4 Ways to Get in Front of Currently Employed Talent

Finding and retaining the best employees is one of the greatest challenges business leaders and human resources professionals face. Even with 73 million young adults seeking work, businesses around the globe are reporting a shortage of skilled workers.

Attracting outstanding applicants is about more than building a cool company culture and offering competitive benefits. It’s about projecting an image that appeals to the 75 percent of all global candidates who are passive job seekers.

Starting the Conversation

People completely fulfilled by their jobs likely aren’t seeking new employment, passively or actively. Many top performers, however, are merely content and would be open to pursuing new opportunities. These passive candidates pose less of a turnover risk but are difficult to attract. They’re choosy and usually more expensive, but they deliver on promises and stick around longer than their flightier counterparts.

Opening a dialogue with the best prospects begins with establishing a strong narrative that presents your company as a world-changing organization in an environment conducive to meaningful achievement. The best of the best want more than better pay and benefits, which they can find anywhere. Most passive prospects are motivated by factors like superior work-life balance, more stimulating challenges and room for advancement.

How to Entice Passive Candidates

How are you supposed to entice these highly sought-after candidates? Here are four strategies for attracting the best candidates without having to sift through countless applications or endure meaningless interviews:

Create a Referral Program

When it comes to top talent, relationships are key. Acknowledging and rewarding employees for referral hires helps us attract candidates who otherwise might not have considered new roles. The better your current team, the better prospects they will bring in.

You need to understand that nothing beats working with other talented people, and awarding cash bonuses for successful referrals to employees is key. Zappos Insider, a talent pipeline site, is dedicated to encouraging potential employees to apply to companies rather than to a specific job. This opens up lines of engagement and helps Zappos stay on passive candidates’ radars.

Be a Serendipitous Resource

Many job candidates find the company of their dreams after stumbling across an open-source framework. Creating one of your own allows you to demonstrate how you share their values.

From that point, the conversation about working together happens naturally. Another great way to attract passive candidates is by hosting special events like hackathons or other industry-related workshops, training sessions, contests, conferences and even virtual networking events.

Take on Challenging Projects

High caliber candidates often say things like, “I like the company and people I work with, but I’m bored.” Spreading the news about your company by highlighting the most challenging work you do for your clients will help you appeal to highly skilled passive candidates who are waiting for something more interesting to materialize.

On your recruiting page, use video to showcase ambitious projects your team has tackled to tempt passive seekers who aren’t fulfilled by their current level and scope of work.

Market on Relevant Platforms

Get involved in conversations on Stack Overflow, GitHub Jobs and Glassdoor, because the audiences you want to attract are on these sites. Make sure you have a company LinkedIn page and encourage your employees to highlight their achievements on their pages to show passive seekers what they’re missing.

A survey conducted by LinkedIn found that 75 percent of its members with full-time jobs are not actively seeking new opportunities, but 45 percent of them would be open to speaking with a recruiter if approached.

Using these tactics, you won’t have to wait until a job is posted to find great candidates. Potential employees will reach out to you, knowing that working for your company is an opportunity to collaborate with inspiring people who share their passions. Building an enthusiastic team in this way lets you take on bigger challenges and pushes our company to new heights.

Read more about hiring talent here on Tech.Co

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Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC members generate billions of dollars in revenue and have created tens of thousands of jobs.
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