Purpose – During recent years, the Dutch labour market has developed from a buyers’ market into a sellers’ market. Consequently employers had to increase their efforts to find suitable staff. This paper aims to analyse the instruments employers use to contact with potential workers. To what extent do employers still rely on traditional means like advertisements in the paper or do they behave more actively, using the world wide web, visiting job fares et cetera. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a survey among more than 1,000 employers in The Netherlands. Factor analyses and regression analyses are carried out to explain different recruitment strategies. Findings – The factor analyses show that the different recruitment methods can be traced back to three recruitment strategies. The first strategy was described as active and informal recruitment. The second strategy was called recruiting via the internet and the third is characterised by formal recruitment. The results suggest that many organisations – not in the least organisations in the local government sector – could gain a great deal from using a wider range of instruments to recruit new personnel. Originality/value – The paper analyses the instruments used by employers in search for potential workers.