28 Illuminating Questions to Ask Passive Candidates

January 23, 2014 at 10:00 PM by Jordan Taylor

Questions to askYou've scoured their LinkedIn, Github, and Twitter. The candidate seems to be a star, has been in the same role with their company between 10 months-2 years, and you're ready to act.

You've done your research, identified the elusive passive candidate, and are ready to engage.

Now what?

Lou Adler, in “How to Use Career Zones to Understand and Recruit High Performers,” outlines four unique career zones to help you identify the career status of candidates. It’s a great way to visualize a strategy for getting them to move toward higher job satisfaction (at your organization).

Career Zone

One of the best pieces of advice Adler offers for getting candidates to consider moving back to Zone 1 is: “Don’t sell the job, sell the next step.”

This advice represents the best frame of mind to inhabit after you’ve analyzed candidates (then you’ll want to go one step further). Here are some broad categories to think about, and some penetrating questions to ask in hopes of inspiring free flowing engagement. 

ENVIRONMENT

  • What motivates you in your current position? Has this changed over time?
  • Think broadly about your company culture. Where do you fit in? How do you contribute?
  • Are there any changes you’d like to see with respect to your company’s culture?
  • How does leadership work (how is it expected to operate) in your company?
  • How do dialogues between team members usually transpire? See any room for improvement?
  • Why, or why not, is this your dream job? What are some things that could make your job better?
  • Tell me a little bit about how you use your time on an everyday level. Do you feel you need to make any adjustments?
  • How’s your company doing?
  • When people leave your company—where do they typically go?

CAREER TRAJECTORY

  • What motivated you to move to your current position?
  • How did you envision your internal progression with the company?
  • What are your promotion opportunities like?
  • How do you engage with your manager concerning your current role; what’s the potential for moving to a different position?
  • What do you like best about your current role? What changes would you like to see?
  • What’s the best job you’ve ever had? How does it compare to your current position?

IMPACT

  • Is your work meaningful to you? In what ways?
  • How long have you been in your current position?
  • In what ways has the company impacted your growth?
  • Do people value your ideas?
  • Is communication in your office transparent and open-minded? Why is it not?
  • Are people generally open to new perspectives and ideas? How do you like to contribute?
  • In what ways do people value your insights and problem-solving skills?
  • How does feedback work in your organization?

PROSPECTS

  • How do life obligations and situational details influence decisions you make with respect to change?
  • If you were going to research a new job, what pathways or networks would you utilize?
  • What sort of long-term and short-term growth would be essential if you decided to take a new position?
  • What role does compensation play in your decision-making process?
  • Have you looked at any new positions? Applied to any?

HOW TO END IT

Clearly that’s a lot of questions to ask. Pick the ones that drive the best insights—and whose answers relate most to the job you’re eager to fill. Never shy away from improvising as you gauge the candidate’s answers.

The main goal is to get them in a non-transactional open dialogue about some of their concerns, career needs, and feelings about risk.

Wrap up with several things: let them know they might be a potential fit for open positions; cordially ask for their resume/CV; recommend having them look at your open positions; and ask them if they’re open to talking with a hiring manager in your company.

Remember, engaging passive candidates is the final action to take after conducting extensive research. For more insights on the research process, we created a multi-part series on how to create an effective strategy: Inside the Brain of the Passive Candidate | Candidate Response Rate; Company-level Data Part1 & Part 2; Individual-level Data; & Explicit Hiring Signals. For more on locating passive candidates, check out our white paper on Passive Candidate Identification.

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