Attracting Passive Talent

For the first time since April 2000, the U.S. unemployment rate is at a record low at 3.8 percent. While this is great news for job seekers, it’s created a challenge for companies who face a skills shortage, making the competition to hire and retain top talent more difficult. As a result, recruiters have to tap into highly-skilled talent who fit their hiring needs down to a T. The problem? Their visibility in the job market is low.

These type of job-(non)seekers are known as passive candidates. They are typically settled into their role, generally happy with their position and the company they work for, and aren’t actively seeking employment elsewhere. That doesn’t mean that if an intriguing role comes along, however, that it won’t pique their interests. The truth of the matter is that passive candidates are often just as willing to consider new roles as their active counterparts. The only difference is that they have the luxury to be more selective with what they choose to accept. Reeling these type of candidates in can take a lot of effort, but it can also be very rewarding, especially if you present them with the right kind of pitch. Here are some tips to scout top talent.

Source a Diverse Pool of Talent

Actively seeking out candidates from a variety of backgrounds will help to expand your talent pool’s reach beyond measure. Many recruiters naturally gravitate toward candidates who share similar backgrounds and interests as themselves, and this can be dangerous as it limits the potential pool of candidates to connect with. But where can you find them? Many recruiters say they have difficulty finding a diverse talent pool, which results in limited opportunities to source diverse talent. You’ll have to dig deeper and think outside of the box to find what you’re looking for. Partnering with multicultural association groups, colleges and universities, leadership organizations, attending conferences and more is a start and can easily help you cast a wider net. 

Highlight the Perks

As aforementioned, passive candidates are often willing to extend an ear to learn more about attractive roles. No matter how comfortable they may be, there’s usually something that can appeal to them. Maybe there’s something that they settled for in their current role that they wish they hadn’t. From a higher salary, better commute, flexible hours, or even a dog-friendly office, some of these perks may be very well what they wish they had in their current work-place and what could very easily convince them to make a move. The worst that can happen is they decline to be recruited.

Be Personable

A great deal of recruiting involves a lot of automation for screening and pre-qualifying candidates, so it’s essential to make sure to add a human touch to your interactions with the people that you reach out to. They say first impressions are crucial, so it’s important that you make a lasting impact on your first point-of-contact. Potential candidates are more likely to respond if there’s something personable that reaches them in a message as opposed to something generic, so save some of the personality and screening tests until after you establish a human connection.