Firstly, let’s define what I mean by active and passive candidates. An active candidate is someone that is proactively looking for a new role, has posted their CV online and is responding to adverts. There is usually a reason why they are looking for a new role.
A passive candidate is one that is happy in their job; they are performing well, and have no need to proactively search for a new role. That said if they are approached about a role that would greatly improve their current circumstances then they would be open to a conversation.
“It’s been our experience that ads tend to yield the best of the unemployed, the best of the unhappy and the best of the unqualified” – Steve Finkel
I appreciate this quote might be a bit tongue in cheek, and I know that there are some excellent candidates that are forced to actively look for a new role for other reasons, but I think it’s safe to assume that a large number of respondents do fall in to one of those 3 categories and so companies generally favour passive candidates over active ones.
I work in recruitment. It is a results driven sector where every person in the business is expected to generate revenue/shareholder value. If you do then you are (generally) paid well and should be well looked after, if you don’t then you are not. If you are an active candidate then it is generally assumed that you fall in to the latter and you can expect to be put through a rigorous interview process to find out the reasons why you did not perform, and to ensure the same wouldn’t happen again. It might not be fair, but this is what tends to happen.
Some companies might also put a passive candidates through a rigorous interview process but I would advise against it, at least in the initial stages. You have presumably approached them because they have a good name in the market, have an excellent track record, and they are someone you want in your business. You can do all of your due diligence once you have the person committed to ensure that everything stacks up, but in the meantime I would suggest that you need to do a number of things differently to ensure you have the best chance of getting them in to your business:
Conduct an informal first stage meeting over a coffee/beer and be prepared to meet outside of hours, and to travel to them – be flexible and make it as easy as possible for the candidate to meet with you. Once you have their buy in, you can then start a more formal process.
How are you going to sell the business? What do you want them to come away knowing? You only have one chance to get this candidates attention and so make sure you have given some thought to this before the first meeting. If you are working with an agency then work closely with them and trust/use their opinion. If you don’t trust them, don’t work with them.
Be realistic about who you are and how attractive your company and proposition is.
If you are conducting a competency based interview, make sure it has relevance to the role and situation. Avoid HR ‘tick box’ meetings, consider skipping presentation stages and personality profiles (unless very relevant). As soon as it starts to feel like a ‘process’ it can put the candidate off.
Get them to meet the team and make sure that the team are briefed and prepared so that the message is consistent and they can cover what is important to the candidate.
Be aware of the speed of the process and speed up/slow down as necessary. Don’t assume everyone likes the same pace.
Presume the candidate is going to be counter offered and get them bought in to you/the company as much as possible. Consider dinner for the final meeting (perhaps with spouse/partner), this will break down barriers and make them feel emotionally attached to the business.
For star candidates do you need to consider tweaking what you normally offer (tweaked bonus, share scheme, guarantees, benefits, base/commission balance) and if so, consider if you should be offering this as standard to your existing team to increase retention?
Always be efficient at providing an offer and the paperwork – do not let this drag.
Have regular contact post offer as there is plenty that can go wrong between this stage and then starting. Treat it like a first date; you wouldn’t be out of contact for a month until the next date (start date) and expect them not to look at/speak to the competition!
Under no circumstances ask the candidate what animal they would be or to sell you a pen! You don’t have to do all of the above, but I would certainly give all of the points some consideration and use what is relevant for you. The more effort you put in, the more likely you are to get the candidate on board. It’s not an exhaustive list and so let me know if I’ve missed anything.
