How to use AI recruitment tools to source passive candidates

Passive candidates aren’t actively job hunting but may consider new opportunities that align with their career goals and values. They may be candidates who applied to work at your organization previously, recent graduates, or someone who has been working at the same organization long-term.

This year there has been a shortage of viable talent in specialized fields like in AI or tech-related roles. Sourcing passive candidates gives you access to new talent pools faster than starting the search from scratch.

AI tools offer strategies to find and hire passive candidates, filling talent gaps faster than traditional methods. This post will explore different strategies for using AI to find and source passive candidates.

Why use AI to find passive candidates?

Recruiting passive candidates is somewhat less straightforward than an active candidate search. Using AI tools streamlines the process by automating repetitive tasks, personalizing outreach communication, and using analytics to improve the accuracy of candidate searches. Combining passive candidate sourcing with AI technology helps you find better candidates more quickly.

• Improved efficiency and speed: AI automates time-consuming tasks like scanning profiles and sending initial outreach emails. That frees up your time as a hiring manager for more important tasks like interviewing candidates and relationship-building

• Personalized engagement: AI candidate sourcing tools can create highly personalized communication for candidates once they’ve analyzed their profiles and online interactions. They can use that information to tailor their messaging to resonate with each candidate’s specific experience and career goals

• Broader talent pool: With AI candidate sourcing, you can reach out to passive candidates across multiple platforms at once e.g. LinkedIn, GitHub, and industry-specific career websites.  That gives you a wider range of sources to recruit from and improves your chances of finding qualified candidates over more traditional methods

• Scalability: When you’re hiring for multiple roles are need to hire a lot of people in a short amount of time, AI passive candidate sourcing can scale to meet demand. That way you can give individualized attention during the hiring process and make it easier to handle large volumes of candidates
• Data-driven insights: AI tools can help you optimize your recruiting strategies and figure out what works and what doesn’t. That insight can improve your approach and lead to better hiring outcomes over time

More hiring teams are using AI tools to enhance their hiring processes, and there’s a reason for that. Using AI to fill your passive candidate pipelines can reduce your time-to-hire and find better candidates in less time. 37% of jobs use at least one AI-sourced candidate, and 32% of AI-sourced passive candidates go on to the next stage of interviews.

Lucas Botzen, an HR expert and CEO at Rivermate, reaffirms how AI saves HR teams time and energy in searching for the right candidate.

“It automates the first steps of the hiring process, freeing HR teams to concentrate more on engaging such high-potential people rather than rummaging through mounds of data,” says Lucas. “Moreover, AI can detect hidden talent not apparent in traditional recruitment processes, making the funnel of potential hires larger and thereby increasing the possibilities to get the right person for the job.”

How to use AI to find and engage passive candidate

Let’s say you decide to use AI tools to poke around and see what passive candidates might be worth talking to. How do you use them effectively?

Here’s how you can use AI tools to improve the speed and efficiency of your passive candidate hiring process:

1. 1. Identify your requirements: Define the skills, experience, and qualifications you need for the role you’re filling
   2. Select an AI tool: Choose the AI sourcing tool that aligns with your recruitment strategy. Look for features like multi-platform search and integration with your applicant tracking system (ATS)
   3. Set up search parameters: Use search criteria like job titles, specific skills, experience levels, and locations to narrow the talent pool
   4. Run the search and review results: Scan databases, social media platforms, and your internal hiring data to make your initial list of candidates. Narrow them down to the ones that most closely match your hiring requirements

• Refine search: Adjust your parameters to zero in on the most qualified candidates

Time your outreach strategically

Recruiting passive candidates is all about reaching the right people at the right time. AI-candidate sourcing systems don’t just help you find passive candidates, they can also optimize and refine your outreach strategy itself. 

Engaging with passive candidates at the right time and when they’re most receptive to the possibility of joining a new role can make or break the success of your outreach. 

Use AI tools to analyze their online activities and look for patterns, such as increased activity on their LinkedIn profiles. Several AI tools allow you to set up alerts so you can be notified when a candidate engages with industry-related content or engages on professional forums.

With that information, you can time your outreach message when the candidate is most likely to respond and improve your chances of finding engaged passive candidates and moving them further along in the hiring process.

Create tailored messages

Engaging passive candidates depends on using the right message, as well as reaching them at the right time.

AI can gather information for your candidate profiles like their career history, skills, and interests. You can then use that information to make personalized outreach messages that the passive candidate is more likely to respond to, even if they weren’t considering switching roles before.

• • Personalized templates: Start by creating message templates that can be easily customized for each candidate. AI sourcing tools can help you fill out the form fields and suggest phrases and content that speak to each candidate’s background and experience. For example, if a candidate is interested in career development, your message should highlight the opportunities for career growth at your organization

• Automate messaging: Schedule messages to be sent at optimal times when the candidate is most likely to read them so that your outreach is both timely and relevant. Automating your outreach this way gives each message a personal touch while still being sent efficiently at scale

• • Be specific: Use details in your messaging that are specific to the candidate. Reference any recent career milestones or achievements, shared industry interests, or shared mutual connections. It makes you seem more real and personable in your approach
• Send follow-ups: Outreach is all in the follow-up. Track your responses and engagement metrics, and tailor your follow-up communication based on any questions or concerns the candidate might express

Share relevant industry news and content

Even if the candidate says “no” to a job offer now, they might be more receptive later. Keep passive candidates interested and informed about your company over time. Sharing relevant content keeps you on their radar if they consider changing roles in the future.

You can use AI to source industry news, blog posts, and white papers relevant to candidate interests and share them with them at relevant intervals. You can keep the conversation going, nurture their trust over time, and continue to engage with them.

AI tools can analyze a candidate’s online behavior and past social media interactions to determine what kinds of content they’re most likely to engage with. You can use that information to refine your outreach strategy and share content with them that’s most likely to spark their interest.

Send personalized job recommendations

After you spend time building a relationship with a passive candidate, a personalized job recommendation sent at the right time can turn them into an active job seeker with an interest in your organization.

AI talent sourcing tools are an asset here. With them, you can match candidates with suitable job openings at your organization based on their skills, education, and work history. AI tools can analyze the candidate’s profile and the job descriptions for which you have openings to determine the best fit. 

When you reach out to passive candidates about a new opportunity, be sure to highlight why they’re an ideal fit for the role. Mention what specific skills and experiences would help them excel at the position, and explain how it aligns with their career goals. It shows you put thought into your recommendation, making it seem tailor-made for them.

AI can automate this process as well by automatically sending job recommendations to passive candidates. You can set up event triggers based on a candidate’s previous replies to your messages so that job openings are sent when they are most likely to be interested.

Key features to look for in an AI passive candidate sourcing tool

Before investing in an AI candidate sourcing tool and training your HR team to use it, there are a few features to look out for so you can make the most out of the technology.

1. Advanced search capability

Ideally, the AI sourcing tool should let you perform both traditional boolean searches and AI-enhanced searches. After you use specific keywords and operators to do your initial filtering, AI candidate searches can take it further by looking at patterns and suggesting relevant candidates who may not fit your exact keywords but fit the overall criteria.

2. Profile analysis

AI tools can scan profiles for job history and skills, and analyze recent activity like engagement in posts and discussions. That can help you strategize and assess their openness to new opportunities without you having to manually review them yourself.

3. Analytics and reporting

Where AI candidate sourcing tools shine is in their ability to track large volumes of candidate data like engagement metrics and response rates so you can understand how well your outreach is working and tweak your strategies accordingly.

The AI candidate sourcing system should also track the progress of candidates through the recruitment process, from the initial contact to the final hiring decision. Seeing where candidates start to drop off will help you see where the hiring process can be improved.

4. Integration capabilities

For an AI sourcing tool to be useful to you, it should seamlessly integrate into your applicant tracking system (ATS) and your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. The flow of data between your systems will reduce the likelihood of error and minimize the need for your manual input.

It should be scalable and flexible, able to adapt to your organization’s growth so you can adjust your recruitment processes accordingly.

Look for AI candidate sourcing tools that are easy to implement into your existing processes and have customer support to get your team up to speed with them quickly. The easier your recruitment team can get used to the platform, the sooner you’ll start seeing results from it.

AI can make passive candidate sourcing more efficient, precise, and effective

Using AI passive candidate sourcing enables you to tap into a broader talent pool and connect with candidates who might otherwise slip under your radar. Using features like predictive analytics, automated messaging, and personalized communication will not only improve your outreach efforts but find better candidates who are more closely aligned with your hiring goals.

Workable’s AI recruiter can use key profile details to make profiles for 400 million candidates, including those who have applied to work at your organization before. Book a demo today and see how it can unearth passive candidates lying just underneath the surface.