Hidden recruitment, social media, headhunting and employee recommendations – these are ways of searching for talent that are useful to companies when traditional job advertisements are no longer sufficient. We checked which methods are effective in the fight for the most valued specialists – especially those who are not looking for a job.
Although traditional job advertisements have not disappeared and are still an important recruitment tool, they are increasingly just one element of a talent acquisition strategy. In conditions of increasingly stronger competition for employees, companies use alternative channels to attract specialists. According to HR experts' estimates, hidden recruitment, i.e. carried out without publishing an open advertisement, may be responsible for 30-80 percent. all recruitments depending on the industry.
Some candidates are “hidden”
In many industries, the ideal candidate, especially one with extensive experience, is not actively looking for a new job. Tabout the so-called passive candidates. They are the ones who often do not respond to ads, even if they see them. Therefore, traditional methods of reaching may be insufficient.
According to Anna Pietraszko, Director of Consulting, HR and Training Projects at the Progres Group, companies want to invest only in specialists and experts in their fields who are able to bring real added value, develop the business and support the implementation of strategic goals.
– Unfortunately, the best specialists rarely actively look for new challenges. These are people who are fully committed to their current work and successfully pursue their goals in other organizations. They do not visit job portals, which is why traditional recruitment channels simply do not cover them, says Anna Pietraszko, Bankier.pl.
Advertisements reach only a few?
Traditional job advertisements are only effective in the case of candidates actively looking for employment, and according to Randstad research, they constitute only 10 to 12 percent. professionally active population.
– This is, of course, the simplest and shortest way to reach people who have already decided to change. However, to be sure of access to the best specialists, employers must use methods that reach a much wider group, i.e. passive candidates who are not actively looking for a job, but are open to interesting prospects – says Mateusz Żydek, labor market expert at the Randstad Research Institute, to Bankier.pl. – That's why
companies are increasingly deciding to use recruitment activities in social media or headhunting. The choice of these methods is dictated by the need to be where candidates are every day.
Social media rules
According to Mateusz Żydek, although Linkedin is crucial for specialists, employers are also increasingly bold in using Facebook, and even Instagram and TikTokespecially to reach younger generations. Randstad research shows that as many as 39 percent actively looking for a job do it on social media, and the popularity of Facebook (84% of responses among people using social media to look for a job) and TikTok (32% of responses) as job search tools is growing.
In turn, the Staffly report “Recruitment Market in Poland 2025” shows that 49 percent companies use platforms such as LinkedIn in the recruitment process, and as many as 32 percent engages headhunting agencieswhose advantage is access to ready-made candidate databases and the ability to conduct permanent relationship activities.
– This type of approach is particularly popular in industries that are looking for specialists with unique skills such as IT, marketing or sales – says Filip Sobel, founder and CEO of Staffly, to Bankier.pl. – Headhunting agencies act as a filter, providing employers with precisely matched people, which allows for more effective talent acquisition. Using such recruitment sources is also more effective for companies that are looking for leaders, senior managers, or experts in narrow specializations.
Headhunters can be effective
It turns out that more and more companies use the services of recruitment agencies. The scale of the phenomenon is shown by data from the Polish HR Forum, which shows that its member agencies generated approximately PLN 294.7 million in turnover in recruitment services for Polish employers in 2023.
– It's not just about publishing announcements. Our advantage is a wide database of candidates and know-how on how to reach people who are not considering changing their job at all – says Agnieszka Kukier, recruiter at Smart Solutions HR, to Bankier.pl. – Thanks to this, the recruitment process is effective and the matching of candidates to the position and company culture is much better. Agencies support recruitment in industries where there is the greatest shortage of specialists: engineers in technology and industry, salespeople in niche sectors or data analysts with experience in tools such as Python, Power BI or SQL. We combine various methods: active search in professional networks, contact with passive candidates, preliminary interviews and selections, and various types of personality tests. This allows companies to find the right employee faster than when looking for them on their own, and the risk of wrong employment is reduced to a minimum.
Dearly? Not necessarily
According to Anna Pietraszko, still There is a myth that agency support generates high costs.
– It may seem so at first glance, but the perspective changes if we take into account all paid, modern tools, channels and campaigns thanks to which we are able to reach the best candidates – says the representative of the Progres Group. – From my point of view the key cost for the employer is the lost benefits resulting from long-term, ineffective recruitment processes that can last for months. They far exceed the amounts that companies employing HR agencies invest in effectively finding candidates who actually meet the organization's expectations.
Whisper to me…
According to Mateusz Żydek, However, the most effective and long-term action remains building employer brand awarenesswhich becomes the basis for word-of-mouth marketing.
– These activities build the feeling that you would like to work for a given company. Although this does not bring immediate results, this awareness means that a candidate who is ready to change his job directs his first steps to an employer perceived as attractive. This is crucial in the face of growing competition, because even among people actively looking for employment, job portals have a lot of competition. As much as 29 percent of them look for work on specialized social networking sites, such as LinkedIn and there the candidate often starts by looking at employment opportunities in preferred companies – says Mateusz Żydek.
The company must show itself in a good light
Also, according to Agnieszka Kukier, regularly publishing content on social media, presenting organizational culture or showing the life of the company helps attract the attention of potential candidates who follow the brand and are interested in working in a friendly environment.
– Well-maintained company profiles can attract people who are not actively looking for a job, but observe the market and are interested in offers from interesting employers – says the representative of Smart Solutions HR. – Job fairs and industry events also remain popular. Despite the growing number of such events, the effectiveness in recruiting candidates with narrow competence profiles is still limited.
Will AI send you job offers?
According to the Randstad expert, changes in recruitment are also a sign of the times and generational issues.
– Just like For millennials, advertising newspapers are something little known, even archaic, but for today's Zeteks, advertising portals may be passé, and mobile applications and new social media are becoming a natural place to look for employment.that are audiovisually attractive and communicatively adapted – says Mateusz Żydek. – This forces employers to diversify channels and stop relying solely on one traditional one. We will soon enter the next phase of these technological and preferential changes, because AI giants are planning to launch services that, thanks to AI will provide us with suitable job offers based on prompts. And it's also a sign of the times – he adds.
When job advertisements do not attract talent
Tools that are increasingly ahead of job advertisements include:
- headhunting – professional recruiters actively look for candidates (even from competitors) and contact them without informing the entire labor market,
- direct recruitment – a company or agency identifies candidates (e.g. via LinkedIn, industry contacts) and invites them for an interview, often without prior publication of the offer,
- outsourcing – the company transfers part or the entire recruitment process to a specialized partner,
- use of contact networks and networking – invitations to cooperation through current industry contacts, employee recommendations, participation in conferences and professional events.
- social media and active recruitment communication – LinkedIn, specialist groups, employer branding in social media.
