The labor market hasn’t been this tight in 20 years, making it harder for employers to find quality executive candidates when they need to fill a position. The right candidate is out there, but that candidate may not be actively looking for a job and may never hear about your position if you stick to traditional recruiting methods like posting the job on job boards or even on your company’s website. Many companies doing their executive recruiting in-house know that finding passive candidates is one way to source the candidates they need, but where can companies go to find passive candidates? Networking: A Classic Technique That Works The executive hiring team is likely to have a lot of contacts and professional colleagues in the field, and now is the perfect time to use them as you look for candidates for your executive position. Not only should the executive hiring team talk to all the people they know who might be able to make a referral (or be a candidate themselves), but they should make special efforts when they attend professional events to get to know new people who can expand their networking base and help them find those passive candidates who may be outside their existing circle of contacts. When networking, you should always ask for your contact’s top referral plus any other exceptional referrals they want to offer. This will help to weed out the more mediocre referrals and get right to the top talent you really want. Research Is Easier Than Ever Another way to find passive candidates is to do research into your competitors and who they have working for them in the position you want to fill. When you find someone you think would be a good match, you can attempt to recruit them to your company and see if they’re willing to entertain the idea. This can be time-consuming, but in executive search, it’s all about finding that one right person, no matter how much effort it takes. The amount of information that you can find out about someone over the internet today is often astounding and can give you everything you need to target your recruiting efforts for maximum effect. Social Media Helps Build Rapport Most companies have found that relationships formed on social media can lead to candidates later, particularly when those relationships are genuine and built on shared professional or personal interests. Of course, this process takes time, but can be an effective way to find the talent you need if you cultivate relationships with potential candidates through various social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. As you build your talent pool, you can use Thrive TRM to keep track of each contact’s details as part of a comprehensive profile, compare profiles against each other, and communicate with others about candidates with ease. Schedule a demo today to see all of Thrive TRM’s capabilities.