-up after one week for instance. Needless to say, emailing is not about sending and then forgetting.
The right demeanor, to do so, is to wait for one to five days, and then follow up. Do not scare them, but don’t let them go stoic. Writing follow-up emails for candidates requires a lot of obsession
In the next steps, you should be careful that receiving the first answer does not mean that the other party's answer is positive. Still, there is no guarantee of success. At least, you cannot say for sure that this person can be counted on.
But that still does not mean they are not interested. Maybe it is because they are not that on the point to change the job at the moment. Even those who do not answer you until now. If you want to hire a passive candidate, follow-up is essential.
At this point, silence means no. In the emails, you will send later, try to share good quality content to give the candidates a clear vision. All in all, you need to be a thoroughgoing indulgent hitherto to snatch the right moment. In short, be persistent, but do not be annoying. So very carefully try to leave a message once or twice at the right time. You can call and put a voice message on WhatsApp. I use this technique for people who are not very old or who are in my class.
A Career Page reduces your complex way of hiring and makes it much easier for you to showcase your job requirements on your website. You can add your employees’ reviews at a corner of the website. Your career page may save you thousands of bucks, and the precious time which you have been spending on various job consultancy firms to hire the right candidate.
Beyond buzzwords and benefits, the best company career pages use photos, videos, and testimonials to show what a day-in-the-life looks like. In hiring, cultural fit plays an even bigger role than skill or background. Having considered this, it is really important to display the cultural atmosphere of the company on the career page. For instance, you can make up a case study with some one-pager PDF account of the staff feedback.
Some other measures provide people with a few impressive pieces of information about your career:
Positioning is everything. Once you have your ideal candidate in mind, learn how to show your brand’s staple.
But be authentic. It means you should treat them with honesty. Emotional Honesty impresses people. Hence, you had better tell the truth. This enables you to seem strong and owing to this they can trust you. And finally, if you want to do it justice, don’t sell a job you don't have.
Those who want to grow and excel in their careers, those who are ambitious, while moving jobs, give more synergy to fast opportunities. Reassure them the growth route in your organization is better, sell this story that they are more likely to take authority, that they will spend less time on it, and that you are now one step ahead in this game.
Once you've boosted your website and career page, now is the time to focus a little on YouTube or other places where they may see your video. And one of the most effective ways to attract passive candidates is through filming.
According to statistics, video is an intermediary that social media users would be involved in 10 times more than any other type of content.
One of our senior executives joined us when he was impressed by the reflection of our team image in a video. He was fascinated by how we could not get anything from zero point, the nothing to everything. The intimacy which was represented through that simple video could ensure him there is a sweet and fluid atmosphere for working and progression.
Attend local events, cafés, or small and large gatherings, and try to find an opportunity to present yourself. Strengthen yourself as much as possible in public speaking. You are the voice of your brand, and that voice attracts passive job candidates. So, try to indirectly encourage them to think about you.
Simply, the five p's of public speech are
Eventually, you aim to speak with the prospect about the job opportunity in the final goal. This is a great way to screen through big pools of potential candidates. By getting people on the phone, it helps smart recruiters confirm the level of interest, match core skills, and assess if candidates will be a good “cultural fit” for the hiring in your organization.
Note that it may seem like a logical way to control your emails short and sweet but then send the job description or any other information as an attachment. It is WRONG!
They need to get to know you first, build trust and a rapport with you, and then they may be open to receiving further info via attachments. So, the goal is to get them on the phone, not sending some unreadable documents such as job descriptions.
If you ask me about my experience, I will ask what kind of opportunities they might be interested in. Questions about Cultural Fit are also part of what I need to know. I ask if you can make a brief phone call. When I call by phone, I ask whether there is a specific role that is worth leaving their current job. I remember a very good force was also attracted to our team.
Whenever you see an employee at another company providing the type of exemplary work that would be an asset to your business, use it as an opportunity to offer something better. Before joining our team, my executive assistant worked at the front desk of a sound studio wherein I would regularly take classes. Seldom could Great customer service be grasped, and I knew her friendly personality and professional demeanor would lend themselves perfectly to handling client affairs.
A not-so-stable vacancy offer is highly risky, so it was momentous to demonstrate the value of joining the team — in this case, regular hours, better pay, and a path for career growth. Attracting the right people is probably the most complicated thing. This is something that most organizations ignore because of pride and arrogance, but the changes that the world has made since the pandemic show that this competition can engage us to the highest levels and the lowest levels.
Andre Hellström, director of human resources at Spotify, has created a group with an interesting list called “Join Us”. In this way, he attracts those who may be interested.
Try to increase the water and radiation a little. Write straightforward and use provocative words. It will not be a problem if you write a little higher than necessary unless you have signed the contract. So, remember writing down the number of wages creates its charm and draws attention to itself. Another good thing is to write down the benefits of working with your organization. Make a list of these points and include them in the job advertisement.
The task of recruiting passive job candidates is both an art and a knowledge, and the best performers are the professional and smart recruiters. The utilization of social media, AI tools, established networks, and an array of proprietary databases are the main components of a successful passive sourcing leadership. More than 75% of labor market participants are eagerly looking for new opportunities, according to statistics released recently by the US Census Bureau.
This means that even if you recruit least possibly, call back, you may have the opportunity for the person you are calling to be open and talk to you on a new job opportunity. Simultaneously, you might be injured by this, and your good employees will look for a better opportunity and leave you alone to continue looking for the right candidate.
Overall, every recruiter has to have the ability to sell a vision. If you haven’t hitherto one, buy one, and by one sell them to the passive candidates.
