Traditional Recruiting vs. Active Sourcing: External Job Posting Still Dominates (Q1 2022)
The special questions for the first quarter of 2022 revolved around companies’ recruiting process: Which recruiting tools do companies use when looking for new employees and how much importance do companies attach to active search and to directly approaching potential candidates? In addition, the questions throw light on the role these tools play in the search for new trainees and on the extent to which companies apply a diversity strategy when filling new positions.
Traditional Recruiting Still Dominant
External job advertisements in online and print media remain the most dominant instrument for advertising vacancies. Of the HR managers surveyed, 84 percent consider these to be of high to medium importance in their company. Germany’s Federal Employment Agency comes a distant second as a channel, with a total of 44 percent giving it high to medium importance. In-house job advertisements are not used at all by around one- third of the companies surveyed, and only 40 percent consider them to be of medium-high importance. The services of a recruitment agency are used mainly by industrial companies and large companies with 250 or more employees. Across all economic sectors and company sizes, 39 percent of participating companies do not use these services. Of those that do use them, 32 percent attribute a low and 29 percent a medium to high importance to this instrument. Active sourcing – where companies actively search for and approach potential candidates – does not seem to be widespread yet: 35 percent of participating companies do not use this instrument, while for 27 percent it plays only a low and for 38 percent a high or medium role. Again, this option is used more in large companies.
Active Recruiting Differs Depending on the Target Group
Active recruiting presents various opportunities. Particular attention is paid to the network of employees, whose recommendations are considered to be of high or medium importance by 47 percent and 30 percent of HR managers respectively. Social media channels such as Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram are some distance behind as tools for active recruiting. Career platforms such as Xing or LinkedIn are considered somewhat less important (13 percent high and 21 percent medium importance) for actively approaching future personnel. Partnerships with universities and schools are maintained to roughly the same extent as career networks, but according to the HR managers, these partnerships are of somewhat lesser importance. Career fairs are slightly behind in last place as a way to recruit candidates (57 percent of respondents do not use this tool at all), probably due to the past few pandemic years and the associated restrictions on physical contact.
Hardly Any Diversity Strategies when Filling Vacancies
Diversity stands for multiplicity and variety. In human resources management, this has given rise to diversity management. It accepts and cultivates the diverse skills and characteristics of employees in order to turn appreciation into positive added value for the company. In three-quarters of the HR departments surveyed, there is no statement of intent to promote diversity when filling open positions; 9 percent of companies have such a statement and 8 percent plan to have one. A comparison of company sizes shows that a diversity strategy is used more frequently as the number of employees increases. Especially in the size class 250–499 employees, the future use of such a strategy is on the agenda (17 percent). For those companies that have an explicit strategy, nationality and gender are the two most frequently cited criteria. Age and inclusion follow in third and fourth place. Religion and ideology, social origin, and sexual orientation are in the background, presumably also because these characteristics are not immediately tangible and ascertainable in comparison with the first aspects mentioned.
