7 Exceptional Sourcing Strategies for Attracting Passive Candidates

LinkedIn says passive candidates comprise up to 75% of the existing labor market. Therefore sourcing candidates is worth the extra effort.

While sourcing for a passive candidate, you will have to deliberately seek and contact employed people to gauge their interest in your available position. 

According to research, “compared to 1 in every 152 non-sourced candidates, 1 in every 72 sourced candidates is selected.”

Before we get into some of the best creative sourcing strategies you’ve come across, we need to address two frequently asked questions:

Question# 1: Why should I bother soliciting applications from passive candidates?

Here’s the deal: Approximately 85% of the workforce is actively looking for a new job and would welcome a change in their working environment. There are some benefits to locating passive candidates as well.

• First, they won’t be interviewing anybody else but you because they aren’t actively looking for a new job. This means you’ll have fewer competitors.
• They’re also less prone to exaggerate or lie on their resumes. They’re happy with their current employment (for the most part) and aren’t looking for a new one.
• Finally, you’re seeking someone with a specific skill set that meets your requirements. You know who you employ and what they do in their current role. This means that training will take up less time and resources.

If we ignore that only 15% of the population is entirely content with their employment, we can conclude that there is a large pool of qualified candidates for your next position — you need to know how to find them. And getting to them leads to the second question.

Question# 2: What are the benefits of using a unique candidate sourcing strategy when we can use employment boards?

While job boards can be a terrific way to find and target the best candidates, the hard truth is that they’re pricey, the overall quality of candidates that come through them is low, and, most notably, 85% of the workforce doesn’t browse job boards. It would be best to think beyond the box to get in front of passive quality talent.

Let’s take a look at the particular steps recruiters can take to improve their talent sourcing approach for passive candidates:

7 Unique Sourcing Strategies to Attract Passive Candidates

Step 1. Get in Touch With Candidates Who Have Just Started a New Job

Reaching out to someone who has recently begun a new job at the right time can be advantageous. Your outreach’s timing can sometimes work to your benefit.

Consider this: the candidate’s work-life is already in flux, and their resume and qualifications are current. There’s a chance their new employment didn’t turn out the way they expected it to or that the company wasn’t what it claimed to be. This might be the just perfect chance to strike your new offer here. 

Statistics show that about one-third of new hires will leave their employment within the first six months. 

Therefore don’t miss out on an incredible opportunity just because a possible applicant has recently accepted a new position. This doesn’t mean you can’t discuss with them to gauge their interest.

Step 2. Headhunt on Events

Many passive candidates considering a career shift attend networking events to keep in touch with people in their field. Make it a point to network and attend events that your target candidates would be interested in, whether they are directly related to your industry or are just hobbies or side projects with which they are generally associated.

According to a study, passive candidates are 120% more likely to affect your firm significantly.

 You can create a relationship with potential passive applicants by introducing yourself and connecting with them before providing them career opportunities. 

Candidates are far more inclined to respond to someone they’ve met in person or with whom they’ve developed a relationship.

Step 3. Experiment with Various Platforms

Recruiters use LinkedIn to study and recruit applicants in 93% of cases. However, this has caused an oversaturation on LinkedIn, which is why 52% of hiring managers say passive candidate recruiting has grown less effective, signaling that your social recruiting strategy has to be expanded.

According to a survey, 58% of companies do social media platforms screening to determine which individuals are qualified for the position.

 Experimenting with platforms such as Twitter, Medium, and Pinterest can be advantageous. You can search for keywords, phrases, and localities, making it great for zeroing in on specific candidates in your area via these platforms.

Using Twitter’s advanced search, you may target people based on numerous characteristics at once, allowing you to find the passive prospects that best fit your requirements. 

Step 4. Establish a Referral Program

According to a 2020 survey, 45% of employees hired through employee referrals stay for more than four years, but just 25% of employees hired through job boards remain for more than two years.

Referrals have long been a cornerstone of modern recruiting techniques, and with good reason: 78% of recruiters believe referrals are how they locate the most acceptable applicants.

Every one of your employees has particular relationships and networks. Furthermore, these networks frequently feature a pool of high-quality individuals that would be an excellent fit for open roles in your organization. 

Although passive applicants may be hesitant to respond to a recruiter’s communication, they are considerably more inclined to explore an opportunity presented by a personal relationship.

Referral programs have produced higher-quality applicants than alternative talent sourcing approaches, not merely finding more passive candidates. According to studies, referred employees perform 15% better than non-referred hires.

Step 5. Make Use of Your Automation Tools

Every facet of your recruiting process, including candidate sourcing, has been transformed by advanced technologies. In today’s world, recruiters can employ artificial intelligence (AI) to find quality candidates. It is a more efficient and effective method of recruiting than doing it by hand.

The AI system searches job boards to collect and analyze various candidate information. It includes their resume information so that you can match it to the relevant job openings. 

Based on this information, AI-based techniques can forecast which passive candidates will be interested in changing jobs. As a result, recruiters may easily prioritize and attract passive applicants.

Step 6. Use Short Skill Tests to Pique Passive Applicants’ Interest

Another innovative technique for attracting passive candidates is to use a skills exam to make the application process simple, enjoyable, and competitive.

Rather than requesting applicants to submit resumes, Harvard Business Review recommends that everyone begin the hiring process with a short exam.

The benefit of employing a ten to fifteen-minute skills challenge as part of the first screening process is that it allows you to screen the best candidates faster. It also aids in attracting people who aren’t actively seeking new employment.

It takes a lot of time and effort to write a resume and a cover letter, but taking a brief test to determine your skill level and learn more about the employment opportunity removes the obstacles to applying for jobs.

Step 7. Emphasize the Company’s Culture and Potential for Growth

Many recruiters are skilled at discovering passive applicants, but their sourcing tactics fall short when it comes to reaching out to them. The issue is that passive candidates are uninterested in the duties and responsibilities of an available position at your organization. 

You’ll only get their attention if you demonstrate what makes your organization special and rewarding to work for. Two of the most crucial aspects that impact a candidate’s choice to shift employment are career progression and company culture.

Eighty-seven percent of millennials at work consider career growth and development opportunities crucial. Over 80% seek people and cultural fit with employers before looking for career potential.

Passive candidates will only leave their current work if they believe a new one will be more fulfilling. Most passive applicants will not make this switch until they are confident they enjoy working in their unique setting.

You may not want to sell a specific role when reaching out to passive applicants. Instead, start a conversation about your company’s potential for expansion. Also, ensure you have content that reflects your company’s distinct culture and employer branding.

Simply publishing a job listing on your company’s website isn’t enough, so look for new ways to reach out to your target talent pool and rethink your hiring process accordingly.

To learn more about sourcing candidates and to optimize your recruitment process, contact Recruiter.com. We will do our best to provide you with recommendations that you may explore and incorporate into your current candidate sourcing strategies to have a bigger pool of potential candidates to choose from.

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