What is an Active Candidate?
An active candidate in the job market is someone who is actively looking for a new job or career opportunity. They may be unemployed, underemployed, or currently employed but seeking new challenges or a better work environment. Note that an active candidate doesn’t mean they are the best qualified, simply that they are the most active job seekers.
These potential candidates are typically more responsive to job postings, recruiter outreach, and other recruitment efforts, as their main objective is to land a new job at a different company.
Active candidates may also be more likely to attend job fairs and networking events and may have their resumes posted on job boards and other online platforms.
In contrast, passive candidates are often employed but for various reasons are not driven as much to look for new jobs. Instead, if the right offer comes along, they will lend a listening ear.
12 Recruiting Strategies to Source for Active Candidates
Now that we have a clear idea of what an active candidate is, how do recruiters go about hunting for them? We list our 12 favourite strategies that are likely to see results:
1. Create Ideal Candidate Profiles
In order to recruit effectively, you have to first understand the factors that make up your perfect candidate. On the surface, this would come in the form of skillsets and education certifications.
However, a proper candidate profile should encompass the soft skills for the job as well. Years of leadership, examples of initiative, and clear decision-making capability can all factor into your ideal talent.
2. Check in with Successfully Placed Candidates
This requires that you have a strong footing in the industry, having placed dozens (or even hundreds) of candidates over the years. Chances are, some of those talents are eyeing their next step of their career. Since you have successfully placed them before, you’ve got one foot through the door.
3. Join and Ask Social Media Groups
Social media can be an endless time waster when left unchecked, but it is actually a sound platform to find active candidates. This is because social media is filled with subject-specific groups that good people join to share ideas.
Some groups are set to private so recruiters would have to request to join before they can post a shoutout looking for active candidates. Make sure to check the group rules first to see if such posts are allowed. Active candidates are more than likely to be top contributors on social media, thus increasing your chances of finding them.
4. Attend/Organise In-Person Events
While networking comes immediately to mind for in-person events, it is not the only option available. Networking events often connect peers within an industry, but doesn’t necessarily attract active candidates unless there is something in it for them.
A live recruitment event hosted by you or your company will provide the best chance of attracting active candidates and grow your talent pool. To make it even more enticing, inviting the hiring manager for the event will also draw it more candidates since they can now have direct conversations.
5. Implement an Employee/Partner Referral Programme
Sometimes the best recruiters are the people around you. An employee referral programme works for all parties since you get to widen your net while the employee is compensated when the introduction leads to a hire.
It also solves the headache of active candidate sourcing because any referral will likely be prequalified talent who were already looking out for a job.
A partner referral programme works in the same way, except that these are external individuals not tied to your company. These referrers will still receive a commission hence they will be motivated to look for active candidates.
6. Craft and Distribute Engaging Outreach Messages
Can passive candidates turn into active ones? It’s certainly possible if recruiters craft engaging and convincing outreach emails or messages that help to sell a role’s salary and benefits. For example, sharing personal anecdotes or previous success stories of candidates who have changed companies
With effective messaging, candidates become more interested in a role and start to compare “what could be” with their present reality. These outreach messages would need to be consistent and regular so as to keep you top of mind when they convert into an active candidate.
7. Send Consistent Follow-Up Emails to Candidates
This ties in very closely with the earlier point about engaging outreach messages.
But one or two good emails will not be enough. Build and maintain an automated email journey to regularly provide value to all candidates. Eventually, these people will be looking for new jobs, thus shifting into the active candidate category. When they do, guess who will be the first person they will call?
If time permits, you can even explore video calls or in-person meet ups to further solidify your relationship. The stronger the connection, the better.
8. Use the Employer Brand
While this leans towards inbound recruiting, using the employer’s brand is an effective sourcing method to pick out active candidates. If your client is a reputable company known globally, regionally, or even nationally, it’s a good strategy to make full use of it.
The idea here is to let these active candidates come to you. As you post open positions on job boards and social media platforms, highlight the career prospects of working for a renown employer.
Active candidates are the most likely to reply, hence you don’t have to worry much about receiving too many passive candidate applications.
9. Reach Out to Tertiary Institutions
Tertiary institutions like universities and polytechnics are great places to source candidates because almost every student will have to look for a job eventually. Hold career and recruiting events on these campuses will greatly increase your active candidate pool, though you’ll inevitably encounter passive candidates as well simply because not all students are graduating at the same time.
Even so, take this opportunity to brief and advise them on the general recruitment process. It’s not just good practice as a recruiter, but it will help you leave a lasting impression on these students. When graduation comes, they could instinctively reach out to you first.
10. Use Artificial Intelligence Tools
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has invaded into many facets of our work and personal lives. Recruitment is no exception, and many recruiters are taking advantage of ChatGPT and other other AI tools to improve efficiency and productivity.
There are dedicated AI tools for sourcing such as Scout and HireEZ. Both search for talent with nothing more than a job description and a few other parameters. Whichever you choose, harnessing AI is one of the best sourcing strategies you can deploy right now.
11. Comb Through #OpenToWork and Similar Tags
These days, social media platforms such as LinkedIn allow you to place a temporary overlay over your profile photo. While this can be anything from #MarkedSafe in the event of a natural disaster, this is also relevant in the recruitment space. Active candidates can place #OpenToWork tags on their LinkedIn profiles, making it easy for recruiters to quickly identify and reach out to these people.
12. Use Applicant Tracking Systems
An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software tool used by recruiters to manage the recruitment process. The system allows tracking of candidate the entire recruiting process, from the initial application to the final hiring decision.
The ATS also doubles up as a massive database of candidate contact information. You can use an ATS programme to find active candidates, by filtering out candidates who have recently applied for a job.
Conclusion
Active candidates are great prospects for recruiters because they have a greater desire to go through the hiring process. Finding them is the tricky part, and these dozen tips will help to streamline and focus your efforts.