5 Ways to Improve Your Passive Candidate Strategy

When it comes to talent attraction, most of the focus is placed on attracting active job seekers, and rightly so. Active job seekers provide a clear and easy to understand return on investment, and if available, they can rapidly fill your open requisitions. But don’t underestimate the value of building a passive candidate strategy.

Here are just a few of the benefits from a successful passive candidate strategy:

• It builds you employer brand with future job seekers
• Passive candidates often have higher conversion rates
• When hired, passive candidates have lower turnover
• A passive candidate strategy can boost the performance of other advertising campaigns
• It can reduce you cost per hire - over time

Passive candidate strategies are typically composed of multiple elements or campaigns, each targeting individuals who, while not actively seeking employment, are likely to be interested in and qualify for your open positions. Heavily weighted on employer branding, a good strategy incorporates as many elements as possible, with the intent of introducing your company and its job opportunities in a compelling manner simultaneously.  

Here are few key elements to consider when building your strategy:

1. Employer Branding via Social Media

Most talent leaders have been using social media for paid and organic job postings for a while. Try taking it a step further by adding paid and organic postings with employer branding content. While video content performs the best, static display ads (especially those with moving elements) perform quite well too. Just remember, you are featuring your company as an employment destination, not advertising specific jobs.  Employee recognition, awards, celebrations, testimonials, and ‘day in the life’ stories are all great ways to showcase your employer brand. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit, and especially YouTube are great distribution channels. 

2. Social Media Bait Posts

When you need just a few uniquely qualified candidates, try making a bait post. Think of content that would elicit comments/interaction from your ideal candidates. This may take some creative thinking, but a simple example for a forklift operator position would be something like this:  (picture or video of a forklift carrying something bizarre)  “What is the strangest thing you have ever loaded with a forklift?” Post it, have as many employees as possible share it, and then monitor the comments for viable candidates.

3. Remarketing / Drip Campaigns

Many applicant tracking systems have the ability to build automated remarketing campaigns, or at least export a custom list of previous applicants for use in a remarketing campaign. Consider sending your previous applicants monthly or quarterly content including newsletters, white papers, press releases, and even available roles.  Work towards building it into a larger talent community that includes anyone interested in your employer brand.

4. Events / Open Houses

Employers needing a wide range of talent in a variety of disciplines or skill sets may want to consider having an open house or another event that is not a stereotypical recruiting fair. Let the greater community catch a glimpse of your organization and learn about the diverse workforce that “makes it all happen”. Oftentimes, skilled workers in your target area fail to associate your company as an employer with opportunities in their profession.  These “open house” events ensure that the greater community is educated in your employer brand and the many opportunities you have available.

5. Experts, Influencers & Content Creators

Content is king. Many companies do a fantastic job at acquiring exceptional talent, only to lock it safely away. Encourage your highly skilled talent to create content, if they are inclined to do so. Provide marketing support if necessary, and partner with them along the journey. Their success paired with your employer brand has the potential to become a talent magnet for years to come.

This only scratches the surface of what can be done within a passive candidate strategy, but I hope it is enough to get your mind racing ahead with the many possibilities.  Feel free to reach out to me if you need a talent strategy partner.  Our team at Bayard Advertising Agency (now Appcast) has been solving talent attraction challenges for over 100 years, and we would love to help you “Get Talent”. 

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