Skilled tradespeople: Digital outreach instead of traditional advertisements

Job postings alone are no longer enough in the skilled trades: New concepts like "Candidate Flow" reach skilled workers who are open to a job change via social media. Because: "Passive job seekers rarely use job boards."

Unfilled positions in the skilled trades cost businesses a lot of money. Skilled workers are lacking in almost every sector. According to the latest skilled worker study by the Competence Center for Securing Skilled Workers (Kofa), nearly 100.000 open positions in the skilled trades could not be filled by 2025. The study indicates that there are currently particularly high shortages in the plumbing, heating, and air conditioning (PHVAC) sector, electrical construction, metalworking, automotive engineering, and the food industry.

According to the Federal Employment Agency, the average vacancy period in the skilled trades was around 246 days – just over eight months – in 2025. Ten years ago, filling a vacancy in the skilled trades took an average of around 100 days, or just over three months. Across all sectors, the average vacancy period rose from 84 to 160 days during the same period.

The actual cost to a company of a permanently unfilled position can only be approximated. Uniform, independently verified figures for individual trades do not exist. Staffing agencies and job portals calculate costs ranging from five to six figures per year, depending on workload, hourly rate, and trade – the job portal StepStone, for example, cites an average of around €49.500, while the construction industry reports costs of approximately €79.000. These estimates illustrate that a lack of available capacity directly translates into lost revenue.

Structural change in employee recruitment 

It's not just in the construction industry that there's increasing discussion about the extent to which outdated recruitment methods, alongside demographic trends and the general shortage of skilled workers, are lengthening staffing times. For decades, personnel recruitment in the trades relied primarily on word of mouth, personal networks, and regional recommendations.

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However, this model is increasingly reaching its limits. The retirement of the baby boomer generation and the intensified competition from the industrial and logistics sectors have fundamentally changed the market environment. The Kofa (German Research Centre for Employment and Social Security) points out in its personnel labor index that strategic, proactive human resources management is among the most effective approaches for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to securing skilled workers. Purely passive recruitment or traditional job advertisements are often no longer sufficient.

Digital direct approach and passive job seekers

A key approach to modern recruitment is the targeted approach of skilled workers who are employed but generally open to new opportunities. This group of so-called passive job seekers rarely uses traditional job boards.

Newer concepts such as "Candidate Flow" , a recruiting company based in Düsseldorf specializing in the plumbing, heating, and air conditioning (SHK), roofing, and electrical trades , therefore rely on direct communication and consistent presence on smartphones.

Dimitrij Beetz, Managing Director of Candidate Flow. Photo: © Candidate Flow GmbH

"At the end of the day, it all comes down to one thing: The craft business has to appear on the smartphones of the right people in the region again and again," says Dimitrij Beetz of "Candidate Flow".

Example: A journeyman, dissatisfied with his employer, scrolls through social media in the evening. At that exact moment, he sees a company from his region that shows him what a well-organized workday, a pleasant working atmosphere, or perfect equipment could look like.

He doesn't just encounter the company on Instagram and other social media platforms, but he sees it again and again. It becomes so present and attractive to the apprentice that he inevitably starts wondering why he doesn't just apply and introduce himself there.

To reduce the administrative burden for business owners, "Candidate Flow" implements multi-stage screening processes. Qualifications and reasons for changing jobs are clarified in advance by phone or online. "Only those interviews that are truly worthwhile, both professionally and personally, end up on the owner's desk," explains Dimitrij Beetz, describing the concept.

Targeted communication and an automatic appointment reminder

And thanks to targeted outreach and automatic appointment reminders, applicants are also looking forward to their interviews. This should help avoid last-minute cancellations. "Candidate Flow" emphasizes that this method makes personnel needs in the construction and finishing trades more predictable. This eliminates the need to rely on gut feeling.

"Thanks to a pool of reserve candidates, the company is perfectly equipped for sudden absences or planned growth phases," emphasizes Dimitrij Beetz. He is convinced that this process-driven recruiting and targeted social media campaigns in the region are the way of the future. "Anyone who refuses to learn these new rules is putting themselves at a disadvantage."

The effectiveness of this process-driven recruitment approach is also evident in the changing business models on the market. While traditional advertising agencies often only charge for clicks or ad placements, specialized service providers like Candidate Flow are beginning to share the financial risk. Through contractually guaranteed hiring agreements, the financial risk remains entirely with the service provider should a position remain unfilled within the agreed timeframe, explains Beetz.

Ensuring attractive working conditions

The Competence Center for Securing Skilled Workers, however, points out that more efficient direct recruitment does not solve the structural problem, but primarily shifts it. According to the Kofa annual review for 2025, around 369.500 job vacancies across the economy remained unfilled because there were no suitably qualified unemployed people to match them – over 12.000 of these in the plumbing, heating, and air conditioning (PHVAC) sector alone.

Where the applicant pool is structurally too small, a company typically fills a position by poaching the skilled worker from another company: Those who successfully recruit today will themselves be poached tomorrow. Furthermore, the Kofa emphasizes in its recommendations that simply recruiting is insufficient if retaining existing employees is neglected.

Effective levers therefore include a combination of training, immigration, better working conditions, and an appreciative corporate culture. While an external campaign can provide applicants in the short term, it cannot replace attractive working conditions within the company itself.

Source: Candidate Flow GmbH

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