Jobhop Jobhop's blog : Passive Candidates Are Everywhere
A passive candidate is someone who has the right attitude, skills, expertise and qualifications but are not actively looking for work.
Because they’re not actively looking for work it doesn’t mean that they wont be open to opportunities, especially opportunities which could enhance their career.
79% of global working professionals are considered passive candidates, that means just 21% are active candidates.
Everyone now has the power to constantly show-case their skills and expertise using social media, passive candidates are everywhere. People can show-case their skills and expertise via their profiles on social networking sites like Facebook, Jobhop, Pinterest and Linkedin or by blogging, using sites like Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr or on their own blog site. Other ways to show-case their skills and expertise could be by video, podcasting, tweeting, photo sharing or on niche platforms like Github, coroflot, deviantart, dribble, cargo, the list goes on. This means everyone potentially has a shop window to display their goods to onlookers, those onlookers include recruiters, employers and competitors.
Candidates now have the power to always remain on “the market” even when they’re not. Passive candidates are not looking, they’re not looking at all, it’s us looking at them.
Sometimes the passive candidate wont use their profiles as a shop window for themselves but as a shop window for the company who they work for. The blurb within their own profile is about the company they work at and what they do there, however they’re still a passive candidate. Anyone who’s accessible, with the skills and attitude that your company is after, is a passive candidate. Social media has made access to these candidates easy for employers and recruiters, if they’re online then contact can be made.
Where most employers and recruiters fail is in the initial contact, they usually just send a sales message to say “ Hi I have a great job opportunity for you ”. Most of these “passive candidates” are happy where they are, they’ve probably never heard of the company your touting, they’ll probably just ignore the message, or worse they’ll report it as spam.
Passive candidates are usually happy employees working somewhere else, they may even be working for your competitor.
What you have to consider is, how long will it take for them to trust you and why would they leave their happy workplace to work at yours?
To build trust and to get the passive candidate to join your company will take patience, it will take commitment to build a long term relationship with them. It’s only when the candidate knows you, your company, your employees, your ethics and trusts you should you then mention possible opportunities.
JOIN Jobhop and spread the word.
Julie Bishop Jobhop.co.uk
In:- Expert