Identifying the best candidates in the marketplace is just one of the steps necessary to hire them. You also have to approach them about your employment opportunity and convince them to consider it as the next step in their career.
Unfortunately, what many employers resort to is what is known as “pitching a job” to these candidates. However, it’s been my experience in more than 20 years as a search consultant and recruiter, that this approach does not work well. In such a situation, a hiring manager will call a candidate that they’ve never spoken with before and “pitch” a job to them.
The problem with this approach is that top candidates are rarely looking for a new opportunity. As a result, they’re not usually receptive to this approach. The approach that works better is finding out what the candidate wants for their career and developing a relationship with that candidate.
That’s because while top candidates aren’t necessarily looking for a new job, they will make a move for the right opportunity. The key is knowing what that right opportunity is. If you know what that opportunity is, then you can present it to the right candidate at the right time, and the candidate will be much more receptive to what you have to say.
Search consultants can provide this type of value to organizations that are looking to fill their critical job openings. They already have relationships with top candidates in the marketplace, and they know which candidate to contact about a specific opportunity.
Approaching top candidates in the correct way is the first step to successfully hiring them.