Attracting Talent in a Competitive World: Best Practices for 2025

The 2025 job market is characterized by diverse, if not contradictory, trends, with mass layoffs in some areas and dire talent shortages in others. The polarity is primarily caused by the mass adoption of AI, which has rendered some jobs obsolete while simultaneously creating a skills gap in areas that require human creativity coupled with an understanding of new technologies. Global talent shortages have been especially noticeable in tech, finance, and healthcare, but other spheres have also been affected. 
According to a 2024 employer survey from Manpower Group, 75% of respondents across 41 countries admitted talent shortages in many critical roles. Compared with 2014, when roughly a third of employers had difficulty finding the best talent, this is a huge increase – and the competition for skilled professionals keeps growing. So, how do you find the best talent in such a competitive landscape? Below are the best practices to consider. 

Start with passive candidates

Since roughly 70% of the global talent pool are passive candidates, it makes sense to explore this resource first. Besides constituting such a large share of the global workforce, passive candidates often possess the skills and experience necessary for specific job openings, which gives them a competitive advantage over active job seekers. However, it also makes them more challenging to attract because, from their already secure professional and financial position, passive candidates can afford to be picky with their choice of employers.
Here, personal communication is the recruiter’s best, if not only, shot – especially when dealing with people outside their established networks. If the current connection circle does not include any suitable candidates, LinkedIn is the place to go. But, while this network can help connect with hundreds of great professionals worldwide, it tends to be a bit slow sometimes – sending a connection request and waiting for a response alone can take more time than recruiters can spare, especially if the professional does not spend too much time online or registered with an old, barely used email. 
If that’s the case, a LinkedIn email finder can pull relevant contact data, even when it’s not directly available in the account section, significantly speeding up this process. However, when contacting a stranger over an email, recruiters should do their best to create a compelling job pitch. It has to be short, to the point, and professional while highlighting the benefits of a job and inspiring trust for further communication. 

Tailor job ads to ideal applicants 

Even though passive candidates are such a valuable recruiting resource, it’s unwise to ignore active job seekers. Of course, there are a few tricks to engaging those, too. Just like a marketer will consider the target audience before running an ad, recruiters should have a clear picture of an ideal candidate when crafting a job posting. Here, it is important to consider not only the skills and experiences but also the mindsets that make job seekers a good cultural fit for the company. 
At the same time, one should be careful not to get stuck in the ‘perfect candidate’ image because that can be counterproductive during the future screening stage. Ideally, by the time recruiters get to applicant screening, they should be able to differentiate between candidates’ obligatory and desirable skills – that is, if they want to avoid falling into the ‘perfect candidate’ trap.
Besides, understanding must-have and preferable skills will prove very useful in the ad-writing stage because it will help tailor the style and content of the ad to the right candidates. After all, a good job posting clearly describes job responsibilities, highlights the benefits, and uses tone and language suitable for targeted candidates. 

Focus on soft and transferable skills 

The list of essential soft skills may vary depending on the job in question, but in this age of rapid tech evolution, employers cannot go wrong with adaptability and stress resilience. In the last few years, soft skills have gained special prominence in the professional landscape, even in the tech industry, traditionally associated with hard, acquired knowledge. Today, however, technology evolves so quickly that hard knowledge gets outdated sooner than one may hope. This also creates the need to upskill, often even reskill, existing staff to avoid huge employee turnover. Plus, it minimizes not inconsiderable recruiting costs of constantly searching for job candidates with necessary (but often short-lived) skills. 
Clearly, constant change is a stressful environment, and the best job candidates today are people who can bear, if not welcome, the pressure. Curiosity, desire for growth, and self-motivation for continuous learning also play a huge part – and even though such information about a candidate is not immediately obvious from a resume, personal interviews and behavioral questions can help determine the right, flexible mindsets with the potential for career growth.

Cast a wide international net

The spread of remote and hybrid work models literally breaks down the international barriers, allowing recruiters to access a truly global talent pool. If no suitable candidate can be found in the company’s immediate environment, it makes sense to cast a wider net – possibly even look for a professional overseas. 
On the other hand, not all vacancies support fully remote work; besides, officially employing a foreigner is often associated with legal and taxation challenges, and employers may not be prepared for this extra burden. In that case, it makes sense to consider a remote position for the same-country citizen because such a policy still expands the talent pool and offers a chance to find a great expert in another city. 
In any case, embracing the possibility of remote work, if only part-time, already boosts the chances of finding a suitable professional because even though many corporations start talking about the need to return to the office, a lot of self-motivated, responsible professionals who can manage their time are not ready to abandon flexible hours and improved work-life balance. Even mentioning the possibility of remote work in the job ad can already boost the company’s chances of attracting the right professionals – if, of course, the job can be done remotely. 

Promote DEI practices 

Another strategy that can boost a company’s chances of finding a great candidate is its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices. Of course, creating a diverse and inclusive environment is not something that happens overnight, but companies that have not yet started in this direction are already lagging behind. 
The young generation of professionals actively entering the workforce these days expect DEI commitment from their employers, along with salary transparency, corporate responsibility, business sustainability, job meaning, etc. Arguably, GenZ may not be the employer’s target focus right now, but they already constitute about a quarter of the workforce, and this number will keep increasing in the next years. So, employers should start adjusting their policies because the shift in staff expectations is already inevitable. 

Aim for positive candidate experience

Finally, recruiters, employers, and managers responsible for interviewing job applicants should always aim for the best candidate experience possible. In a world where the competition for skilled, resilient human talent is constantly increasing, a good company reputation can make a huge difference between constantly struggling for talent and ensuring a steady influx of motivated professionals. 
Adopting a candidate-centric approach in recruiting is one of the many facets that eventually build up to a positive brand image, but it’s the kind of facet that can spread a quick word about a business and its attitude to people – and everyone involved in recruiting should ensure this word is a good one.