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Imagine the perfect candidate for your open role. They have exactly the right mix of skills and experience. Their values align perfectly with your company culture. They would bring fresh perspectives and innovative ideas to help your organization grow. There’s just one problem: They don’t know your role exists.
Proactively sourcing passive candidates can help you reach these professionals.
What are passive candidates?
Passive candidates are professionals who aren’t actively seeking a new job. This makes up a significant portion of the talent pool, as 35% of people don’t plan to look for a new job next year, while 41% do plan to look and 24% aren’t sure. These passive candidates may be open to exploring a new opportunity, making it worthwhile to proactively reach out.
The benefits of sourcing passive candidates
Sourcing candidates can require more upfront resources than simply posting job ads, but the benefits can easily justify the investment:
Where to source candidates
There are numerous channels for identifying and connecting with passive candidates, each offering unique advantages and requiring specific approaches for optimal results. Understanding these channels and implementing a comprehensive sourcing strategy is helpful for successful passive candidate recruitment.
For example:
Communicating with passive candidates
Passive candidates aren’t openly looking for a job, so it’s important to take a personalized approach to engage with them.
Cold outreach
Your initial message should explain why you’re reaching out and entice the candidate to respond. For example, write something like, “Hi Jen, I saw your LinkedIn post about [topic] and thought you’d be a great fit for our open [title] role at [company]. We offer [key benefits], and were recently voted [company accolade]. Any interest in a quick chat? Here’s the job description and a link to schedule a phone call with me to learn more.”
Keep the initial outreach brief and follow up as needed to resurface your message.
Application request
Keep in mind that passive candidates may not have a current resume or up-to-date LinkedIn profile. You can keep them engaged in your hiring process by allowing them to express interest in your role without the added lift of providing these things.
Interview communications
Passive candidates may have current jobs or other responsibilities that make it difficult to interview. Allow them to self-schedule and try to be flexible if they need to interview outside of your normally scheduled interview times.
Follow-ups
Candidates won’t appreciate being actively pursued, and then ghosted. Make sure you close the loop with sourced candidates when they’re no longer being considered. This is an important step in maintaining a good relationship so you can reach out with different roles in the future.
Measuring success and optimizing sourcing strategies
Tracking key metrics can help you understand the return on your sourcing investment, which sourcing channels are the best use of your resources, and where you have room for improvement.
Key performance indicators may include:
Final thoughts on sourcing passive candidates
Passive candidate sourcing is a strategic investment that can help you improve hiring outcomes and build a strong team. While you’ll likely see positive results as you’re able to fill current roles, the real benefit comes from building long-term candidate relationships. These relationships ensure you have a pipeline full of engaged candidates ready to go when a new role opens up, so you can hire skilled talent more efficiently.
