Passive candidate
Definition
Someone who isn't looking for a job, but would switch for the right offer. They won't find your vacancy on a job board, so it has to find them.
Aron VeraartUpdated A passive candidate has a job and isn't actively searching. They're not on job boards, they don't have alerts set up. But if the right thing came along, better pay, a shorter commute, a nicer team, they'd seriously consider it. A lot of the people you'd most like to hire are in this group, simply because good people are usually employed.
The thing is, you can't reach them with post and pray. They'll never type your job title into a search bar. You have to show up where they already are, on social feeds, through referrals, through a recruiter reaching out, and you have to give them a reason to care in a few seconds.
And they need a different message. An active candidate wants details to compare. A passive candidate needs to answer one question first: is this better than what I have now? A list of requirements doesn't answer that. A salary, a schedule, or one honest line about the team might.
Example
An experienced warehouse planner is fine at her current job, a bit bored, a bit underpaid. She'd never search for a new job this month. Then an ad shows up in her feed: "Planners here get every Friday afternoon off. See the salary and check in 60 seconds if you'd fit." She taps it. She was passive five seconds ago.