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Did you know that only 30% of the global workforce is actively looking for a new role? This means when you are recruiting your next Major Donor Fundraiser, Head of IT or Marketing Manager you are potentially missing out on 70% of the candidate pool you need to effectively benchmark, shortlist and appoint.
This is compounded by very highly levels of employment. In May 2019 UK unemployment was estimated at 3.8% – the lowest since October 1974 (ONS) and partly driven by the growth of zero hours contracts.
With many people in work or not actively looking, the number of candidates available in the market can be low. To find high quality candidates you may need to shift your recruitment strategy and tap into a passive candidate base.
So, what is a passive candidate and how do you find them? In recruitment we talk a lot about active and passive candidates and it’s important to understand the difference.
Active candidates are those that are actively looking for work. They are likely to be signed up to job alerts and searching for roles on different media such as job boards. A sufficient number of active candidates in a relevant sector ensures a good quantity of candidates will apply for a vacancy. As a recruiter or hiring manager your challenge becomes turning quantity into quality.
Passive candidates are those that are not actively looking for work. They are happy in their role and are not considering their next career move. If you have more passive than active candidates in a sector then you are recruiting in a “candidate short market”. Classic examples of this in the charity sector are fundraising or technology roles.
So if this is the case – how do we engage passive candidates in your job opportunity?
1. LinkedIn Job Postings
LinkedIn is a great resource for finding a passive audience – you can proactively push your job opportunity in front of potential candidates and you can even target by location, sector and skills.
However, the functionality can be a minefield and it is potentially quite expensive – especially if you don’t know how to target candidates effectively. Consider doing standalone job postings rather than investing in a full recruiter licence. For example our Talent Attraction team offer a flat £250 rate for targeting on LinkedIn and have seen it work for a number of clients – it’s a good entry level product.
If you need some guidance on drafting an advert then you check out another one of our articles “How to write a Jedi level job advert”.
2. Make a direct approach
You can go to candidates direct rather than wait for them come to you. They might be names sourced from your colleagues at work or perhaps people you find on LinkedIn. You are unlikely to have the capacity to do a professional mapping exercise but at the very least you can reach out to people, gauge their interest and even if they don’t apply for a role you can ask them to share it with their networks.
3. Refer a friend
Do you operate an employee referral scheme? DigitalOcean, a growing technology company in the US, operated a referral scheme that gave employees a cash bonus plus a charitable donation paid on the employees behalf. This scheme led to 40% of new hires being employed through referrals.
If cash bonuses won’t work for you then perhaps you could offer incentives such as theatre tickets, vouchers or other benefits.
4. Use media and job boards more effectively
You might have a standard process you go to advertise a role – but do you ever try to think more creatively about how you use your existing channels? For example on the Guardian only about 10% of their audience is on the job board – the other 90% is passive in the jobs market but active on their editorial site. At our last count there are 19 products available to recruiters on the Guardian – have you taken the time explore how they can put your job in front of their passive audience using these products?
5. Leverage your internal networks
If operating a referral scheme wouldn’t work for your organisation then hopefully you can engage people in sharing roles on their networks. For example if you are recruiting a fundraising role then have your fundraising team share it on LinkedIn, Facebook and other platforms.
6. Give everyone a good experience
Those that you interview but don’t appoint can be powerful brand ambassadors – do give constructive feedback to people that interview. Candidates notice it, it makes a real difference and 44% of people will share a good experience with a friend (or potentially your next hire!). We encourage candidates to leave Google reviews on their experience with us to leverage that effect.
