This is a question often asked. Where are the best candidates? One thing you can be sure of is that they probably aren’t actively looking for work through traditional methods for the simple reason that they are busy being good at what they do.
In LinkedIn’s Talent Trends 2014 found that about 75% of the workforce consider themselves passive candidates, meaning that they aren’t actively looking for their next role.
The first question that comes to mind is, does this mean that three quarters of the workforce is unreachable.
There is some truth in this if you are relying on traditional job advertising as the passive candidate generally isn’t looking here.
However, the news is good if you are prepared to go beyond typical recruiting practices. Spend the time understanding your market, your competitors, your suppliers and like industries.
Take the time to identify talent both within and external to your organisation. Start to have conversations with these individuals. Find out what they are looking for. What is important to them. What are they looking for in their next role.
Build a talent pool to help manage this process and consider using an external recruiter to keep these discussions at arms length from your organisation.
By doing some of the things above you will be starting to reach those ‘passive’ candidates that may have seemed unreachable.
If you have any questions or would like to know more about passive recruitment please contact me paul@paulgreening.com
