{"id":35810,"date":"2026-10-27T15:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T15:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/?p=35810"},"modified":"2026-10-27T15:27:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T15:27:54","slug":"what-wins-passive-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/fi\/what-wins-passive-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"What actually wins a scarce specialist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finland has more people out of work than it has had for years. Statistics Finland put the trend unemployment rate at 10.5 per cent in September 2026, with 298,000 people unemployed.1<\/sup> Ask a hiring manager looking for a power electronics designer or a cloud security architect whether that has made the search any easier, and the answer is rarely yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Technology Industries of Finland asked 451 member companies where recruitment was hardest, the graduate level answer was specialist design work: artificial intelligence, power electronics, analogue and digital design, marine electrical design, cloud and cybersecurity. On the production side it was highly skilled trades such as robot welders and CNC machinists.2<\/sup> The federation puts the sector’s need at around 14,000 new experts a year, with roughly three quarters of that need at higher education level.2<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two labour markets are running side by side. One is crowded with applicants. The other is small, mostly employed and largely invisible to job boards. This piece looks at what the evidence says about winning candidates in the second one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are specialists still hard to hire when unemployment is high?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unemployment figures describe the whole labour force. A specialist shortage sits inside a handful of narrow skill sets, where the pool of people with the right experience was small to begin with and most of them already have jobs they are reasonably happy in. Rising redundancies in construction or retail do little for an employer that needs someone who has designed converters for grid scale battery storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That changes how hiring works. For generalist roles, an employer can post a vacancy and choose from the people who apply. For a scarce specialist, the employer is usually approaching someone who had no plan to move, which turns every step of the process into part of the case for moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does pay still decide it?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pay remains the strongest single factor. In Gartner’s survey of nearly 3,000 candidates in the first quarter of 2025, 53 per cent named higher compensation as the main reason they accepted an offer, up 11 points on the previous year. Career growth came next at 47 per cent.3<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specialist roles are also the ones least likely to say what they pay. Indeed Hiring Lab’s analysis of six European markets found industrial engineering and software development among the least transparent occupational categories, and concluded that employers in higher paid fields are generally less willing to publish salaries.4<\/sup> Its May 2026 update found the most transparent postings were lower paid, standardised roles, and that disclosure still varies widely by country: 56 per cent of UK postings included pay in March 2026, against 12 per cent in Germany.5<\/sup> An Indeed survey of 6,011 workers cited in the same update found that between 61 and 82 per cent, depending on country, would be more likely to apply to a role that listed a salary range.5<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read together, those findings describe an awkward mismatch. The roles that most need to catch the attention of someone who is not looking tend to withhold the one figure most likely to earn it. A well paid specialist has little reason to give up evenings to interviews without knowing whether the move makes financial sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What could Finland’s pay transparency law mean for specialist hiring?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Finland is in the process of implementing the EU Pay Transparency Directive. The government’s bill, HE 129\/2026, went to Parliament in July 2026 and proposes that the changes take effect from 1 January 2027.6<\/sup> As currently drafted, employers would need to tell candidates the pay or pay range for a role at the recruitment stage, and would no longer be able to ask about a candidate’s pay history.6<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A note on timing: the bill is still going through Parliament, so its final wording, obligations and start date could change before it becomes law.7<\/sup> The points in this section are based on the government proposal as it stood in autumn 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweden’s position has been less settled. In March 2026 its government said it did not intend to present a bill at that stage and would instead push for implementation of the directive to be postponed and renegotiated in Brussels.8<\/sup> Employers hiring in both countries may find the rules differ for some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Finnish bill passes in something close to its current form, two parts of it matter most for specialist hiring. Early disclosure would make a pay range a basic expectation of the first conversation, so employers that already have a defensible range for each role, and can explain how it was set, are likely to adjust most easily. A ban on asking about previous pay would also remove a familiar shortcut, leaving offers to rest on what the role is worth in the market. That benchmarking work is worth doing before the first approach, whatever the final law says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How quickly does a specialist hiring process need to move?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The wider market has cooled. Gartner found that 44 per cent of candidates received more than one offer in early 2025, down from 72 per cent two years earlier. Even so, 35 per cent backed out after accepting an offer.3<\/sup> In a softer market, more than one accepted offer in three still did not hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Averages describe typical candidates, and a scarce specialist is not one. Their current employer knows how hard they would be to replace and has every reason to make a counteroffer during the notice period. The weeks between a signed offer and a first day are often where a specialist hire is actually won or lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silence does as much damage as slowness. In Greenhouse’s 2024 State of Job Hunting report, a survey of 2,500 workers in the US, UK and Germany, 61 per cent said they had heard nothing back after a job interview, up nine points since April that year.9<\/sup> A specialist who was approached rather than applying is likely to read two quiet weeks as a sign of how much the company really wants them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the fixes are organisational. Agree who makes the decision before the first interview. Put dates on each stage and share them with the candidate. Keep the number of rounds in proportion to the role. Give feedback within days, including to the people you do not hire, because in a small specialist community today’s runner up is often next year’s shortlist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do specialists weigh beyond pay?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Career growth was the second most cited factor in Gartner’s data.3<\/sup> For specialists, growth tends to mean something concrete: the technical problems they would work on, who they would work alongside, the tools and budget available, and how much say they would have in decisions. A job description built from a list of requirements rarely answers those questions. A half hour conversation with the hiring manager usually answers most of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what actually wins a scarce specialist?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Employers that consistently win scarce specialists remove uncertainty early. They state the pay range before the first interview, put the hiring manager in front of the candidate, run a short process with fixed dates, describe the first year in concrete terms and stay in close contact between offer and start date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In practice, that comes down to six habits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Share a real pay range <\/strong>in the first conversation, and be ready to explain how it was set.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Bring the hiring manager in early,<\/strong> so the candidate hears about the work from someone who does it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Fix the process in advance:<\/strong> who decides, how many rounds and by when.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Describe the first year specifically<\/strong>, including the project, the team and how success will be judged.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Treat the notice period as part of the hire,<\/strong> with regular contact until day one.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Close every process properly, <\/strong>including with the people you do not hire.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    <\/div>\n\n\n\n

    None of these are expensive. They do require an employer to decide, before the search starts, what it is offering and how quickly it is prepared to move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    About Intelligent Employment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Intelligent Employment is a specialist recruitment firm based in Helsinki, working with companies in deep tech, AI, quantum, NewSpace, advanced manufacturing, renewable energy, data centres and industrial technology across Finland and Europe. Much of our search work involves exactly the candidates described here: specialists who are employed, well paid and not looking. When the shortlist for a role is short by nature, the way the approach is made counts for as much as who is approached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n

    1<\/sup> Statistics Finland, Labour force survey 2026, September<\/a>, October 2026.
    2<\/sup> Teknologiateollisuus ry (Technology Industries of Finland),     Teknologiateollisuuden osaajatarveselvitys 2025<\/a>, 25 November 2025.
    3<\/sup> Gartner,     Gartner HR Research Finds 44% of Prospective Candidates Received Multiple Job Offers in 1Q25<\/a>, 16 June 2025.
    4<\/sup> Indeed Hiring Lab,     Salary transparency in Europe analysis<\/a>, 11 February 2025.
    5<\/sup> Lisa Feist, Indeed Hiring Lab,     Full Salary Transparency in Europe is Still a Distant Prospect<\/a>, 7 May 2026.
    6<\/sup> Borenius,     Finland Moves to Implement the EU Pay Transparency Directive<\/a>, 10 July 2026.
    7<\/sup> DLA Piper,     Progress in implementing the Gender Pay Transparency Directive in Finland<\/a>, 1 September 2026.
    8<\/sup> Fondia,     Pay Transparency Directive implementation update<\/a>, May 2026.
    9<\/sup> Greenhouse,     Ghosting, ghost jobs and bots: Candidates reveal their top challenges in the Greenhouse 2024 State of Job Hunting report<\/a>, 10 December 2024.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Unemployment in Finland is above 10 per cent, yet AI, power electronics and cybersecurity specialists remain among the hardest people to hire. What wins them is an early pay range, a short process and a hiring manager who can talk about the work.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[904,905,906,837,863],"class_list":["post-35810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hiring-strategy-talent-insights","tag-passive-candidates","tag-pay-transparency","tag-specialist-recruitment","tag-talent-shortage","tag-technical-recruitment"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35810"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35818,"href":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35810\/revisions\/35818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intelligentemployment.com\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}