Despite not actively looking for jobs, it can be seen from trends that 95% of people you will want to hire for jobs are passive candidates. This means that a high proportion of the types of people you want to hire are not actively seeking employment, however, that isn’t to say they wouldn’t be interested in a job with your company; just that you’re going to have to go the extra mile to get them interested. 

So, what techniques should you employ to market and engage the passive candidate?

Content, Content, Content

 As we’ve expressed before, the quality of your content is important whenever you’re thinking about recruiting. What people see when they first come across your company either via the website or social media needs to engage them or they will move on. Create a breadth of diverse content from blogs, webinars, Q&A sessions, covering a range of topics to entice people to come back for more content. This will build a foundation of trust and admiration for the brand, making people more primed when you reach out to them for a job. Since consistency is key with content that will engage, using HR automation software, such as live chat features or scheduling tools will aid in making your content strategy cost and time effective.

Talent Pool

Don’t neglect your talent pool or applicant tracking system; you will already have a great database of engaged candidates at your fingertips even if they are now passive.  Candidates who have previously applied, even if currently they are not looking for a job, will almost always be open to a conversation; and whilst previously they may not have been the right fit they may be now. This is one of the easiest ways to access a passive candidate in a genuine way and start a conversation with candidates who are qualified for the role. Cut out the stress of tracking this system and reaching out to previous and now passive candidates by hooking into automated HR tools such as chatbots that can open the conversation and be tailored to what your company needs.

Network and Connect

Recruiting passive candidates is all about the long game, the effort might not see immediate results but will pay off in the future as your company is filled with highly qualified people for each role. This means really putting your company at the forefront of offline tactics as well as online tactics, such as meetups and events. Being engaged and present within your community increases the likelihood passive candidates will meet you, build a rapport and pay attention to what your company has to say. Priming passive candidates is a constant process and should be part of your core strategy; thinking not just about what you might need for right now but what you might need in the future is where your game plan has to be. Become a leader in your field, known for hosting great meetups, always being at events and adding that human element back into the recruitment game.

Personalise and Motivate

When the candidate is passive, you have to go the extra mile to show why the role is something that they should be interested in. Think about what will motivate them, about how the job will help them grow and develop and make them question whether their current job will do this. In every sense, passive candidate outreach has to be really personal to be able to make them sit up and listen. To really ace this do your research into what type of candidate would be ideal for the job, what skills and motivations are needed, what the role will offer a candidate that their current experience lacks and that this role will provide. Of course, finding the time to do this for multiple passive candidates may seem impossible, so take the hard work out of it and invest in screening tools, HR automation and chatbots, all of which can be tailored to achieve this level of candidate engagement with much less cost, time and effort on your part.

When trying to recruit passive candidates it is important to personalize the experience through networking and creating engaging content. To make this a realistic part of your recruitment strategy, it is necessary to think about utilizing social media recruitment, candidate screening measures and HR automation tools that will save time for your HR staff, streamline processes and can be tailored to candidates and different situations.