the potential of passive job seekers for companies

The search for suitable employees is a challenge for every company. Especially during times of skill shortages, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find qualified and motivated employees. A promising target group for companies are so-called passive job seekers. This post provides an overview of the potential of this target group and offers tips for successfully addressing potential candidates. 

1) What are passive job seekers? 

Passive job seekers are employees who are not actively looking for a new position but do not feel a strong connection to their current employer. Therefore, they are open to new job offers. Companies thus have an opportunity to win over this group. 

2) How large is the potential of passive job seekers? 

Several studies in recent years report that 40-50% of employees are passive job seekers. In the State of the Global Workplace Report by Gallup in 2022, only 11% of Swiss employees reported having a strong connection to their employer. This means that 89% of employees in Switzerland feel no or only a weak connection to their employer. This ranks Switzerland 29th in Europe in terms of employee engagement. 

3) Why are passive job seekers so valuable?

When it comes to filling open positions, passive job seekers are an extremely promising target group. Because: these candidates are usually already employed and therefore professionally established.
Thus, these employees bring valuable experience and skills and are on average very high-quality applicants. However, the passive component of this target group means that they are not reached by traditional job advertisements. Therefore, it is important to address passive job seekers on the appropriate channels. Otherwise, there is a risk of missing out on potential candidates. 

4) Which industries have the highest proportion of passive job seekers? 

According to recent reports, employees in the IT sector, logistics, and education particularly report being passive job seekers. Over 50% of employees in these industries are passive job seekers. 

5) Does the company size affect passive job searching? 

Yes! According to studies from the UK and the USA, there is a direct correlation between the size of a company and the number of passive job seekers within the company.
 
Companies with 1000+ employees have about 50% of employees who are passive job seekers. In medium and smaller companies, this proportion drops to about 40%! However, in these companies, more employees are actively looking for jobs than in larger firms. 

6) How and where can you address passive job seekers? 

Reaching out to passive job seekers requires a different approach than addressing active job seekers. One of the most effective and inexpensive ways to do this is to use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. Here, companies can run targeted ads and address specific target groups that fit their job advertisement. Data on demographic characteristics and usage behavior open up efficient targeting opportunities. This fact distinguishes social media from other channels. 

7) How to successfully address passive job seekers on social media?

Social media allows more freedom in the design and format of a job advertisement. Eye-catching and unconventional posts can help to particularly stand out among passive job seekers. Employees themselves can also play an important role in addressing passive job seekers. For example, they can share job advertisements through their own social media channels and present your company as a great employer.  

Here are 3 concrete tips to ensure successful addressing: 

• Highlight benefits: Show what the company has to offer and how it stands out as an employer from the competition. Advantageous working conditions, higher salaries, flexible working hours, and development opportunities should be emphasized. 
• Provide insights into the company: A better company culture is an important factor for passive job seekers to consider a job change. Therefore, the job description should include details about the workday and collaboration. This allows potential candidates to better see if they actually fit into the company and team. 
• Include a clear call-to-action: Passive job seekers neither have the desire nor the time for a complicated application process. The job advertisement should make it clear with a call-to-action what is expected from potential candidates. Are application documents required, or is a simple contact sufficient if interested? A clear call-to-action can help achieve a higher response rate. 

Conclusion

If you want to fill open positions efficiently, it is extremely important not to focus only on active job seekers but also to integrate a recruiting solution for passive job seekers. Therefore, every company should invest in reaching out to passive job seekers. Otherwise, you risk missing out on 40-50% of potential candidates. However, successfully addressing this target group requires special skills and strategies to be successful.  

This is where two.jobs comes in! Our team specializes in targeting passive job seekers. We know the right channel, the best wording, and the most efficient targeting strategy to reach quality candidates.  

Learn more about us and our services here: https://two.jobs/about-us