Dutch employers respond to a tight market by climbing a ladder. They start with what costs little, move on to measures that touch pay or the job itself, and only then bring in outside help. That order is rational for common profiles. For scarce ones it is slow, because the cheap rungs spread a vacancy wider without adding a single candidate who was not already there. Our conclusion from the UWV employer survey: decide which rung a vacancy needs on the day it opens, not after the lower rungs have failed.
The ladder
Most employers with external vacancies made an extra effort in autumn 2025 because of the shortage. The order is recognisable. At the bottom sit the inexpensive steps: posting in more or different channels, recruiting through the own network, and hiring people who still need training. Introductions without obligation and approaching candidates directly come next.
Higher up, the measures start to cost money or change the role: better terms of employment, reaching other target groups, adjusting tasks, lowering requirements. Recruiting abroad is rare. Beside these sit the external routes: more temporary, seconded or freelance staff, and more frequent use of a recruiter, recruitment agency or headhunter. Only a minority takes either.
What employers say works
Asked which measure delivered most, employers put their own network clearly on top, followed by wider distribution and training people up. Outside recruiters are named less often, but they are also used far less. Set against the number of users, a fair share of employers who used one call it their most effective step. The own network scores best on both counts.
The sector picture differs. In manufacturing, both external routes are used more than average. In wholesale, information and communication and financial services, employers rate outside recruitment among their most effective measures, which it is not nationally.
Why the order slows scarce hiring
The ladder rests on an assumption: that the candidate exists and only needs to see the vacancy. For most employers with recruitment problems, the stated cause is too few applications. More channels do not help when the person is not looking. Each rung that yields nothing keeps the role open longer, and on a scarce profile that delay is the real cost.
What this does not show
No official statistic measures the cost or lead time of each rung, so the delay is our inference, not a measured figure. Effectiveness is the employer's own judgement. The survey excludes agriculture and employment agencies, so the intermediaries themselves were not asked. An earlier UWV survey from 2021 uses a different question and population, so the surveys cannot be read as a trend. If data showed cheap rungs filling scarce roles as fast as direct approach, our advice would not hold.
What you can do
- Classify each vacancy when it opens: common profile or scarce. Use the applications you got last time for a similar role as the test.
- For common profiles, climb the ladder in order. It is cheap and usually works.
- For scarce profiles, run the network and direct approach at the same time from the start, instead of after posting.
- Set a date for each rung. If it yields nothing by then, move up rather than repeating it.
- Decide early whether you will train someone in or lower a requirement. Those choices widen the pool; extra channels do not.