A Good Question in a Competitive Market

We have identified candidates from a competitor that we would like to make offers to, but they are passive candidates and we are concerned about them accepting. Any suggestions?

Identifying candidates that are not only currently employed but also possess the expertise you need for your particular business requires special handling. Offers are generally turned down because no one has thoroughly researched the candidate’s needs and what they really want before an offer is presented. As a matter a fact, you must know these things before you ever bring a candidate in to a formal interview process.

That is where the value of having a recruiter comes into play. It is not only our job to source passive candidates, but also to assist a prospective candidate define what is important to them, what might be missing in their current assignment as well as defining their next best career move. If an interviewing panel knows what drives a candidate before they sit down one on one, everyone stands a much better chance to pivot the conversation toward the right topics assuring a smoother transition to later conversations, such as the terms of a prospective offer.

In our twelve plus years in business there are some consistent themes that typically drive top performers to make a move. Those are, in order:

A greater challenge and/or more responsibility
A progressive, growing company, including exposure to new tools and/or technology
A company’s culture, employee and community values
Compensation
Other factors that can play a deciding factor can be of a more personal nature such as location and work/life balance.

Bottom line, to be successful hiring top performing candidates you must be prepared to provide them with something, usually more than just compensation, that is important to them that they do not already have.

For more information on this topic, give us a call at 901-367-0778