[Webinar] The AI-Enabled Graduate: Mastering Gen AI’s Impact on Early Careers Recruitment

[Webinar] The AI-Enabled Graduate: Mastering Gen AI’s Impact on Early Careers Recruitment

The early careers recruitment landscape has been fundamentally transformed. While organisations debate whether AI will impact hiring, early career job seekers are already using generative AI in their job search. This isn’t a future trend; it’s today’s reality.

Is your recruitment strategy ready for the AI-enabled graduate?

Join PeopleScout’s Head of Assessment Design, Amanda Callen, and Talent Solutions Director, James Chorley, on Thursday 23 October at 11am GMT for a data-driven session that reveals PeopleScout’s exclusive research on how Generation AI is strategically transforming early careers recruitment—and what employers must do to stay ahead.

Discover our findings that show how early career candidates are using AI throughout their recruitment journey. This isn’t speculation—it’s comprehensive research that shows why employers need to move beyond guesswork and implement proactive, transparent and adaptive recruitment strategies.

In this webinar, we’ll cover:

  • The scale and strategic nature of Gen AI adoption among early career job seekers
  • Why early careers recruitment needs to adapt to stay on top of rapid technological advancements
  • Why transparent communication is essential to build trust with the AI-native generation
  • Essential steps to review and strengthen your assessment processes against AI vulnerabilities
  • How to implement proactive strategies to embrace AI-enabled candidates

Registrants will receive:

  • Exclusive access to our research report, Gen AI Meets Gen Z
  • Assessment vulnerability checklist
  • Recording access

What is a Staffing Agency? 7 Top Differences Between RPO and Staffing Agencies

What is a staffing agency? Organizations are facing unprecedented hiring challenges that traditional staffing agencies simply weren’t designed to solve. Between remote work, skills shortages in critical roles, and the need to compete with enterprise employers for top talent, growing companies need strategic partners, not just résumé and CV providers.

So, what is the difference between a staffing agency and an RPO solutions provider? In this, article we’ll cover the major differences between RPO and staffing agencies and how to know what’s best for your talent acquisition program.

RPO vs Staffing Agencies: What is a Staffing Agency and Which Recruitment Model is Right for You?

What is a Staffing Agency

Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is a type of business process outsourcing in which an employer transfers delivery of some or all portions of the recruitment process to an external service provider. RPO is a long-term partnership or project-based solution that helps you evolve your talent acquisition strategy to attract and retain high-quality talent to meet your business goals. Outsourcing through an RPO lets you scale up or down during high and low volume periods. RPO recruitment companies can cover everything from high-volume hiring to niche roles and can be regional or cover your global hiring requirements. 

Staffing Agencies operate on a transactional model, focusing on filling individual job requisitions. They maintain their own brand, work with multiple clients simultaneously on similar roles, and typically hand off candidates once initial screening is complete. 

For companies, particularly small to mid-sized organizations, this distinction matters more than ever. Here’s why. 

7 Critical Differences Between RPO vs Staffing Agency

1. Strategic Partnership

RPO Approach: Your RPO team acts as an extension of your in-house team and is your strategic partner in creating a talent acquisition program. RPO recruiters may sit on-site, work remotely, work offshore or a combination, and they’ll usually take on your company name and email domain in their communications. An RPO partner will come to understand your business deeply, which means they are best suited to help you evolve your talent acquisition program to meet your needs now and scale into the future, maintaining institutional knowledge and process consistency. 

Staffing Agency Approach: Agency recruiters typically act as a finder—sourcing, pre-screening and introducing candidates to the client (often the hiring manager) who takes it from there. Agency recruiters keep their own company email and brand when interacting with candidates.  

This works for one-off hires but breaks down when you’re scaling rapidly. Growing companies need partners who understand your long-term evolution and can anticipate your needs.

2. Process Improvements

RPO Approach: RPO partners conduct comprehensive process audits, identify inefficiencies, and implement scalable improvements. Not only does this reduce time-to-fill, but it also improves the candidate experience. A process evaluation will also include your talent technology. Your RPO partner will assess any gaps, make recommendations for new solutions and support the implementation process. 

Staffing Agency Approach: For a staffing agency, the hire-by-hire nature of their work means they’re likely not looking for ways to improve your overall hiring processes. They maintain their own workflows, which can create disconnects and inconsistencies as you grow, impacting the candidate experience and your employer brand.

3. Talent Pooling

RPO Approach: One huge advantage of the long-term relationship you build with an RPO partner is taking advantage of their ability to create talent pools. Having a pool of active and passive candidates speeds up time-to-hire, because when new roles open, you’re not starting from zero. 

Staffing Agency Approach: Agencies focus on finding candidates for a specific vacancy. It tends to be a reactive model, in which they work from requisition to requisition. Agency recruiters maintain a pool of candidates for their multiple clients, so these candidates are not necessarily found with your company in mind. 

4. Quality + Cultural Fit

RPO Approach: Leading RPO providers offer comprehensive talent assessment solutions, using behavioral interviews, skills evaluations and cultural fit assessments. This is particularly important for small to mid-sized companies as the consequences of a bad hire are far more significant and visible than at large enterprises. 

Staffing Agency Approach: Agencies focus primarily on skills and experience matching. Cultural fit assessment, when it happens, is typically limited to basic screening questions. They generally won’t be responsible for administering assessment solutions or advise on how to improve them. 

5. Talent Advisory

RPO Approach: RPO partners bring added value through their expertise in talent advisory, including employer branding, recruitment marketing, candidate communications, assessment services, labor market insights, workforce planning and talent acquisition strategy. These capabilities are vital for positioning your organization to efficiently attract, recruit and retain top talent in today’s competitive hiring landscape. 

Staffing Agency Approach: Agencies typically post jobs on their preferred job boards and tap their existing networks. Employer branding and recruitment marketing remain your responsibility—assuming you have the expertise internally. 

6. Technology Consulting

RPO Approach: RPO providers offer technology consulting, and help you understand how you can leverage AI-powered sourcing, advanced analytics, and tech integration to improve your recruitment outcomes. Some RPO providers offer some kind of recruitment technology component, whether it’s a propriety system, like PeopleScout’s Affinix® total talent suite, or expertise in a variety of talent technology systems. They’ll be comfortable working with your existing systems and can recommend solutions that scale with your growth. 

Staffing Agency Approach: Agencies use their own technology stack, which may not integrate with your systems. Limited technology means you miss out on advanced sourcing tools and market intelligence platforms. 

7. Reporting and Analytics

RPO Approach: RPO providers take ownership of recruitment outcomes. They’ll work with you to define metrics, KPIs and SLAs, and report on them on a regular basis. RPO dashboards provide visibility into time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, source-of-hire, candidate or hiring manager satisfaction and retention levels. In addition, leading RPO partners bring labor market insights to help you understand the available talent pool in the locations in which you’re hiring and recommendations on how to adjust your strategy. 

Staffing Agency Approach: Agency accountability typically ends when they present candidates. Limited reporting means you can’t optimize your overall hiring strategy or demonstrate ROI to leadership. 

rpo staffing

The Mid-Market Reality: Why Staffing Agencies Fall Short 

The challenges facing small to mid-sized companies go far beyond what traditional staffing agencies were designed to handle: 

  • Remote/Hybrid Talent Competition: You’re no longer competing just with local companies—you’re competing globally for remote talent. This requires sophisticated sourcing strategies and employer branding
  • Skills Shortage Crisis: Critical roles in technology, healthcare, and engineering have candidate shortages of around 40%. Finding qualified candidates requires proactive pipeline development, not reactive posting. 
  • Candidate Experience Expectations: Top talent expects streamlined, technology-enabled hiring processes. Clunky, agency-mediated experiences drive candidates to your competitors. 
  • Rapid Scaling Requirements: Whether you’re preparing for Series B funding or geographic expansion, you need recruitment partners who can scale quickly without compromising quality. 

The Bottom Line 

The talent market rewards strategic thinking over transactional hiring. Organizations, particularly mid-sized companies, that treat recruitment as a competitive advantage—through RPO partnerships, technology integration, and process optimization—will outpace those still relying on traditional staffing approaches. 

The question isn’t whether you need recruitment support—it’s whether you need a vendor or a strategic partner. That distinction often determines who wins the best candidates and scales most successfully. 

Recruitment Marketing Analytics: From Gut Instinct to Data Intelligence  

The emergence of data-driven recruitment has fundamentally transformed how forward-thinking organizations approach talent acquisition. Recruitment marketing analytics isn’t just about tracking basic metrics like application volumes or cost-per-hire—it’s about developing deep insights into candidate behavior, optimizing every stage of the talent journey, and making strategic decisions backed by concrete evidence rather than assumptions. 

Leveraging the data generated through recruitment marketing represents more than just operational improvement—it’s a strategic evolution that enables talent acquisition teams to operate with the sophistication and accountability of modern marketing departments.  

Recruitment Marketing Analytics Fundamentals 

Modern CRM systems provide critical insights through talent pool composition analytics, engagement metrics, campaign performance measurement and conversion measurement across the candidate journey. But a recruitment analytics platform goes deeper, offering a single source of truth for understanding your end-to-end recruitment process. 

Talent acquisition leaders are increasingly adopting sophisticated data-driven approaches to optimize strategies, allocate resources effectively and demonstrate clear ROI to organizational stakeholders. Look for an analytics platform with interactive dashboards that visually monitor trends and identify opportunities, connecting recruitment analytics with talent market intelligence. 

Key Performance Indicators Across the Candidate Journey 

Awareness: 

  • Career site metrics: Unique visitors, source attribution, and content engagement 
  • Social media engagement: Follower growth, share of voice, and engagement rates 

Consideration: 

  • Talent community growth: New registrations and nurture campaign engagement 
  • Application intent: Job description views, application starts, and abandoned rates 
  • Engagement quality: Repeat visits and time spent exploring opportunities 

Application: 

  • Conversion metrics: Application completion rates and cost-per-application 
  • Candidate quality: Skills match percentage and diversity of applicant pool 
  • Efficiency: Time to qualified candidate and recruitment marketing cost-per-hire 

Cross-Funnel Metrics: 

  • Candidate experience: Satisfaction surveys at various touchpoints 
  • Market responsiveness: Time-to-fill by position and location 

Advanced Analytics 

Organizations that move beyond basic reporting can unlock deeper insights to transform recruitment marketing effectiveness. 

  • Cohort Analysis: Track candidate groups over time to identify behavior patterns and evaluate the long-term impact of marketing initiatives. 
  • Funnel Analysis: Identify conversion bottlenecks, compare performance across candidate segments, and evaluate stage-by-stage conversion efficiency to optimize the candidate journey. 
  • Channel Effectiveness Analysis: Compare cross-channel performance, calculate return on investment by channel, and find the optimal channel mix for improved budget allocation. 

Predictive Analytics and AI Applications 

Predictive analytics leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to highlight insights, anomalies and predictions, including: 

  • Candidate conversion predictions
  • Channel performance forecasting 
  • Hiring timeline optimization 
  • Sourcing strategy recommendations 
  • Budget allocation optimization 

These capabilities help talent teams understand behaviors of top talent and predict factors such as cultural fit, willingness to change companies and future tenure potential—helping to support confident recruitment marketing budgets. 

Building a Culture of Data-Driven Decision Making 

Successfully implementing recruitment marketing analytics requires more than just sophisticated analytics tools—it demands a fundamental shift in how talent acquisition teams approach strategy development and performance evaluation. This cultural transformation involves moving from reactive, intuition-based decisions to proactive, evidence-based strategies. 

The most successful organizations establish regular data review cycles where recruitment teams analyze performance metrics, identify trends, and adjust strategies accordingly. They create accountability frameworks that tie recruitment marketing decisions to measurable outcomes, and they invest in developing analytical capabilities across their talent acquisition teams. 

Equally important is establishing clear data governance practices that ensure accuracy, consistency, and actionable insights. This includes standardizing data collection methods, implementing quality control processes, and creating accessible dashboards that enable real-time monitoring and decision-making. 

Recruitment Marketing Analytics as a Revenue Driver 

Data-driven recruitment marketing transforms talent acquisition from a cost center focused on filling positions to a strategic function that drives measurable business value. When recruitment teams can demonstrate clear connections between their marketing investments and outcomes like improved candidate quality, faster time-to-hire, and enhanced employer brand perception, they gain credibility and resources to execute increasingly sophisticated strategies. 

By adopting recruitment marketing analytics, organizations can optimize recruitment marketing budgets, improve candidate quality, reduce time-to-hire and demonstrate clear ROI to leadership—creating sustainable competitive advantages in the global talent marketplace. The future belongs to those who can transform data into actionable insights and use those insights to build more effective, efficient and candidate-centric recruitment experiences. 

How Recruitment Marketing Technology Is Transforming Talent Acquisition

Today’s most successful organizations aren’t just using technology to automate existing processes—they’re leveraging it to fundamentally reimagine how they identify, attract, engage and nurture talent relationships. Modern recruitment marketing technology enables organizations to operate more sophisticated recruitment marketing campaigns, with the ability to segment audiences, personalize experiences, track engagement, measure ROI and optimize campaigns in real-time. The result is a more strategic, efficient, and candidate-centric approach that drives superior outcomes in an increasingly competitive talent market. 

Understanding and leveraging these technological capabilities isn’t just an advantage—it’s becoming essential for remaining competitive in a market where the best candidates have multiple options and expect sophisticated, personalized experiences throughout their journey. 

Core Capabilities of Modern CRM Platforms 

While Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) have long served as the technological backbone of recruitment processes, their focus on managing active applications creates significant limitations in today’s talent-driven market. Enter Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) technology. A CRM platform enables organizations to nurture relationships with candidates long before they apply, creating robust talent pipelines and enhancing the overall candidate experience. 

Talent Community Management 

At the heart of CRM technology is the ability to build and nurture talent communities. A CRM allows you to create dynamic talent pools where candidates can express interest, update preferences and receive tailored communications—all outside the formal application process. Talent groups can be segmented to create region-specific or role-specific talent communities that respect nuances while maintaining a consistent employer brand. 

Key Capabilities: 

  • Segmentation capabilities for targeted engagement 
  • Self-service profile management for candidates 
  • Interest-based talent pool organization 
  • Engagement tracking and scoring 
  • Automated membership management workflows 

Personalized Candidate Journeys 

CRM technology helps you create the highly personalized experiences modern candidates expect. Deliver experiences that feel bespoke to each candidate, addressing their specific interests, career aspirations and information needs based on their stage in the process. For instance, a software developer might receive content about technical challenges and innovation, while a marketing professional might see content showcasing creative campaigns and brand initiatives. 

Key Capabilities: 

  • Microsites for specific talent communities or recruitment campaigns
  • Automated yet personalized communication workflows 
  • Hyper-targeted messaging informed by career site behavior, engagement signals and candidate status 
  • Preference and interest-based content delivery 

Sophisticated Nurture Campaigns 

Perhaps the most transformative aspect of CRM technology is the ability to develop long-term engagement strategies. This allows talent acquisition teams to maintain meaningful connections with potential candidates over extended periods, gradually building familiarity and preference for the employer brand. For roles with limited talent pools, such as specialized technical positions or senior leadership, these nurture capabilities are particularly valuable in developing relationships with passive candidates who may not be ready to apply immediately. 

Advanced Features: 

  • Multi-stage nurture campaign development 
  • Email and SMS/text communication 
  • Trigger-based communication sequences 
  • Engagement scoring and qualification models 
  • Cross-channel campaign coordination 

Event Management and Engagement 

CRM platforms have evolved to support comprehensive event strategies. From campus recruitment fairs to executive networking events, CRM technology provides the infrastructure to maximize the relationship-building potential of in-person and virtual interactions. The most effective platforms seamlessly integrate event engagement with broader candidate journeys, ensuring consistent experiences across touchpoints. 

Functionality Includes: 

  • Registration and attendance management 
  • Pre- and post-event communication sequences 
  • Virtual event platform integration 
  • Attendee engagement tracking 
  • ROI measurement for recruitment events 

Creating a Unified Recruitment Ecosystem

The true power of recruitment technology emerges not from individual tools, but from their seamless integration. A well-integrated technology stack enables consistent candidate experience, streamlines workflows and comprehensive data analysis. For example, integrating your CRM with your ATS eliminates the “black hole” experience where candidates lose visibility into the their status after applying. Instead, the CRM maintains the relationship regardless of application outcomes, enabling you to maintain connections with promising candidates for future opportunities.

The Power of One

Consider leveraging a talent technology suite—a tech platform that integrates an ATS, a CRM and recruitment marketing capabilities out-of-the-box. For example, Affinix®, PeopleScout’s proprietary total talent suite, brings your entire recruitment journey together into one ecosystem. Affinix connects applicant tracking, candidate relationship management, recruitment marketing, digital interviewing and talent analytics with a consistent user experience across applications. Through our modular approach, you can mix and match capabilities and build the perfect recruitment ecosystem for your needs. 

The Data Advantage of Recruitment Marketing Technology 

Modern recruitment marketing technology generates unprecedented insights into candidate behavior, campaign effectiveness and talent market dynamics. Organizations that effectively leverage this data gain significant competitive advantages through evidence-based decision making and continuous optimization. 

The most sophisticated platforms provide recruitment marketing analytics on engagement rates, conversion metrics, candidate journey progression, and sourcing effectiveness. This data enables recruitment teams to identify what’s working, optimize underperforming campaigns, and allocate resources more effectively. More importantly, it allows them to understand candidate preferences and behaviors at a granular level, informing more targeted and effective engagement strategies. 

Advanced analytics also enable predictive capabilities, helping organizations anticipate talent needs, identify optimal recruitment timing, and proactively build talent pipelines before urgent hiring needs arise. This shift from reactive to proactive talent acquisition represents a fundamental evolution in how organizations approach talent strategy. 

Future-Proofing Your Strategy with Recruitment Marketing Technology 

As technology continues to evolve, the organizations that thrive will be those that view their recruitment marketing technology as a strategic asset rather than just operational infrastructure. The most successful organizations approach recruitment marketing technology as an integrated ecosystem that supports their employer brand, candidate experience and talent acquisition goals. By thoughtfully selecting, integrating, and optimizing their technology stack, they create powerful capabilities that drive competitive advantage in the race for talent.  

[On Demand] New Rules for a New Reality: Early Careers Assessment for Tomorrow’s Workforce

[Webinar On-Demand] New Rules for a New Reality

Early Careers Assessment for Tomorrow’s Workforce

The early careers recruitment landscape has been turned upside down. With hiring volumes slashed, companies are inundated with hundreds of applications for just a handful of positions. Sprinkle in some Gen AI, and it’s a whole new game.

Is it time to throw away the old early careers recruitment rulebook?

Join PeopleScout’s Head of Assessment Design, Amanda Callen, and Talent Solutions Director, James Chorley, for an eye-opening session that reveals how TMP Worldwide partnered with PeopleScout Psychologists to rewrite the rules and create a future-ready approach for early careers assessment.

Discover how they built their bold new assessment model from scratch, processing massive applicant volumes while being budget-friendly and genuinely engaging. Built to be Gen AI-resilient, highly inclusive, and perfectly tailored to attract creative talent, this wasn’t about playing it safe; it was about having the courage to build something entirely new.

In this webinar, we’ll cover:

  • How to identify which “rules” in early careers assessment are actually worth following in 2025 and beyond
  • Modern strategies for efficiently sifting through massive applicant volumes to uncover hidden gems
  • Practical approaches for building evidence-based, bespoke assessment processes
  • The daring design features that made TMPW’s assessment a standout success
  • How to create an early careers assessment that’s not just fit for the future—but ahead of it

Beyond the Beaten Pathway: Creative Assessment for TMP Worldwide’s Emerging Talent Search

Beyond the Beaten Pathway: Creative Assessment for TMP Worldwide's Emerging Talent Search

Graduate Assessment

Beyond the Beaten Pathway: Creative Assessment for TMP Worldwide’s Emerging Talent Search

Discover how PeopleScout designed an innovative graduate assessment process for TMP Worldwide’s new development programme. Our reciprocal choice model, Gen AI-resilient tools, and bespoke selection stages that achieved 100% offer acceptance while identifying future leaders who aligned with company values.

100 % attendance rate for the assessment centre
100 % offer acceptance rate
Gen AI resilient assessment process
Gen AI resilient assessment process

Situation

TMP Worldwide—a transformative, multi-award-winning advertising agency that dominates UK media buying, employer branding, recruitment marketing, and resourcing—had big plans. They’d created a brand-new two-year graduate development programme designed to cultivate their next generation of leaders. The catch? Just three coveted spots were available.

While TMPW had successfully designed and delivered numerous graduate assessment processes for their clients, this was the first time TMPW was running a scheme of their own. Unlike a typical graduate scheme with rigid degree requirements or university hierarchies, TMPW’s Graduate Pathway was designed to find graduates with a different mindset who could maximise every learning opportunity and emerge as genuine trailblazers.

They were working with shorter-than-usual timescales and needed maximum return on investment. The challenge was on to design and deliver a bespoke, forward-focused and cost-efficient early careers assessment process to unearth three brilliant graduates.

With no historical data to lean on and an evolving early careers landscape, the process had to be flexible enough to scale up or down based on unknown application volumes—all without affecting costs or timelines. Plus, they needed to stay ahead of the curve with Gen-AI-aware design features that would protect the process from unwanted disruption from candidates potentially using Gen AI to exaggerate or misrepresent their skills.

Solution

PeopleScout’s Assessment Psychologists crafted a bespoke, end-to-end selection process that brought TMPW’s unique proposition to life. This wasn’t about adapting existing frameworks—this was industry-first thinking that gave candidates multiple opportunities to showcase their strengths through an engaging, informative experience.

We started from scratch, applying best practice design principles with a creative twist. We began with research to capture the expertise and perspectives of key Graduate Pathway stakeholders to build a values-led assessment framework that truly embodied TMPW’s culture.

The Reciprocal Choice Revolution

Here’s where our different mindset really showed. Instead of the traditional one-way selection approach, we developed an innovative reciprocal choice model based on TMP’s values and candidates’ evolving expectations. This creative solution emphasised mutual fit over one-sided evaluation, embedding informed candidate choice throughout the process and prioritising transparent, authentic two-way communication between candidate and company.

We integrated realistic job preview (RJP) elements at every stage, ensuring candidates could make genuinely informed decisions about their future with TMP.

We recognised the potential for Gen-AI-enabled applicants to impact the accuracy of hiring decisions and were transparent with candidates about AI usage and issued training and guidance to recruiters.

Three Stages of Discovery

Our creative approach unfolded across four carefully designed stages, each providing deeper insights into both the programme and TMPW while enabling candidates to self-assess their alignment with the company.

Stage 1: Killer Questions

We kicked off with strategically crafted questions based on realistic job previews and informed choice principles. This wasn’t about catching people out—it was about helping the right candidates identify themselves early.

Stage 2: Gen AI-Resilient Sift

Our Gen AI-resilient sift tool assessed priority criteria from the framework, using autoscored situational and preference questions specifically designed to limit Gen AI disruption. This ensured we were evaluating genuine responses and different thinking styles.

Stage 3: Asynchronous Video Interview

We invited the highest-scoring candidates to pre-record a video interview. Those who gave personalised, unique responses earned their place at our immersive assessment centre at TMPW’s London headquarters.

Stage 4: Immersive, Work-Sampling Assessment Centre

This final stage provided realistic work samples and genuine previews of life at TMPW and the nature of role, testing holistic match and ensuring successful candidates could make fully informed decisions when it came to accepting offers—fulfilling our goal to make the right hires the first time and every time.

Results

Interest in the pathway was huge, and our creative solution delivered exactly what TMPW needed. With automated sifting, asynchronous video interviews, and extensive self-assessment opportunities, we identified candidates who were both exceptionally talented and genuinely motivated to succeed at TMPW.

TMPW were overwhelmingly happy with what we managed to achieve, including:

  • Maintaining a highly diverse candidate pool through to the assessment centre.
  • Highly eligible assessment centre candidates who scored highly across the full set of assessment criteria during the exercises and interviews.
  • Cost-effective use of only bespoke-designed assessments with no cost-per-use or licence costs, as well as the ability to scale up without increasing costs.
  • 100% attendance rate for the assessment centre.
  • 100% offer acceptance rate.
  • Positive feedback on the assessment experience from candidates.
  • The identification of strong future leaders who aligned with TMP’s company values and unique culture.

This industry-first approach didn’t just fill three graduate positions—it created a blueprint for identifying and attracting different thinkers who’ll drive competitive advantage for TMPW and their clients for years to come.

Candidate Feedback:

  • “I enjoyed how immersive and hand-on the process was. There were lots of different styles of tasks.”
  • “The process was very creative and unique.”

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    TMP Worldwide UK
  • INDUSTRY
    Consulting
  • About TMP Worldwide
    TMP Worldwide UK is a leading recruitment marketing agency, specialising in connecting top talent with employers through innovative and data-driven solutions. With decades of experience in the talent acquisition space, TMP Worldwide UK helps employers to attract, engage, and retain the best candidates. Focused on driving measurable results through strategic employer branding, recruitment advertising, and recruitment technology, TMP Worldwide UK helps organisations to outthink their competitors and build stronger, more diverse workforces. For more information, please visit www.tmpw.co.uk. TMP Worldwide UK is part of PeopleScout, a TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI) company, a global talent solutions leader that provides unmatched scalability to meet the hiring needs of organisations of all sizes.

How an Art Heist Transformed Financial Services Recruitment

How an Art Heist Transformed Financial Services Recruitment

PeopleScout Assessment

How an Art Heist Transformed Financial Services Recruitment

PeopleScout’s assessment and creative teams helped a leading financial services company transform their entry-level recruitment process from a typical interview to an innovative, immersive experience, creating an assessment centre unlike any candidate had encountered before.

86 % assessment centre pass rate (up from 41%)
98 % offer acceptance rate (up from 73%)
98 % candidate satisfaction scores after the assessment

Situation 

A leading financial services provider, specialising in pensions, investments and insurance, was facing recruitment challenges. They needed to fill contact centre roles—mainly phone-based positions handling customer inquiries—but their process needed a revamp.

The numbers tell the story: In 2023, the company processed approximately 7,000 applications to fill 250 entry-level positions. That’s a mountain of CVs and a serious administrative burden. Their approach was pretty standard—online application, a telephone interview followed by  a face-to-face competency interview. They’d assess just 12 to 14 candidates per day, running two interviews simultaneously, seven times a day.

In addition to the scale of the effort, hiring managers kept gravitating toward candidates who already had contact centre or financial services experience. The client’s talent acquisition team spotted this bias and realised they were probably missing out on brilliant people who hadn’t worked in these specific areas before. These candidates might have exactly what it takes to excel—they just didn’t tick the “industry experience” box.

So, they decided it was time for a complete recruitment makeover.

Solution 

We stepped in to flip the client’s assessment approach on its head, creating something that was fair, inclusive, and—dare we say it—actually fun.

Our psychologists teamed up with our creative team to figure out how to support evidence-based hiring decisions while giving candidates an experience they’d never forget. What emerged was a multi-stage, immersive assessment that aligned with the client’s goals and gave everyone a fair shot.

Assessment Framework Development

Our psychologists rolled up their sleeves and did a deep-dive job analysis, systematically reviewing multiple information sources to define the capabilities, experience, skills, abilities and behaviours that make someone successful in these contact centre roles. They talked to hiring managers, incumbents and recruiters to understand what “good” really looks like—not just on paper, but in practice—securing stakeholder buy-in and support throughout the process.

From the research an assessment framework was created which guided the design of all the assessments. This research-driven approach meant the assessment process was built on best practice methodology while actually measuring what mattered for job performance. Our goal was to achieve:

  • A standardised assessment process ensures all candidates have the same experience, enhancing equality, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I) and increasing fairness
  • Objective assessment of candidates, focusing on evidence-based criteria that are relevant to job performance
  • Concrete, evidence-based rationale for hiring decisions, ensuring fair, accurate and defensible outcomes

Three-Stage Assessment Process

Our psychologists designed a multi-method assessment process to offer candidates multiple opportunities to shine. By mixing different types of assessments, we could accommodate different strengths and preferences while reducing bias—accommodating neurominority candidates and accounting for different preferences for showcasing abilities.

The three-stage process cleverly blended automated scoring with human insight, cutting down on bias while saving assessors’ time.

Stage 1: Telephone Screen

The client wanted to keep their phone interview—it was working well for them. So, our psychologists took what they had and made it better, creating standardised questions and scoring while keeping the motivational elements and assessing behaviours from the assessment framework.

Stage 2: Online Assessment

Here’s where we got bold: we ditched the CVs entirely. To reduce the likelihood of decisions being based on work history, we developed a gamified online assessment that tested the core behaviours we’d identified as crucial for success.

Working with the client’s test publisher, our psychologists advised on aligning their gamified assessment to the assessment framework, creating an automated sift stage ahead of the assessment centre which boosted pipeline efficiency. The highest scorers moved forward, regardless of their background—saving time and boosting objectivity.

Stage 3: Immersive Assessment Centre

Candidates were expecting a standard, corporate assessment process. But, with the assessment centre invitation they received a video that parachuted them into an alternative world where—for one day only—they became part of a fictional organisation, an underground resistance movement tasked with stopping ruthless art thieves from pulling off the art heist of the century.

Within this world, candidates did an interview, a mock customer conversation exercise to understand customer-facing roles, and a group exercise with clues and problem-solving tasks.

We dressed the assessment room and utilised themed props—ticket stubs, Instagram posts, umbrellas, and even a Magic 8 ball—creating an assessment experience unlike any they had encountered before.

The candidates worked together to solve puzzles and piece together clues. The high-energy, creative challenges included finding criminal targets, cracking cryptic codes, locating target artwork and galleries, and responding to the intel of a double agent. All of it was woven into a cinematic experience delivered by professional actors.

The whole assessment centre was anchored in science and a robust assessment framework—all within just two hours.

By creating this fantasy world full of brain-teasing challenges and tasks, candidates had such a good time they relaxed and brought their true selves to the event. As a result, the in-room assessors could then use the scoring guides to easily identify the core attributes the client was looking for in its recruits.

“The highlight was seeing them laughing and interacting as a team during the group assessment. It was almost like they forgot they were interviewing for a job.”

Talent Acquisition Leader

To ensure the success of the assessment centre, we provided comprehensive training and clear assessment guides for managers, assessors, and facilitators, ensuring they understood assessment best practices and had a detailed briefing of the exercises themselves.

Results 

In the first four months of assessment centres, we achieved:

  • 0% “no show” rate (down from 25%)
  • 86% assessment centre pass rate (up from 41%)
  • 98% offer acceptance rate (up from 73%)
  • 60% attrition, now at the lowest rate since the pandemic
  • 37 days in recruiter time saved since removing CVs from the pre-assessment centre stage
  • 98% candidate satisfaction rate at the end of the assessment centre
  • 92% new joiner satisfaction rate

Importantly, candidates who received offers came from a variety of backgrounds, including nail technicians, chefs, employees from a world-famous golf course and a football club, and former retirees returning to work.

Candidate Feedback:

“The best interview experience I’ve had.”

“I forgot I was being assessed.”

“I have never had an interview experience with this much human touch.”

“The best one I have done. The others were old school and formulaic.”

“The playfulness was different level.”

“It’s nice to be tested on ‘you’ rather than experiences you may have been fortunate or unfortunate to have gone through.”

“I’ve been bragging about how much fun it was.”

Client Feedback:

“Our new immersive assessment process sees us shift immediately from an old-fashioned, competency-based interview to a modern selection process focused on behaviours, underpinned by robust occupational science. We’ll jump from lagging behind our peers, to a market leading proposition that will ultimately see us making better informed hiring choices. Results so far have been really encouraging, and it’s been great to see such positive initial feedback from our managers and candidates.” – Talent Acquisition Leader

“It was a new refreshing way to carry out recruitment, and one I think will bring in the right people. I enjoyed the interview section as I felt like the questions were much more suited to what we are looking for. I also felt the role plays were great as it gave us a real insight into the candidates’ customer service skills. Overall, I felt it was a big success and look forward to doing the next recruitment day.” – Hiring Manager

“The role play gave an insight into the candidates’ behaviours which is the most important thing. The group exercise really allowed people to immerse themselves into the exercise, and I feel we saw their true colours.” – Hiring Manager

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    Financial service company
  • INDUSTRY
    Banking & Financial Services
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory

Is Skills-Based Hiring Really the Next Big Thing?

In the recruitment space, skills-based hiring is on the tip of talent acquisition leaders’ tongues. Is it worthy of all the ink spilled or just the flavour of the month?

The internet is buzzing with headlines framing skills-based hiring as a revolutionary step forward—a clean break from “outdated” methods like focusing on academic qualifications. But as usual, we want to take a more critical look.

Let’s step away from the hype to examine the real pros and cons of skills-based hiring. More importantly, let’s figure out how skills-based hiring can work for you.

Skills-Based Hiring: Is it Really New?

There are three common myths being perpetuated by many of the articles about skills-based hiring:

Myth 1: Educational qualifications have been the main barrier to good hiring decisions.

The argument goes that recruiting teams rely too heavily on degrees and don’t think enough about skills—and if they just focused on skills instead, all their hiring issues would be solved.

This misrepresents how most employers actually make hiring decisions. While education requirements do exist in job descriptions, they’re rarely the primary factor in final hiring choices. Most recruiters already consider multiple factors including experience, cultural fit and demonstrated abilities. Skills-based hiring has its positives and certainly feels more inclusive than rigid degree requirements, but it’s not the revolutionary shift from degree-obsessed hiring that many articles suggest.

Myth 2: Everyone talking about skills is talking about the same thing.

One reason the history of skills-based hiring is hard to track is the absence of a clear, consistent definition of what constitutes a “skill.” In the context of skills-based hiring, a skill could be a competency, strength or motivation—anything that enables a person to do the job well. That landscape is far more nuanced and complex than most articles let on.

The reality is that defining skills is a lengthy process and requires careful consideration of context. But most writers on this subject don’t bother to grapple with this complexity. Instead, they gloss over any real explanation of what skills are, feeding the perception that skills are so simple and universally understood that we don’t need definitions. This creates the illusion that organizations should be able to easily incorporate skills-based approaches without doing the hard work of actually defining what they mean by “skills” in their specific context.

Myth 3: Skills-based hiring and talent management is a new idea, and the bandwagon is leaving the station.

Headlines will have you believe that skills-based hiring is “the next big thing” and a silver bullet that will solve all your workforce woes. However, this doesn’t really reflect most hiring processes.

Even if you’re not actively thinking about skills-based hiring, it’s likely that it is embedded—at least partly—into your hiring process already. Today, recruiters rarely just think in terms of hiring somebody because their qualifications line up to the “essential” section of the job description.

So, skills-based hiring isn’t a new idea. The term might be, but not the practice.

These myths lead us to feel that the noise around skills-based hiring is misleading. It suggests that skills-based hiring is driving the recruitment industry right now, when in reality, very few are moving forward with it in an overt, intentional way.

Getting Started with Skills-Based Hiring When Time and Budgets Aren’t Huge

If you do want to embrace skills-based hiring, here are some practical steps:

1. Start with an Audit

If you’re keen to implement skills-based hiring, first of all, feel reassured that it’s likely already part of your approach, even if you don’t call it that. Start by establishing where you are along the skills-based continuum.

Diagnostics come into their own here. Assess your hiring processes in a structured way, identifying gaps, strengths and opportunities for improvement. It can be beneficial to bring in an external partner like the PeopleScout Assessment Design team, to provide robust, evidence-based, unbiased feedback to maximise impact.

2. Defining Your Skills

Then it comes down to defining skills—for now and the future. These can’t be vague; they need to be carefully defined so that they can be accurately applied. You’ll build these from research, both internally and by looking externally. If you want to have an organisation-wide approach, you’ll need to consider skills relevant for leadership and entry level roles and across departments. Engage your department heads and hiring managers to map these.

3. Look at Your Non-Skills Criteria

You don’t have to remove looking at academic qualifications from your hiring process entirely. However, if there are instances where you’re using an academic qualification as a stand-in for a skill—say, a humanities degree as a signifier of good written communication skills—you can probably move away from it and start focusing more explicitly on the skill itself.

Skills-based hiring can open doors for many candidates—and expand your talent pool. Perhaps your ideal candidate did not go to university, but their written communication skills are more than adequate for the role.

4. Kick Off a Pilot

Even without a big budget to fund an overhaul of your recruitment processes, it’s still possible to make a start. To make it manageable, begin with a small, pilot process. Your audit can help you identify the best starting point—perhaps it’s a particular department or role type.

Once you’ve started, you’ll want to closely monitor it to ensure that the benefits are genuine. Try not to feel pressured into investing too much time, money and resources into skills-based hiring because it is a hot topic. Make changes bit by bit, turn to evidence, and stay reflective.

The Bottom Line

Don’t get overcome by buzzwords. In all likelihood, skills-based hiring has been a part of your process for a while now. If you want to concentrate more on skills-based hiring, start small, remain sceptical of the hype, get external insight, be evidence-based and keep evolving your approach.

Protecting Recruitment Integrity in the AI Era 

Generative AI (Gen AI) is disrupting the job-seeking landscape, offering powerful tools that transform CVs, résumés, cover letters and interview preparation. Despite this technological shift, our research, The AI-Enabled Applicant: How Candidates Are Really Using Gen AI in Recruitment, indicates a surprising adoption gap—only one in five UK job seekers currently leverage these AI capabilities. Nevertheless, employers remain concerned about candidates potentially using AI to embellish or misrepresent their qualifications and experience. 

This article marks the third installment in our series examining the implications of our research findings on Gen AI’s role in recruitment. As these technologies continue to reshape hiring practices, organisations must evolve their approaches to preserve assessment integrity while efficiently identifying exceptional talent. Drawing from our research, we’ve developed several actionable strategies for navigating this new reality: 

Set Clear Expectations on AI Usage 

Be transparent about your stance on Gen AI usage throughout the application process. Rather than implementing blanket bans that may be impossible to enforce, consider: 

  • Providing specific guidelines on acceptable AI use (e.g., “Gen AI may be used to help with formatting and improving your CV but not in a way that falsely represents your skills or experience”) 
  • Explaining the rationale behind restrictions to encourage candidate adherence 
  • Including explicit statements in job descriptions and application platforms about AI usage policies and potential consequences for use of Gen AI to create inauthentic applications or assessments 

Clear communication and transparency about how you expect candidates to use (or not use) Gen AI not only helps encourage appropriate candidate application approaches but also demonstrates organisational integrity in an increasingly AI-influenced world. 

Resist Abandoning Proven Methods 

Despite vendors claiming to offer “ChatGPT-proof” and “bias free” online assessments, our assessment psychology experts say caution is warranted: 

  • There is currently limited evidence supporting the effectiveness of many new “AI-proof” assessment methods.
  • Hastily implemented solutions may introduce new biases or inefficiencies—doing more harm than good. 
  • Completely abandoning traditional methods could disrupt established recruitment pipelines. 

Instead, maintain a balanced approach. Focus on strengthening existing processes with strategic modifications that address specific vulnerabilities to Gen AI manipulation. Regularly evaluate and update your processes to respond to emerging AI capabilities. 

Make Application Questions Personal 

Generic questions are particularly vulnerable to AI-generated answers. Design questions that elicit unique, authentic responses, like:  

  • Asking candidates to draw from own unique experience 
  • Requesting concrete examples of how they’ve demonstrated particular skills or values 
  • Incorporating questions about personal motivation and alignment with organisational culture that require genuine self-reflection 

Questions that require candidates to draw from their unique backgrounds and perspectives are inherently more difficult for Gen AI to generate strong and credible answers. 

Develop Unique Questions 

Create bespoke evaluation components. Standard questions are easily accessible online and therefore vulnerable to Gen AI assistance. Instead: 

  • Develop application questions specific to your organisation’s values, challenges and opportunities 
  • Design scenario-based questions that relate directly to the unique aspects of the role 
  • Request detailed responses that demonstrate depth of understanding rather than surface-level knowledge 

Questions that are specific to your organisation and the role push candidates to think beyond any scripted answers. Not only does this reduce the effectiveness of Gen AI, but it’s also better at uncovering candidates’ genuine interest and cultural fit.  

Implement Verification Strategies 

Consider validating CV and application content by: 

  • Referencing and discussing application content during face-to-face interviews
  • Asking candidates to elaborate on or defend specific points from their CV or written applications 
  • Implementing a verification process for all candidates or for a sample 

Informing candidates in advance that verification will occur can itself serve as a deterrent to Gen AI misuse. 

Prioritise In-Person Interviews and Assessments 

Maximise the value of human interaction. While resource-intensive, in-person interviews and assessments remain among the most reliable methods for evaluating candidates in the Gen AI era: 

  • Design high-quality, job-related interview questions with clear evaluation criteria. 
  • Train interviewers to probe for authenticity and consistent understanding of claimed experiences. 
  • Incorporate practical demonstrations or simulations that require candidates to apply skills in real-time. 

The combination of well-designed questions and simulations, and skilled interviewers and assessors, creates an environment where assistance from Gen AI provides minimal advantage. 

Apply Caution with Detection Technologies 

Evaluate AI detection tools critically. While numerous AI detection solutions have emerged, their effectiveness remains questionable. Our assessment psychology experts warn: 

  • We see little to no evidence that they work effectively. 
  • Implementation can be costly and complex. 
  • There are potential fairness concerns, particularly for candidates from diverse backgrounds. 

If considering detection tools, thoroughly evaluate their accuracy and review potential biases. Ensure there is a robust defence case in place to protect against any legal claim made by someone rejected due to assumed detection of Gen AI use.  If the decision is made to use them, consider them as just one element of a comprehensive strategy, in line with new restrictions emerging from the new EU laws around Gen AI use, rather than a standalone solution. 

Conclusion 

By implementing these practical strategies, organisations can navigate the evolving landscape of AI in recruitment while maintaining the integrity of their selection processes. The goal is not to eliminate Gen AI usage from the recruitment process entirely, but rather to ensure that human capabilities and potential remain at the centre of hiring decisions. 

To help organisations make more informed decisions, PeopleScout’s Assessment Design & Delivery team offers a Gen AI Opportunity & Risk Assessment Audit. This comprehensive review of the recruitment process identifies both vulnerabilities and opportunities related to generative AI throughout the candidate journey. Our assessment psychologists give you evidence-based recommendations to help you focus resources on critical vulnerability points, protecting your selection accuracy and diversity outcomes. 

For more Gen AI insights, download the full The AI-Enabled Applicant: How Candidates Are Really Using Gen AI in Recruitment report. 

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