While some organizations attract talent with no
or less efforts, this is no longer the norm for most companies. Today, it's far
more important for a recruiter to be proactive when finding candidates. Today's
professionals expect employers to search for them and they take their online
branding and positioning very seriously.
According to 2015 LinkedIn Talent Trends report,
75 percent of 18,000 employees surveyed considered themselves passive
candidates. However, 85 percent of the surveyed employees were ready to talk to
a recruiter and know about better opportunities.
The competitiveness of the market today can be
judged from the fact that candidates have a number of job offers in their kitty
and they evaluate each offer on the basis of individual standpoint such as
work-life balance, company culture etc. The study mentions that laterals with
good experience are in huge demand and the problem is compounded by the fact
these are usually not active candidates.
Who exactly are Passive Candidates?
A passive candidate (passive job candidate) is
someone who is well qualified and can be considered for a position open with
the Organization but is not actively searching for a job.
Active candidates apply for jobs through job
portals, Company websites or referrals. Passive candidates, however, are
reached out to by recruiters. Passive Candidates are often skilled in niche
areas/ technologies, top performers in their field and are difficult to reach.
Oracle corp. through a research in January, 2016
identified the inner motivation what truly drives passive candidate to take
another job opportunity and the key motivation factors are as follows.
- Professional development
- Compensation
- Challenging Work
Some commonalities amongst passive candidates are as follows:
·
Professionals in the age group of 22 to 40 years
·
Satisfied in his/her current job and not enthusiastically scouting for new
opportunities
·
Such candidates are actively engaged on social networks such as LinkedIn,
Xing or job-seeking portals
·
A high growth job is one that could convince such candidates to move to a
better one
· Candidates face a number of choices when they switch their jobs based on
supply-demand dynamics (high demand for talent and smaller number of qualified
professionals);
Key challenges in hiring a passive candidate:
Differentiation - There has to be a
differentiating factor in the way an Organization approaches a passive
candidate rather than the traditional
mode of recruiter phone call or emails.
Channel -
Passive candidates are generally interested in talking to managers or their
future colleagues rather than the recruiters to get first hand insight into their future role and
culture of the Organization. Hence recruiting teams should find innovative ways
to achieve this interaction.
Speed - Competition in the market for talented
passive candidates are high. They might be having multiple offers once they
decide to leave their current job.
Hence the recruitment team should act fast.
Engagement - Passive candidates should be
provided with a workplace approach which motivates them to be their best in the
work they do which in turn meets
Organizational goals and objectives and make them feel enhanced and empowered.
HR technology plays a key role in finding the
passive talent through various ways of creative and Salient features. (to be
continued)