You have vacancies open. You post them on LinkedIn. You put them on job boards. You run a campaign.
And yet it remains silent.
Maybe some will still come in, but not enough. Or not the right quality. And meanwhile, time ticks by. Teams are running on the tips of their toes. Hiring managers get frustrated. Recruitment feels like pulling on a dead horse.
If this is recognisable, chances are your recruitment is stagnating. Not because your organisation is not interesting, but because the job market has fundamentally changed.
And honestly: many organisations are still recruiting with a strategy that worked fine five years ago. Just not anymore.
If your recruitment is stagnating, you're not the only one
The tightness is structural. CBS shows that the Netherlands has been struggling with a situation where the number of open vacancies is high while the number of unemployed remains relatively low for some time. This simply means: there is more demand than supply.
In such a market, recruitment does not become a sum of "more places, more budget, more reach". It becomes a game of attention, trust and timing.
The real cause: you are fishing in the same small pond
Many organisations still focus mainly on active job seekers. These are people who are already applying for jobs. The group is just smaller than you think.
According to Intelligence Group, about 12% of the workforce is actively looking. But 43% are latent job seekers. These are people who are not applying for jobs but are open to a better move when it comes along.
And that is exactly where the rub lies.
If your recruitment is stagnant, chances are you are communicating mainly for those 12%. While you barely touch most of the market.
Signs that your recruitment is stagnating
Sometimes it feels like a coincidence at first. Until you see patterns. These are signals we often see again:
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You get fewer responses than last year at the same position
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You get more just not candidates, making selection take longer
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Your job posting is longer, including at functions that were once "easy"
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Your advertising costs run out, while the result remains the same
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Your process becomes increasingly accelerated, but the problem persists
If you recognise this, then working harder usually does not help. Then a different approach is needed.
Why classic recruitment is yielding less and less
When recruitment stagnates, the reflex is often logical:
more visibility, more jobs, more budget.
But that only addresses the symptom.
The real problem is actively seeking candidates:
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be contacted more often
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have more choice
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drop out faster
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Being more critical of promise versus reality
You are competing not just with other job offers, but with all the stimuli a person gets on their screen every day. And yes, also with that one colleague who says, "If you ever want something different..."
In short: you don't win by sending harder. You win by being more relevant.
From job push to talent activation
Latent jobseekers are not waiting for a job posting. They are not looking. They are busy with their work, their lives, their plans.
But they do move when they see something that touches:
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growth and development
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energy and job satisfaction
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a better team or culture
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meaning and impact
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flexibility and balance
That's what activation does: you get people to recognise themselves in your story, even before they have decided to leave.
And that is exactly why activation is so powerful when your recruitment is stagnant.
What does work when your recruitment is stagnant?
These are three building blocks that make the difference in practice:
1) Build visibility before you feel urgency
Recruiting the moment you get into trouble is often too late.
Organisations that do it smartly continuously build recognition. So that talent already knows you the moment they are open to something new.
2) Let employees tell the story
People trust people.
Employee stories establish credibility and give a realistic picture of what it is like to work for you. That triggers latent talent faster than a job posting ever can.
3) Create content that invites, not pushes
Not everything has to be "apply now".
Show what people can expect with you. Think about projects, growth, atmosphere, leadership, team dynamics, development. This is how you turn attention into a relationship.
Want to make this concrete for your organisation?
If you feel your recruitment is stagnating, the next question is: how do you activate latent talent in a way that suits your sector, your functions and your people?
Do you recognise this? Then it's time not just to recruit, but to activate. Because most candidates are not actively searching, but rather watching. In the whitepaper "Recruit 4x more candidates by activating latent jobseekers" read exactly how to get that group moving, without shouting louder or increasing your budget.
In this whitepaper you will read, among other things:
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how the latent target group is put together
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which triggers really work
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how to build activation smartly
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and how to move from outreach to applications
Download the (free) white paper here:
https://goals.nl/whitepapers/latent_werkzoekenden/
In conclusion
If you recruitment stagnates, that is not a sign that your organisation is not attractive. It is a sign that your strategy is out of sync with how people choose today.
Not by shouting louder. But by activating smarter. And that is precisely where your biggest growth lies.
