[BizRecruit] Active vs passive candidates

Held at The Rockwell at the Cape Quarter in Cape Town, the free event was well received, hosting guests including Viv Gordon of Viv Gordon Placements, Patrick Lamoral of Factor-y, Natalie Akermann of Ad Talent, Debbie Johnstone of Quirk, and Roisin McCarthy of Sparkplugs.

Great industry leaders in the #recruitment industry attending the #bizrecruit event @SparkplugsSA @_RecruitDigital @talentexchange

- Sparkplugs Recruit (@SparkplugsSA) September 17, 2013

"The whole idea behind this event is fostering a collaborative and informed recruitment industry where, yes, there's healthy competition, but also, everyone works together because there are many common issues and problems, and sharing information is always good," said Bizcommunity's marketing manager, Warren Harding.

Samantha Africa, national sales manager at Bizcommunity, did a brief presentation on the online publisher and how it began its venture into the jobs market: "Bizcommunity never set out to be a jobs portal; jobs was never in the original architecture. It came because of a request from a client. It's amazing that now, its quite a key aspect of our business going forward."

Talking to 26 different industries, Bizcommunity has created 26 communities - going forward, Bizcommunity's business strategy is all about community. Africa pointed out that since the publisher's expansion into 25 new industries, its HR & Recruitment portal has been one of the best performing platforms.

"We are a content generation and distribution channel, and the one key thing that we take pride in is that that brings in a passive applicant for you, a passive reader," said Africa.

In his presentation, Matthew Gray, pointed out that according to a global survey of CEOs, human capital was the greatest challenge they faced in 2013: "Ultimately, recruitment is a key strategic priority, and if it isn't, it really needs to be."

After highlighting various challenges facing the industry, such as data management, legal compliance and candidate reach, he went on to point out that, according to stats produced by Graylink, together with LinkedIn, 80% of professionals today are passive candidates.

Who are passive candidates?

"Active candidates are working on their job search, they're searching job boards, seeking out many opportunities. We typically call them serial applicants. On your big boards they apply for every single job that is available. Passive candidates are working on doing their jobs better, they're developing their networks, researching; they're obviously happily employed and they're going about their daily jobs. On LinkedIn, 95% of candidates have checked the box that says they would be interested in hearing from employers in terms of opportunities. They're not closing that door 100%.

"Passive candidates are an important part of the [recruitment] process, and something we try to help educate our customers is how to engage passive talent, and ultimately, change from a reactive to a strategic approach. A reactive approach means hiring costs, labour intensiveness, applicant quantity-focus vs quality. [We're] helping them move to a more strategic approach where there's low costs, return on investment can be measured, efficiencies - there's a focus on quality of hire.

"The passive audience that exists [on Bizcommunity] is incredible. People go there to read content, they not there to look for jobs, and its a very different type of audience that arrive on that site, and those are the type of candidates that people want to engage with - be it branding - not just job adverting - be it interesting or innovative banner ads, campaigns, whatever it is, there's a lot that Bizcommunity has to offer, which is why I think the facilitation of this event is highly relevant.

Niche audiences

"This space [niche job boards] is something to watch in terms of where people are maybe starting to shift their mindsets in terms of engaging with a niche audience," said Gray.

All non-press office clients in attendance were offered a free press credit to the value of R1800 and have been challenged to use it in writing and finding clients in a different industry they haven't used before on Bizcommunity.

Details on the next BizRecruit event will be available soon! Contact moc.ytinummoczib@nerraw for more info.