Passive candidates represent a potentially deep pool of talent for your company, but it takes some effort and know-how to tap into that pool. Passive candidates are not actively looking for jobs, so your visibility needs to come from avenues other than job boards and postings. Here are some ways to attract more passive candidates by making your company or department more visible. 1. Use employee referrals. The hiring team may not know many passive candidates, but chances are that employees have friends and professional connections outside the company that they could refer to the team if asked and incentivized to do so. One often-neglected aspect of using employee referrals is to have an enticing website to which you can direct the referrals for a good first impression of your company and what you have to offer. 2. Be active on social media. Using social media to develop relationships with passive candidates is an effective way to develop a pipeline of potential passive candidates. This is where passion comes into play. Your social media postings need to reflect a genuine passion for the field and your company, which will naturally attract quality talent in the field. Your company page may not be the best avenue for developing these relationships, but you can investigate popular industry pages to see where people congregate online. eBook: Using Social Media for Executive Search – Learn how to leverage social media in your executive search process more effectively. 3. Offer a signing bonus. In addition to a competitive salary, one way to get top talent to leave a current job and come work for you is to give a sizeable signing bonus to the candidate. A signing bonus may be the benefit that talent cannot resist, or may make it worthwhile for them to do the extra work it takes to reach out for a new position. 4. Customize the job. Top talent will not just make a job or career move into an equivalent position. One way to sweeten the pot is to create a custom job position that will attract a particular candidate. Offering different benefits like telecommuting or flexible work hours can help to sway a candidate who is not sure about making a move. Some startups have even given new employees unlimited paid time off as an incentive to join. 5. Let the prospective employee have input. Another technique for getting passive candidates to join your company is to let the candidate have input into the exact job duties of the position. By letting the candidate help to craft the position, a candidate may become more invested and take ownership of the position, making it more likely that a change will be made. 6. Make it easy to apply and interview. Trying to woo a candidate becomes much more difficult when the application and interview processes are complicated and difficult to navigate. Do not risk turning off a much-wanted passive candidate with an overly difficult process of entering employment. A good talent management solution can make attracting and onboarding passive candidates a more streamlined process. 7. Do whatever it takes to get the candidates you want. If you really want to get a passive candidate on board, you may need to go above and beyond the usual recruiting techniques; however, it may be worth going a little further to get top quality talent. Concentrate on developing a strong talent pipeline with a talent management solution such as ThriveTRM. Schedule a demo and discover solutions for VC / PE firms today!