Linkedin Recruitment Trends Belgium 2015

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Linkedin has just released its new report on Belgium’s recruitment trends for the coming years, based on its interview of 77 local recruitment professionals.

The report is downloadable for free on Linkedin’s website, but we’d like to share some of its content here, as well as comment on it.

Here are some of the insights that seem quite logical and predictable:

  • Sourcing & attracting staff with higher education is a top priority with Belgian companies, as well as finding quality candidates. Both large and smaller companies (less than 500 staff members) agree on this.
  • SMEs are more concerned with employer branding; probably as they have more difficulty spontaneously attracting candidates.They are eager to turn their staff into online ambassadors. This being said, Belgium is still lagging behind on employer branding compared to the international market (and that goes for large and small companies)
  • Large companies worry about the lack of internal recruitment capacity (recruitment teams are not large enough)
  • Recruiters agree that recruitment becomes more like online marketing
  • The competition and salary packages are the biggest hurdles to hire an applicant

Here are some statements that had us raise an eyebrow:

  • The company website is the biggest source of candidates. Really? As in spontaneous applications? Unless you work for an A brand, we have trouble imagening this to hold true. Especially in a country where 95% of all companies are SMEs.
  • Internal promotion is the second biggest method through which companies expect to solve their recruitment problem. Again, doubtful as not every employee has the capacity to move up unless you want to create a Peter Principle
  • The third method to recruit in Belgium is through outsourcing. More companies in Belgium use recruitment agencies and interim recruiters to help them win the war for talent than their colleagues abroad. Hmm, maybe yes, maybe no. Would have loved to see more data on this bit though.

What are your thoughts on these recruitment trends? True or false?