The reality of today’s candidate-driven market is that the new employee you’re trying to find is already employed. The job market today won’t allow you to post an ad and wait for suitable candidates. Your job needs to be finding passive candidates wherever they may be. But where are they? How can you find and engage passive candidates? We have some suggestions.

Passive Candidate Search

Passive candidates are 120% more likely to make a strong impact at your company. That means these candidates are highly desirable and beneficial to your business. Traditional candidate sourcing, where you simply place an ad, won’t attract these candidates. Instead, you should focus on some lesser-known techniques to find passive talent.

Social media platforms are great for building your brand and attracting passive candidates. LinkedIn is always an excellent tool for finding candidates, but the truth is, everyone is using that tool today. Instead, within the social media channel, you can try using:

• Facebook has targeted search capabilities that can help you find great people. It’s an unusual approach, and you can leverage the tool to surprise candidates that aren’t expecting to hear from you there. You can also set up a company page and build followers to make your business an employment destination for top talent.
• Instagram and Snapchat are great venues for finding talent, believe it or not. It is precisely because these platforms are not over-saturated with recruiters that you stand a better chance of reaching good passive candidates.
• Twitter is a great tool for short, punchy messages. But did you know the platform also has robust search functionality to help you find new employees? You can refine your search by all kinds of demographic and job keywords. 
• Meetups are often great places to find passive candidates. Meetups are local meetings of like-minded individuals on a variety of topics. But they are also great places to reach potential candidates, particularly if you’re looking for technology talent.

Social media isn’t the only place to look for passive candidates, either. You have talent right under your nose in the form of the friends and colleagues of your existing staff. Establishing an employee referral program is a great way to reach passive candidates. Referred talent is the best—your employee already knows the candidate’s temperament and whether they will be a fit for your organization. Having a very public referral program is a wonderful way to source passive candidates.

Finally, make sure you’re using computer automation tools to find more passive candidates. The latest tools use machine intelligence (AI) to help you locate passive candidates more quickly and efficiently than the old manual processes. Next-generation applicant tracking systems (ATS) like Exelare can help you manage these relationships by using automation to keep conversations going to nurture passive candidate relationships.

If you haven’t seen Exelare in action, why not take a test drive?

Click here to schedule a demo and find out how an ATS can help you reach more passive candidates to meet your hiring goals.