A recent survey indicates that communications recruitment would benefit from a pan-European approach. In addition, recruiters should develop relationships with communications professionals who aren’t actively searching for a new role, as this could lead to the procurement of top talent at the opportune time.

The survey, conducted by VMA group, reveals that only 17% of those questioned were actively seeking a new Job. However, 70% of communications professionals not actively looking for a new job would consider a move if approached with the right role. This highlights the precedence of the passive candidate, a product of the new candidate-led market.

While this may at first appear to be a challenging state of affairs for recruiters it remains a lucrative environment for those that are able to form strong relationships and wide networks.

Another key finding of the study was that 69% of those surveyed said that they would be willing to relocate to a new country for a role. This statistic suggests that a pan-European approach to recruiting could drastically widen the pool of potential candidates.

Willem de Ruijter, head of continental Europe at VMA Group, says, “It’s much easier to secure a role in another country now than say ten years ago and more communications professionals are willing to look beyond their home country. However, for organisations seeking this talent, the challenge is how to ensure their recruitment strategies and employer brand messages appeal across Europe. For a company that is headquartered in Germany, for example, recruitment activity is likely to be heavily focused on that country. As a result many organisations are missing out on a vast percentage of the candidate pool. The solution is to ensure attraction strategies have a Europe-wide approach, by either using your own resources or engaging a partner with the appropriate reach.”

The research was gathered at the recent European Communications Summit 2014 in Brussels attended by over 700 delegates.