Silver Medalist Candidates: Find The Potential From Sourcing Existing Talent

In the recruiting world, a silver medalist candidate is someone who did progress within the hiring process but ultimately did not land the job role. Different factors mean these candidates miss out on a job opportunity to a ‘gold medalist’. However, this in no way means the candidate is not considered valuable and that their hiring journey should end.

Often they’re treated poorly by their once favoured employer. The candidate can become forgotten as job seekers are told their CV/resume will be ‘kept on file’ for future hiring opportunities but never hear of any new updates. Their details are stored within the ATS database and can become lost amongst hundreds of other applicants.

Why consider second place?

Silver medalist candidates are arguably the most qualified for the role because they were the closest runner up. If the employer was impressed before, why can’t they be again? Their skillset and experience can be transferred to new opportunities – that may in fact be better suited to their capabilities.

Untapped potential

Tap into the potential of your existing candidate database. There is a pool full of qualified talent hidden amongst all other applicants. Revisit these and determine job matching candidates.

Why?

• Previous candidates have already expressed an interest in the company and undertaken their own employer brand analysis. This involves making the decision to apply for the job and choosing the employer as somewhere they want to work. Factors which are incredibly valuable in maintaining a positive candidate journey.
• Reduce hiring time and look towards the talent you already have. A brand new candidate sourcing strategy involves advertising, screening, referrals and recruitment networks. All of which are time-consuming – when starting from scratch.
• Save on sourcing spend, in conjunction with the above point, reduce the time to hire to significantly reduce hiring costs.

How to maximise the potential from silver medalists

Reengage

Continue the candidate journey and engage with past applicants.

To comply with GDPR you must ensure you have candidate consent to store their details. A simple email following their initial job search can help candidates stay in the loop (if they choose to). Once a candidate has approved the agreement, hiring teams can take action.

However, the ways in which to maximise past talent vary differently depending on the organisation size. For a smaller team, it is easier to reconsider applicants manually. The hiring manager will remember the candidate, (their skills and experience) and can revisit their application when a matching new role arises.

However, challenges arise when an employer receives hundreds of job applications for multiple live vacancies. It becomes increasingly difficult to keep the promise and reconsider past applicants.

A gold mine of talent (yes, gold not silver!)

You’re sitting on a gold mine of talent, an ATS database full of potential talent. For large hiring organisations the most effective way to extract the golden nuggets is to employ technology.

A recruiter can search the database manually for keywords surrounding skill set and experience. But a poor search functionality or a search that can pull up hundreds of results make it difficult to effectively screen all job matching candidates.

Candidate sourcing

Candidate sourcing automation enables hiring teams to automatically match historic candidates within their ATS database to new job vacancies. The process is instant and completes the time-consuming stages of screening and matching within minutes. The end result means recruiters receive an overview of matching applicants that are placed in the prospect candidate pool to help guide their next hiring decision.

Deliver the promise to keep candidates ‘on file’ for new opportunities. After the initial rejection, silver medalist candidates still possess the desire to work for the company. Employers should utilise this because the potential to excel in the candidate experience and continue the hiring journey is too great of an opportunity to be missed.