If you talk to any recruiter or employer who has hired a number of employees, you may be surprised to learn that some of their best hires have been passive candidates. Unfortunately, many businesses never target these candidates because they’re afraid of rejection or confused by what approach to take.
5 Strategies and Tips For Recruiting
With more than 430 million users and counting, it’s safe to say that LinkedIn is a healthy sample size of the working population. With this being said, if you’re going to run a survey or poll for professionals, LinkedIn is the place to do it.
Well, according to a LinkedIn survey from The Adler Group, 15 percent of employed professionals are active candidates pursuing new opportunities, while a healthy 68 percent are always open to listening to new job opportunities. This means 83 percent of employed professionals are willing to listen when you talk. Are you taking advantage of this?
Here are a few tips for effectively recruiting passive candidates to maximize your talent pool:
Leverage Social Media Recruitment
In today’s marketplace, recruiting is no longer reserved for job boards and dedicated websites. The best recruiting takes place where the masses are: on social media. If you want to leverage social media for passive recruitment, then you need to know what you’re doing.
First off, social media recruitment is not about posting job openings and hoping the right person sees them. There’s much more to this approach than just using networks like Facebook and LinkedIn as sourcing tools. You actually need to engage candidates and build relationships with people before they’re even in the market for new jobs. Then when they’re finally ready to make a move, you’re already in a position of influence.
Take Advantage of Networking Events
There’s a lot to be said for face-to-face networking. While social media is certainly a powerful tool, never underestimate the value of building relationships at networking events and community gatherings.
If you get the opportunity to deliver presentations or keynote speeches at events, maximize these chances. Your mere presence will speak volumes about your business and a couple of well-timed and appropriate mentions of your talent onboarding goals and processes can spark future conversations with those in the audience.
Use Your Monthly Newsletter
Does your business currently send out some form of regular communication – such as a monthly newsletter? If so, you should use this space to highlight why your employees love working at the company. A popular approach is to include a “featured job of the month” section where an employee provides a sentence or two about why they love their job. This is much more valuable than saying, “We’re looking to hire!”
Use Existing Employees
“Talented individuals want to work with top talent, so showcasing the all-stars already on your team can help validate why other high-quality candidates should hop on board,” says Taso Du Val, founder of a global tech industry network.
It’s also smart to leverage existing employees by vetting their own personal networks. Many of your employees will know passive candidates and may be willing to put you in touch with them.
Just Ask
Sometimes, it’s as simple as asking. Your motto about recruiting passive candidates should be, “You don’t know until you ask.” What’s the worst response you’re going to get? Even if the candidate denies you, at least they’ll have your company on their radar in the future.
Passive Candidates are the Best Candidates
Recruiting passive candidates may not be as easy and effortless as finding those who are actively seeking jobs, but it’s certainly more rewarding. With these simple tips and techniques, any business can develop a method for targeting and communicating with these candidates. Stop being passive, and pursue those passive candidates!
