There has been a great deal of interest in finding passive candidates--those coveted potential employees who are not actively pursuing other job opportunities.
Companies pursue them because they represent the most talented and productive segment of the workforce. As top performers, chances are they're not looking for other opportunities because they have become comfortable, engaged and justly rewarded in their current positions.
However, twenty-five percent of 7,960 full-time employees do not feel loyal to their current employer, and 20 percent say they are likely to leave their current position to change jobs in a year or less, according to a new CareerBuilder.com survey by Harris Interactive of Rochester, NY. Also, most people would make the move to a new job if it offered the right role in the right company, along with an attractive compensation and benefits package.
A number of Internet-based professional social networks, like LinkedIn, have cropped up and are being used to identify and engage passive candidates. These sites are typically populated by working professionals. They feature tools that can be used to build networks based on referrals and searches for specific preferences, such as industry or job function. Those participants are high-achievers who are, by definition, those much-sought-after passive candidates.
Once the passive job candidate is found, the challenge is to engage him or her in a meaningful way--which is where the recruiting process often breaks down.
Put simply, few organizations offer passive candidates an easy, intuitive and smooth path that takes them through each phase of the screening and assessment process. But imagine a system that could give candidates a real sense of the opportunity, then allow them to pursue it immediately, in real time, without requiring an updated resume (which passive candidates, by definition, don't have).
In today's employment landscape, at any given moment, 20 percent of the nation's workforce has an updated resume while the other 80 percent does not. That 80 percent is not likely to respond to a prospective employer's request for a resume. While resumes traditionally have served as a career passport, in today's network society resumes represent a roadblock.
Talent acquisition and retention is what ultimately makes companies thrive. That's why finding true talent is so critical and yet, such a challenge--particularly when you consider that the majority of talent is not on the market. Hiring managers who continue to base the hiring process on resumes are trading in outmoded currency.
If you are personally looking for another job, a huge mistake is to send your resume to a prospective employer. Why? Because the prospective employer's hiring decision maker is not really interested in your past responsibilities, education and experience...even though the Human Resource Department may still be living in the resume dark ages.
For what the prospective employer is interested in, go to:
http://coachingtip.blogs.com/coaching_tip/2007/01/dont_send_your_.html
Source: Human Resource Executive, October 2, 2008