It is said that a simple black-and-white A4 job advertisement is outdated and no longer enough to recruit good and competent people. On the one hand, this is true - paper alone is not enough. On the other hand, it doesn't really matter how attractive the job advertisement is.

The most important recruitment game and the most important competition on the labour market takes place somewhere else than in the job advertisement. It starts before the advertisement and, at best, never ends. And it's the current employees of the company who are actually running the game - their say counts. And why? Because who do you trust more, the nice talk of a potential new employer at a job interview, or an acquaintance you had lunch with yesterday and heard praising the company where he's currently working!?

Of course, the potential new employer's company itself is also important, as well as what was said at the job interview, the person's suitability for the job and much more besides. But who is actually recruiting? Is it the employer who recruits the candidate, or the candidate who recruits the employer?

And so we have arrived at a situation where recruitment is a two-way street. Employers can no longer sit on their hands and knees and metaphorically swipe candidates left and right, knowing that if the right candidate doesn't fit, another equally good candidate will be taken off the bench. No! Increasingly, employers are having to make an effort to appear as attractive and credible as possible to candidates. But what is attractiveness? Is it the busy office with all the amenities and lights and whistles that appeals to the candidate? Table tennis and a pet day? Or soft and very soft values? Or is it something else and something deeper?

Of course, a comfortable office and everything that goes with it is important, but above all, you should also look at the comfort and efficiency of working. After all, you don't just want people to go to work, you want them to work. And the best way to get work done is already known, as mentioned above, by the company's existing employees. If they are happy, they are more likely to recommend your company as a good employer. And the potential best future employees are the very people who are recommended by their current colleagues. If good word about the company gets out in front and spreads through the people the candidate trusts. In that case, it doesn't matter what the lights are on and what the job advertisement looks like - looks don't matter. What matters is the content. A colleague will be able to give the candidate a great honest look at how well the company manages, whether it's a horizontal or hierarchical management style, what tools are in place to get the job done, whether it's more digital, or whether it's Excel or paper-and-pencil to enter numbers and hours and count goods? Do and to what extent do employees feel that what they do in the company is important and creates value? Does the company's existing environment, alongside a cohesive and good shoulder-to-shoulder working environment, create a sense of innovation and ideas that fly, so that doing the job is fun and playful. So let's listen to our colleagues and recruit the best people for ourselves!