Passive Candidate

    What is a passive candidate?

    A passive candidate is someone who is generally employed but not currently looking for a new job opportunity. However, most passive candidates are open to job opportunities depending on the role itself.

    Passive Candidate vs. Active Candidate

    A passive candidate and an active candidate are two of the three kinds of candidates in the job market. It refers to their level of engagement in finding a new job.

    Passive candidates

    • Not actively seeking a new role

    • May not be networking

    • Open to opportunities – although passive candidates aren’t actively seeking new roles, if presented with the right opportunity, there is every chance they will take it.

    • Sought after – passive candidates often have in demand skills, experience, and qualifications to bring a fresh perspective to a company and their company culture.

    Active Candidates

    • Actively seeking a new job

    • Reaching out as much as possible

    • Available immediately and may have a sense of urgency to their job hunt

    • Motivated by various factors – active candidates may be job hunting to advance their career path, gain a higher salary, a better work-life balance, or dissatisfaction with their current job.

    It’s important to remember that neither are unqualified candidates, no matter their engagement level, potential candidates are skilled candidates.

    Recruiting Passive Candidates

    Recruiting passive candidates can be a challenge as they aren’t current job hunting, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t leave their current job. To nab passive candidates, you’ll have to have a solid recruitment strategy and build a passive candidate pipeline. A few things you can do to source passive candidates are:

    Networking events

    Networking events are a great way to reach out to passive candidates in person. Build relationships with passive job seekers and subtly communicate the open positions that you have available. Using social media platforms can also be a great way to network with passive candidates.

    Employee referral programs

    A strong employee referral program can also be an incredible way to build a passive candidate pipeline into your recruitment strategy. Most of your employees will have a strong network of qualified candidates with in demand skills and an employee referral program can be one of the most effective ways to recruit passive candidates.

    Targeted outreach

    Recruiting passive candidates requires a personalised approach that highlights their skills and experience and how that aligns with the needs of the job opening you’re recruiting for. Focus on the benefits of working for your company in order to pique their interest further.

    Social Media

    A great way to recruit passive candidates is to use social media sites. Not only do people looking for a new job reach out to their network and browse common social media apps, so will passive job candidate. Using websites and apps like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, even TikTok and Reddit, can be a great, creative way to recruit passive candidates.

    Recruiting Passive Candidates

    Within the hiring process, when a recruiter is talking to a myriad of candidates, it can be hard to keep track of where candidates are at in their job hunt and whether they are active job seekers or a passive candidate. That’s where an applicant tracking system comes in.

    Applicant tracking systems help record and manage candidate and vacancy information. Applicant tracking software can be used on its own, integrated with other software, or be a part of a recruitment management system, like the Eclipse Recruitment Software. Our software has a number of features for talent pipelining, creating a talent pool and recruiting passive candidates, such as:

    • Batch CV parsing from email and comprehensive CV management.

    • Tracking and monitoring candidate contact details, social media, education, employment, location, industry, disciplines, skills and pipeline progression.

    • Storing and tracking compliance, right-to-work and onboarding documents.

    • Sorting applicants by the candidate’s skills, their relevancy to any job openings, and maintaining their record for a period of time so they can be looked at for future job openings.