Typically, hiring managers use the phrase “passive jobseekers” to mean people happily employed elsewhere whom they chase down because they have the right credentials.
Since these people don’t quite want the job, most of the research about these kinds of candidates shows they’re crummy: when approached by recruiters, they ask for don’t stay long and ask for too much money and, after all, they’re so hard to find they’re costly. Plus, most of this is happening on an ever more crowded LinkedIn.
But as we at Technical.ly have done more reporting and, actually, more work for clients on talent sourcing, I’ve found the established talent acquisition industry has a pretty rotten definition. It’s way too limited and that leads to limited strategies. That was the focus of a five-minute lightning talk I gave in October to more than 300 HR professionals at a DisruptHR event.
In contrast, the understanding of passive jobseekers I prefer is those who are actively employed and actively following your organization with enough interest that they’d apply for just the right role. (And your methodology for developing those soon-to-be-candidates is your employment branding, adding marketing to the HR mix or facing real increased costs.)
When Technical.ly first published our Beyond Recruiting ebook several years ago, one of the first themes we noticed was how many common hiring strategies of growing firms we admired involved getting smart people to know about their organizations before a relevant role description was ever posted. Since then, we have pursued that same strategy and advised others on it.
That was the focus of my lightning pitch. Watch my presentation below or here.
Find my slides here. Find coverage here of the event.
