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How to Target Passive Job Seekers

No matter how hard you try, the ideal applicant for a job is almost always already employed. The contemporary recruiter has a unique set of issues when dealing with passive applicants, as someone who is content in their current employment is unlikely to apply for vacant openings or respond to recruiter efforts.

However, it is well worth the extra work to go after applicants who are not actively seeking employment. To put it another way, if you ignore passive prospects, you’re missing out on great talent. After all, some of these passive prospects may turn out to be a great resource for your organization. Read on to learn five proven ways for passive sourcing applicants that will help you find more qualified prospects!

Who Are Passive Job Seekers?

Those who don’t actively seek employment are known as passive applicants. As long as the perfect chance arises, they are happy with their existing position. There is a plethora of reasons to be interested in people like these. They will most probably interview with you since they aren’t actively looking for other positions. This indicates that if you interview and investigate them, you are more likely to employ them than if you interview them with 10 different companies. Their present job is close to what you’re looking for; therefore, training them will be simpler than teaching someone with a completely different background or set of skills. Because they have steady employment, they aren’t in a rush to accept a low-paying position. They’ll only apply for jobs they’re genuinely interested in applying for. As a result, they are more likely to remain in the position in the long run and be content with their work.

Analyze the Present and Future Requirements for Personnel

To find the best passive job searchers, you need to know your company’s present and future hiring needs. Identify present and future knowledge and skill shortages in the organization’s personnel by conducting a staffing evaluation. Identifying which passive job searchers to approach and with whom to network to secure future employment will be possible.

Consider the following procedures to determine if there are any skills shortages in your present workforce:

  1. Assess your organization’s skill set by creating job descriptions that reflect the company’s vision, purpose, and goals. Determine how vital these abilities are to your organization’s goals by rating them from most important to least important.
  2. Conduct a review of your present workforce’s abilities. Performance evaluations, questionnaires for skill analysis, and interviews with managers, employees, and supervisors can be used to collect this information. Once you’ve completed the first stage, it’s time to rate those talents according to their importance.
  3. Analyze your findings. It’s time to compare what you learned in the previous two phases above and figure out where your present skill set is lacking.
  4. Perform a similar study if you know in advance what talents are needed in the future.

Understanding how many employees you’ll need in the future is crucial to identifying passive job searchers. It is possible to predict future staffing demands by looking at your organization’s turnover rate, but a more accurate projection will consider predicted retirements and future employment growth.

Looking into passive candidates may be done using sophisticated search options on Twitter. The hashtags #salesspecialist and #contentwriter are good places to start when looking for a content manager. Look for those that tweet insightful information or respond to queries on social media. You may follow them on Twitter and contact them if you’d like. You may also connect with the people that run successful firms in your field by following them on Facebook or Twitter. Finding intriguing experts may also be accomplished by participating in chats on Twitter and scheduled talks on a specified day and time on social media. As well as job postings, Facebook’s graph search may assist you in identifying people who meet particular criteria.

Searching on Facebook for “sales specialists who have studied in California” returns an extensive list of results. People who have worked in the same position for an extended period should be sought out (for example, from three to five years). They’re more receptive to fresh possibilities.

Send Brief Emails to Potential Candidates

You may send out an email to possible prospects in a matter of seconds. The most challenging thing is getting people to read it in the first place. Messages that are too long or complicated are likely to be thrown away. Keep your emails brief and basic to encourage applicants to read them. Passive candidates are more inclined to read emails they can quickly scan rather than anything that seems like a short novel because of the steady flow of communications. A reasonable rule of thumb for emails to applicants is to restrict the subject line to 35 characters or less and the email body to four to six lines at most. Creating a powerful and concise message may take some time. You should, however, keep and utilize the things that work for you when approaching new applicants.

Look for Local Networking Opportunities

You may send out an email to possible prospects in a matter of seconds. The most challenging thing is getting people to read it in the first place. Messages that are too long or complicated are likely to be thrown away. Keep your emails brief and basic to encourage applicants to read them. Passive candidates are more inclined to read emails they can quickly scan rather than anything that seems like a short novel because of the steady flow of communications. A reasonable rule of thumb for emails to applicants is to restrict the subject line to 35 characters or less and the email body to four to six lines at most. Creating a powerful and concise message may take some time. You should, however, keep and utilize the things that work for you when approaching new applicants.

Look for Local Networking Opportunities

It’s easy to find local networking events related to your sector on websites like Meetup or Eventbrite if you don’t already know about them. Meeting in person is the only way to truly establish a long-term relationship. You may use these meet-ups to find new employees, but you can also use them to promote your firm. Make the most of these events by showcasing your company’s best features to prospective employees. Talk about the perks you provide or the culture you foster at your organization. You also need to talk about how you help your employees advance their careers. Make a good impression now, and follow-ups will likely lead to a job offer.

Wrapping Up

It may be simpler for a recruiter to work with active prospects, but as you know, finding the right candidate isn’t always that simple. It may be more challenging to find passive candidates, but this is an essential strategy in today’s competitive and fast-paced hiring environment. Fortunately, finding passive candidates isn’t as challenging as you may imagine. 86% of employed people are willing to change jobs!

To locate and interact with many passive prospects fast, use the approaches described above in our guide on how to target passive job seekers. Some of these individuals might significantly affect your firm for many years to come.