Even in economic downturns such as the CoronaVirus Pandemic, cybersecurity employment remains extremely high.  In fact, many companies have had to hire more cybersecurity engineers to enable their employees to work remotely without compromising critical or confidential data.  Since this is such a specialized and technical field, many internal recruiters struggle to properly identify and qualify security candidates.  Therefore, it is common to use specialized search or recruiting firms to bring in the right talent.  However, most search firms only focus on recruiting “Active” or “Passive” candidates.

Energy Sourcing focuses on hiring “Embedded Candidates.”  What’s the difference?

First let’s define “Active” and “Passive” candidates.

Active candidates are people who are actively searching for a position.  They post their resumes to Monster, Career Builder, Dice and other job boards.  Most often Active Candidates are either unemployed or underemployed and searching for a new position or at least for a better position.   Often these candidates have been:

• laid off or fired,
• decided to bail when things get tough,
• can never be satisfied,
• don’t fit in to the company culture,
• do not feel adequately rewarded,
• accept a job that is not the ideal fit because they are running from their current situation,
• or just have no loyalty to their current employer.

Our studies have shown that these ‘Active” candidates have a 400% higher turnover rate and most often fall out within the 1st year of employment.  We find that these people are rarely driving the strategic direction of the company.

Therefore, we classify them as “C” Players.  These “C” Players can easily be replaced and/or recruited.  They are generally not as vital to the success of the firm.  This group makes up about 10-15% of the candidate pool but represent about 80% of the candidates who apply to jobs.

Passive candidates are generally people who are not actively posting their resumes, but have extensive Linkedin profiles.  They typically have their profiles set to “Open to new opportunities” so recruiters can identify them as someone who may be interested in hearing about openings.

Passive Candidates are mildly dissatisfied with their position and will often respond to a recruiter requests out of curiosity.  Most contingent recruiters target these candidates thinking these passive candidates are the “A” players but in reality, those are usually the “B” players.  These candidates still have a higher turnover rate because they are still taking recruiters phone calls and responding to interesting job postings.  Passive candidates make up about another 10%-15% of the candidate pool.

“Most recruiters only target the “Active” and “Passive” candidates which only gives them access to 20-30% of the candidate pool and that candidate pool is made up of mostly “B” and “C” players.” 

Although some people who are vested or invested in a company may never leave that position, that only eliminates about 15% of the candidate pool.  Therefore, how do you get access to  the remaining 55% of the candidate pool?  Many of those are the true “A” players you want to hire.  They don’t ever apply to job postings because they are satisfied in their positions.  They are creating a high value for their employers and the employers are taking care of them as a result.  Those candidates don’t have extensive LinkedIn profiles and many are not even on LinkedIn.  Many of them still get multiple recruiting attempts every day, however, they tune them out.  These are the Embedded Candidates.

Studies show that these Embedded “A” Players can be 2 to 4 times more productive than “B” or “C” players.

Embedded Candidates are extremely difficult to attract.  They won’t respond to contingent recruiters’ calls or emails.  They will only respond to confidential and trusted relationships.  They know they are the “A” Players and highly desired, therefore, to attract them it requires:

• Complete confidentiality,
• a committed or retained search, (not a contingent search)
• domain knowledge,
• direct network connections,
• ego stroking,
• trust built through reputation or over time,
• nurturing of the relationship,
• and a career coaching approach.

Energy Sourcings specialty is attracting these Embedded “A” Players.  We get you access to candidates other recruites can’t reach or attract.  Here’s how:

• Our extensive cybersecurity industry involvement gives us instant credibility and the access to a wide network of security leaders to begin a discussion with them.
• Our deep knowledge of our client’s challenges and opportunities allows us to better target specific candidates who can provide a higher strategic value.
• Our mutually committed partnerships with our clients allows us complete confidentiality and respect that allows “Embedded” candidates to trust our evaluation and opportunity matching process.

So what is an “Embedded Candidate”?   It’s who you want to hire for your next critical position and Energy Sourcing can get you access to those “Embedded” Cybersecurity Experts!

About Tim Howard

Tim Howard is the founder of four tech firms including two Executive Search Firms, Energy Sourcing (www.energysourcing.com) and Fortify Experts (www.fortifyexperts.com) which helps companies find exceptional “Embedded” talent through executive search, permanent placement, and project consultants. 

Tim Howard is also a Certified Birkman Personality Coach which helps company’s develop High Performance Teams by increasing effective communication and reducing personal conflicts.

He has been leading technology staffing teams for over 15 years and is the founder of three other technology firms. He has degrees from Texas A&M University in Industrial Distribution and Marketing.  

Invite me to connect:  www.linkedin.com/in/timhoward