Passive Candidate
Definition
A professional who is not actively looking for a new job but may be open to the right opportunity.
Passive candidates represent roughly 70% of the global workforce. They're typically employed, performing well in their current role, and not browsing job boards. Reaching them requires proactive sourcing strategies.
Recruiting passive candidates involves identifying them through LinkedIn, GitHub, or talent intelligence platforms, then engaging them with personalized outreach that highlights specific reasons to consider a move.
The effort is worth it: passive candidates often have stronger skills and longer tenure than active job seekers, because they're not switching out of desperation but out of genuine interest in a better opportunity.
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Related Terms
Recruitment CRM
A Customer Relationship Management tool adapted for recruiting, used to build and nurture talent pools before candidates apply.
Talent Pool
A curated database of pre-qualified candidates who may be suitable for current or future openings.
Boolean Search
A search technique using operators like AND, OR, and NOT to create precise queries for finding candidates in databases and on LinkedIn.