Pivotal and core to our business of recruitment is the ability to identify and present to our clients skilled and able candidates who tick all their boxes. Out there in the world of work there is a large set of highly skilled consultants, upwards of 40% of consultants according to research carried out by the PRN, who are invisible to the recruitment industry and hence invisible to potential employers.
Passive consultants exist usually because they are excellent at their jobs with many at the top of their game, they are usually employed already and they find gaining work easily through their current contacts, word of mouth, etc. Many of these consultants operate within the high technology sectors of IT, BI, Engineering, etc. They make no use of recruitment agencies, are not active on Linkedin or ever access job boards. They are effectively invisible to all but their own close network.
This is all fine and good but there are opportunities out there, and employers out there, who need to identify the very best people for their roles and it is the job of the recruitment agencies to get these “passive” consultants on their radar, to be able to offer as wide a spectrum of abilities to prospective employers.
So how do the recruitment agencies go about identifying this hidden talent?
You can try asking your current consultant prospects if they could recommend anybody, particularly with specific skill-sets. Look at any referenced people as potential prospects for current or future roles. Populate your blogs with attractive and informative content on the sectors you are targeting in order to attract this hidden talent. You could hold events featuring the targeted sectors in the hope of attracting interest, create online chat-boards and ensure your business communications include messages targeted at your sectors of interest.
It’s in this task that Social Media comes into its own. Recent statistics demonstrate that 98% of 18-24 year olds use Social Media daily with Facebook attracting a very strong demographic of 25-34 year olds, etc. Besides using newspapers and/or job sites you should start posting job opportunities, free, on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, etc, ensuring you make full use of hashtags # and keywords. You should also engage with Industry and Interest Groups on Linkedin and Facebook to identify potential candidates.
