Your organisation has a vacancy to fill, so picture for a moment every single person out there who has the skills, experience, location and personality, all standing in a room. Does it surprise you that only 30% of the people in that room are actively looking for a job? So, if all you do to recruit is post an advert and see who applies, you'll miss out on up to 70% of potential candidates.

This is the importance of market mapping in talent acquisition: it allows you to tap into an enormous pool of passive candidates to significantly improve the results you get from the recruitment process.

So, how does market mapping work and how can you experience the benefits of it yourself?

In our latest blog, we're laying out how market mapping can help you identify top talent that isn't in the proactive market (and your competitors know nothing about).

What is market mapping?

Market mapping is the exercise of sourcing potential candidates who aren't looking for a new role but are open to a conversation if the right opportunity comes along.

These are known as passive candidates.

This is opposed to active candidates, who are proactive in applying for jobs and attending interviews.

Research by LinkedIn in 2015 revealed up to 70% of potential candidates for any given job are classed as passive candidates.

Therefore, tapping into this much wider pool using market mapping allows you to improve your hiring process and overcome some of the recruitment challenges you might face to find the right candidate.

Pie chart showing the divide of suitable candidates for any given role - 30% are active (looking for a new job) and 70% are passive (not looking for a new job).

What are the benefits of market mapping passive candidates?

There are huge advantages to the talent mapping process - here are just a few to consider.

It's much less competitive

Wooing active candidates can be a competitive game, whereas passive candidates are an untapped audience your competitor often knows nothing about - you have exclusive access to them.

Active candidates tend to have multiple irons in the fire so they can afford to be choosy. They're out there applying for jobs, attending interviews and weighing up their options.

So, even if you get to the stage of wanting to make an offer, they may well have other opportunities to choose between so they're harder to pin down and secure - the reason 39% of candidates turn down an offer is because they accepted another.

Passive candidates are arguably higher quality than active jobseekers

Often, the highest quality candidates are the ones who have their heads down working within a company, focused on their job and engaged with their work.

But just because they're not looking, it doesn't mean they're not open - research shows up to 87% of that passive pool is happy to have a no-pressure conversation about a new opportunity.

Unlike active candidates, they're not desperate to escape their current workplace, so they're likely to make more strategic decisions, give it their best and stay for longer, which leads to higher engagement and retention rates for you.

Passive candidates can be more upfront and clear

Similarly, passive candidates are less likely to inflate their skills, exaggerate experience and overplay their achievements in a bid to impress. Plus, they will likely be transparent about what it would take for them to leave their current role, giving you a clear idea of what you have to work with.

This adds up to a more straightforward and honest candidate experience compared to active candidates, who may have lots going on and several recruitment-related plates to spin.

How important is market mapping in recruitment?

By now, you should be realising the value of market mapping to uncover those untapped candidates.

If you don't have a passive candidate strategy in your hiring process, you really are missing out on a huge pool of really strong options who aren't in the job process for anyone else, have no other offers to compete with and no-one else knows about them.

How do you conduct a mapping process of the recruitment market?

In the past, headhunters would've done this by attending networking events, cold calling people up at their desk and doing some covert work to understand who's out there.

And while that does still happen to an extent, there are lots more tools available today to help us map the market.

The most obvious - and most common - market mapping tool now is LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has loads of tools to help you map the current market. You can use its executive search functionality to search for the job title and location, then connect with and reach out to relevant people to see if they’re interested.

The downside of this is that it's time-consuming and you'll likely be knocked back and ghosted regularly.

However, the time and rejections pale into insignificance when a strong candidate bites and you remind yourself you'd never have found them via a simple job ad posting process.

the main ways to market map:

LinkedIn
Networking
Searching relevant events with attendee lists and job titles
Sourcing old CVs from jobs boards.

Whichever approach you use, we believe it's imperative a passive candidate strategy is part of your recruitment strategy in order to attract the best talent.

Advantages of using a specialist recruitment expert to identify the best talent

So, what are the advantages of using a recruiter to conduct market mapping for you?

Tap into ready-made talent pools

A really good recruiter is market mapping constantly and building talent pools of passive candidates to build a network that's completely unique to them (and recorded in a quality way that's GDPR compliant).

When you work with an agency on a contingent basis, you get to tap into this network and they will evaluate who is a good fit for you then contact them on your behalf.

This creates a shortlist you wouldn't have found by either just advertising for the role yourself or working with surface level, transactional recruitment companies who rely on job ads only to find their candidates.

Understand market trends

Recruiters are plugged into the state of recruitment and employment and will give you insightful information and advice to improve how you hire.

As a hiring manager, this helps you understand the market better, make informed decisions, and adapt your approach to recruitment so you can attract top talent in every type of type of market.

Access competitor insights

Finally, a great recruitment agency has a good steer on what your competitors are doing to hire and retain the best people.

If you choose to work with an agency like ours on a more consultative basis to solve your hiring needs, we'll conduct a competitor analysis and help you build hiring strategies encompassing market mapping and passive candidate identification to uncover top tier candidates to meet - and often exceed - your business goals.

Outsource the talent mapping process to recruit better candidates

Companies are increasingly realising the key role mapping plays in securing excellent employees in a candidate-driven jobs market.

Outsourcing this process to an expert ensures you see top tier talent whilst freeing you up to focus on what you're best at.

At Cummins Mellor, we work in partnership with ambitious clients delivering tailored recruitment solutions to meet their specific needs. Market mapping is a process we undertake for a variety of businesses to create a pool of candidates of the highest quality to support their business success.

Are you ready to tap into a bigger and more diverse talent pool of high-quality candidates who play a key role in your success? Whether you're looking to fill a single vacancy right now or searching for the right partner to support your future hiring needs, we'd love to talk. Get in touch here.

How To Access 70% More Candidates By Market Mapping In Recruitment