7 Reasons Why Sourcing Passive Candidates Can Be a Great Strategy
According to some research, 73% of candidates on the job market are passive candidates. If you’re only looking at active candidates, then you’re missing out on a large portion of talented candidates.
However, many other benefits come from targeting passive candidates.
Keep reading to discover why your recruitment strategy should include sourcing these candidates.
1. Less Competition
There are more passive candidates than active candidates, so you’re already dealing with less competition when targeting passive candidates. With that being said, active candidates are typically easier to attract and hire, but that doesn’t mean that passive candidates aren’t worth it.
When you work on passive sourcing, you’ll expand your pool and find candidates your competition may not even be looking for. Consider that many people would consider leaving their job if they found a relevant position with good benefits and a good employer brand. Hence, you need to present that to your different potential candidates.
2. Less Pressure
When hiring active candidates, they’re likely trying to find a job as soon as possible and will probably be interviewing with other companies. You might need to speed up your recruitment process if you want to win that candidate over because the best candidates are off the market in just ten days.
This is especially true if you’re in a market where candidates are in short supply. However, if pressured to act quickly, you could make the wrong hiring decision. This is why contacting passive candidates offers less pressure and stress on the recruitment process. They do not need a job quickly and are likely not being approached by multiple companies.
With less pressure and more time to think, you can focus on the details of the hiring process and ensure that you’re making the right hiring decisions. Remember that the wrong hiring decision could cost companies between $17,000 and $240,000.
3. Could Have More Skills
One of the essential things when recruiting passive candidates is ensuring you hire the right person with the most talent. If you’re only working out of a tool with active talent, you might miss some great talent in the passive pool.
Passive workers are actively employed and are providing value to the company they’re at right then. It can be challenging to try and get them to switch over to your company, but it’s worth the effort if they’re very talented. You could try and offer them a position to help grow their career, or they might be interested in more challenging work.
4. More Experience
When you hire an employee you passively sourced, they’ll likely have the skills you were already looking for. Because of that, they have a higher chance of being successful hire.
Since they were currently working at a company, you also know they have some experience and professional skills they can bring to your company. You also have more time to thoroughly vet their expertise and ensure they have all the skills they need. You can also take the time to ensure that they’re a good cultural fit for your company.
5. They Chose Your Organization
When hiring active job seekers, they may have multiple job offers, but if they don’t, they might accept a bid at your company to bring in a paycheck. That’s not the case with passive candidates.
They take time to learn about your company and whether or not they want to accept a position there. They want to know if you can help them achieve their career goals and if it’s worth making a transition right then. Passive candidates have the chance to be picky and make choices that they want to because they have their current employment as a cushion.
6. Can Build a Relationship
Even if you don’t end up recruiting passive candidates, you’ll still be able to build relationships with them. That way, when they become active job seekers, they may reach out to your company first to see if you have any open positions.
If they don’t, you might be able to reach out to them when you have a different job opening that is more appealing to them. Regardless, you can stay in contact with them and keep them in your talent pipeline if you need to source candidates for a future position.
7. More Authentic
Lastly, hiring passive candidates sometimes ends up being a more authentic experience. When hiring active candidates, they’ve likely rehearsed part of their interview and are prepared for questions because they’re looking for a job. They might have figured out what type of interview questions you’ll ask and rehearsed an answer for them. But this can make it difficult not to judge if they’d be a good hire.
When you reach out to a passive candidate who isn’t actively interviewing for jobs, they may not have as much time to prepare rehearsed answers, and you can gauge more accurate responses. In addition, they have a job already and aren’t getting ready to leave or have as much pressure to find a new job. They might not prepare as much for the interview, and you might get more authentic answers that will help you gauge whether or not they’re a good hire.
Source Passive Candidates Today
These are only a few benefits you’ll see when you recruit passive candidates, but there are many more reasons you should consider it.
If you want to take advantage of these benefits, you may want to partner with Recruiter.com. We offer passive candidate sourcing as a service and can help you find the best passive talent with our powerful AI software. When we find possible candidates, we can also integrate them into your applicant tracking system.
If you need help recruiting candidates, we also have recruiters on demand who can attract passive candidates that your hiring managers can review. Contact us today to learn more about our recruiting solutions and which one is a better fit for your company.
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