Passive but Silently Active

Who are passive job candidates? These mostly employed individuals are not currently looking for employment opportunities. Many are happy in their place of work, but should the right career opportunity present itself, they could be persuaded to leave. According to Zippia, an online job recruiting firm, 73% of potential candidates are passive job seekers. And a considerable 87% of these candidates are open to the new job opportunities provided by active recruitment.

Attract an Active Response

Attracting passive job candidates relies on initiatives that are already cornerstones of the Future of Work paradigm. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) programs are attractive to this recruitment segment because they want to work for employers that are progressive and supportive of various causes and lifestyles. Thus, it is imperative that organizations promote their DE&I efforts and results on social media and corporate communications for wide exposure. LinkedIn shared that a total of 134.5 million users regularly uses the platform every day. In addition, more than 48% of LinkedIn users are active each month. Enterprises should be using the platform to expand their reach in the marketplace, promote programs that capture company culture, and solicit users who are interested in employment or organizational programs.

With more enterprises restricting remote work, it is job flexibility and remote/hybrid models that continue to resonate with employees and many job seekers. Now is the time to capitalize on that fact and emphasize that the enterprise fully supports work/life balance and remote/flexible scheduling. Employees who previously enjoyed those benefits but are facing restrictions or revised policies may be more open to recruitment inquiries. At the very least, now is the time to communicate with current and potential employees about the intent to remain a remote/hybrid workplace.

Actively Recruit Passive Candidates

Shifting now from attracting passive candidates to actively recruiting them, there are several strategies identified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) to accomplish that objective.

Social Media

Whether it’s LinkedIn, Facebook, or association online job boards, social media’s reach is unparalleled. LinkedIn for example, offers recruiter subscriptions to best leverage the platform’s community. According to SHRM,  “Another way to find passive job seekers on LinkedIn is to use the ‘advanced people search’ tool and enter your criteria for the ideal candidate for a job that is or will be available at your organization.”

Content Exposure

Establish a company blog to share industry trends and information that business professionals in the field can turn to. It positions the enterprise as thought-leading and engaged with the sector, which can attract passive job candidates looking for best-in-class employers.

Targeted Marketing Collateral

When passive job candidates are identified, the enterprise can target specific materials to them that speak to programs or benefits candidates would find attractive. Market those DE&I initiatives or hybrid work models as a reason to consider working for the enterprise.

Employee Referral Programs

Employees can serve as a critical extension of an organization’s recruitment strategy. With an employee referral program, outreach can occur via social media channels or through personal communication. Often, there are perks, such as a bonus for referrals that result in a hire. More importantly, an employee referral program promotes employee engagement and can lead to recruitment cost and time savings.

Seek What You Need

Passive does not mean uninterested. It is the responsibility of HR and business leaders to seek out recruitment opportunities and cultivate relationships with job candidates who possess skills and capabilities that could be a competitive differentiator for the organization. In my own professional life, I was a passive job candidate who received a LinkedIn invitation from Ardent Partners’ founder and chief research officer Andrew Bartolini to explore a potential job opportunity with his firm. I was not actively applying or networking for new employment opportunities. However, after two months of casual conversations with Andrew and his team, the position we discussed was an ideal fit with my background and professional passions. And here we are. Passive candidates need a reason to walk through the door. Show them the reasons why.

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The starting point for most will be to build on their existing direct sourcing capabilities and work to develop a true Direct Sourcing 2.0 program…which, of course, is only achievable through the convergence of strategic and automated competencies.

The path to Direct Sourcing 2.0 is paved with technology. While elements such as talent curation, talent pool development, talent pool segmentation, and recruitment stream integration are core to any direct sourcing program, HR leaders and their teams must incorporate digitization and advanced direct sourcing competencies to get to the next level of performance. Achieving Direct Sourcing 2.0 requires advanced capabilities to be coupled with digital recruitment functionality in order to boost talent quality, enhance candidate intelligence, and develop repeatable and scalable methods for reengaging talent to build a truly agile workforce.

While predictive analytics are not commonplace today, soon, a majority of enterprises will look to scenario-building as a way to enhance overall talent intelligence. Predictive analytics, in this realm, will augment the organization’s overall knowledge of its in-house skills as well as the expertise available externally (across all talent communities, including talent pools).

This level of intelligence will spark new and targeted initiatives to find better-aligned candidates with stronger talent engagement efforts and push business leaders to better understand who the strongest candidates are for future roles, positions, and projects.

Sixty-five percent (65%) of businesses plan to link the candidate experience with hiring manager experience. As discussed in the Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange Direct Sourcing 2.0 research study, transforming talent acquisition into a consumer-like journey is just one side of the Direct Sourcing 2.0 coin. The other side focuses on the hiring manager experience, which should be seamless in order to streamline the means of finding, engaging, and sourcing talent for a full spectrum of open roles and positions.

While only a third (33%) of businesses have automated candidate experience capabilities in their direct sourcing programs today, 50% more plan to do so within two years. Personalization and sharing more specific details regarding a project/role match, when automated, are repeatable and scalable to ensure that all candidates have a more positive and compelling experience when recruited.

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Direct sourcing went from being an additional way to find talent in pre-pandemic times to, today, a revolutionary means of tapping into the extended workforce to drive better business outcomes. As the business world continues to evolve, even in the throes of “The Great Resignation,” the lowest unemployment rate since the pandemic began, and “power” shifting to the worker, the continued transformation of talent engagement is now an enterprise standard. The question then becomes: How do businesses continue to respond in the wake of being forced to reimagine talent acquisition, human capital, and the agile workforce?

The answer lies within the evolution of direct sourcing, where the strategy, program, and its associated technology not only take into account core attributes such as talent curation and talent pool segmentation, but also deeper, critical aspects like the candidate experience, candidate skills assessment, the hiring manager experience, automated recruitment marketing, going “beyond the brand,” and the overall “reach” of direct sourcing across all elements of enterprise recruitment.

And now, a sneak peek of the Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research study, Direct Sourcing 2.0:

While direct sourcing as a strategic workforce program is relatively new when compared to more established areas, such as contingent workforce management and talent acquisition, its impact in highly-competitive job markets can be game-changing. Truth be told, even basic direct sourcing programs can drive value through a combination of on-demand, plug-and-play talent, and hard-cost savings. But the pandemic’s impact on the workforce has dramatically accelerated market shifts. Today, talent is scarce and comes at a premium.

As a result, workers are demanding greater flexibility from their employers. They are more focused on work-life balance, while also desiring greater independence. Among many things, the “Great Resignation” of 2021 indicates a seismic shift in power towards the worker and away from the employer. This may or may not be permanent, but businesses, nonetheless, face constant pressure to deepen human capital and future-proof skillsets within their total workforce. Now, more than ever, enterprises require a steady flow of new workers to keep pace with their competitors. Now, more than ever, enterprises need superior sourcing capabilities. Now, more than ever, enterprises need a new approach.

Now is the time for “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” the next generation of sourcing strategies that blend innovative solutions with a renewed focus on the candidate experience and an ability to use talent pools to populate the key projects and roles that require expertise and experience. Today’s business climate has accelerated the need for a reimagined approach to candidate engagement. As the market for talent continues to tighten amidst the lingering pandemic and a surging number of resignations, businesses find themselves in a new kind of “war for talent,” one that is far more extensive and complicated than anything experienced pre-pandemic.

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