Never underestimate the importance of passive candidates to the staff recruitment of your Belfast company. What do we mean by ‘passive’? We’re referring to those individuals who may not be seeking a job right now – indeed, they might be pretty happy where they are – but who may nonetheless be interested if the right offer lands in their laps.

One thing that you most certainly shouldn’t do, however, is send a cold email beseeching them to join your wonderful organisation – that’s a sure way to be dismissed as a spammer or ‘pushy’.

Download our latest case study to learn how our Talent Recruit service can help you target passive candidates.

If you want an approach to a passive candidate to be fruitful, you should be sure – as most as possible – that it is just the latest part of a longstanding preexisting relationship, as it is established members of their own network that passive candidates are most likely to trust.

Remember – warm leads are always superior to cold leads.

So, how can you ‘warm things up’?

Simple – you need to get personal and start networking and building relationships. If there’s any kind of staff recruitment in Belfast where you have to play the ‘long game’, it is most certainly the hiring the passive candidates. Take time each week to work on that passive candidate funnel.

Making the most of the ‘social’ part of social media is a big part of this. Don’t hit an interesting person on LinkedIn with a ‘hard sell’ message straight away. Instead, mention that you are a recruiter and that you are interested in adding them to your network of thought leaders – that’s a sure way to gently pique their own interest.

Whatever social networks you’re using – LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or any others – there are great tools out there for segmenting passive talent into fields of expertise… such as Webrecruit’s own renowned Fusion recruitment software!

Passive hiring really is about the long term

Never forget about the inherent long-term nature of most passive recruiting – and take advantage of it! If you’re seeking potential middle management talent, for example, start building links with the ambitious entry level workers who may be ready to make the jump in a few years’ time.

Nurture your passive leads over a long period of time, and not only are they more likely to be receptive to you when the time does come to make a hire approach – you’ll also have more time to determine that they really are ‘the one’ for your next vacancy.