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While it is sufficient to publish a job posting and wait for incoming applications to reach the active applicant market, reaching the passive market depends on having sources where suitable candidates can be identified and contacted. According to studies, the passive applicant market is about five times larger than the active applicant market. To achieve the highest possible coverage, searching in a single source is not enough. That’s why at skillconomy we pursue a multi-channel approach.

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Multi-Channel Sourcing

With our multi-channel approach, you can be sure that our AI considers all sources relevant to your specialist and management positions—including our own pool, which we have built up over 10 years of active sourcing. Even though LinkedIn and XING remain by far the most important and largest sources in active sourcing, platforms like Stepstone or Indeed, as well as specialist portals like GitHub, also offer the opportunity to reach suitable candidates.
You don’t have to worry about access and license costs for the various sources—we take care of that for you.

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LinkedIn vs. XING

With over 22 million users each in the DACH region, LinkedIn and XING are the largest sourcing sources. The positioning of the two platforms and their similar number of users have led in recent years to the narrative that LinkedIn alone would be sufficient as a sourcing source. Many active sourcing tools even work exclusively with candidates registered on LinkedIn.
The central question is: Are these the same 22 million people registered on both LinkedIn and XING? The answer is: No.
The structure of the users differs—in terms of age, industries, or employers. Younger users aged 25-34 are disproportionately found on LinkedIn. On XING, there are significantly more employees from companies with up to 10,000 staff, while LinkedIn has many times more candidates from DAX30 companies. Our internal data shows that still between 30-58% of all applicants respond via XING. Overall, the deeper you analyze, the more differentiated the picture becomes. So you don’t have to deal with these questions, we keep an eye on all relevant sourcing sources and their development for you and ensure that we achieve the greatest possible market coverage for you.

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The Power of Large Numbers

Across the entire DACH region, there are about 50 million employees, from which the passive applicant market consists of about 42 million candidates. When it comes to specialists and managers, we are therefore talking about a maximum of 20 million relevant profiles. You should keep this figure in mind. Many providers try to outdo each other with ever larger numbers of profiles or sources, but these often have no relevance to the goal of efficiently and precisely tapping into the relevant market.