Nearly one-third of local businesses struggle to recruit due to a lack of suitable candidates.
The Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce Skills Survey 2026v found that 52% of firms find recruitment challenging.
39% of those who took part in the survey added that applicants lack the required skills and 32% said that challenges were due to a simple ‘lack of candidates’.
It’s an issue that recruitment marketing firm crooton finds surprising.
Stephen Anderson, CEO of the Peterborough-based business, says that one possible reason for a lack of candidates is that many traditional recruitment tools ignore ‘passive candidates’ – representing 73% of the potential candidate pool.
He suggests that reframing recruitment could go a long way to overcoming these challenges.
“If you’re getting lots of applications from people with the wrong skills, then you’re advertising in the wrong places.
“By focusing solely on active candidates (people who are searching for roles on job boards), then you’re ignoring a huge proportion of ‘passive’ candidates.
“These are people who aren’t actively searching for a new job, but who fit the right criteria, have the right skills and who could be open to a change of role.
“73% of your recruitment audience is passive, so finding this audience can’t be underestimated.”
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) 2026–2029 indicated plans to fix ‘leaky’ talent pipelines in engineering, electrical, construction trades and advanced manufacturing.
The aim is to directly address shortages in the hard-to-fill skilled technical and trades occupations.
Stephen says a shift in marketing focus to passive audiences is the key to counter skills shortages.
He explains: “Reaching the passive majority means moving beyond job listings and into omnichannel environments; news cycles, podcasts, and daily commutes.
“You need to identify who your passive audience is and reach them in their daily lives.
“Digital geofencing is a great way of doing this. This means building digital fences around industry hubs, such as specific industrial parks or competitor sites, to identify talent based on their professional ‘zones’.
“Finally, be mobile-native. 68% of applications are now mobile-first, so non-mobile strategies are effectively invisible to the modern candidate.”
“There’s a lot of noise out there, but the idea is to integrate your brand into a candidate’s daily habits to encourage them to remember you and choose to explore your options,” he added.
“By attracting the right people, not just more people, you’ll achieve a far stronger ROI and better-quality applications.”.
