The great talent grab: More people who recently switched jobs say they were approached by a recruiter instead of applying themselves

The job market may be tighter than it used to be, but the war for talent isn’t over, and HR teams have a new challenge to deal with: other businesses aggressively courting their staffers.

A growing share of people who switched jobs in the last six months say they were actually recruited by another company, according to a recent survey by ZipRecruiter of more than 1,500 employed adults in the U.S. Around 46% of new hires polled in the first quarter of this year say they were recruited to their jobs instead of applying themselves, up from 34% who reported the same during the fourth quarter of 2023. In some cases, they were approached because they signaled on job platforms like LinkedIn that they were open to being contacted for a new job. 

“As the talent acquisition landscape evolves, we’re witnessing a significant shift where proactive recruitment by employers is becoming the norm,” Amy Garefis, ZipRecruiter’s chief people officer, told Fortune in an email interview.

But it’s not all good news for workers. Employees as a whole are having more difficulty finding a position on their own as the job-hunting process gets longer. Only 46% of people surveyed by ZipRecruiter in the first quarter of 2024 who recently started a new job said they found their role in under one month, a steep drop from 60% of job switchers who reported the same last quarter.

The financial services, advertising and marketing, real estate, insurance, and professional and business services industries are most likely to actively recruit talent, according to an aggregate of ZipRecruiter’s new hire surveys from the fourth quarter of 2022 through the first quarter of 2024. At least 50% of new hires in each of these industries said they were recruited. Meanwhile, utilities, food services, retail, and manufacturing saw the lowest rates of active recruiting, and less than 5% of new hires in these sectors said they were approached about their roles.

Some companies are trying to entice workers to stay by giving them a larger salary. Around 24% of new hires polled by ZipRecruiter said they received a counter-offer from their previous employer when they announced they were leaving for a new gig, up from 21% in the fourth quarter of last year.

But other firms are taking a more hardline approach. For example, KPMG implemented a policy in September that would slash partners’ pay by 50% during their “garden leave,” a period when an employee is in the process of leaving a company but no longer has to work.

Garefis warns HR teams must put in the effort to quickly build quality connections with both employees and candidates if they want to retain the talent they have while also staying competitive among job applicants.

“In a world where candidates have hundreds of job postings at their fingertips in seconds, HR leaders have to adopt strategies and technologies to build a human connection with top talent quickly,” she says. “Whether it’s to stand out from other companies hiring for similar roles or to get a position filled quickly, a person-to-person connection at the start of what can be a daunting process for job seekers can make all the difference.”

Paige McGlauflin
paige.mcglauflin@fortune.com
@paidion

Today’s edition was curated by Emma Burleigh.

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