Have you ever heard someone say that active job seekers\u00a0\u2013 those who are actively in the market looking for job opportunities \u2013 are a waste of time?<\/p>\n
Unfortunately the popular belief seems to be that, \u2018If they are looking for a job, then they can\u2019t be any good.\u2019<\/p>\n
Instead, recruiters have encouraged organisations to focus on those people who are already in jobs, saying, \u2018Focus on the passive talent<\/a>!\u00a0 The best candidates are currently employed!\u2019<\/p>\n Having spent over 2 decades in the recruitment game, I can honestly say this is a myth and it\u2019s time to destroy it.<\/p>\n This belief was created, shared and perpetuated by traditional recruiters<\/a> to justify sky high fees for their work and convince unsuspecting organisations that they needed headhunters (and the associated fees) when really what was needed was a simple job ad<\/a>.<\/p>\n Of course passive candidates<\/a> can be a great source of untapped talent for organisations and I’m certainly not saying that every good recruiter shouldn’t devote a period of time to maintaining their passive candidate funnel. However including active job seekers when searching for the best talent can be just, if not more, effective and cost thousands of dollars less.<\/p>\n Here are 10 reasons why you can\u2019t afford to ignore active job seekers:<\/p>\n A study done on Candidate Behaviour\u00a0revealed that 71% of people currently employed actively search for new positions as a regular part of their routine. 27% search for new opportunities as regularly as every week! Job search email alerts sent directly to a person\u2019s inbox makes keeping an eye on currently available job positions easy.\u00a0 It\u2019s likely your candidate will come to you before you manage to reach them passively. How devastating if you ignored them simply because they did your work for you!<\/p>\n Not everyone is an active job seeker because they\u2019re not good enough to get the job they want.\u00a0 They may be moving cities for family reasons.\u00a0 They may have taken a sabbatical the year before.\u00a0 They may have just graduated from further education. They may have thought their current role was something that it turned out not to be.<\/p>\n Almost everyone has been an active job seeker at some stage in their professional life. There are many reasons a person is an active job seeker. Remember an ‘active’ job seeker isn’t necessarily out of work. They might be active because they have made the conscious decision to find a new role and are just doing something about it!<\/p>\n I’ve always trained recruiters to quickly assess whether\u00a0a candidate is either running away from something or running toward something. This will help you determine what type of active candidate they are.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re searching for someone a little unusual to fill a role requiring creativity and innovation, you likely won\u2019t find the word \u2018creative\u2019 or \u2018innovative\u2019 on their LinkedIn profile.\u00a0 Creative people are often hiding behind more traditional titles, maybe ones that do not currently relate to the job you are looking to fill. You may be missing out on a potential creative gem by limiting your talent pool to only those who show up in keyword searches.<\/p>\n It takes a lot of effort to recruit a passive job seeker \u2013 dozens of unanswered emails, hours convincing and negotiating.\u00a0 On the other hand, an active candidate<\/a> is often ready to go.\u00a0 They are open to new opportunities and have already mentally left behind their current role.\u00a0 When a candidate is the right candidate, an active jobseeker will have required far less work to get across the line<\/a> than a passive one.\u00a0 There\u2019s no need to take the path of most resistance if the result \u2013 a great candidate for the role \u2013 is the same.<\/p>\n It stands to reason that active job seekers are far more invested in their potential for a job role than you are.\u00a0 Recruiters can\u2019t know everything about a person and often need the jobseeker to present their skills in the right way for a job match to be obvious.\u00a0 Judging a person by the small amount of information available on their LinkedIn profile is to unnecessarily narrow the options.<\/p>\n When a person is happy in their current role, they usually do not maintain an updated profile on LinkedIn or any of the job search sites.\u00a0 Approaching someone with outdated information about their job history can waste time and resources.<\/p>\n Negotiating a package with a passive job seeker starts with you, the employer or recruiter, on the back foot.\u00a0 You called them so they know they have the upper hand. Landing a qualified person for the role who was recruited passively may cost more than landing a qualified person for the role who was recruited actively.\u00a0 Same result, more money spent.<\/p>\n When you\u2019ve got a time sensitive recruitment job, passive candidates are not your best friend.\u00a0 You\u2019ll destroy your reputation or hurt your business in the process of attempting to only recruit people who are currently happy in their roles and who may have lengthy notice periods.\u00a0 If you need to open a new office in a new city and staff it with 20 employees, you should be prepared to consider active employees or you\u2019ll never get it off the ground.<\/p>\n Theoretically, if someone searching for a job means they are untalented, someone who is not searching for a job must be talented \u2013 right? This is completely untrue and quite ridiculous.\u00a0 There are plenty of deadbeat, uninspired and quite simply average employees quite happily sucking their current employer dry and getting through their regular 9-5.<\/p>\n A great candidate is a great candidate.<\/p>\n Judge their ability to do the job<\/a> not by how they arrived at your door but by how they have evidenced their ability to perform in the past<\/a>, what that says about their future ability and how they respond in your interviews and questioning. These are greater predictors of their future success at your company than how their resume got into your inbox.<\/p>\n A great recruiter sources potential candidates<\/a> from many different sources.\u00a0 A great recruiter<\/a> discriminates a good and bad job seeker, not from the method they used to get in contact, but from their skills, attributes and experiences.\u00a0 Don\u2019t buy into the passive jobseeker myth \u2013 it could cost you money and reputation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unfortunately some say, \u2018If they are looking for a job, they can\u2019t be any good.\u2019 Here are 10 reasons why you can\u2019t afford to ignore active job seekers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[73],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n1. Almost all workers are always seeking new job opportunities<\/h2>\n
2. Active job seekers may be active for good reasons<\/h2>\n
3. Keyword searches don’t find everyone<\/h2>\n
4.\u00a0Active job seekers are often the fastest to get across the line<\/h2>\n
5.\u00a0Active job seekers can be surprising gems<\/h2>\n
6. Passive job seekers tend to have outdated profiles<\/h2>\n
7. Passive job seekers are in control \u2013 because YOU called THEM<\/h2>\n
8.\u00a0Active job seekers are ready to go \u2013 now!<\/h2>\n
9. Passive does not necessarily equal ‘talented’<\/h2>\n
10. Why does it matter how they got to you?<\/h2>\n