Unless you have been extremely lucky over the last decade, you know how difficult it is to recruit, hire and retain great STEM talent. There is a significant shortage of qualified technical talent in the market and unemployment levels have been at historic lows for some time. Finding the right people for your critical engineering and technical jobs is extremely difficult – especially if you rely on traditional methods of sourcing talent. To fill critical positions today, hiring managers need to deploy an effective passive job seeker strategy.
Lay the Foundation for Passive Recruiting
Passive candidates are not on job boards looking for new career opportunities. They are employed in jobs that for all intents and purposes, meet their needs. Therefore, to attract attention you must understand that it takes a while to build connections and motivate someone to make a change.
Understanding motivation is your ticket to passive talent – but everyone’s motivations are unique. However, most people are motivated by one or more factors like salary, advancement opportunities, better work-life balance and exciting or innovative projects. When reaching out to passive candidates, try to incorporate language that speaks to these motivations in order to turn their heads but be ready to engage in a lengthy process. It can take months – or longer – to attract top passive candidates.
Build Your Employer Brand to Attract Passive Talent
The odds of landing your ideal passive candidate after reaching out one time? Slim to none. Building connections takes time because passive candidates have the luxury of doing a deep dive into your organization. If your opportunity sounds interesting, they may not return your call or answer your email right away, but they will research your company on their own time.
What will passive candidates find when they look up your business? If you don’t have a strong social media presence or an engaging section of your website that focuses on employee culture, you’re not going to keep their interest. Focus on promoting exciting projects, showcase the achievements of your employees and paint a picture that your organization is a great place to work.
Partner with An Engineering Recruiting Firm
Uncovering passive candidates online, establishing your employer brand and building connections with great people takes time and resources. When your team is already stretched thin, it can be hard to build and maintain a passive recruiting strategy. Fortunately, there is a way to jump to the front of the line.
An engineering staffing firm already has a pipeline of passive candidates ready to explore great new opportunities. Forming a partnership allows you to tap into that well-established network. The right recruiter can quickly and effectively match you with your ideal candidate.
The key to success is to choose a recruiting firm that focuses on engineering and technical roles, because those recruiters understand the complexities of the market, and their network consists solely of high-level STEM talent. If you regularly hire engineering talent and you’re ready to partner with a top engineering staffing firm, reach out to the expert engineering recruiters at Selectek today.