It was once easy to consider the candidate market-place as one amorphous mass, but modern social media research, such as a recent survey tells us that the candidate market-place is far from being unstructured and can actually be segmented into two groups; that being passive job seekers (accounting for 83% of the market) who are fully employed and not actively looking and the active 17% who are looking.
This silent majority of passive job seekers now pose a headache for recruiters, because these people won’t generally be receptive to advances via jobs adverts, yet they represent a size-able proportion of the job market that can be turned into a potential talent stream. But, how can recruiter’s reach them?
Use talent communities to reach into the passive candidate market
One effective hiring tool which can be used to subtly approach and engage with this passive market in a softer, non-aggressive way is the Talent Community.
The principal of the talent community is simple; you might build a group in Linked-In or an account on twitter which discusses topics and themes relevant to your business or relevant to an area of talent you hire for. For example, if you hire for java programmers, you might start and lead a community discussing topical issues and career support in this field of java.
Farm don’t hunt
This would in theory attract java types who could engage with each other and who your managers and recruiters could engage with and build relations with. This is not a hard sell environment for job opportunities – its farming not hunting – it’s about you subtly making sure your employer brand is well represented throughout the talent community so if those candidates do decide to become active, they know how to find their way to you. It’s about your managers and recruiters engaging and being known in the talent community and promoting the kind of work your business does in the community in a subtle way.
There is no doubt that talent communities are still evolving but they represent a subtle and sophisticated way for employers to connect with the elusive passive talent market and, more importantly, to be present and ready to strike at that crucial moment of truth when the passive talent you have nurtured becomes active.
Image:Natasha D’Souza/Flickr
Author: Kazim Ladimeji
Kazim Ladimeji is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and has been a practicing HR professional for 15 years. Kazim is the Director of TheCareerCafe UK: a resource for start-ups, small business and job seekers.
Another way to capture those passive candidates is to turn your career page into a talent community.
If you’re getting a significant amount of traffic to your career page, you should make “join our talent community” an option for those who are not ready to apply yet.
We know that only 1 out of 10 career site visitors apply to a job. But most are willing to join a talent community to learn more.
Here’s a guide to building a community at your career site, if you’re interested. http://www.ascendify.com/10-best-practices-for-building-a-talent-community/
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