Active & Passive Candidates - What Are They?

There are no such things as active or passive candidates in the recruitment market, there are only good candidates and the rest. OK, I know that at any one time there are people out there who are actively scouring the market for a new job, and many more who are not. But the point is that this is a candidate perspective, not a recruiter one. Where recruiters can go wrong is in looking for sources of new candidates who are not looking for a new role or may be unavailable to their competitors, i.e 'passive candidates', but can still be delivered to them as if they were 'active'.

I can understand the problem. I worked for an exec-level job board where much of our early growth came from companies looking to us as a different candidate pool. They and all their competitors used the same job boards and came up with the same candidates for the same jobs, for which of course they were all in competition. If we were successful for one agency, it was not long before the competition turned up in force. Good for us, but the same problem for the recruiter.

But looking for active or passive candidates is missing the point. And it's lazy recruiting practice. Recruiters get paid to find the right candidate. Sometimes it will be possible to find the right candidates from a job posting, as at any one time some, but by no means all of the most eligible candidates will be looking to change jobs. But to be consistently identifying the best available candidates means getting of your butt and approaching the people your client would want you to be talking to. You cannot expect a 'passive' candidate to come to you. To find the right candidate you need more than one string to your sourcing bow, and with the wealth of information online there has never been an easier time to do this. Recruiters - get out there and engage!

Comment by Paul Alfred on June 30, 2011 at 10:54am: Morgan ... Welcome to the World of Bloggers who have other professions and can multi-task efficiently and still get things done in the end we all have to have happy satisfied clients.... If that is not being maintained then "Houston we have a problem" - also we have to assume that folks with 15 years experience or more in the Business are pretty established - teams, partners, co-workers, associates, employees and Clients all working in unison to produce an end result. Blogging also helps with establishing an online personality and reputation ....(if you care about it).

On to the next topic ....

Comment by Jerry Albright on June 30, 2011 at 11:46am: Well - not only can I check in with RBC - I'm also available to take my sweet little daughter out for a quick bass or 2 - or 20......This was 15 minutes ago.

Comment by bill josephson on June 30, 2011 at 2:52pm: I'm not having a record breaking quarter and come here for a brief mental break from intensive cold call recruiting out of my client's direct competitors.

It's worth the time to learn how other recruiters find the market and are approaching their business which, as a solo, gives me perspective. So the time here on blogs of interest are never a time waster--I get my daily calls in and am fresher with periodic breaks.

Otherwise, I'm in my own world clouded by my own experiences which may be completely divorced from the greater reality. Maybe there are better clients. Maybe there's a better market niche. Maybe a better way of finding candidates. I won't know unless I find out.