Brenda

I agree wholeheartedly with Jeremy in that we all must look at ALL potential candidates, especially in this market when entire operations have been closed, plants shuttered and staffs cut (not just the “fat” but muscle and bone too). In these situations even the best and the brightest can get caught – does anyone NOT want to see these people if they fit your job, company and team dynamic?

Boy am I glad I did not say that because later in qualifying the order I found out his wife was just down sized.

I think it is important to look at everyone and present toughs that are qualified. The only thing scary about present an active candidate (at least in my company. We work both direct and contingent), is there is a better chance the customer may flip the candidate into accepting a temporary to ire.

Call me a nihilist but to not give equal consideration to candidates who worked for organizations that have had massive layoffs or worse, been victims of corporate malfeasance in this unspeakable meltdown is evil beyond all manner of thought or action as it takes individuals who have been victimized and victimizes them yet again.

If I knew of an organization that did not consider hiring candidates because another company did not already employ them, I would stay up nights figuring out how to not buy their products or services. When I got that straight, I would stay up more nights figuring out a way to see that everyone else on the planet did not buy them either. Let them sell to their passive candidates.

Howard@howardadamsky.com

The facts are most of us cannot meet our talent demands by relying on just the active job seeker. If only 14-20% of the talent supply looking for work, the odds of an active jobseeker having the specific skills that a job might require is very small. And as you article (and feedback to your article) suggests we need to be active in multiple channels. In my world, it is not about active vs. causal, passive or inactive job seeker, it is about recruiting the best talent to meet the businesses needs.

I guess you skipped the part of the article, actually the very first line, that reads, “I once heard a story that the CEO of a major executive search firm told…”. You also skipped over the fact that what you have quoted is simply the author’s summary. It is not a quote!

The writer is relaying something they simply heard about. In all likelihood, it is fictional. You, however, have taken “the story” as fact, accepted the author’s summary as fact and quote, and loosed your outrageous bias against agency recruiters upon the rest of us.

You might want to rethink you use of the term “ignorant”.

Active candidates = likely to know you’re hiring.

Passive candidates = unlikely to know you’re hiring.

A thorough search for the ideal candidate may often involve engaging both types of candidates. Because many large companies post positions and attract active candidates it is important that the search firm they choose to partner with works on engaging passive candidates.

this statement is so ignorant, but not surprised it came out of an Agency’s mouth: “anyone who is unemployed is inferior.”

20 bucks says that CEO has been unemployed since then ;)

/touché

I loved your article! In my experience, I assumed that recruiting was so easy anybody could do it. Hence, I found it astonishing when many HM’s struggled to find quality staff. Upon gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges the HM’s faced, I found that the truth is many HM’s relied upon a single methodology of recruiting “post, pray and hope” or a hit and miss strategy. When this method did not provide the results they sought, panic set in.

I’ve learned in many cases recruiting is not a problem for an operator until a need arises (understaffed). To make matters worse the decision making process is complicated when there’s a lack of understanding in interviewing and selection. Ultimately, if desperation sets in, they will hire a warm body. It can be a negative cycle and counter productive to business growth. I’ve learned that companies that have a recruiting culture and value talent pools do much better.

In my experience, I’ve found that the key is to have the following: multiple channels of attracting quality staff on a continuous basis; building your image and connections within the community (on and offline) and integrating strategic partnership with your resources in which, they have a clear understanding of your target market (in turn becoming an extension of your team).

I’ve believe that quality and the right fit are more imperative to the hiring process than making assumptions about “employed vs. unemployed” people because there are too many circumstances to make those assumptions. In conclusion, it’s important to look at the whole picture, diversify your efforts and build a solid recruiting strategy, which include metrics, in order to create sound hiring processes.

I own the URL: talenpools.com and invite any HR entrepreneur interested in building out a new “passive” candidate service to let me know. I have the business model figured out, but need a passionate person to help “sweat equity” build it as I don’t have the time.

Best,

Rob Steir
rsteir@talentpools.com