What Rom-Coms Can Teach Us About Hiring Efficiency: Optimizing Candidate Engagement Through Temporal Landmarks

We’ve all seen a rom-com where two people are clearly meant for each other. The audience knows it, the characters know it, and we’re all eagerly waiting for fate to bring them together. But, of course, it never happens at the “right” time. There’s always some obstacle—timing, misunderstanding, or miscommunication—that keeps them apart until they finally connect, sometimes a little too late.

So, What Does This Have to Do With Recruiting?

Surprisingly, this plot plays out daily for talent acquisition professionals, especially when engaging passive candidates—those who aren’t actively looking for a new job but may be open to it. On one hand, there are job seekers who are ready for a change, and on the other, there are opportunities that fit their needs. Yet, doubt and risk often prevent candidates from taking the plunge.

We’re wired to be more concerned with the potential loss of something than motivated by the possibility of gain, a phenomenon explored by psychologists Kahneman and Tversky. This is even more true when it comes to major life decisions like changing jobs.

The Phrase Recruiters Dread: “It’s Just Not the Right Time.”

I once read a quote about sales: “The best salespeople aren’t the ones with the best pitch, the most persistent, or the ones with the best delivery. They’re the ones who can identify customers who are ready to buy.”

In recruiting, the same principle applies. While it’s not that simple, there’s real value in finding candidates who are ready for a change. This can reduce wasted effort on both sides, it can speed up the hiring process, and can lead to a better experience for the candidate as well. So, how do we identify these candidates? We can ask what, where, and how, but the most critical question is likely: When are passive candidates most likely to be ready for a job change?

Focusing on the “When” - Beyond the What, Why, and How

According to Gem, a CRM provider, it can take up to 20 touchpoints to influence a career decision . Nurture strategies are essential for building long-term relationships, but they often lack direction, leading to:

1. Longer recruiting cycles than necessary.
2. A lack of strategic differentiation—most companies have similar nurture strategies.
3. Engagement without purpose—it’s tough to add value for candidates across multiple interactions that don’t have a defined purpose; why are we reaching out again, why now? (staying away from the old familiar…. “just checking in.”)?

So, is it really the influence of the up to 20 touchpoints, or are we just getting lucky by hitting the right moment? It’s likely a combination of both, but this is where temporal landmarks can come into play.

What Are Temporal Landmarks?

Simply put, temporal landmarks are significant points in time that prompt reflection and drive action, change. These can be personal, widely observed, observed by specific pools of talent, and the list is endless.?

For example, when you make an online purchase, you’re often asked for your birthday in exchange for a discount. While this is a nice gesture, marketers know you’re more likely to spend money around your birthday. When they send you an email with a discount code a few weeks before your birthday, the timing is purposeful and often leads to a positive response.

Another general example comes from marathons. According to Daniel Pink’s book, When, marathons are overrepresented by “nine-enders”—people whose ages end in a “9.” For instance, 49-year-olds are three times more likely to run a marathon than 50-year-olds. Why? Temporal landmarks like approaching a milestone birthday prompt reflection and action.

Leveraging Temporal Landmarks to Improve Hiring Efficiency

The use of temporal landmarks has long been common in marketing and sales. Now, with more self-reported data available in recruiting, we can apply the same concepts. The big challenge is no longer in finding candidates, because most people are on social and professional networking platforms, but knowing when to engage them is where it gets complex, and costly.

In recruiting, the exploration of temporal landmarks is infinite. Here are three key categories that can help start your exploration:

1. General Population (Genpop) Landmarks:

These are landmarks that affect the labor force as a whole. For example, January through March are the busiest months for job changes. Leading up to the end of year, people have time to reflect and set new goals, making them more open to career changes. Ironically, many companies slow down or halt hiring during this period which could be a missed opportunity. Lower hiring demand, coupled with higher motivation among candidates, makes the lead up to the end of the year a prime time to engage passive talent. However, that may never happen if intuition leads one to think that engagement should align with their company’s hiring demand. The paradigm shift here is to align our engagement with candidate readiness rather than demand. If the hiring demand isn’t there, a well timed message with a positive response may still lead to a more successful nurture.?

2. Industry-Specific Landmarks:

In the tech industry, there are predictable annual events that drive talent movement. For example, performance reviews and bonus cycles typically occur at the end of the first quarter of the year, and many workers change jobs after receiving their bonuses. While year-end cycles are the most prominent, companies often have multiple performance cycles which predictably have the same effect. There’s quite a bit of exploration to be had at the industry level, researching and anticipating these patterns can shorten recruiting cycles and improve engagement.

3. Functional Landmarks:

This is where things get really interesting. Functional landmarks are specific to job roles, such as software engineers or product managers. Cultural norms can vary significantly by function and region, and identifying these patterns can help you engage candidates at the right time. For instance, software engineers might have different average tenure lengths based on seniority and geography, compared to product managers or other functions. Understanding these functional ‘norms’ allows recruiters to time their outreach more effectively to the target audience.

In Summary:

Just like in a rom-com, timing is everything when it comes to recruiting passive talent. Temporal landmarks give recruiters the ability to identify the perfect moment for making that all-important connection.

But here’s the key: much like how rom-com characters eventually realize the importance of timing, recruiters can’t just depend on gut instinct or one-off opportunities. By identifying broader temporal patterns, testing those patterns, and if they exceed your engagement benchmarks, building them into a central engagement strategy, you’ll create a consistent framework that helps you connect with candidates when they’re most receptive.

So don’t let your recruitment story mirror the rom-com couple that takes forever to get it right—start using temporal landmarks to ensure you’re connecting at the optimal moment. With a bit of research, you'll craft a recruiting engagement process that moves efficiently and creates that "happily ever after" for your hiring team and candidates alike.