7 Successful Strategies for Passive Recruiting

Passive recruiting is the attempt to recruit those who aren’t actively looking for jobs and are still employed elsewhere. The challenges of passive recruiting are numerous as it’s understandably harder than reaching those actively looking for jobs, but the rewards can be more numerous than the challenges if you know what you’re doing. 

Read more: 7 Successful Strategies for Passive Recruiting

Candidates currently employed likely have skills that are up to date and have recent and current experience they can draw on. These realities make passive recruiting an effective strategy for finding top talent and ensuring the right person will get a job. Here are some specific passive recruiting strategies you can use as you seek to hire staff.

1. Research Specific Candidates

By paying attention to online and local media reports, you can often find talented candidates that could do great work for your brand. For some industries, there are databases you can use to find candidates with particular experience and skills you desire. 

When you find a candidate you like, research them specifically and find out more about them to ensure they’ll be a good fit. Social media, online directories, and company website staff listings are some areas to search. You can also see whether they’ve published any writings or had any other major accomplishments.

2. Be Active on Forums and Networking Platforms

Online forums, social media groups, and other networking platforms are excellent resources for finding who’s who in particular positions or industries. It will take time to get familiar with each forum and to participate in relevant ways. Once your staff is familiar with the particulars, however, forums and groups can reap some of the best benefits. 

Reaching out to talent you’d like to hire will be better received when you’ve gotten to know them through talking online. If you’ve made a good impression, you probably have a better chance of convincing them to consider your company than you would without the existing relationship. 

3. Have something to Offer 

If you don’t have something valuable to offer passive candidates, they won’t likely leave their current positions to work for your company. You could use your research to figure out what offer would be meaningful for a particular candidate, but there are commonalities that will work for most individuals. 

Opportunities for growth and advancement are a good place to start. Other possible offers can include flexible work hours or other benefits, prestige if your company is well-known in your industry, or custom packages tailored to specific candidates’ needs. 

4. Candidate Experience

Having an excellent candidate experience can draw a passive candidate towards your company. This also works well with active candidates. Candidate experiences includes hospitality, making them feel comfortable and welcomed, being responsive to their timelines or questions, and following up in a timely manner. 

Improving your candidate experience will help with your recruiting efforts, but it may be the deciding factor in whether a passive candidate will leave their current job and come work for you instead. How you treat potential candidates teaches them what they can expect as employees, so you’ll want to make things as positive as possible. 

5. Employer Branding

Employer branding is the way your brand is portrayed on social media, your website, and written materials. Any time your brand is represented, employer branding comes into play. It’s important for the branding to be done in a way that passive candidates find attractive. 

Information about the importance of your brand in your industry, positive stories of employees, and other data about the brand and its positive impacts can be convincing to candidates who aren’t sure whether they should make respective career moves. 

6. Emphasize Work-Life Balance

One of the biggest considerations for workers in their prime, especially millennials and Gen Z, is work-life balance. No longer is it considered desirable or even acceptable to work long hours while leaving no time for family, rest, or other interests. Instead, workers want careers that fit into their overall life responsibilities, plans, and goals. 

One important part of the work-life balance can be to offer flexible scheduling so employees can take time off to care for aging parents, attend their children’s performances, or fit in doctor appointments. Some employers even give unlimited time off so long as work gets done. This helps workers manage duties and life in ways that work better for them. This can even encourage them to be more productive because their other needs are being met in better ways. 

7. Reach Out to Alumni

A study by Career Addict said 35% of those polled would consider coming back to former jobs if they could get higher pay. This makes it worth reaching out to alumni who were valuable members of your team that left on good terms. 

Given the recent salary increases most companies have given, it’s not much of a stretch in most cases to offer pay raises to get valued former team members to return. If they say no, maybe they know others of their caliber who would be interested. Either way, alumni can be good resources when you want to passively recruit.

GDH offers staffing and recruiting solutions for companies that need help with hiring.  Looking for star employees? We find them.