To attract the right candidates, you do not need to rely solely on job postings. The following 13 recruitment methods can help you access hidden talent pools, lower recruitment costs, and improve long-term employee retention. Review these techniques to determine which best suit your needs.
TL;DR
- There is no one-size-fits-all recruitment method. In 2025, effective recruitment requires combining internal recruitment (promotions, transfers, referrals) with external channels (job boards, agencies, headhunting) to balance speed, cost, and talent quality.
- Executive and hard-to-fill roles demand a different approach. Senior leadership hiring requires a structured, confidential, and assessment-driven process designed to reach passive candidates and reduce the high risk of mis-hires.
- Sunbytes helps employers execute the right mix. With 12+ years of experience and 300+ placements in Vietnam, Sunbytes supports companies with a full cycle in recruitment so the employment decisions drive long-term growth, not short-term hiring.
Internal Recruitment Methods (Building From Within)
Internal recruitment involves selecting candidates for open positions from within the existing workforce. This approach encourages employees to apply, fosters a sense of value, and supports career development. Below we provide some popular types of internal recruitment:
Promotions
Providing opportunities for high-performers to grow vertically encourages and retains them. Additionally, these employees already know your company culture, which ensures a smooth takeoff for a promoted worker. According to a study by Cornell University, internally promoted employees, especially those who are most effective, tend to remain loyal to an organization.
Transfers
In some cases, the best fit for the position may be within the company or even the department. Lateral moves allow employees to explore other areas of challenge without the risks associated with promoting from outside the company, and internal employees perform better at attendance, collaboration, and meeting expectations.
Employee Referrals
This recruitment method is low cost and effective. With this method, you hire employees based on the referrals from employees currently working for you. In some cases, employers offer bonuses for a referral that becomes an employee.
Talent Pool Database
With this method, you can look at your database of previous applications. These candidates have either applied previously or sent in their resumes when there was no job opening. They are resources that are easily accessible. It is inexpensive, and most of the time, you will receive positive results.
Internal Job Listings
Internal posting of job openings first is a way to be open and transparent about openings, giving precedence to their own staff. Companies that have a lively internal labor market experience a 27% boost in employee willingness to go above and beyond.
External Recruitment Methods (Casting a Wider Net)
External recruitment offers opportunities to bring in new talent and perspectives.
Job Board Posting
Sites such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and TopCV in Vietnam continue to be a source of recruitment tools. Tip: Ensure that you are optimizing your job descriptions to lure good candidates.
Recruitment Agencies
Working with agencies will save you a lot of administration time and effort when you want access to a pool of pre-screened talent. Agencies take care of the entire task of screening and testing the candidate’s technical skills, allowing your team to focus on higher-priority tasks.
Social Media Recruiting
Since 70% of professionals are passive job seekers and not actively searching for employment, social recruiting is most effective in both employer branding and attracting those not searching on job sites. Social sites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn allow accessing potential employees in environments where they are already spending time.
Campus Recruitment
University partnerships allow you to poach young grads quickly. There is no better way to stock your talent pipeline with early-career software engineers, financial analysts, and operations professionals before your competitors even know they exist.
Job Fairs and Recruitment Events
These are also referred to as off-campus recruiting. This enables you to see a number of applicants in person. Coding competitions and hackathons are recent trends in the technological industry.
Freelance & Contract Platforms
When it comes to project-based tasks, you can use the likes of Upwork or Toptal to hire professionals without long-term commitment. This can be especially useful if you require certain experts for a limited project.
Headhunting (Direct Outreach)
Active targeting of passive candidates over LinkedIn or industry networks can be effective when it comes to niche recruiting. The method tends to attract better candidates compared to normal recruiting processes.
Executive Search Services
In the search for the C-suite or director positions within an organization, the use of search firms is not optional. This is because there is a systematic process involved in searching for an executive, where the normal search process would not provide the same kind of alignment or testing as the specific process in searching for an executive. Organizations using AI-powered messaging in executive search are 9% more likely to make a high-quality hire.
How to Recruit on LinkedIn & Techniques
With over a billion professionals, Linkedin becomes a powerful tool for recruiting. In 2025, LinkedIn recruiting relies on brand storytelling, AI-driven sourcing, and personalized outreach, which leads to challenges for recruiters in engaging candidates amid digital noise. To succeed, recruiters must transition from being “hunters” to “marketers” who build a compelling employer brand that attracts talent before a single InMail is even sent.
Optimizing Your Digital Presence
Before you begin active sourcing, your personal and company presence must be credible. High-quality talent will research you and your company the moment you reach out.
Refine Your Recruiter Profile: Your profile is your business card. Use a professional headshot and a headline that clearly states your value proposition.
Leverage Company Career Pages: Use the “Life” tab to showcase authentic employee testimonials, culture videos, and behind-the-scenes snapshots.
Empower Brand Ambassadors: Encourage current employees to share job openings. Referrals are 15 times more likely to be hired than cold applicants, and content shared by employees has much higher organic reach
Advanced Search Strategies
Employ the use of Boolean operators such as AND, OR, NOT to narrow down the search results (for example, “Product Manager” AND (“SaaS” OR “fintech”) NOT “intern”). The “Spotlights” filter feature of LinkedIn helps narrow down the most interested candidates. These are people who are tagged “Open to Work” or are already active on the platform
Messaging That Gets Responses
Passive candidates are assessing career opportunities, not simply a job to earn a paycheck. The key is to craft your InMail with personalization on recognition, opportunity, and value statements related to growth.
How to Build and Manage a Talent Pool for Faster, Better Hiring in 2026
The foundation of a future-ready talent pool is no longer volume, but the strategic identification of individuals who align with evolving business goals. In 2026, talent pool management has transitioned from a passive database of resumes to a proactive, data-driven ecosystem focused on “precision sourcing” and “skills-first” engagement. By prioritizing pre-engagement and internal mobility, organizations are now achieving up to a reduction in time-to-fill
Build and Source Your Pool
Define Skills, Not Just Roles: Move away from rigid job titles and degrees toward skills-based segmentation. Develop a “skills taxonomy” that maps technical competencies alongside essential human strengths like critical thinking and adaptability.
Identify Three Critical Pipelines:
External Passive Talent: Focus on a smaller number of exceptionally well-matched prospects found through AI-powered sourcing tools that operate continuously across platforms like LinkedIn.
Internal “Silver Medalists”: Re-engage past candidates who reached late-stage interviews but weren’t hired; they already know your brand and require less vetting.
Organize & Segment
Break it down by job type, skill level, skill itself, geographic location, career level, and potential roles. Organize your ATS by using tags so that hiring will become lightning-fast.
Engage Continuously
Well, the truth of the matter is this: a talent pool without engagement gets stale in 6 months. Industry insights, company meetups, check-ins, and skills assessments every 2-3 months.
Leverage Technology
Employ ATS with CRM functionality, email automation tools in drip campaigns, LinkedIn Recruiter tools for searching passive candidates, and assessment tools for verification of skills. Employers whose recruitment professionals employ AI technologies have saved 20% of the time they spent at work. This includes an entire day saved per week.
Conduct regular audits
The quarterly review process should eliminate candidates with no current activity, update information, review diversity ratios and identify gaps, and measure the effectiveness of recruitment sources in providing the best possible candidates.
Accelerate Your Workforce Strategy with Sunbytes
Effective recruitment systems require time, expertise, and resources that many HR teams lack. We provide the support you need to accelerate your workforce.
With over 12 years of experience and more than 300 successful placements in Vietnam’s tech, finance, and manufacturing sectors, Sunbytes have developed robust recruitment infrastructure and resources—including talent pools, LinkedIn sourcing networks, assessment frameworks, and executive search capabilities—so you do not have to.
What We Bring:
- End-to-End Recruitment Services: From volume hiring to premium executive search
- Built-In Talent Pool Management: Pre-screened database of 5,000+ professionals with continuous engagement
- LinkedIn Recruiting Expertise: Advanced Boolean search and multi-touch engagement sequences with 25-30% response rates
- ISO 27001-Certified Process: Confidential handling, psychometric assessments, and 6-month replacement guarantee
Whether you need to fill a key executive position or build a team of over 50 specialists, we have the network, process, and expertise to deliver results.
👉 Schedule a free recruitment consultation today
FAQs
Internal recruitment promotes or transfers existing employees, while external recruitment sources candidates from outside the organization. Internal is faster and cheaper; external brings fresh perspectives.
Employee referrals and internal promotions typically cost the least while delivering high-quality hires.
Absolutely! Most successful companies use a hybrid approach. For example, posting internally first, then using agencies if needed.
Let’s get started with Sunbytes
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