Active recruitment vs Passive Recruitment: Would you pick one over the other?

Here’s something which might seem funny. According to a few statistics drawn out by Linkedin, The worldwide workforce is made up of 30% active job seekers and 70% passive talent who aren't actively looking for work. And yet, a good percentage of hirers tend to focus more on the 30 %, which is the minority! What’s more? The 30% might not even have relevant hires. 

How so? Before dwelling too much on the specifics let's keep a few definitions out of the way. 

What is active recruitment?

Active recruiting means a company's ongoing search for new personnel. Additionally, the business will advertise jobs on this network to find candidates. The tag on a job posting indicates that you still have a chance. Because the business will review your application, you can present your ideas to jobs with the tag.

What is passive recruitment?

A hiring manager or other HR specialist may actively seek out prospective candidates who are not actively looking for new employment. In order to persuade potential applicants to consider and apply for the position, recruiters look for competent professionals who would be a suitable fit for the organization and the open position.

Passive recruitment involves proactively reaching out to potential candidates through various channels, such as social media, professional networking sites, referrals, or direct messaging. The goal of passive recruitment is to establish a connection with the candidate, build a relationship, and persuade them to consider new job opportunities.

What is active recruitment?

Active recruitment refers to the process of actively seeking out and attracting potential job candidates who are actively looking for job opportunities. Active recruitment involves various methods, such as posting job openings, attending job fairs and networking events, and leveraging online job boards and social media platforms.

In active recruitment, employers and recruiters take an active approach to fill job vacancies by reaching out to potential candidates, encouraging them to apply for open positions and guiding them through the hiring process. The goal of active recruitment is to attract a large pool of candidates, evaluate their qualifications, and select the most suitable candidate for the job.

Active VS Passive candidates

Harsh truth: Candidates who are most active are irrelevant!

The majority of your active candidates are unrelated to your vacant post, which settles the dispute between active and passive candidates. You'll get hundreds of applications from applicants that don't have the required training, education, or work experience for the position.

You will ultimately succeed if you write a strong job description. But going through resumes will take a lot of time (and rejecting candidates that try to game your ATS software). But because you previously spent the time to source them, passive prospects are already pre-qualified.

Using a new hire checklist, you may speed up the onboarding procedure once you've selected the best applicants. Wherever possible, you should maximize your talent acquisition.

|  Aspect |  Active recruitment |   Passive recruitment |

| ---------------| --------------- |--------------- |

| Approach | Proactive approach, employers reach out to potential candidates | Proactive approach, recruiters identify and approach potential candidates |

| Candidate Status | Targets active job seekers who are actively looking for new opportunities | Targets passive job seekers who are not actively looking for new opportunities |

| Recruitment Channels | Job postings, online job boards, social media, career fairs, networking events | Social media, professional networking sites, referrals, direct messaging |

| Time and Resources | Can be time-consuming and resource-intensive as it involves screening and interviewing numerous candidates | Can be less time-consuming and less resource-intensive as recruiters are targeting a smaller pool of candidates |

| Relationship Building | Limited opportunity for relationship building as the focus is on filling immediate vacancies | Focus on building relationships to persuade potential candidates to consider new job opportunities |

| Talent Pool Quality | May attract a large pool of candidates but may not be the best fit for the role | Can attract high-quality candidates with in-demand skills who may not be actively looking for job opportunities |

How Do You Find Passive Candidates to Hire?

It's obvious that passive candidates prevail in the contest between active and passive applicants, but how can you bring them on board your organization? Here are 5 strategies for increasing talent opt-ins for your startup.

1. Construct a stellar recruiting profile

You must leave a lasting impression if you want to begin hiring passive applicants. You need to think about how to make yourself intriguing because the information you offer will determine how enticing your organization is. To accomplish this, find out what your staff need from you.

Give candidates a clear idea of what you're looking for in your recruiting profile. This can include a thorough job description (responsibilities, competencies, pay, benefits, and work schedule), as well as a thorough overview of your business (your brand, company culture, values, origin story).

Salary, job, and responsibility sections generally pique the interest of passive candidates. If you work in the tech industry, make sure to mention the innovative technology they'll be utilizing, such as the blockchain.

2. Expand Your Network and Meet People

Most passive candidates have already been hired. Finding the top talent, as a result, might be as challenging as looking for a needle in a haystack. However, you can connect with passive prospects who would typically be uninterested in your job posting because of the power of networking.

Find industry meetups and conferences on MeetUp, CityScopializer, and Eventbrite if you prefer to network in person. If you prefer online networking, join social media and add business people who could connect you with talent (or maybe talented themselves).

A piece of advice: if a candidate's pay is higher than the one you're providing, don't ask them to apply for the position. You might hurt your relationship with them in addition to being rejected.

3. Be adaptable and mindful of the needs of candidates

As already indicated, you cannot persuade a passive candidate to accept a lower-paying position, especially if you are unfamiliar with them. A professional danger is too great for them to pick you over their current employer. You need to be adaptable, giving, and a good listener if you want to draw in quality applications.

Making the offer appealing to passive applicants and offering them what they desire are key recruitment strategies. Do they wish their job allowed for remote work? Inform them that they are welcome to work from home. Do they have to bring up their children from school early? Give them that advantage as soon as they ask.

Any concession is well worth it when you take into account how much money a skilled worker will produce over the course of their career. It also demonstrates your readiness to change to meet the demands of your staff.

4. Launch a social media search

Hold that thinking as you may think it makes sense to begin the employment process with your database because you'll need a social media presence to maximize your hiring pool. Don't mess this up because applicants will frequently approach you through your social media profiles.

Any social media platform can be used to locate prospects, but LinkedIn and Twitter should be your main focus. Many contractors that want to collaborate with you on content creation can be found on LinkedIn. To simplify the process of limiting your results, use its search tool and "People Who Viewed" feature.

Due to its sophisticated search capabilities, extensive use of hashtags, and Twitter lists feature, which enables you to construct user groups based on interests, Twitter is also an excellent tool for recruiters.

5. Examine Your Data and Consult Your Staff

Once you're established on social media, you can employ further recruitment strategies. Start with your internal database, where you should already have some pre-verified candidates. You ought to be able to get in touch with these prospects if you kept them informed during the recruiting procedure.

However, you'll need to remove a few passive prospects from the list if you're just getting into the habit of sending rejection letters or general employment updates. Instead, ask your workers for recommendations. Create a program that compensates employees for hiring quality talent to encourage recommendations.

Even with a program in place, keep in mind that your team might not recommend candidates because they worry a failed choice would reflect poorly on them. Tell them that won't be the case, please.

How to find active candidates?

Keep in mind your genuine demands. When developing a hiring strategy, consider your company's demands in the broadest sense. How many positions on your team should be permanent or temporary? The employment experts at Robert Half may discuss the advantages of meeting your hiring needs with a flexible workforce approach.

publicize the opening. It is crucial to advertise the position on job boards, your company's career page, and all of the channels mentioned above. A culture of loyalty can be developed by offering prospects for promotion, therefore don't forget to publicize the position internally as well.

Why does an organization need a skill assessment platform to hire Active & passive candidates?

1. Time saver

Saving time is synonymous with saving money. Organizations can save time, money, and effort by utilizing online applicant skill evaluation platforms. It aids in your ability to choose the best applicants quickly. The performance of a candidate during the skill assessment tests can be used by the hiring manager and HR experts to make an early choice.

Additionally, your business may become more productive and effective the quicker your open positions are filled. Therefore, it is advantageous for everyone when candidates are quickly and effectively hired via online skill evaluation exams.

2. Keep your applicants happy

Providing them with a fantastic candidate experience during their recruitment and onboarding process is one of the most undervalued but crucial parts. Using online skill evaluation tools is one approach to make sure you are giving them the greatest experience possible. You will be able to recruit and hire the greatest personnel possible by integrating such a technology.

By using such tools, you can improve the candidates' perceptions of your business and provide them with a positive first impression. And as word of mouth spreads, more individuals will use these technologies in the future.

3. It effectively helps you scale up your company

Employers may hire workers quickly and efficiently by using pre-employment skill assessments to scale up their hiring process. The nice thing about the online assessment exams is that they make it simpler for employers to hire distant candidates by identifying the finest talent for the position.

The invigilators are relieved of their responsibility because the online talent assessment exams automate and remotely proctor the entire assessment procedure. Additionally, the platform has the ability to identify any fraudulent or harmful activities, allowing it to reject candidate applications and only accept legitimate ones.

4. Keep out the bias, be it passive or active

There are no biases present because the entire process of hiring the best candidate is conducted remotely and online. Candidates are chosen if they pass the examination. If not, they are refused and might try again later.

You may boost diversity in your candidate selection by removing recruitment biases. You can make sure your business hires the top candidates for the position and role you are filling.

Additional advantages of employing technologies for online candidate competence assessments include the following:

- The amount of administration labor is decreased, allowing you more flexibility and lifting a            weight off your shoulders.

- At the touch of a button, the outcomes are shown. Additionally, you can view the entire video        or just a few short clips to determine whether the candidate cheated on the test or not.

- In order to assess the candidate's strengths and shortcomings, you receive not only the data          but also the results of the entire test analysis.

- The computerized technique fully eliminates human mistakes in grading candidates.

- Reduces the likelihood of hiring unqualified or dishonest candidates by removing them from        the system.

- Platforms for evaluating online skills operate remotely and continuously.

5. Effective for larger numbers of candidates

Tests of skill is particularly helpful when handling a high volume of hires. When there are many applications, pre-screening with a skill assessment exam can help you identify the best candidates early in the hiring process. You won't have to spend a lot of time interviewing unqualified candidates as a result.

6. Reduces employee churn

High staff turnover is something that no company likes, especially when the company is in desperate need of the proper skills. Employee turnover has an effect on productivity and corporate morale whenever it rises. It could also have an impact on the services or goods you provide.

However, with the use of an online skill assessment test, you can ensure that you choose and hire the best candidates who might stay longer and ultimately lower your employee turnover rate. The less work you have to do, the better because hiring takes longer.

Be it active recruitment or passive recruitment, there is a solution that can help you make the best out of both situations. 

HireQuotient's EasySource -a talent sourcing tool is the best way to find active as well as passive candidates using its candidate discovery module. It reads simple prompts or your job description to source relevant candidates from active and hidden talent pools. Combined with multiple high-intent signals, you get candidates who are interested in becoming a part of your organization