New Dice.com Functionality Identifies More Passive Candidates

by Paula Santonocito

Dice.com, a leading job board for technology professionals, recently introduced a new functionality that allows recruiters to better target passive candidates.

Dice has split its database between active and passive candidates, essentially creating separate categories of candidates recruiters can search.

The passive database consists of candidates who posted or updated their resumes more than a year ago. Under the previous system, because the majority of searches were aimed at candidates who had posted or updated their resumes in the last 90 days, recruiters missed many of these candidates.

The Dice search mechanism is identical for both active and passive candidates. Recruiters can search for candidates in either category by skills, keywords, and geography. What's more, recruiters and hiring managers only have to enter search terms once, on the active or passive tab, and can then toggle between the databases to see relevant candidates.

The company indicates that the feature has highlighted hundreds of thousands of passive candidates by prompting recruiters to search the full Dice community.

"This new functionality was an elegant solution to an entrenched customer behavior that wasn't allowing the full value of the Dice community to be reviewed," says Tom Silver, senior vice president of North America for Dice.com. "Most importantly, recruiters are contacting candidates through our service which they may not have found otherwise. That's a real positive for technology professionals and customers alike."

Recruiters are already benefiting from the site's enhancement.

"The passive search feature for Dice.com is totally on point for the way I recruit candidates," says Christina Gonzalez, senior staffing consultant for ELEVI Associates. "I always start my search at the back, looking for candidates that have been members for the longest. This new feature allows me to look at the two sides of the coin for recruiting, passive and active candidates, at the same time."