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6 Key Strategies to Attract and Engage Passive Candidates 

Attracting the best candidates to your business is crucial for ensuring your company remains competitive. But the best candidates are not always the ones actively searching for a new role. In fact, these passive candidates who are not currently job hunting represent a rich stream of valuable talent.

The question is, how do you find them? How do you use your talent acquisition strategy to engage with an outstanding hire when the potential candidate isn’t even looking for a job?

Today, we’ll explore why reaching out to passive talent is so crucial and the best strategies for doing so.

What is a Passive Candidate?

A passive candidate is a person who may be open to a new role, but is not currently taking steps to find a job.

Unlike active job seekers, who busily scour recruitment adverts and apply to job openings in search of new opportunities, passive talent is more likely to be satisfied with their current position. 

However, that’s not to say they can’t be convinced to move to greener pastures (that’s your company). 

Research shows that US employees leave their jobs for various reasons. 

Image sourced from gallup.com

So, if you have something different to offer or can meet workers’ shifting needs—such as giving them a better work-life balance, unique benefits, or growth opportunities—chances are passive talent will be open to a discussion. 

But your passive recruitment process should be tactful. You must develop strategies to find and approach these potential candidates and convince them of the benefits of joining your company in a way that aligns with your hiring goals.

Why Passive Candidates Matter 

There are countless recruitment statistics that show passive talent is incredibly valuable for an organization. And with 70% of job seekers considered passive candidates, you have no shortage of options when it comes to finding talent. 

It may be that these individuals have unique skills or personal qualities that will help your business grow. Or perhaps they have more diverse experiences and ideas that will lead to greater innovation in your company. 

If you want to remain competitive in any field, you need a team who can help you stand out. Whether you’re short on resources or want to diversify your workforce and have very specific criteria, engaging with passive candidates can help you achieve those goals.

The strategy is much like using account based marketing tools in that you take a targeted, personalized approach to each candidate. So, rather than running a standard recruitment campaign, where you might post job advertisements to the masses on traditional channels, you contact passive candidates one-to-one. 

This more targeted approach saves your business time and money while helping you find a candidate whose skills and experience more closely match your requirements.

6 Strategies for Engaging Passive Candidates

Alarmingly, only one-third of US employees are actively engaged in their roles. These employees represent an opportunity for your recruitment team to find suitable hires through passive recruiting.

Let’s look at how you can capitalize on this trend and source valuable, skilled workers who can help your business thrive.

Image sourced from gallup.com

1. Show off your brand

The first thing a potential candidate will likely do is check out your company online. So you need to build an employer brand that makes a strong first impression. You want to present your company as a quality employer that matches passive candidates’ career aspirations and values, if not exceeds them. 

Ensure consistency in your messaging and visuals across all touchpoints where potential candidates are likely to encounter or engage with your brand. That includes your website landing page, blogs, email, and social media platforms such as X, Instagram, YouTube, and Linkedin. 

Consider potential interactions between the passive candidate and your business and assess what impression you are making. 

These touchpoints are key areas for telling your brand’s story and showing what it’s like working for your company. 

Blogs, videos, and posts are useful ways to talk about individual roles and responsibilities within your business. Include testimonials and interviews with existing employees, and use photos and videos to show what physical workspaces are like to highlight what a great environment your employees get to work in. 

If you want professional assistance with creating high-quality video content, consider partnering with a video marketing agency to ensure your brand message is clear and engaging.

Screenshot sourced from target.com

Make sure the content you produce showcases your company culture and values as you want them to be seen and understood by potential candidates. Ask management and HR to explain your approach to employee relations and outline the mission and objectives of the company. 

Continuously track the impact your online presence has to make sure your branding hits the right notes and your company is visible online. Tools like website visitor tracking software will help you keep tabs on website traffic, while social media tools will help you gauge audience demographic and engagement.

2. Leverage Online Platforms and Social Media

In a recent survey by Gallup, 50% of US employees who had been recently recruited said that they had been contacted by prospective employers through online professional networks like LinkedIn. It shows how important leveraging professional and social media platforms can be in sourcing potential employees.

These platforms are particularly useful as you can search for specialized expertise and job titles, read endorsements and dive into someone’s work history. It’s also very easy to contact potential candidates through platforms’ dedicated messaging apps.

But it’s not just professional sites that are useful for passive recruiting. Conventional social media platforms are also valuable. For example, Facebook has a targeted search feature that you can use to find individuals with particular skills or work experience. 

Likewise, you can search X and Instagram according to professions or sectors or add relevant hashtags to content, whether it’s video interviews with staff, clips from your virtual team building sessions, or behind the scenes project work. Doing this attracts potential future employees to your profile, increasing passive candidates’ awareness of your company and brand. 

But social media platforms aren’t just for finding and contacting passive candidates. It’s also useful for sharing engaging content and news about your business that can interest and entice potential new hires as part of your employer branding strategy.