What do you do if passive candidates aren't showing interest?

Engaging with passive candidates demands novel approaches to outreach. For instance, even the most passive candidates may show interest when approached by a hiring manager who communicates the value and potential of the role directly. This personalized approach often sparks curiosity and opens the door to meaningful conversations about career opportunities. Effective outreach isn't solely the responsibility of the talent acquisition team; it's a collaborative effort that involves the entire hiring team. By working together to craft compelling messages and strategies, and leveraging each other's networks, the hiring team can significantly increase their chances of successfully engaging with passive candidates and attracting top talent.

As a recruiter, an important aspect of your role is to effectively engage individuals who don´t know you, the company, role, or position, and cultivate their interest and enthusiasm. At the start of my career, I used to just copy paste messages the senior members of the team passed along. When I decided to use my own voice, I noticed a huge increase in response and engagement. Genuine care and interest in what others say builds trust and encourages them to share more with you. It´s that easy!

Engaging passive candidates is all about building trust. They're often settled and relatively happy in their current roles, so they need to really trust you before engaging. The best way to build trust - become known in your industry for being good at what you do and for having integrity. It takes time. There are no shortcuts.

Passive candidates are usually the purple squirrels which are hard to find and further harder to get. Also, bringing in such candidates isn't a one off stint. There has to be a project/strategy around poaching them and nurturing them with your companies vision. Steps which can help: 1 - Identify and create a pool of such candidates who can add value to open/forecasted roles in your org. 2 - They are your audience, give them content around your companies publicly available information/updates. This will build interest in them. 3 - Share currently recruiting roles with them and ask if they are interested or know someone who might. 4 - Now you are giving the key of decision making to them and they feel empowered and step forward. TaDa.

Passive candidates often don't respond to your inmails. A message is usually not enough to get an active interest from their end. I've lately struggled to close a role due to the lack of quality in the active talent pool and having a small pool altogether (niche requirement). I ended up closing the role with a passive candidate as I found their number through a job portal by specifically searching for their name. A 5 year old CV but it got me what I wanted, the number. By engaging with them on a phone call & finding the right time to share the opportunity at length, I was able to get the initial yes for interviewing (as it was truly was a good match for both entities) and then eventually closing with them. Find numbers and call!

From my experience: ✅ Market Analysis: Regularly review and compare your job offerings against market trends to ensure competitiveness. ✅ Value Proposition: Clearly articulate the unique benefits and growth opportunities your roles offer to pique the interest of passive candidates. ✅ Personalized Outreach: Tailor your approach to highlight how a role aligns with a candidate's specific career aspirations and achievements. ✅ Feedback Loop: Gather insights from past passive candidates to understand deterrents and refine your proposition accordingly.

Personalize your outreach by demonstrating how your opportunity specifically aligns with their career goals and aspirations. Incorporate storytelling in your messaging to paint a vivid picture of the potential impact they could have in the role and how it could mark a significant milestone in their career journey. Offer exclusive insights into your company culture, highlighting unique benefits or career development programs that set you apart.

I don't think engaging passive candidates is about enhancing my offering. If I've not connected with a candidate before, trying to tell them about the value of a position is impossible for me to do unless I know what's important to them. As such, the only way to enhance my offering and get them excited about engaging with me, even if they're not actively looking for a change, is to help them see that this will benefit them. It will either benefit them now because I might be working on an amazing position that looks like it could be a fit and I'd be interested to see what they'd be looking for. Whether now or down the road, I come across great positions and want to know what fits them.

Reconhecimento e recompensa: Reconhecer e recompensar o bom desempenho pode incentivar a produtividade e a lealdade dos trabalhadores

Ask for feedback. If someone isn't interested in the role, it's okay to ask why. When capacity permits, make time for discovery calls with potential future candidates so that you can learn more about their professional goals. Taking the time to genuinely listen and hear what people have to say will pay off in the future. I love being able to call someone a year later with a role that is right up their alley!

In Japan's recruitment market, only about 3% of the workforce is visible on LinkedIn. Most candidates prefer to submit anonymous resumes on domestic job boards, even when actively seeking new opportunities. This passive approach is unique to Japan. A crucial lesson I've learned is the significance of relationships and trust in recruitment. Trust is built over time through effective support for candidates throughout the recruitment process. As recruiters, it's essential to prioritize nurturing relationships over immediate benefits or revenue. Investing time in building trust will yield positive results in the long run.

This step can provide the greatest return on the investment of time. You can build your relationships by building your network, engaging on more posts on LinkedIn (liking, commenting, connecting with folks who commented already), following organizations related to your profession or the business unit you are hiring for, etc. This can take some time but if you work it into your daily workflow, it is much more manageable. I set aside 15-30 min each day to work on connections, commenting on posts, looking for new pages to follow. This has helped me find new passive candidates and help my own post reach a wider network.

Add value to the individual, show your personality and that you are not just a another person messaging from the other side of the screen. Build up trust, this takes time and cannot be rushed, be involved in the community and show humility, ultimately moving jobs is stressful regardless of the situation.

Promova a cultura, missão e impacto da empresa: Destaque os valores e a missão da empresa para atrair candidatos que compartilham esses ideais Planeje uma casa aberta: Uma oportunidade para candidatos conhecerem a empresa e sua cultura de dentro Recrute embaixadores de funcionários: Funcionários atuais podem ser ótimos promotores da empresa e atrair candidatos passivos

Promova a cultura, missão e impacto da empresa: Destaque os valores e a missão da empresa para atrair candidatos que compartilham esses ideais Recrute embaixadores de funcionários: Funcionários atuais podem ser ótimos promotores da empresa e atrair candidatos passivos

"Showcasing Culture" this is no longer putting an advert out with your benefits at the bottom... The companies best at this have videos showcasing events they have run, they have interviews with employees speaking about their favourite benefits, talking about how they have progressed and why they like working for the company. For fully remote tech roles, think about how you can bring everyone together virtually, whether that be a Hackathon every quarter, twice a year or more often.

Contrate uma empresa de fornecimento de candidatos: Empresas especializadas podem fornecer candidatos passivos interessados e qualificados Organize um evento especial: Eventos podem ser uma forma eficaz de atrair candidatos e mostrar a cultura da empresa

Gather feedback and use it to make the role more attractive; - Do you need to increase the number of remote working days you offer to increase the candidate pool? - Is salary to low? - Are you asking for too much experience? - Can you include more training and development budget for the successful person? However, there isn't a correct answer, everyone is different and has different motivations, speak to passive candidate and find out their motivations.

Além disso, é essencial manter uma comunicação transparente e construir relacionamentos a longo prazo, mesmo que os candidatos não estejam procurando ativamente por uma mudança no momento. Isso cria uma rede de talentos potenciais que podem ser abordados quando surgirem oportunidades adequadas.