Rewind 10 years. Most job ads were posted by businesses themselves, actively hiring and hunting for that “diamond in the rough.”

Fast forward to today. Most job boards are flooded with recruitment agency ads, not direct employers. And there’s a reason for that.

With 70–80% of the market now considered passive candidates, people who are employed, not actively applying, but open to the right opportunity, it’s a good time to be a recruiter.

Passive candidates don’t hang out on job boards. They don’t have updated resume. They’re not hitting “apply.” They’re quietly waiting for someone to engage them and that’s where most businesses fall short.

If you’re still relying on job ads, you’re fishing in the same pond as everyone else, the active 30%. The other 70%? They’re underwater, unseen, and unavailable to the traditional “post and hope” approach.

You might get lucky and every second or third job ad might snag a diamond in the rough. But that’s not a strategy. That’s a slot machine.

More than ever, job advertisements are becoming marketing tools, not candidate generators. They build brand awareness and perception but they rarely deliver the depth of talent most companies actually need.

To reach them, your hiring strategy needs to shift. It’s not about posting more jobs, it’s about building brand conversations, showing career pathways, and developing strong company self-awareness.

Start simple. Share stories from your team. Why they stayed. How they grew. What you built together. Even better, highlight roles or opportunities you’ve created to keep great people aligned and engaged.

Because here’s the truth: job boards aren’t dying, your dependence on them is.

If you want to attract the best people, most of the time the 70% who aren’t playing on job boards, you need to meet them where they are.

Let’s have a confidential, productive chat about how to position your organisation as the destination it already is.