First the bad news – there are no “fast” ways to recruit passive candidates! Ok, so now the good news – there are ways to speed up the process and I’ll share with you five ways that can make a big difference!
How to speed it up? Good recruiters are good sales people – they help both parties determine where the “fit” is and help overcome objections without letting the process slow down. If there isn’t a fit, then on to the next “prospect”!
But what about the elusive “passive” candidate, you know the one the hiring manager really wants because they’re delivering results for the competition? How do you reel them in if they’re not ready to buy what you’re selling, especially in today’s environment? Assuming you have your candidates identified, here are some tips on landing that passive candidate:
- Be upfront. On first contact, tell them that your job is to help them learn about opportunities that might be better than what they have. Once you’re familiar with their interests, if you don’t believe you have what they want, then tell them and promise not to bug them anymore. Same goes for cultural fit.
- Give them space. Don’t hound them with phone calls and don’t blast them with job ads. Nobody wants junk mail, spam, etc. so keep your outreach efforts low key until an interest to engage arises.
- Stimulate them. Feed them. Offer them interesting and relevant content. Passive candidates are generally not looking to change jobs, but are often looking to learn more about their profession or vocation. In order to recruit them you must first engage them – cultivation cannot happen without first planting seeds, water, fertilizer, more water, etc.
- Let them follow. Make it easy for them to get filtered information from you; newsfeeds of relevant content, Twitter feed of updates in your company, job feeds from your social media sites, you get the idea – give them a data line to tap into!
- Get help. Enlist the support of your employees to connect with them and engage them when the time is right. Who would be a better sales person (recruiter), you or the employee, contractor, alumnae, etc.? Who used to work with your target passive candidates?
Good recruiters don’t post and pray, they plant seeds and nurture… remember Johnny Appleseed?
Do you have any tips that trump this list or compliment it? I’d love to hear from you!
