--- title: How to Find Employees Who Aren't Looking description: Reaching passive candidates can be critical for hard-to-fill roles. Here’s how to find the right people — even when they aren’t looking. authors: - name: Aly J. Yale role: Contributing Reporter url: https://money.com/author/aly-j-yale/ bio: Aly J. Yale is a freelance finance journalist with deep experience covering mortgages, real estate and the housing market, as well as investing, lending and retirement topics. She has paid off her student loans, bought two houses, and traveled to seven different countries with her two young sons all through smart money management. For Money, she has researched and written many best of rankings in the housing and mortgage space, including reverse mortgages, VA loans and home equity. Her work in The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Experian, Fortune, Business Insider, CBS and Money.com. education: Texas Christian University at_money_since: 2020 articles: 105 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement also_seen_in: - The Wall Street Journal - Business Insider - Yahoo Finance - US News & World Report - CBS social: - https://twitter.com/AlyJwriter - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyjyale/ editors: - name: Kristen Bahler role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/ bio: Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. Today, she leads Money's sponsored content channel and reader-favorite franchises like Best Places to Live and Best Places to Travel. education: Northeastern University, MA Journalism at_money_since: 2016 articles: 52 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-bahler/ published: '2026-10-21T15:53:20.000Z' modified: '2026-10-21T15:54:16.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - Sponsored word_count: 817 canonical: https://money.com/how-to-find-employees-who-arent-looking/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Two women talking in a conference room](https://img.money.com/2026/06/Explainer-Find-Employees.jpg) Sponsored by: ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/38927/8f334eaa-2b28-461f-a50b-13ef98388953.webp) Hiring? Try ZipRecruiter, and fill roles faster. [Go to ZipRecruiter.com](https://money.com/pr/vbf59b9cfb31?ap_referrer=%2Fhow-to-find-employees-who-arent-looking%2F&apxa1=homepage) ## Key Takeaways - Finding passive candidates often means looking beyond applications. Job boards, professional networks and employee referrals can all help surface qualified people. - Employee referrals can help you reach strong candidates who might never come across your job posting on their own. - When you reach out, focus on what makes the open role worth considering. In ZipRecruiter’s latest Survey of New Hires, 50% of new hires cited higher pay and 42% cited better benefits as factors in accepting their offer. Some jobs are harder to fill than others. Maybe the role calls for a unique mix of technical expertise and industry knowledge. Or the qualifications are so specific that only a narrow slice of the workforce fits the bill. For these positions, companies often have to broaden their search to include well-qualified workers who aren’t actively looking for a new job. Recruiting experts call these people “passive candidates,” and say reaching them can be critical to finding the right fit for hard-to-fill roles. The approach isn’t new. Trent Cotton, head of talent insights at recruiting software company ICIMS, says traditional headhunting was largely built around persuading people who weren’t actively searching to start looking. But these days, he says, “the threshold for leaving a ‘good enough’ job is higher.” Here’s how to find the right people — even when they aren’t looking. ## Build relationships before you need to hire One of the best ways to reach off-market employees is through an existing connection. That means showing up where talented people in your industry already gather — conferences, networking events and other professional circles. “The companies that build these relationships before they have an opening tend to be the ones who get the first access to the top-tier folks,” says Joel Marotti, senior managing partner at career coaching firm Vertical Media Solutions. Providing valuable insights and content for your industry — reports, studies, trend commentary or local market updates, for example — can also be a good way to build a foundation with top talent. It showcases your brand’s knowledge and expertise while keeping the company top of mind with industry participants. “Showing up as an employer who contributes to the conversation … builds a presence that makes people come to you,” Marotti says. ## Use hiring platforms that match employers with talent A job posting can only do so much, especially when the people you most want to reach aren’t actively searching. Sometimes, the smarter move is to go looking for candidates yourself. Many job boards now include searchable candidate databases, which let employers filter by title, skills, experience or location and reach out directly. Some platforms also use matching technology to identify potential candidates and invite them to apply. [ZipRecruiter](https://money.com/pr/u942fc16e3b9?data-trk-company=ziprecruiter-job-search-site-review&data-trk-imp=true&data-trk-pcu-type=direct_link&data-trk-pcu-uuid=u942fc16e3b9&encoded_id=&apxa1=homepage), for one, offers both proactive outreach tools and automated matching features. Employers can also use professional networks like LinkedIn to identify people with relevant backgrounds, including those who aren't actively job hunting. The point isn’t to replace the job listing entirely, but to widen the pool beyond the candidates who just happen to come across it. A live job posting can actually make those conversations a little easier, since it gives someone you contact a quick way to size up the role, pay and responsibilities before deciding whether the conversation is worth having. ## Personalize your outreach When you find someone you’d like to contact, skip the cookie-cutter message. Think of it as a cover letter in reverse: Mention their work, explain why you’re reaching out and make it clear why you think they could be a fit. Carry that same tone into the first conversation, too. Instead of jumping straight into a pitch, ask what they like about their current role, what they wish were different and what they’re looking for next. Odds are, pay and benefits are a part of the answer. In ZipRecruiter’s Q2 2026 [New Hire Survey](https://www.ziprecruiter-research.org/economic-insights-research/new-hire-survey-2026-q2), 50% of new hires said higher pay factored into accepting their offer, and 42% cited better benefits. Finding out what matters most to a particular person can help you focus the conversation on what could genuinely make a move worthwhile. “A passive candidate doesn't have a job problem; they're employed,” Marotti says. “What they have is a ‘something is missing’ problem … so the first conversation cannot be a pitch. It has to be a genuine question. What would have to be true about your next role for you to even consider it?” ## Make it easy for employees to refer candidates Current employees have industry connections of their own, and because they know the company firsthand, they’ll be able to recommend people who are a good fit beyond what’s listed on a résumé. To encourage more referrals, many companies have incentive programs with cash bonuses, extra PTO and other rewards for recommendations that lead to full-time hires. If you go this route, be sure to give people a simple way to share job postings or submit someone’s information. A short list of priority openings, shared internally on a regular basis, can help those postings travel further and reach people who might not otherwise see them. “In terms of how these not-actively-looking workers usually find the new job, it’s almost always through trusted channels rather than formal search,” Cotton says. ## FAQs ### Why is it so hard to find employees right now? Many strong candidates are already employed, and in today’s low-turnover job market, more workers are staying put rather than looking for their next move. And once people land somewhere, they tend to stop hunting: 56.5% of new hires polled by ZipRecruiter in Q4 2025 said they stopped actively job searching after starting their current role. ### How do companies find employees without recruiters? Most handle recruiting in-house, using job boards, online candidate search tools, professional networks and employee referrals to find potential hires. ### How do I find employees without spending a lot of money? Finding passive candidates doesn't have to cost much, though some resources, like candidate databases, do require a paid subscription. Employee referral bonuses are another potential expense, but typically only pay out when someone is hired. ### How much should an employee referral bonus be? Typical amounts range from a gift card for easy-to-fill jobs to several thousand dollars for specialized ones. Many companies split the payout: half at hire, half once the referral reaches six months. [The 5 Best Job Search Sites](https://money.com/best-job-search-sites/) [Hiring? Here's What to Look for in a Resume](https://money.com/what-to-look-for-in-a-resume-when-hiring/) [How to Optimize a Job Posting to Attract Quality Candidates](https://money.com/how-to-post-a-job-online/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/how-to-find-employees-who-arent-looking/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/how-to-find-employees-who-arent-looking/", "name": "How to Find Employees Who Aren't Looking", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2026-10-21T15:53:20.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/how-to-find-employees-who-arent-looking/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2026-10-21T15:54:16.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "How to Find Employees Who Aren't Looking", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2026/06/Explainer-Find-Employees.jpg", "width": 2244, "height": 1496, "caption": "Explainer-Find-Employees" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Aly J. 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