Employers are missing top talent due to a failure to adapt to new job hunting behaviour, new research claims.

The findings, from The Institute for Employment Studies and Department for Work and Pensions, show that 67% of UK managers admit they regularly browse relevant job adverts, while 56% claim they are actively seeking a more senior position.

Employers appear to be looking for workers in the wrong place. Although eight in ten firms concede they struggle to find workers with the right skills, 72% of managers claim they are more likely to use ‘online job searches’ and 76% say they focus specifically on ‘online job adverts’, while 37% claim they found their current job via the internet.   

Jo Causon, director, marketing and corporate affairs at the Chartered Management Institute, said: “Clearly a concern for employers should be about how to avoid wasting the impressive talent pool that exists in the UK.  

“There is certainly a need to adjust recruit behaviour because without casting the recruitment net wider, organisations run the risk of losing out on senior staff who have embraced technology to boost their career prospects.”