Some 82 percent of workers actively looking for work at any given time, and they're not necessarily using traditional search channels. (Image: Shutterstock)

In a tight job market, employers and HR staff are finding it more and more difficult to get—and keep—good employees. After years of struggling to find a job, workers are getting more discerning about the companies they approach, and if something turns them off during the interview process or even after hire, they don't hesitate to jump ship. Millennials in particular have a reputation for job-hopping, but it isn't just them, with some 82 percent of workers actively looking for work at any given time, according to Jobvite's Job Seeker Nation report. While this is a challenge for employers trying to hang on to people, it can also be an opportunity—provided they don't screw up the candidate search or the hire somewhere along the line. Related: The newest hiring headache: Ghosting It's not just active errors such as describing the job one way with the new employee learning the hard way that it's actually something quite different that can cause problems between prospective employers and would-be workers; it can be a matter of company culture or processes that simply turn off candidates and cause them to look elsewhere. According to a report from ManpowerGroup Solutions, a new approach is in order. The way people hunt for jobs has changed, with both technology and personal objectives driving their searches. Not only are they looking for jobs that can not only provide them with advancement, good salary and benefits, they want fulfillment in what they do and search for companies whose missions and goals align with their own principles. Yet employers aren't necessarily changing their candidate hunts accordingly. A recent article from the Society for Human Resource Management notes a survey of U.S. job seekers by The Knowledge Academy finding that while 72 percent would like companies to liven up their recruiting with such activities as games of capture the flag, escape rooms and professional speed-dating sessions, that's definitely not where employers' heads are at. And perhaps justifiably so. The report cites Sy Islam, an assistant professor at Farmingdale State College in New York and a human capital consultant for Talent Metrics, an organizational psychology consulting firm based in Melville, N.Y., pointing out that assessment practices need to project future job performance. While such unorthodox "games" might appeal to jobseekers, in the end they could spell trouble—even legal liability—for employers if they fail to do so. "While these tests can be fun, I personally prefer interviews that focus more on the real functions of the role," Ed Donner, cofounder and CEO of untapt, an HR technology company in New York City, told SHRM. "Keeping interviews standardized is an essential step to reducing hiring bias and evaluating people fairly." Still, such unorthodox "games" do provide the element of surprise, which can identify authentic behaviors rather than a persona that the candidate "puts on" for an interview. In addition, the company gets the benefit of being seen as innovative, because it conducts interviews differently, and could possibly see an increase in engagement among existing employees. In addition, Manpower Group's report says that among those job candidates who are "early tech adopters"—who used at least three or more technologies during the last six months during a job search—the balance between male and female candidates is pretty even. Therefore, a company looking to improve any gender inequity issues might be well advised to consider a broader application of technology to candidate searches to draw from a more even field. According to ManpowerGroup, here are 10 of the ways jobseekers want to search for—or be found by—prospective employers.