Category: Talent Technology

5 Signs Your Recruitment Strategy Needs Modular RPO 

Posted on by akessler

Many organizations mistakenly believe Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) solutions are only for large enterprises with ongoing, high-volume hiring needs. While full-scale RPO might seem out of reach for some organizations, a modular RPO approach offers the flexibility to address specific recruitment challenges without overhauling your entire talent acquisition infrastructure. 

Modular RPO can deliver value to organizations of any size, including small- to medium-sized enterprises or those with short-term or specialized hiring requirements. Here are five key indicators that your current recruitment strategy might benefit from a modular RPO solution. 

1. Your Internal Team Is Struggling to Keep Up with Demand  

When your organization faces sudden spikes in hiring demand—whether for seasonal recruitment, rapid expansion, or project launches—your internal team can quickly become overwhelmed. These periods of increased volume often require you to scale up recruitment efforts quickly without the luxury of permanently increasing your internal headcount. 

Maintaining quality while meeting aggressive timelines becomes nearly impossible with existing resources. Your team may resort to rushed screening processes, extended working hours, or compromised candidate experiences, all of which can lead to poor hiring decisions and damage to your employer brand. 

Modular RPO provides the surge capacity you need during these peak periods. Specialized teams can quickly ramp up to handle the increased volume or hiring for a new project while maintaining consistent quality standards. Once the hiring surge or project is complete, you can scale back the support without the ongoing costs and complications of permanent staff additions. 

This approach is particularly valuable for organizations with predictable seasonal patterns, such as retail companies preparing for holiday seasons, or those opening new facilities that require rapid team building. 

2. You’re Managing Specialized Skill Requirements with Different Candidate Experiences 

When you need to hire for roles requiring niche expertise or hard-to-find skills, your internal team may lack the specialized knowledge, professional networks or sourcing strategies needed to identify and attract the right candidates. The talent pool may be limited, candidates may be passive and not actively job searching, or the role may require specific credentials that are difficult to assess without industry expertise. 

Different specialized roles also demand vastly different candidate experiences. A software engineer’s journey differs significantly from a marketing manager’s or a specialized researcher’s expectations. Each requires tailored communication, specific assessment methods, and industry-appropriate processes that your recruitment team may struggle to deliver consistently. 

Case Study: Infrastructure Company Ecologist Role 

An infrastructure company struggled to fill a newly created ecologist role due to low brand recognition in the environmental sector and poor response to the job ads. The company’s internal recruitment team lacked the specialized knowledge and networks needed to proactively approach environmental professionals. 

PeopleScout’s Talent Sourcing solution provided specialized headhunting, screening, and shortlisting services, allowing the client to retain their usual interview and offer management processes. We led a targeted search across industry governing bodies, environmental societies and networking groups, reviewing over 700 profiles. We proactively reached out to passive candidates to inform them of the role and gauge their interest, dispelling misperceptions about the transport industry at the same time. 

The result was a shortlist of two qualified candidates, resulting in a successful hire within 11 weeks—a significant improvement over the client’s previous unsuccessful attempts. 

👉 Read the full case study. 

3. You Need to Scale Rapidly in New Markets or Unfamiliar Territory 

When entering new markets, launching new product lines, or expanding into unfamiliar territories, your organization faces unique recruitment challenges that require rapid scaling capabilities. You may lack local market knowledge, employer brand recognition, or understanding of regional compensation and cultural expectations, all while needing to build teams quickly to capitalize on new opportunities. 

Modular RPO solutions, like PeopleScout’s Talent Mapping or Organizational Culture & EVP Diagnostic, can support recruiting in new geographic markets by helping you understanding local talent pools, competition, regulatory requirements, and how to adapt your employer brand for cultural nuances. Without this expertise, you risk extended time-to-fill, higher costs, and poor candidate experiences that can damage your reputation in the new market before you’ve even established yourself. 

Case Study: Consumer Goods Brand Transition 

A consumer goods brand splitting into two companies needed to optimize their talent acquisition strategy to support the transition and future growth. The challenge involved not just managing the launch of the two companies but also improving their ability to compete for talent in competitive rural markets. 

PeopleScout’s Talent Diagnostic solution team assessed their entire talent lifecycle, including conducting over 20 stakeholder interviews. The diagnostic focused on improving access to high-quality candidates in competitive rural markets, and provided recommendations for process streamlining and technology optimization to create consistent candidate experiences and diverse talent pools. 

The client praised the expertise, partnership and flexibility during this critical transition period. Based on the diagnostic recommendations, they engaged PeopleScout for a full-cycle RPO implementation, demonstrating how modular solutions can evolve into broader partnerships when they deliver value. 

👉 Read the full case study. 

4. Time-to-Fill Metrics Are Consistently Missing the Mark 

If your average time-to-fill has stretched beyond industry benchmarks and continues to climb, it’s often a symptom of deeper resource constraints. Your internal recruitment team may be overwhelmed with current demands, but a full RPO solution seems excessive or costly for your organization’s size or hiring volume. This is a common scenario where modular RPO provides the perfect middle ground when adding permanent headcount may not be possible. 

Modular RPO allows you to augment your internal team’s capacity in specific areas where you’re experiencing the greatest strain. From initial candidate sourcing to onboarding, you can add specialized support without the commitment and cost of full-service RPO.  

This approach is particularly valuable for mid-sized organizations that have outgrown basic recruitment methods but aren’t ready for enterprise-level solutions. It provides access to advanced recruitment technologies, methodologies, and expertise that would be cost-prohibitive to develop internally. 

5. When Drop Offs and Early Turnover Has Increased  

If you’re experiencing high drop-off rates during the hiring process and increased early turnover among new hires, it’s a clear sign that specific parts of your recruitment process are consistently underperforming or creating bottlenecks. High drop-off rates may stem from poor candidate communication, lengthy or confusing application processes or misaligned expectations. Early turnover often results from inadequate candidate assessment methods, poor cultural fit evaluation or lack of communication to keep new hires warm before their start date.  

Leading modular RPO providers can conduct process diagnostics or EVP diagnostics to identify specific areas where candidates are dropping out and implement targeted solutions. Some providers also offer technology diagnostics which can identify areas to improve your recruitment tech stack to find efficiencies. 

By addressing these process gaps, you can improve overall recruitment efficiency and effectiveness without disrupting the parts of your process that are working well. This surgical approach often delivers better ROI than attempting to fix everything at once. 

Are You Ready for Modular RPO? 

Modular RPO isn’t about replacing your internal recruitment function—it’s about strategically augmenting it to address specific challenges and gaps. The beauty of modular RPO lies in its flexibility and scalability. So, how do you know if you’re ready for a modular RPO solution? 

Signs You’re Ready for Modular RPO 

  • You’re looking to scale recruitment efforts without increasing permanent talent acquisition headcount
  • Your recruitment process is underperforming, and you need a targeted and/or short-term solution 
  • You need specialized expertise for specific roles or markets 
  • You want to maintain control over certain aspects of hiring while improving others 
  • You want to test RPO services before committing to a full solution 

The goal is to create a hybrid approach that combines the strengths of your internal team with specialized external expertise. By partnering with modular RPO providers for specific challenges, you maintain control over your overall hiring strategy while accessing the tools, technologies, and expertise needed to compete effectively in today’s talent market. 

You can start with a focused pilot program targeting your most pressing recruitment challenge. As you see results and build confidence in the partnership, you can expand the scope to address additional needs or role types. 

In an environment where the right hire can make or break business initiatives, organizations that strategically leverage modular RPO gain a significant competitive advantage. If any of these signs resonate with your current situation, it may be time to explore how modular RPO can transform your recruitment outcomes. 

The Next Evolution of Recruitment: How Modular RPO Solves Modern Hiring Challenges  

Posted on by akessler

Traditional recruitment approaches are failing to meet the demands of today’s dynamic business environment. Companies need agility, scalability, and specialized expertise without the overhead of full-scale recruitment process outsourcing. Enter modular RPO—a flexible, customizable approach that allows organizations to outsource specific components of their recruitment process while maintaining control over others. 

According to market analysis from Everest Group, modular RPO deals have surged from 46% of new RPO contracts to 54% in just a few years—representing more than half of all new deals signed. This dramatic growth reflects a fundamental change in how organizations approach talent acquisition, driven by economic uncertainty, fluctuating hiring volumes, and the need for cost-effective solutions that can adapt to volatile business conditions. 

What is Modular RPO? 

Unlike traditional full-service RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) models, modular RPO solutions allow organizations to selectively outsource specific components of their hiring process or talent acquisition program rather than the entire recruitment operation. Think of it as a “pick and choose” approach where you can select the services that best address your specific challenges while keeping other functions in-house. 

This targeted approach enables companies to augment their in-house capabilities with external expertise precisely where they need additional support, while maintaining control over their broader recruitment strategy and employer brand.  

Build vs. Buy: The Case for Modular RPO   

Building in-house capabilities to handle all recruitment challenges involves substantial investment that may not deliver optimal returns. Organizations must consider whether dedicating internal resources to occasional hard-to-fill roles makes financial sense, especially when these specialized recruitment needs fluctuate.  

Modular RPO solutions provide a flexible alternative that complements existing recruitment teams. Benefits include:  

  • On-demand access to specialized expertise without increasing permanent headcount  
  • Scalable support that adjusts to hiring volume fluctuations  
  • Predictable fee structures for better budget management  
  • Ability to keep in-house recruiters focused on positions where they excel  

For challenging recruitment needs—particularly those that are intermittent or require specialized approaches—modular RPO delivers compelling value through faster hiring, higher-quality candidates and a cost structure that aligns with actual business demands. 

Types of Modular RPO Solutions 

Modular RPO offerings will vary from provider to provider but here are some solutions to consider: 

Sourcing and Candidate Generation 

  • Talent mapping 
  • Active candidate sourcing 
  • Passive candidate identification 
  • Talent pipeline and talent community building 
  • Social media recruiting 

Screening and Assessment 

  • Initial candidate screening 
  • Skills assessment execution 
  • Assessment diagnostics 
  • Cultural fit evaluation 
  • Background verification and documentation checks 

Process Management 

  • Interview coordination
  • Candidate communication 
  • Recruitment process and organizational culture diagnostics 
  • New hire engagement and onboarding 

Technology and Tools 

  • Technology diagnostics
  • Technology project management 
  • Recruiter and hiring manager training

👉 Learn more about PeopleScout Amplifiers™, our suite of modular talent solutions designed to elevate every aspect of your talent acquisition strategy.

When to Consider Modular RPO 

Scenarios Where Modular RPO Excels 

High-Volume Hiring Periods 

When you need to scale up recruitment efforts quickly for seasonal hiring, expansion, or project-based needs without permanently increasing your internal team. 

Specialized Skill Requirements 

For roles requiring niche expertise or hard-to-find skills where your internal team lacks the specialized knowledge or network. 

Geographic or Product Expansion 

When entering new markets where you lack local recruitment expertise or employer brand recognition. 

Resource Constraints 

When your internal team is overwhelmed but a full RPO solution seems excessive or costly. 

Process Gaps 

When specific parts of your recruitment process are consistently underperforming or creating bottlenecks. 

Signs You’re Ready for Modular RPO 

  • You have clear understanding of which parts of your recruitment process are underperforming 
  • You want to maintain control over certain aspects of hiring while improving others 
  • You need specialized expertise for specific roles or markets 
  • You’re looking to scale recruitment efforts without increasing permanent talent acquisition headcount 
  • You want to test RPO services before committing to a full solution 

Benefits of Modular RPO 

Flexibility and Customization 

Modular RPO allows you to access a tailored solution that fits your specific needs. You’re not locked into a one-size-fits-all approach but can adapt your recruitment support as your business evolves. 

Cost Efficiency 

By outsourcing only the functions where you need support, you can achieve significant cost savings compared to a long-term, enterprise RPO solution while still accessing specialized expertise. 

Faster Implementation 

Modular solutions typically have shorter implementation timelines since you’re not overhauling your entire recruitment process. 

Scalability 

Easily scale services up or down based on hiring demands without long-term commitments or significant infrastructure changes. 

Risk Mitigation 

Test and validate specific services before expanding to additional modules, reducing the risk of wholesale process changes. 

Access to Specialized Expertise 

Gain access to recruiters with specific industry knowledge, advanced sourcing techniques, or regional expertise without hiring full-time specialists. 

The Future of Modular RPO 

As recruitment challenges become more complex, modular RPO will likely become the preferred approach for many organizations. The flexibility to adapt services based on changing needs, combined with access to specialized expertise and technology, makes it an attractive solution for companies of all sizes. 

By understanding when and why to implement modular RPO, and following a structured approach to implementation, you can create a recruitment solution that grows with your business and delivers measurable results.

[Webinar] Smart Hiring in the AI Age: What UK Candidates Are Really Doing in 2025

Posted on by akessler

[Webinar] Smart Hiring in the AI Age: What UK Candidates Are Really Doing in 2025

Discover How Gen AI Usage Amongst Job Seekers is Really Impacting UK Recruitment in 2025

Ready to separate AI hype from reality in your hiring process? Join us on Thursday, 17 July at 11am BST for an eye-opening webinar based on our recent YouGov research that reveals what’s actually happening when candidates use generative AI (Gen AI).

In this webinar, PeopleScout’s Head of Assessment Design, Amanda Callen, and Talent Solutions Director, James Chorley, are back to explore the latest developments in Gen AI usage amongst job seekers. While your competitors panic with blanket AI bans or stick their heads in the sand, you’ll gain the strategic advantage of data-driven decision making.

In this webinar, we’ll cover:

  • Real Data, Real Insights: Amanda and James will walk you through our exclusive UK research findings, including the surprising truth about Gen AI adoption rates among job seekers
  • Assessment Vulnerability: Identify which parts of your recruitment funnel are most at risk—and which concerns might be overblown
  • Candidate Psychology Revealed: Understand the unexpected attitudes candidates have toward AI disclosure and what this means for your process
  • Future-Proof Strategies: Learn practical, tested approaches to maintain assessment integrity while embracing technological innovation

Register now and receive access to our full research report.

What is Programmatic Recruitment Advertising?

Posted on by akessler

As the demand for candidate quality intensifies, talent acquisition leaders are constantly seeking new ways to reach qualified candidates more efficiently. Enter programmatic recruitment advertising—a technology-driven approach that’s revolutionizing how companies connect with potential employees.

What is Programmatic Advertising?

Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital advertising space using artificial intelligence and real-time bidding. Instead of manually negotiating ad placements with individual websites or platforms, programmatic technology uses algorithms to purchase the most relevant placements in milliseconds, targeting specific audiences based on detailed data profiles.

These programs simultaneously monitor thousands of websites, analyze user behavior, and place job advertisements in front of the right candidates at the optimal moment.

How Programmatic Advertising for Recruitment Works

The process begins when a candidate visits a website or uses an app. In that instant, information about the user (their location, browsing history, professional interests and demographic data) is sent to an advertising exchange. Your recruitment campaign, which you’ve created with specific targeting parameters, competes in an automated auction against other advertisers. If your bid wins, your job advertisement appears to that candidate—all within the time it takes for the webpage to load.

This real-time decision-making process ensures your recruitment ads reach candidates who match your ideal profile. For instance, when recruiting software engineers, programmatic recruitment advertising can target individuals who visit coding forums, read technology blogs, or engage with programming content, even if they’re not actively job searching.

The Components of Effective Recruitment Advertising

Optimizing your recruitment advertising program involves using technology, strategy, AI and data to ensure you get qualified candidates for all your open jobs. Here are the key components of effective programmatic job advertising:

Programmatic Software: You need software that automates job ad buying tasks, which cannot be done manually due to the speed required in real-time bidding marketplaces. This technology manages thousands of bidding decisions per second across multiple job boards and websites, ensuring your advertisements reach the right candidates at the optimal price point.

Rules and Strategy: You create rules for the programmatic advertising software to instruct it on how you want your budget spent and the recruitment outcomes you desire. These might include audience targeting parameters, budget guidelines and performance thresholds that trigger automatic adjustments to your campaigns.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI optimizes job ad bids based on the volume and conversion rates that machine learning models predict. These algorithms continuously learn from campaign performance, automatically adjusting strategies to improve both cost efficiency and candidate quality.

Performance Tracking: Performance tracking keeps count of what is happening with your open jobs in terms of clicks, candidate applications, and ultimately, hires. This comprehensive monitoring extends beyond basic metrics to include candidate quality indicators and progression through your hiring funnel. This end-to-end visibility ensures the system continues optimizing your advertising plan with actual hires delivered as the ultimate goal.

Key Benefits of Programmatic Advertising for Recruitment

  • Enhanced Targeting Precision: Programmatic job advertising allows you to target candidates based on their job titles, skills, education level, geographic location, salary expectations, and even their likelihood to change jobs. This proves particularly valuable for filling specialized roles where traditional job boards may not reach the right talent pools. Your recruitment budget is spent reaching genuinely qualified prospects rather than casting a wide, unfocused net.
  • Improved Cost Efficiency: By automating the ad buying process and optimizing bids in real-time, programmatic job advertising often delivers better results at lower costs than traditional advertising methods. You only pay for impressions that reach your target audience, eliminating waste on irrelevant views.
  • Efficient Cross-Platform Reach: Programmatic recruitment advertising can place your job postings across thousands of job boards and channels simultaneously—from professional networking sites and industry publications to mobile apps and social media platforms. This ensures you get comprehensive market coverage, but you only have to manage a relationship with one supplier, freeing you up to focus on building candidate relationships.
  • Real-Time Optimization: Unlike traditional advertising campaigns that require manual adjustments, programmatic systems continuously analyze performance data and automatically optimize your campaigns. If certain demographics or websites are producing better candidates, the system allocates more budget toward those high-performing segments.
  • Data-Driven Insights: These platforms provide detailed analytics about candidate behavior, showing which messages resonate, which channels produce the highest-quality applicants, and even what times of day generate the most engagement. This intelligence can inform strategies beyond just recruitment marketing.

Programmatic Advertising and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)

The combination of programmatic recruitment advertising with RPO services creates a powerful combination that can dramatically enhance your talent acquisition results. You can leverage the expertise and scale advantages of your RPO provider while harnessing the precision and efficiency of programmatic technology.

Why Add Programmatic Advertising to Your RPO Engagement

RPO providers bring deep recruitment expertise, established processes, and dedicated resources to your talent acquisition efforts. Adding programmatic advertising to this foundation amplifies these benefits by providing data-driven candidate sourcing at scale. Your RPO partner can execute sophisticated recruitment advertising strategies that would be challenging to manage internally, particularly for organizations without dedicated recruitment marketing specialists.

Your programmatic job ad campaigns feed qualified candidates directly into your RPO provider’s established candidate engagement processes. This creates a more efficient candidate pipeline with consistent quality control and faster time-to-hire outcomes.

How an RPO Partner Can Maximize Your Recruitment Advertising ROI

Experienced RPO providers bring several advantages to programmatic advertising management that can significantly improve your return on investment:

Specialized Expertise: RPO partners typically have dedicated recruitment marketing teams with deep knowledge of programmatic platforms, targeting strategies and optimization techniques. This specialization means your campaigns benefit from proven best practices and advanced strategies that internal teams might take years to develop.

Scale and Negotiating Power: Established RPO providers often manage advertising spend across multiple clients, giving them greater negotiating leverage with programmatic platforms and access to premium inventory at better rates. This collective buying power can reduce your cost-per-hire while improving ad placement quality.

Advanced Analytics and Reporting: RPO partners usually invest in sophisticated analytics tools and reporting capabilities that provide deeper insights into campaign performance. They can track candidates through the entire hiring funnel, from initial ad impression to final offer acceptance, enabling more precise ROI calculations and optimization decisions.

Cross-Client Learning: Your RPO partner can apply learnings from successful campaigns across their client base, adapting proven strategies to your specific industry and role requirements. This cross-pollination of insights accelerates campaign optimization and reduces the trial-and-error period typically associated with new advertising initiatives.

Integrated Technology Stack: Many RPO providers have integrated programmatic advertising platforms with their applicant tracking systems and candidate relationship management tools. This integration creates smoother data flow, better candidate experience, and more comprehensive performance tracking than standalone solutions.

Continuous Optimization: RPO partners can dedicate full-time resources to monitoring and optimizing your programmatic job ad campaigns, making real-time adjustments based on performance data. This level of attention is often difficult to maintain with internal teams juggling multiple responsibilities.

The strategic partnership between RPO services and programmatic recruitment advertising creates a competitive advantage that extends beyond simple cost savings. It enables more sophisticated talent market analysis, better candidate experience management, and ultimately, stronger hiring outcomes that support your organization’s growth objectives.

Programmatic Recruitment Advertising: A Winning Tactic

Programmatic advertising represents a fundamental shift toward data-driven, automated recruitment marketing. As AI becomes more sophisticated and candidate data becomes richer, these systems will become even more precise at identifying and engaging potential employees.

For talent acquisition leaders, embracing programmatic advertising isn’t just about keeping up with technology trends—it’s about gaining a competitive advantage in attracting top talent. Organizations that master these tools can reach qualified candidates more efficiently, reduce time-to-hire and ultimately build stronger teams.

Talent Community Building: How to Create a Talent Pipeline Before You Need It

Posted on by akessler

Hiring success doesn’t start with a job posting—it starts with connection. While many organizations rely on reactive recruiting to fill open roles, leading employers are taking a longer view by cultivating talent communities: purpose-built networks of potential candidates who are already engaged, informed and aligned with your brand. Think of talent community building as relationship investing. Just as savvy investors build diversified portfolios long before they need returns, smart talent acquisition leaders cultivate relationships with potential candidates years before positions open. The result? Faster time-to-hire, higher-quality candidates, and significantly reduced recruiting costs.

What is a Talent Community?

Building a talent community is the strategic practice of creating and nurturing networks of potential candidates who have expressed interest in your organization, even when no specific roles are available. Unlike traditional recruiting, which often focuses on immediate hiring needs, talent communities are built for long-term workforce success and take time to cultivate by fostering authentic relationships that benefit candidates and employers.

When managed effectively, a talent community can serve as a powerful tool across several dimensions. It helps develop a ready talent pipeline of qualified candidates for future openings, amplifies your employer brand through ongoing engagement and provides valuable market intelligence by offering insight into talent expectations and shifting workforce trends. Perhaps most importantly, it can reduce overall hiring costs by decreasing reliance on external recruiting agencies and paid job advertising.

The Business Case for Proactive Talent Community Building

The advantage of creating talent pipelines isn’t just efficiency—it’s competitive positioning. When your dream candidate becomes available, you want to be the first call they make, not just another recruiter reaching out via LinkedIn.

Consider this scenario: A competitor announces layoffs in your industry. Organizations with established talent communities can immediately activate relationships with affected professionals, while reactive recruiters are still crafting generic outreach messages to strangers.

How to Build a Talent Community

Start with Strategic Talent Mapping

Before building your community, identify which roles and skill sets will be most critical to your future success. This isn’t about current openings—it’s about anticipating where your organization will need talent in the next few years. This future-focused approach helps employers stay ahead of emerging roles—especially those driven by digital transformation, evolving business models or shifting customer demands.

Key Questions for Talent Mapping:

  • Which roles are hardest to fill quickly?
  • What skills will become more valuable as your industry evolves?
  • Where do top performers in these roles typically work?
  • What career progression paths lead to your priority positions?

Define Your Community Value Proposition

Top candidates won’t join—and stay in—your talent community unless there’s a clear benefit or specific reason to engage. To build lasting engagement, you need to answer the candidate’s unspoken question: “What’s in it for me?” A compelling employer value proposition should offer tangible resources, exclusive perks and meaningful connections that make your community more than just a holding place for resumes. Consider offering:

Professional Development Resources

Provide value beyond job openings by supporting members’ career growth. Share timely industry insights and trend reports to help them stay ahead of the curve. Offer access to webinars and interactive workshops focused on upskilling and reskilling. Career coaching and mentorship programs add a personalized touch, while virtual or in-person networking events connect talent with peers and leaders in their field.

Exclusive Access

Make members feel like insiders. Give them early notification of new job opportunities before they go public. Share behind-the-scenes content that showcases your culture and work environment. Executive thought leadership pieces can offer inspiration and insight into your organization’s direction, while beta access to new products or services helps members feel like valued contributors to your brand.

Community Benefits

Create a sense of belonging and two-way engagement by offering opportunities for peer networking through dedicated groups or events, or by facilitating industry-specific forums where members can share ideas, ask questions and offer support. Job referral programs not only encourage participation but can help build advocacy among members. And for former employees, alumni networks provide a continued sense of connection and open the door for future re-engagement.

Drive Engagement with Relevant Content

The content you share plays a pivotal role in attracting and retaining engaged community members. This isn’t about job postings—it’s about becoming a trusted resource for industry insights and career development. Prioritize recruitment marketing content formats that offer real value and keep your audience coming back for more:

  • Industry Analysis: In-depth articles and reports that break down market trends, regulatory shifts, and innovations shaping the future of your industry.
  • Career Development Guides: Actionable resources such as resume tips, interview prep, and career pathing advice designed to help professionals grow and achieve their goals.
  • Employee Spotlights: Authentic, behind-the-scenes stories that showcase your people, culture, and day-to-day experiences—helping humanize your brand and build trust.
  • Skills Development Content: Curated tutorials, recommended certifications, and access to online courses or training modules that support upskilling and career advancement.
  • Thought Leadership: Executive insights that offer a forward-looking view on industry trends, innovation and business strategy—shared through articles, blog posts, videos, or podcast interviews to elevate your brand’s authority and inspire community members.

But even with compelling content, a community is only as strong as its reach. The next step is getting in front of the right audience.

Tap Into Existing Networks to Accelerate Growth

While building a thriving talent community may feel daunting, you don’t have to start from scratch. One of the most effective ways to scale quickly is by partnering with organizations that already have established relationships with your target talent. This is especially important when you consider that most job seekers are passive candidates. Professional associations, for example, offer ready-made audiences of engaged professionals—consider sponsoring their events or providing educational content tailored to their members. Forming relationships with universities and academic programs can also help build a future talent pipeline, while regular involvement in industry conferences—whether as a contributor or sponsor—positions your organization as an active and engaged thought leader. And don’t underestimate the power of online forums and professional communities. By participating authentically in those spaces, you can engage talent where they’re already spending time and build trust organically.

Your current employees can also play a pivotal role in community building. After all, they’re often the most credible ambassadors of your brand. Empower them with tools and systems that make it easy to extend invitations to qualified peers. Offer referral incentives that reward not only successful hires but also quality talent added to the community. Equip employees with ready-to-share content and social tools, and don’t forget the value of maintaining connections with alumni—who often remain advocates long after they’ve moved on. Alumni referrals typically have a 40% higher retention rate than other hires. Internal advocacy programs can help train and support employees to share your brand story in an authentic, consistent way—amplifying your reach and credibility at the same time.

Create Personalized Experiences at Scale

To keep members engaged over time, your talent community must feel personal—even when it’s built to scale. This requires sophisticated segmentation, tailored content delivery and cultural intelligence. By leveraging data and technology, organizations can meet members where they are.

Start by segmenting your community based on relevant criteria such as career level (from recent graduates to senior leaders), functional expertise, geographic location and engagement history. This allows you to tailor your recruitment marketing content and communication that speaks directly to each audience. For example, a mid-career software engineer in São Paulo should receive different resources than a marketing director in Toronto.

Delivering personalized communication is essential to building meaningful relationships at scale. This can include role-specific content recommendations, invitations to events based on location, and resources aligned with a candidate’s career stage. You can also connect members to interest-based discussion groups to spark peer-to-peer engagement around shared goals.

If your organization operates across borders, go a step further by considering cultural nuances. Adapt your messaging and content to align with local norms and languages. Share professional development resources that are regionally relevant, schedule events at times that work across time zones and ensure compliance with local regulations. Strategic partnerships with local organizations can further boost credibility and relevance, helping your global community feel both connected and localized.

Build Niche Communities Around In-Demand Skills

While broad-based communities help maintain a healthy talent pipeline, specialized sub-communities can be a powerful way to connect with hard-to-find talent. These focused groups foster deeper engagement by offering highly relevant content and peer interaction within a shared area of expertise.

For example, create technical skill groups for software developers, data scientists or cybersecurity professionals, where members can access tailored learning resources and discuss emerging tools and techniques. Similarly, creative professionals—like designers, content creators and marketers—will value inspiration, trend reports and portfolio-sharing opportunities.

Leadership development communities can support high-potential talent with mentoring, executive insights, and career pathing tools. And for highly regulated or industry-specific fields like healthcare or financial services, dedicated sub-groups offer a safe space to explore sector trends and compliance updates with peers who face similar challenges.

By curating these niche communities within your broader talent ecosystem, you demonstrate a deeper understanding of your audience’s needs—and position your brand as a true partner in their professional journey.

Leverage Technology to Power Your Talent Community

A successful talent community strategy is only as strong as the technology supporting it. To personalize engagement at scale, track interactions, and deliver consistent value, organizations need a comprehensive tech stack purpose-built for relationship-building—not just requisition-filling.

Traditional Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are designed for transactions, not relationships. A robust candidate relationship management (CRM) system supports long-term relationship building with tools like:

  • Community Segmentation: Organize members by skills, interests, location, engagement level or career stage to deliver tailored experiences.
  • Automated Nurturing: Use behavioral data and preferences to trigger personalized email journeys, content delivery and event invites.
  • Engagement Tracking: Monitor candidate activity—such as content clicks, event attendance or survey responses—to identify top prospects and optimize outreach.
  • Integration Capabilities: Seamlessly connect with your ATS, recruitment marketing platforms and broader HR tech stack to ensure data continuity and efficiency.

Building a Smarter Talent Community Strategy for What’s Next

As AI and automation continue to reshape recruitment, the human element remains a critical differentiator. Talent communities offer a powerful combination of technology-enabled scale and meaningful, relationship-driven engagement—bridging the gap between digital efficiency and personal connection.

For many employers, bringing this vision to life requires the right partner—one with the expertise, strategy, and technology to scale personalized engagement effectively. Partnering with an RPO provider like PeopleScout brings both the expertise and infrastructure needed to build and manage high-performing talent communities. Our proprietary total talent technology suite, Affinix®, features AI-powered tools for segmentation, automation, content delivery and engagement tracking.

Organizations that invest in talent community strategies today are positioning themselves for long-term success. While others scramble to fill roles reactively, you’ll be building a pipeline of engaged, qualified talent—ready to step in at the right moment. The question isn’t whether to build a talent community, but whether you can afford not to.

Debunking Myths About Gen AI in Recruitment [Infographic]

Posted on by akessler

With all the buzz around ChatGPT, Gemini, and other generative AI tools, you might think every job seeker is leveraging these technologies to gain an edge. Headlines suggest AI has completely transformed the job application landscape, with candidates using it for everything from CV creation to interview preparation.

But how widespread is it? PeopleScout’s recent research reveals a more nuanced picture of how job seekers are actually incorporating AI into their search process. Our comprehensive study, The AI-Enabled Applicant: How Candidates Are Really Using Gen AI in Recruitment, offers surprising insights that challenge common assumptions about AI’s prevalence amongst UK job hunters.

The infographic below highlights key findings that talent acquisition professionals and hiring managers should consider when evaluating their recruitment strategies in today’s AI-influenced landscape.

These findings present a more balanced view of AI’s role in recruitment than many headlines suggest. While generative AI tools are certainly making an impact, they haven’t revolutionized job seeking to the extent many predicted. Less than 20% of recent job changers in the UK used AI at all, with adoption varying significantly by age and education level.

For talent acquisition leaders, this data suggests an opportunity to develop thoughtful policies around AI use. The lack of communication about AI expectations (with only 5% of job changers reporting employers mentioning AI) points to a need for greater transparency. Organizations might consider clarifying their stance on AI usage while recognizing that many candidates find these tools genuinely helpful in navigating the application process.

As AI technology continues to evolve, staying informed about actual usage patterns—rather than assuming widespread adoption—will help recruiters make more effective decisions about how to design fair, efficient hiring processes that account for the reality of candidates’ Gen AI use.

Want to learn more? Download PeopleScout’s full research report, The AI-Enabled Applicant: How Candidates Are Really Using Gen AI in Recruitment, for comprehensive insights and strategic recommendations.

Protecting Recruitment Integrity in the AI Era 

Posted on by akessler

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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Candidates & Gen AI: The Employer’s Dilemma 

Posted on by akessler

The use of generative AI (Gen AI) amongst job seekers has sparked significant interest in the media, with numerous tools now available to enhance résumés, CVs, cover letters and interview preparation. Yet, our recent research, The AI-Enabled Applicant: How Candidates Are Really Using Gen AI in Recruitment, reveals that only one in five UK job seekers currently utilizes Gen AI during their job search. 

Despite this relatively low adoption rate, organisations face a growing challenge: how to navigate a landscape where applications and interview responses may be AI-enhanced or even AI-created. How can employers ensure they’re selecting the best human talent rather than simply the candidates with the most effective AI assistance? 

This article, the second in our series exploring data from our report, examines how Gen AI could reshape recruitment outcomes both today and in the future. 

CV and Application Reliability 

CVs were already known to be relatively poor predictors of future job performance due to inconsistency and bias. With 55% of UK job seekers using Gen AI to help them prepare their CV, the use of Gen AI threatens to further weaken their predictive value, as they may increasingly reflect Gen AI capabilities rather than actual candidate suitability. Many CVs now appear perfectly tailored to match the keywords and skills specified in job descriptions, further complicating the selection process. Volume recruiters also report seeing identical responses across applications, suggesting common use of Gen AI to produce non-authentic answers. 

With CV sifting and standard application questions, both automated sifting tools that use word-matching and human reviewers face growing difficulty in identifying the strongest candidates. It’s difficult for both humans and AI to detect which candidates are using Gen AI to create dishonest content, versus those who are using it to enhance the presentation of original and authentic content.   

Several studies have also shown that using AI to detect AI use is fraught with risk of bias against non-native English speakers. And anyone who has used online detectors will know that original text is often misclassified as 100% Gen AI produced due to the inadvertent use of a certain keyword or phrase.  

This means that many candidates who are using Gen AI to produce a CV or answer typical application questions are effectively undetectable, leading to these stages quickly becoming even less reliable at establishing candidate quality. Some major employers have already begun reducing their reliance on CVs for initial candidate screening or eliminated them entirely from their processes. This trend is likely to accelerate as confidence in these documents continues to erode. 

Online Test & Assessment Vulnerability 

Under controlled lab conditions with well-crafted prompts, Gen AI tools have achieved passing scores on some standard online assessments including psychometric tests, producing correct or criteria-matching answers across various question types. Cognitive reasoning tests, situational judgement tests and even personality tests have been trialled to see how accurately Gen AI tools can generate correct or high scoring answers. With access to the role requirements and other company information, Gen AI tools can produce answers to some online tests that inflate the score a typical candidate might achieve.   

At this point, we’re not seeing score disruption at this stage of volume assessment processes. Every method will have a different level of vulnerability. Some may be sound, and the biggest threat to their accuracy may continue to come from candidates asking other people to take the tests for them.   

However, with 20% of job seekers in our survey saying they used Gen AI to complete an online test, it would be prudent for employers to periodically review and stress-test their online assessments to ensure that they are not easy to pass using Gen AI tools. If there are vulnerable areas, organisations can then introduce more robust tests and assessments to ensure their sift progresses the candidates with genuine potential for the role.   

Online Interview Problem 

It can be tempting to feel that abandoning online assessment methods in favour of pre-recorded or virtual live interviews would be a way of avoiding any risk of Gen AI use. Pre-recorded video interviews are likely to remain part of many volume assessment processes, valued for their efficiency and for creating opportunities to evaluate key criteria like motivation and verbal communication skills. And live virtual interviews over Zoom or Teams are common pre-assessment centre shortlisting tools, used to ensure that those invited to the assessment centre have sufficient the interpersonal skills to warrant a place in the final selection stage. 

However, pre-recorded or asynchronous interview are also not completely safeguarded from Gen AI disruption. While our current data reveals low usage of Gen AI for pre-recorded or live virtual interviews, as Gen AI tools become more sophisticated, it could create greater potential risk of disruption to the expected levels of authenticity in answers. 

New AI tools can ‘listen’ and provide natural responses in real-time, meaning that, if they choose, candidates can provide credible—yet made-up— answers to typical interview questions. Combined with advancements in gaze management technology, during interviews candidates can read from AI-generated responses while appearing to maintain direct eye contact with the web camera and delivering off-the-cuff answers.  

Research suggests that video interviewees who read or paraphrased AI-generated responses received much higher overall interview ratings than those who did not use AI. This presents a concerning catch-22: the very methods designed to efficiently screen candidates may no longer be reliable, while the alternative of conducting more in-depth interviews will stretch recruitment timelines and budgets. 

Navigating the New Recruitment Reality 

Many organisations are likely to need to review their assessment tools to adopt an approach that balances efficiency with integrity. As our research demonstrates, the tension between these priorities will only intensify as Gen AI capabilities continue to evolve. Some degree of AI assistance is likely unavoidable, so employers must concentrate instead on managing its use constructively and identifying the truly human qualities that drive success in a role. 

The good news is that our data indicates that it isn’t necessary to throw out everything that has helped us to find great new employees in the past. But it does show that the potential for disruption is present, and that the latest Gen AI capabilities are already being used in ways that can make it harder to tell who to hire—especially if we don’t review and evolve our assessment processes to protect the integrity of our recruitment outcomes.  

Identifying vulnerabilities in your assessment process is a crucial first step for organisations seeking to maintain integrity. That why PeopleScout’s Assessment Design & Delivery team has developed our Gen AI Opportunity & Risk Assessment Audit. This thorough review of your recruitment process will identify both vulnerabilities and opportunities related to Gen AI throughout the candidate journey. Our occupational psychologists prepare a report of evidence-based recommendations so you can focus your resources on critical vulnerability points, protecting the accuracy of your selection as well as diversity outcomes. 

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

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The Truth About Gen AI & Job Seekers: 3 Insights from Our Latest Research 

Posted on by akessler

The intersection of generative AI (Gen AI) and job seeking has garnered significant attention, with numerous tools available to help candidates with résumés, CVs, cover letters and interview preparation. Media coverage suggests widespread adoption, but actual prevalence isn’t that clear. 

To move beyond the hype and establish a clearer picture of the use of Gen AI across the broad population of job seekers, PeopleScout commissioned YouGov to conduct a comprehensive survey of 1,000 members of the UK public who had changed jobs within the previous 12 months. Our new research report, The AI-Enabled Applicant: How Candidates Are Really Using Gen AI in Recruitment, aims to provide clarity on real usage patterns and to better understand the potential implications for recruitment—especially amongst concerns that candidates might use these technologies to misrepresent their skills and experiences. 

This article is the first in a series exploring the data and grappling with the implications of Gen AI use amongst candidates. Read on for three key findings from our report. 

1. Gen AI Usage Amongst Candidates Isn’t as Prevalent as You Might Think 

While media narratives often portray Gen AI usage as nearly universal among job seekers, our research indicates a more measured reality. Our study reveals that fewer than one in five people (18%) who changed jobs in the UK in the last year used Gen AI at any point in their job search.   

This is considerably lower than media reports have suggested, and it’s lower than we were expecting given Gen AI tools have been freely available since November 2022. This calls for a reality check on the hype.  

It’s easy to see how employers could see media content—alongside indicators of Gen AI use in their own candidate pools—and overestimate the frequency of Gen AI-enhanced applications. However, at this point the evidence suggests that the vast majority of job seekers from the general population are not using Gen AI to assist their job search or applications.   

2. Interviews Seem Safe…For Now 

Just 9% of those using Gen AI at any point in the recruitment process used it to support their pre-recorded interviews. This was unexpectedly low, given the number using it to help with résumés, CVs and applications. It may be that its value in helping to prepare and practice for interviews is less well understood or harder to achieve. For example, Gen AI tools may need more sophisticated prompting to get high quality support for interview preparation.   

For candidates who used Gen AI at some point and who had a live virtual interview as part of their selection process, only 8% used Gen AI to help with this but, significantly, almost half of this group disclosed that they had used it for live support during the interview. Live interviews were previously a protected space from Gen AI use, and although this is reported by just handful of job seekers, it clearly suggests that real-time assistance during live virtual interviews is happening—and we would assume this is likely to increase.    

It isn’t evident from our survey exactly what type of live Gen AI assistance candidates were using, but newer Gen AI capabilities of ‘listening’ and responding in real time with a conversational style could allow candidates to deliver inauthentic answers without detection. This is something employers are likely to want to keep under observation and consider acting on, redesigning interview questions to make it harder to use Gen AI for deceptive purposes. Despite this, our survey indicates that this kind of potentially disruptive use is low amongst job changers and not a major cause for alarm at this point.   

3. No One’s Talking About It 

Perhaps most revealing for employers is that of those applicants who used Gen AI, only 38% would be willing to disclose their use to employers. The remaining 62% either wouldn’t disclose or are uncertain about whether they would—a concerning reality check for employers attempting to protect the integrity of their recruitment process.  

It begs the question—could this behaviour be driven by employers? According to our survey, employers rarely mention Gen AI usage in their communications with candidates. Only 5% of all job changers said their future employers spoke to them about Gen AI during the recruitment process. And for the few who did hear about it during recruitment,, 35% were told not to use it.   

The number of employers failing to communicate about AI in recruiting may contribute to candidates’ reluctance to discuss their Gen AI usage with employers due to an assumption that employers’ silence on the matter indicates that Gen AI use is inappropriate or unacceptable, and to reveal use of it would negatively impact their chances of getting an offer. 

Gen AI Opportunities & Risks 

Navigating this complex landscape effectively often requires specialized expertise and support. Working with a talent partner with deep assessment expertise can provide crucial advantages in maintaining recruitment integrity while achieving business objectives.  

As leading providers of talent assessment solutions, PeopleScout’s Assessment Design & Delivery team offers a Gen AI Opportunity & Risk Assessment Audit to provide organizations with a comprehensive review of their recruitment processes, identifying both vulnerabilities and opportunities related to generative AI throughout the candidate journey. This independent audit, grounded in psychological expertise, stress-tests each assessment element within your specific recruitment context to determine how Gen AI might impact selection accuracy and diversity outcomes. The resulting evidence-based recommendations allow employers to strategically focus resources on critical vulnerability points while potentially leveraging beneficial AI uses, enabling informed decisions about whether to accept, prevent or adapt to candidates’ use of Gen AI tools based on your organizational values and objectives. 

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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The AI-Enabled Applicant: How Candidates Are Really Using Gen AI in Recruitment

Posted on by akessler

The AI-Enabled Applicant

How Candidates Are Really Using Gen AI in Recruitment

Is generative AI (Gen AI) disrupting your recruitment process? Our exclusive research with YouGov unveils what’s actually happening right now—and the results might surprise you.

While headlines scream about AI taking over job applications, our fresh data shows the nuanced reality of how candidates in the UK are really using these tools in 2025.

In this comprehensive report, you’ll discover:

  • The true adoption rate of Gen AI by job seekers (spoiler: it’s not what most experts predicted)
  • Which specific recruiting touchpoints are most vulnerable to Gen AI impact
  • Unexpected findings about candidate attitudes toward disclosing Gen AI usage
  • Actionable strategies to protect assessment integrity without fighting technology

Don’t Base Critical Hiring Decisions on Outdated Information

As some organizations implement extreme measures like blanket AI bans, others are finding smarter, more sustainable approaches that embrace innovation while maintaining recruitment quality. Download the report now to get ahead of this rapidly evolving challenge and transform potential threats into competitive advantages for your recruitment strategy.