Enter: the perfect job candidate.

Responds promptly to your freshly minted job posting. Skills, qualifications and work experience all seem relevant and perfectly tailored to the job description. Personality meshes perfectly with your precise company culture. Presentation is immaculate. Motivated and eager to do whatever is needed of them.

Let us give this candidate the benefit of the doubt, and for a moment, imagine that they are actually a real person (haha). Out of the stack of people who applied for your awesome position, only this candidate shone like a priceless gem. This candidate made the conscious effort to seek you out. This candidate, for whatever motivation, wants to work for you.

Hiring this candidate, however, disregards the other brilliant candidates who are not looking for you.

Does this mean you should ignore them? Does this mean that because another company has already staked a claim to their talent, they are out of the picture forever? Should you really limit your hiring to only those who are currently unemployed and actively job hunting? Are these the best candidates for your job?

Is this the best you can do?

Undercover Recruiter states that 79% of potential candidates aren’t actually engaged in the job hunt. Usually, this is because they are already working, but may be for personal reasons of their own. The fact that they’re currently employed already speaks volumes about their ability.

From that proportion, Jobvite indicates that 61% would be open to a change of employer. Will you be that employer?

Our economic upturn has created a talent war, which means it’s time to get competitive with your recruitment. Passive candidates may be difficult to find and even harder to convince, but worth it in the end.

Does it also help that passive candidates that get hired are more driven and 17% less likely to require skills development? LinkedIn certainly thinks so.

Thankfully, technologies today are making it easier to target your ideal passive candidates. Tools and networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow you to research your candidates and reach out to their networks. The internet allows you to be where your candidates are, rather than forcing them to come to you.

Recruit passive candidates. Don’t limit yourself to what falls in your lap. Like many other motivational speeches, no matter how low or high you sit in the branding battlefield, you should always actively reach out for the best result.

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