A few years ago, a friend of mine was going through a severe case of on-again, off-again-itis. I (like any good friend) was stressing because no amount of “he’s no good, you deserve better” was getting through her thick, love-fogged skull. She was so far gone she was turning down adorable, nice and employed fellows. Finally, I got her a book that was pretty new at the time, He’s Just not That into You. Together, we downed entire bags of Riesen’s chocolate candies and explored all the common excuses of men and slowly, she got over the toadie.
Even though I’ve been through similar cases of “wanting what you can’t have”, the whole phenomenon never ceases to amaze me. Chalk it up to the human heart. Well then you explain to me, how this disease, once the domain of teenagers and future Oprah guests, has spread to corporate America. You know what I’m talking about, the “passive candidate”. It’s the only kind of candidate to have apparently. And this perpetuates our precious talent war, since in a recession (see this article from when our economy didn’t suck on adjusting your tactics to the current fiscal state) there are far fewer passive candidates than before.
Lots of qualified, interested and competent candidates line up at the doors of HR Departments all over the country and are rejected or ignored for the “road less traveled” the “dark horse” . I’m not judging (well, I kind of AM) as I have heard a lot of folks I respect talk about how they only work with passive candidates who already have a job. What I am doing is wondering. . .why?
If someone can supply me with a great reason why candidates who don’t like you, never heard of you and have no interest in moving because they are a super diva rock star are actualy (measurably) better employees than the sweet lady who has always wanted to work at your company and has applied every year since she hearf your marketing VP speak at a regional conference four years ago but you always ignore her because if she was any good she wouldn’t be coming through the very expensive ATS you purchased, then please show me.
Otherwise, I’ll have to tell you like I did my friend: “They’re just not that into you“.
Also, as a postscript: Continuing to stalk passive candidates as a business mandate during a recession is the dating equivalent of Molly Ringwald bagging that guy in her odd homemade pink dress in the 80s. It might make sense when the pros suggest it, but it will never happen in real life.
Right on Maren!
The whole passive candidate thing has gotten WAY out of hand. The bigger issue should be the ability to find QUALIFIED and QUALITY candidates – of ANY STATUS.
The real difference in “active” and “passive” candidates should be in how you engage them – too many technology or media vendors are going around with their silver bullets or black boxes trying to convince people they have the magic link the the passive candidate. If you could do one thing to get in front of all of the qualified people for any position – there would be no challenge in finding the best candidate(s).
The real “silver bullet” is in having the right mix or balance of initiatives to find qualified and quality candidates. It’s a mix of Marketing your Recruitment Brand, Advertising your jobs, Sourcing for Candidate data, and having the right recruiting message (spoken/written) for any candidate you find.
My 2 cents.
Great post, Maren!
You wouldn’t happen to be in HR at Boeing, by any chance, would you? Those a**holes are constantly bombarding me with job openings. My sister never stops telling me, “Oh, you need to come work here. It’s great. I never do any work at all and they pay me a fortune.” Everyone knows that all Boeing advertised positions are a fraud. They already have candidates in mind for them and are just going through the motions while they shuffle their hand-picked, already-employed into the position while wasting the time of thousands of talented people outside the company. My sister, meanwhile, has no idea that her position was only created to fill the government quota of required females in order to bid on certain government contracts. That’s why she gets paid so much and does so little. Oh well, I’m not going to tell her. Ignorance is bliss when your paycheck and job security come from a government mandate.
I got so distracted talking about Boeing that I forgot to say what I wanted to say. Molly Ringwald, speaking of people guys are just not that into, looked like *ss in that pink dress. Usually when they try to pretend that a girl created a homemade dress, some designer like Versace creates it and it looks great. Totally unbelievable as a homemade dress, but great. Hers, on the other hand, was totally believable as a homemade dress that a high school girl made in about a week after school using old grocery sacks and garbage bag ties. Ugh.
[...] He’s just not that into you – great expansion on the dating analogy, from Marenated by by Maren Hogan, [...]
Ha, I’m catching up on your blog. While eating Riesens….