Often we see articles about recruiting passive candidates. The perception is that active candidates are not as desirable as their working counterparts.
Allyson Doyle, contributor tr About.com wrote, “Employers often actively seek passive candidates for employment, especially when they are seeking candidates with very specific skills and experience.”
Does that mean that active candidates are no good? Before making a premature judgment, read on; you may not want to discount active candidates.
Manisha Gupta, in her LinkedIn article “Passive Talent – Not as Passive as you Think,” brought up a very important point. “…if you focus only on the passive talent pool (which comprises about 80 percent of the fully-employed workforce), you’ll find those who are truly ‘approachable’ (whether ‘Tiptoers’ or ‘Explorers’) far outnumber the ‘Super-Passives’ who claim they’re not interested in even discussing a move.” Most of these candidates are actually somewhat active.
Active candidates are usually inundated with calls by sourcers and recruiters. Because of this, active candidates can be “slippery” and hard to pin down. Honestly, it can take even more time to properly recruit candidates that are on the prowl than their more passive peers. I have always prided myself on never having a candidate refuse an offer I presented. (OK, maybe only four in my career.) The reason I can say this, like quite a number of my peers, is that I have never presented an offer to a candidate I did not have on lockdown.
Let’s look at four steps that you must do if you want your candidates to “stick.”
It really does need to be everyday by the way. And then 2x a week the first two weeks and once a week for the next two weeks at a minimum. Sourcers and recruiters remember the candidate is your product. Make sure before every placement you know what you are selling.
