Question
Where / How do you find passive candidates ?
Answers
Raghav - Founder HRinIndia
Social networking platforms like linkedin and xing are becoming useful tools to target passive candidates.
Create and maintain a list of candidates whom you feel will help out in reaching to the 'target' candidates. Communication is key to get best results out of relationships both online and offline.
Raghav
Founder HRinIndia
www.hrinindia.in
9880080321
Jim Wahl [LION]
Manager of Talent Acquisition Systems at 7-Eleven, Inc. (jwahl01@7-11.com)
Referrals
Cindy Cheran Lubinski - Executive Recruiter at Basilone Executive Search
As an Executive Recruiter, we cannot forget applicant recontacts. They are your eyes and ears to the job market. Too many times we overlook them in hopes of identifying NEW active candidates.
The other would be referrals. Too many times we neglect picking the phone up and just making the call. The majority of times the person you are calling is NOT going to be your candidate to fill the job; however they may lead you to that person.
Lynn Seiser Ph.D. - Seiser Institute of IdentityTherapy
In AIkido there is the rule of 10.
So, if some one give you 5 units of energy, you only have to give 5.
If they give 9, its easy to give 1.
If they give one, you have to give 9.
A passive candidate gives 1, so I must be more active and give 9.
My tools for find them is I must be active, visible, and available.
posted 6 days ago | Flag answer as...
Steve Delaney - Recruiter:
Best Answers in:
Using LinkedIn (1)
1. Confirmed relationships...Internal database, past referrals, previous candidates...
2. Social Networking i.e. LinkedIn, Facebook, ITtoolbox, Plaxo, JigSaw, ITLink, etc...
Links:
http://www.sjdelaney.com
Tim Chattaway - International Risk Recruitment Consultant at Genesis Computer Resources, London,
My diary, then referrals from people in my diary. Usually does the trick.
Octavio Ballesta - Management Consultant ♣ Corporate Strategist
Although referral is the classic approach to reach passive candidates, you could use Linkedin and particularly its Answers feature to identify effectively prospective candidates for current job opportunities:
- Linkedin like no other recruitment portal can offer the possibility of assessing the profile of different passive job applicants that in many cases are preferred for those companies looking for the best focused talent having the willingness of engaging a professional career in companies that prefer employee’s stability and career’s continuity over employee’s mobility and volatility.
- If you are looking for an expert in Business Development a good place to start is by reviewing the list of experts in Business Development and evaluate carefully both the profile as the questions that such passive candidate has developed and asked through the time that has been a Linkedin member. Unfortunately, Linkedin has not developed yet a versatile search feature where you can submit a query considering the expertise that a professional has gained in a given professional discipline for obtaining a reference or link to each one of the questions where the prospective candidate has gained expertise.
- If your customer has a very specific need to be fulfilled through a new job position, you could utilize the search utility of Linkedin Answers to get a set of possible aspirants to fulfil a job position characterized for a very specific competence, skill or knowledge. Let suppose us that you need to hire a manager with a good insight in Innovation and experience in Strategic Alignment. If this is the case you could utilize the following string: “Innovation" and "strategic alignment" to reach not just to the professionals that have posted questions related with such themes, but the professionals that have responded these questions and have gained valuable points of expertise.
- According to the needs and wants of your corporate customers you could design and post a set of specific questions that obeying to precise business necessities of your customers can offer you a glimpse about the capacity of seasoned and talented professionals in solving problems specifics to any given professional discipline or industry. If you are looking for a manager with experience in change management practices applied to transformational projects of corporate extent, a set of carefully designed questions involving coaching, cultural change, and change management amongst other aspect, can prove be very helpful to evaluate knowledge, skills, competences and speech of your prospective candidates.
- Although, not all the questions that a professional has answered in Linkedin could be a relevant and precise mirroring of his/her expertise, a careful analysis of the relevant questions conjugated with the positive recommendations given by co-workers, managers and customers with whom the prospective candidate has interacted can offer you a better perspective from this candidate than the obtained via a classic and static resume. The degree of activity of a professional in Linkedin can give you additional clues about his/her personality, professional development, willpower to socialize, professional interests, eagerness to collaborate and integrate teams, culture and professional expertise.
Finally, when you have finished your pre-selection of prospective candidates, if you have a Premium account in Linkedin, you will have the capacity to reach through InMails to anyone of 20 MM+ of Linkedin members. The most appreciable advantage that Linkedin offers you like a recruitment tool is that you have the capacity of getting touch with valuable passive candidates that could be in most of your recruitment processes a better option to satisfy the requirements of your corporate customers.
I hope this helps you.
Octavio
Dennis Comeau - denniscomeau.blogspot.com
Networking Groups
Jonathan Foulds - George Butunoiu Executive Search
One web site like LinkedIn that is quite useful is www.xing.com
Links:
http://www.xing.com
John S. Rajeski
Aside from the previously mentioned methods of finding passive candidates; in the US, VLAB and/or SD Forum are excellent mediums.
Michael Goh - VP HR at Singapore Exchange Ltd
I'll elaborate more on 1 of the tools mentioned: referrals. Specifically, referrals by the business folks. They know the industry and its personalities, the good, the bad and the ugly. Once they have helped identified someone suitable, then the partnership between HR and the business kicks in to start the woo-ing.
Could be tough to gain the buy-in to such an approach though. Sometimes you have business folks who do not recognise that talent acquisition is the responsibility of everyone, not just HR.
Wei Luo
I enjoy reading Lynn's answer... "I must be active, visible, and available." - true to me !
Kristen Fife - Senior Recruiter, Author
Employee Referrals and LinkedIn.
I recently hired two LinkedIn passive candidates.
Tom Bambrick - Experienced Human Resources Professional
Referrals
Chuck Radcliff - Recruiter, Sales Process Facilitator
telephone
Vincent Rush - Owner, Rush InternationalWhen I was a recruiter, I could sponsor lunch giveaways at resaurants where I knew the professionals all ate. I used to clean up on sorting through the fishbowls business cards. Most of the time they lead to referrals but during one 4 month stretch in 98, I made 4 direct placements and pocketed more that $37K in fees, strictly from "fish bowling".
The other effective way of getting passive candidates is your personal branding of your self and what experience your candidates have with you. It's the way you treat them and how you thank them for placing thier trust in you.
If done properly, they feed you candidates.
Yannik Gaehwiler - Associate at HireGround Executive Search
there are various different tools that can be used, all depending on the individual. I am more of a researcher, so I like to check out the competitors of my clients, and try and recruit out of there. This approach takes time and effort, but it can be the most helpful searching tool , because you know what you are getting. The other good tool to use is linkedin, because everyone is on there, active and passive seekers.
Kunal Malhotra [LION] - Product Management & Engineering hiring @ Google
Depends what kind of people you are looking for. In the technology space, besides the usual - linkedin & employee referrals, I've also had success tracking down people using certain websites such as ACM, Olympiads etc. Besides this, digging into the alumni associations (both university & corporate) could be quite useful.
John Ouellet - Sales and Recruiting Jedi Master
I would say first the old school answer, Job Fairs. I have made numerous placements off of Job Fairs over the years and a lot of people go them for the CEU's in Healthcare, not to look for a job, but they talk to you at least. It takes a little bit to figure out which ones are good though, but once you do it is worth it.
Direct Sourcing is the way to find passive candidates. Just call through a company (make sure you have a good script and prepare for rejection), but it is 2 fold, you find the names of everyone in the company to sell to and in the same token a passive candidate or two.
I also like to cold call of certification boards...
John Ouellet also suggests this expert on this topic:
Jeff Skrentny, CPC/CTS (AskJeff@JeffersonInc.com)
Lauren MacSorley - Recruiter at QVC, Inc.
- linkedin & other social networking tools
- keeping in touch with past applicants (they were once interested in working for my company... so they ususally love to hear from us again)
Marc LeVine
My huge database of industry contacts and my mouth!
Emon Talukdar
Assistant Manager
Sarika Bhujeja(sarika.bhujeja@gmail.com) - Lead Recruiter at 7N India
1. Social Networking sites like LinkedIn and different groups
2. Referrals and previous hired consultants
Osvaldo Danzi - Recruitment Manager at Manpower Professional
according with some of these answers, in my opinion, LinkedIn is the best recruiting site, without be effectively a recruiting site.
Its strong depend by the fact that all the recorded people is "informally" available to be contacted and, if you have a quality network you can reach the best candidates around.
I think that a "quality network" means that you must select and care your contacts;
- select through the main decision makers on the market, the best reference respect your business, the people that can be the "bridge" from you and the relevant candidates for your business.
- care through meetings, conference calls, business lunches or activity - where possible - that "link" the people between them.
It's useless to have 500 contacts or more and don't have really a "link" with them.
The second tools, NOT FREE. is advertisement on newspapers.
This is the main tool that I use so I can reach in a really few time the best candidates on a particular area, really interested "tomorrow" to have an interview with me, really motivated to change thei actual job, and in line with job description. Don't forget that a candidate that reply, let the job with a motivation and it's not so important how much earn more..
An hunted candidates, ASK 20% more and often use your offer to remain in his/her Company with an incentive on your salary..
Osvaldo Danzi also suggests these experts on this topic:
Paola Tamburini
Gianpaolo Alfano
Alexis Sottocorno
Marc Crouch - Executive Search Consultant at Integral Search
The best sources are, in order, direct headhunting (where you have a list of names and call them through switchboard), referrals, previous candidates, LinkedIn, and advertising.
So my top 2 are cold headhunting and referrals.
Richard Detoy - General Manager, Executive Search Solutions
In our industry the candidates are rarely part of social networking sites or visible to services such as LinkedIn. Accordingly, we do our work the old fashioned way, which means our top two tools are the telephone and our extensive candidate database built from years of using the telephone and recording the information.
Jesse Pinkoski - Project Coordinator at TopGrading Solutions
I would say #1 is the site we're on, LinkedIn. Alot of great talent is here, some have their full resumes (not so passive) some just have a quick snippit of their info which you can take and call into their company's switchboard and find them. #2 is probably referrals- Talking to the good candidates you know who know what value you can bring to their friends in similar positions, even if it's just from a general introduction standpoint for the future.
Fred Ernsting - Senior Account Manager - Onsite Recruiter
To find good passive candidates, consider the following:
1. Use those older resumes and applications of those candidates who applied to you or your peers for positions but whom were either not hired or whom were not looked into thoroughly. Not only can you "check in" with these folks to see if they are available, how things are going, what they might be looking for, etc. (this satisfies the WIIFM, or "what's in it for me" part of the call in the eyes of the person on the other end of the phone) but also, you can ask the key question, "Who do you know who might be qualfied for a [your open job title here] position?" This is a great way to learn about passive candidates who might be willing to make a move.
2. Call directly into companies, identifying target passive candidates by job title using Hoover's, Dunn & Bradstreet, etc. Having trouble getting past the gatekeepers? Call at night and leave a brief, attractive recruiting message if you must.
3. Keep good track in a database of those management or other professional people whom you call for reference checks. Over time you'll have a good supply of contacts. Many good passive candidates from this target group will either be looking around themselves or know someone who is. After all, how often have you called someone for a reference and the person you call says, "Let me close my door", then they ask how you might help them! These valuable reference contacts might just be the passive candidate you need to fill that next position!
*** Remember!!! When talking to someone to learn about other possible (passive) candidates, DON'T ask "Who do you know that might be interested in XYZ position?", but rather, ask "Who do you know that might be QUALIFIED for XYZ position?" Get names and phone numbers of target passive candidates. Then, find out from the passive candidate him/herself whether they are interested in making a move. ***
Source : Linkedin.com
