In the competitive landscape of tech recruitment, engaging with passive candidates (those not actively seeking new job opportunities) can be a game changer. These individuals often possess valuable skills and experiences that could benefit your organisation. However, reaching out to passive candidates requires a strategic approach to capture their interest and encourage them to consider exploring new career possibilities. In this blog, we'll explore effective tactics for engaging with passive candidates and building meaningful connections.

Understand Their Motivations

Before reaching out to passive candidates, it's essential to understand what motivates them in their current roles. Is it challenging projects, career growth opportunities, work-life balance, or a supportive company culture? Tailor your approach by highlighting aspects of your organisation that align with their priorities and career aspirations.

Personalise Your Outreach

Generic messages won't resonate with passive candidates. Take the time to personalise your outreach. Mention specific skills or experiences that caught your attention and explain why you believe they would be a great fit for your team. Show genuine interest in their career trajectory and how your company can contribute to their professional development.

Leverage Mutual Connections

Utilise your professional network to establish connections with passive candidates. A referral from a mutual acquaintance or colleague can significantly increase the likelihood of a positive response. Request introductions or mention shared connections in your outreach to establish credibility and trust.

Highlight Exciting Projects and Opportunities

Capture the interest of passive candidates by showcasing exciting projects, initiatives, or upcoming opportunities within your organisation. Highlight how their skills and expertise could contribute to meaningful impact and innovation. Paint a compelling picture of the professional growth potential they would experience by joining your team.

Offer Value Beyond Job Openings

Provide value beyond job opportunities. Share industry insights, thought leadership content, or invite passive candidates to participate in webinars or networking events hosted by your company. Position yourself as a valuable resource and trusted advisor in their professional journey.

Respect Their Current Situation

Passive candidates may not be actively looking for new roles due to various reasons, such as job satisfaction or personal commitments. Respect their current situation and timeline. Avoid being overly persistent or pushy in your communications. Instead, focus on building a genuine relationship based on mutual respect and understanding.

Maintain Ongoing Engagement

Establish continuous engagement with passive candidates through periodic follow-ups and updates. Share relevant news or developments about your organisation that might pique their interest over time. Keep the lines of communication open and be patient as they navigate their career paths.

Showcase Your Employer Brand

Your employer brand plays a crucial role in attracting passive candidates. Highlight your company's unique culture, values, employee benefits, and success stories. A compelling employer brand can differentiate your organisation and create a strong appeal for passive candidates considering a career change. If you want more infomation on how to create a compelling employer brand, please read our other blogs on our website "The Power of Employer Branding in Attracting Top Talent" and "Why Tech Scale-Ups Should Invest in EVPs". 

Engaging with passive candidates requires a thoughtful and personalised approach that demonstrates genuine interest, respect, and value. By understanding their motivations, leveraging personal connections, and highlighting exciting opportunities, you can build meaningful relationships and ultimately convert passive candidates into enthusiastic members of your tech team. Remember, patience and persistence coupled with a focus on mutual benefits will yield successful outcomes in engaging with passive talent in the tech industry.

 About Inspire People

We believe that technology has the power to change the world for the better and we love working with businesses whose technology or purpose has a positive impact. We help businesses that share our vision access the people, resources and strategic advice they need to achieve their digital transformation goals

Our service is designed to accelerate your digital growth. We created our offer in response to emerging challenges in an uncertain business landscape: a blend of Advisory, Talent and Project led services that will help you achieve your strategic aims and deliver more for your employees and customers. We’ll connect you to rare specialist talent, experts and insight to help you navigate your biggest challenges and remain competitive in a changed world.

Get in touch today to discover how working with us could help you innovate and grow.

Speak to our expert team on +44(0)20 7871 8550 or email  hello@inspirepeople.net

If you haven’t been giving much thought to your employer branding recently, then now is the time to start.

All businesses have an employer brand, whether they actively work on it or not.

Your employer brand is the way the world sees you; from your products and services, your mission, your vision, your ethos and your team – yes, there is a lot to consider!

The question is – how should your employer brand be positioning your company in our post-pandemic world?

The technology sector has changed, and it is more crucial than ever that your employer brand is positioning you above your competitors.

In today’s blog, we look at the crucial elements of employer branding in our post-pandemic world.

What is Employer Branding?

Your employer brand is your talent attraction magnet – it is the beacon to the potential pool of candidates to be drawn on that want to work for your company.

It is also the way your customers view your business – the reason people interact with your organisation and the way the wider world views your company.

But for the purpose of today’s article, we’re going to be focusing on employer brand in terms of talent attraction.

And specifically, employer branding in our post-pandemic world.

What worked pre-pandemic will not necessarily work now; the best talent is looking for certain things from your post-pandemic employer brand, so let’s look at what they are.

A Considerate Brand

The pandemic has brought down barriers in ways that we could never have expected.

Now more than ever what people are looking for from the organisations they interact with, and specifically the organisations they want to work for, is that they have a personal, considerate approach to being an employer.

People are now looking for reassurance and support wherever they turn – from their friends, their family, and especially their employer.

Transparency is key here too. If you have had to make redundancies in certain areas, but senior management have received bonuses, how will this look to candidates who are researching your brand?

It can be tricky getting the balance here right, but everyone is aware of how tough things have been during the pandemic. Being honest and transparent about the decisions your business has made is key – candidates are increasingly turning away from brands that are seen to be dishonest about their practices.

A Focus on Health and Wellbeing

A big focus for candidates that you must consider in your post-pandemic employer brand is how much of a focus you now have on health and wellbeing.

Wellbeing and particularly mental health have been gaining traction in the employment world for some time, but the pandemic has skyrocketed their importance.

Your post-pandemic employer brand needs to ensure candidates that you are treating the health and wellbeing of your workforce with the utmost importance.

This includes-

• Prioritising clarity and caution – the virus hasen’t gone away yet, and brands who maintain an excellent focus on physically protecting their employees with excellent Covid-19 procedures will be viewed by candidates favourably.
• Offer flexible working (where possible) – allowing employees to work from home and being flexible on the matter is what the best IT candidates will be looking for.
• Offering real help to support employee health and wellbeing – do you encourage physical health in your employees by providing fresh fruit in the workplace (where it is safely possible) or cycle to work schemes and gym memberships? Do you champion mental wellbeing and strive to be a compassionate employer – if so, will candidates know this from looking at your website or social media?

Showing that you are dedicated to health and wellbeing is not about bragging about it on social media – it’s about demonstrating your values in a way that’s easy for candidates to find and communicates your wellbeing offering in an honest and transparent way.

A Communicative Brand

Communication was the one thing that kept us together during the pandemic, and the way you continue to communicate with candidates during the ongoing crisis and afterwards will be a significant part of your employer brand going forwards.

Your social media channels are the first port of call for candidates to contact you, and your followers (which will include potential future candidates) are still the number one place to maintain your employer brand.

But some technology organisations stepped away from posting anything on social media during the pandemic. Some thought it insensitive; others simply didn’t know what to post during the highly changeable time.

But posting online to maintain your employer brand doesn’t always have to be about self-promotion.

There are many different types of content you can share on your social channels to alert candidates to what type of employer you are, and what your company is focusing on in our post-pandemic world.

This can include:

• Industry news and industry updates
• Helpful articles which could be of interest to IT employees and candidates including think pieces either from your own company or from a tech thought-leader
• Updates about your company – have you launched new products or services? Have you celebrated a milestone recently? Moved office? People love to see ‘human’ updates from real people about real people (your team).
• And of course – your latest job vacancies.

Giving Candidates a Sense of Purpose

Finally, a sense of purpose is another major factor that great IT candidates are now looking for in their post-pandemic employers.

Meaningful work is increasingly what millennials are looking for – and this section of workers now makes up the largest part of the worldwide workforce.

The Deloitte 2020 talent survey states that employers should provide meaningful work or they will struggle to attract and retain their workforce.

What is it about your company that makes your employees feel as though they are making a positive difference to the world?

About Inspire People

We believe that technology has the power to change the world for the better and we love working with businesses whose technology or purpose has a positive impact. We help businesses that share our vision access the people, resources and strategic advice they need to achieve their digital transformation goals.

Our service is designed to accelerate your digital growth. We created our offer in response to emerging challenges in an uncertain business landscape: a blend of Advisory, Talent and Project led services that will help you achieve your strategic aims and deliver more for your employees and customers. We’ll connect you to rare specialist talent, experts and insight to help you navigate your biggest challenges and remain competitive in a changed world.

Get in touch today to discover how working with us could help you innovate and grow.

Speak to our expert team on +44(0)20 7871 8550 or email hello@inspirepeople.net