Due to staff shortages, employers are approaching more and more employees from other companies with a question if they want to come and work for them. According to consulting group Intelligence Group, nearly 38 percent of the working population said they were asked by their employer in the last quarter whether or not they would like to make a change.

“This is a record,” says Gert Jan Wasdorp of the agency that has been conducting the research for nearly twenty years. “Businesses have to use these kinds of methods, because few people are actively looking into the job market. They are more passive and want to approach them.”

He says the approach goes in different ways. “This is done via LinkedIn or during conversations at parties. Everyone has their own tricks to impress people. For example, by offering a good salary, flexible working hours or by offering a workplace closer to home.”

There is a great demand for employees in many sectors and the problems are getting worse. There are also fewer and fewer unemployed people looking for work. According to the latest CBS figures, fewer than 300,000 were unemployed in June.

“It used to be working with headhunting, especially in IT and advice, but now you can see it also in healthcare and education,” Waasdorp says. “It was a few years ago you did not To recruit this way, but now you see that these types of employers also actively engage with people.”

Not everyone responds to the progress of a potential new employer, but some do. Intelligence Group figures show that one in five people has changed employers in the past year. This number is also a record.