Recruitment – do the right candidates respond?

How likely is it that suitable candidates will respond themselves using only public recruitment channels? It is difficult to give a clear answer, as there are many variables and employers do not always give the same attention to public recruitment. The success of public recruitment depends on:

1. The attractiveness of the job offer – the content of the job offer, the clarity of the requirements and responsibilities, the communication of the value proposition, etc.
2. The public recruitment channels used – how many and how popular public recruitment channels are used and whether there is investment in good communication of the employer’s offer.
3. The level of the position sought and the number of suitable candidates in the market – whether the position sought is rare in the market, whether the requirements are narrow, whether the position sought is in deficit and is particularly actively sought by employers.
4. Employer attractiveness – the value created by the employer’s image in attracting candidates, or what reputation the employer has and whether it helps to attract candidates in recruitment.

In any case, even if you have pluses in all of the above categories, it is worth bearing in mind that by using only public recruitment channels, you are engaging in passive recruitment. What does this mean? In very simple terms, you are only recruiting from candidates who are actively looking for work. Unfortunately, it is very rarely the case that there are enough of these candidates, and even rarer that they are of sufficient quality for the employer to conclude the recruitment process by hiring the right candidate.

What should be done then? Can recruitment developed only through public channels be called recruitment at all?

Theoretically, yes, because this type of recruitment is also called recruitment. In any case, in practical terms, this kind of recruitment process is of low quality, has no clear duration, does not attract the best candidates, and is designed only for the lowest level of recruitment. The right professionals and managers are not the ones who are constantly looking on job search portals or linkedin job boards. They are simply not reached by public recruitment. Of course, there is always a small chance that public recruitment will achieve the right result, but the probability is small and, crucially, not predictable in time.

The only advantage of public recruitment is that it is less costly than a headhunt, but there are hidden risks here too. Ineffective public recruitment may have to be repeated several times, at extra cost. The end result is a scenario where an ineffective and lengthy public recruitment process has cost more than a headhunt.

Public channels – a good additional recruitment method?

This is exactly how public recruitment channels should be seen. If the rule is that public recruitment channels are only used in conjunction with headhunting, then they become a great complementary channel for attracting candidates. In this case, public recruitment attracts all the candidates looking for a job, while headhunting provides all the best candidates that can be found on the labour market. If confidentiality is important to the employer, public recruitment should be avoided altogether, as it will only create more risks than potential benefits.

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