UK Candidate Attraction Report 2025

Press Release: 

Eploy, an enterprise Talent Acquisition software leader, published the 9th Annual UK Candidate Attraction Report today. Eploy and HR Grapevine surveyed over 700 recruiters to determine the candidate sourcing channels and recruitment marketing techniques that deliver the best results. Sourcing channels surveyed include company website/career site, talent pools, professional social networks, generalist job boards, specialist job boards, events, social media, employee referrals, CV databases, job aggregators, programmatic advertising and PSLs.

Download your copy of the UK Candidate Attraction Report 2025

Sourcing channel quadrants for sectors and company size

The survey asked recruiters to rate each of their main sourcing channels in terms of the quantity and quality of candidates they typically generate. The complete report charts responses within a ‘Sourcing Channel Quadrant’, enabling recruiters to identify the effectiveness of each channel in each sector/industry and by company size.

Some of the key findings in the report include:

Candidate scarcity remains the #1 challenge for recruiters

For the ninth year, the biggest recruitment challenge remains the lack of suitably qualified/skilled/experienced candidates, affecting 53% of organisations. However, it has reduced substantially on the prior year (61%). Building a diverse and inclusive workforce was the second key challenge for candidate attraction (33%).

Forecasting recruitment needs/demand planning is the third biggest challenge, affecting 30%.

Candidate experience remains a priority for recruitment and talent teams

We asked survey participants to report their most pressing candidate sourcing priorities. Similarly to the previous year, candidate experience remains the top priority for in-house recruitment teams (60%).

Recruitment Automation & AI as a priority by the industry

A new category this year looks at Recruitment Automation & AI as a priority for in-house recruitment teams. Recruitment Automation & AI presents itself as a candidate sourcing priority for 23% of respondents (22% in 2023). The data shows that this is more apparent for larger organisations (>1000 employees) (30%).

Fewer Employers Expect Growth and Recruitment Marketing Budgets Stagnate

Fewer respondents expect growth with a general decline in those expecting an increase in hiring levels (33%, down from 38% in 2024).

Many organisations report they expect recruitment marketing budgets to remain unchanged to achieve their hiring goals.

Peak performing career sites

The most successful company careers sites contain more candidate-focused content to help candidates make informed decisions and promote employer brands. Our findings share candidate-centric content useful at each stage of the candidate attraction funnel and the content that makes a career site a peak performer.

Peak Performing Careers Sites are 6x more likely to have Interview hints and tips, 5x more likely to have a Chatbot and 3x more likely to have FAQs and Diversity information than Poor-Performing Careers Sites. 

Online candidate experience – key features

The report looks at online candidate experience to identify what candidate features the best-performing company career sites utilise. Top features include applications being automatically sent to the ATS saving a partially completed application, having the ability to sign up for Job Alerts that are sent automatically by the ATS, candidates ability to update their details anytime, as well as the ability to manage their data privacy preferences.

Building an inclusive and diverse workforce

DE&I is a challenge regarding candidate sourcing for around a third of respondents, and we note significant differences across industries. Notably, it’s the top challenge for 59% of Charity / Not-for-Profit organisations participating in the survey. However, DEI targets was the most significant year-on-year change on biggest candidate sourcing down 13% from 46%.

Comment:

Commenting on the release of the full 80-page report, Eploy’s Chief Executive Officer Chris Bogh said: “Eploy are pleased to share the report finding for the 9th consecutive year. We received over 700 responses from the talent acquisition community across all industries and company sizes, which gave us a good understanding of the differences between the various demographics.

“Since its inception, the report has provided detailed insight into hiring challenges and the ways various sectors approach talent acquisition. We offer the report as a free resource knowing that the research provides valuable insight into candidate attraction and talent acquisition trends in the UK.

We thank all talent acquisition and recruitment professionals who participated in the survey.”

The full 80-page report is now available for download free of charge on Eploy’s website.

Notes for Editors:

For logos, photos etc., please find them on Eploy Brand Guideliness page. 

Please contact Eploy if you wish to use any of the report, graphs or require further clarification.

About Eploy

Eploy is the complete, cloud-based recruitment platform for modern recruiters. Combining Recruitment CRM, Applicant Tracking, Onboarding and Self-service Analytics into a unified solution, Eploy adds value for every stakeholder at every step in the recruitment journey. Learn more about Eploy's features.