Why should recruiters target passive candidates?

In recruitment, there are different ways someone will become a candidate. They will either be looking for their first job, leave another job for a particular reason or are employed but will casually be open to job opportunities – these are passive candidates.

A huge 70% of the global workforce are passive candidates!

So why should you target these candidates?

Passive candidates can be, but not always be more reliable than active job seekers and will more likely settle down in a new job role quicker. Passive candidates can bring the skills they have learned from their current job and take them straight into a new company.

That’s not all, passive candidates are usually content in their jobs, meaning they are not actively interviewing for other jobs so there is less competition for you to compete with.

How can you target passive candidates?

Although there are many different ways you can target passive candidates some top ways include:

Social Media – If you are building up your brand and become active on social media it will be more likely for active candidates to share your content, which in turn will get put in front of passive candidates.

Blog Posts – Sharing useful, high quality industry news will mean more people will share it, especially if it is related to what’s happening in the world/ industry right now. This will mean passive candidates will come across your branded content and job postings.

It’s important to identify passive candidates in new and creative ways such as posting videos to talk about the company culture and what people can expect. You could even run ads on online radio stations if you are targeting local areas, or if your budget allows it, television adverts or billboards and posters that subconsciously target passive job seekers.

What else can you do to target passive candidates?

Check up on past candidates that might have not been right for a role in the past or were once rejected. Chances are, these people could be great hires as long as you treat them with respect and have a database of previous applicants.

Because of the need to work from home during lockdown, people are realising that they can get a lot more work done at home. So depending what industry you are hiring for, working remotely will mean that you can cast a wider net and look for candidates from further afield.

Why not try our new e-sign software so you can save a lot of time and onboard new candidates remotely with ease? You can read more and book a free demo here >

Have you tried to target passive candidates before? What do you think of this recruitment strategy? If you haven’t targeted passive candidates before in your marketing efforts, it is certainly something to add onto your 2021 strategy.