We’ve all seen some hilarious job board applications with completely irrelevant experience to what we’re looking for. Funnily enough a few months spent working in your dad’s mechanics probably won’t see you getting interviewed for a senior technical role with an £80K base salary. There are of course some great candidates on job boards but a lot of the time it’s easy to see that some people use job boards to ‘spam out’ their information to any job that’s on screen. Is it that surprising then that passive candidates are the most sought after? They have evidence of their competency, with proven experience.  They are not sat applying on job boards in their free time.

But if they are The Holy Grail, how you get hold of them?  The passive candidate takes a bit of convincing… they don’t NEED to move. So how do you go about attracting them?

• Proactively seeking passive candidates – Having a presence at trade fairs, being active on social media, interacting with your market.
• The better the candidate is the pickier they can be with their next job – the proposition needs to be more than just a pay rise; it needs to offer something different.
• Presentation is everything – A well-presented and modern company brand also helps make your proposition appealing to passive candidates.
• An exciting and modern company culture, or a lucrative benefits package would help set an employer apart from the rest.
• Little things that set you apart – employee perks & performance based incentives are a good image-booster, or a solid company car scheme.

The recruiters that act smart, represent employer brands excellently, and manage key relationships thoroughly will always win the attention of the passive candidate. You can read more about smarter recruitment here in our blog. Or contact us to find out more.