Held at the always impressive Haymarket Hotel in London, TALiNT Partners’ recent lunch and learn explored the rapid advancements in recruitment technology and how to make the most of it across front and back-office teams. Whilst much is promised by developments in AI, Automation, and Talent Intelligence, there are still behavioural barriers to optimisation. Hosted in partnership with Mercury, SourceWhale and Jove Insurance, a panel of partner experts and peers from our recruitment leader network shared tactics for boosting recruiter efficiency, improving data management, and enhancing collaboration between marketing and sales teams for more effective campaigns. 

Managing Director at TALiNT Partners, Alex Evans set the scene for discussion with some key stats, workforce trends and insights from our Talent Leader events. “Uncertainty in the run up to the Budget has delayed hiring decisions and we have seen a continued focus on internal mobility and the re-deployment of talent,” he explained. “With employers generally looking for more agile workforce solutions, and access to more global talent pools, we are also seeing the growth of the freelance workforce, which currently makes up nearly 1.6bn of the total 3.3bn employed globally, and platforms for accessing it, with this part of the market expected to triple in value over the next 4 years.” 

“Following the Govt’s decision to increase Employers NI to 15%, and reduce the threshold to £5,000, employers and recruiters will be leaning more heavily on their HR and Recruitment tech to reduce employment costs. This presents an opportunity to recruiters to not only maximise their own talent and tech but help their clients to optimise theirs as well.” 

Panel 1 – Optimising tech and data in sales and marketing 

How can recruitment businesses better align sales and marketing efforts to leverage AI, automation, and analytics?  

Our first panel explored the critical role of data in optimising AI and talent intelligence in recruitment marketing and sales enablement. Scott McKenzie, Group Strategy Director at SThree opened the discussion by outlining the STEM recruitment giant’s ambitious tech transformation journey, which began with the decision to move from a Salesforce to Microsoft-based solution with Mercury and become a more ‘data-led organisation’. By streamlining adopting uniform taxonomies, he said, SThree was able to track data more accurately and use Power BI for more powerful analytics.  

Asked about the key metrics used to measure success, Scott highlighted adoption ratestime to productivity, deals per head, and staff retention alongside traditional revenue metrics to measure the impact of new systems on both employee performance and client satisfaction.  

Asked where AI is having the biggest impact in recruitment, he observed that, AI’s immediate benefits are often overestimated, and longer-term under-estimated. “It should help consultants spend less time on routine tasks, and more face-to-face time with clients,” he explained, adding that it is supporting better customer communications, accelerating onboarding, and also enabling new recruits to learn more quickly. He also observed that, whilst new starters and the longer tenure teams have tended to embrace new tech and processes more quickly and easily, adoption has been a little slower in some cohorts, particularly those with a few years experience.  .  

“Our priority is ensuring that people ‘love the data’ and put it in right the first time . It’s about changing behaviours and getting consultants to take ownership of their data.” 

Exploring data strategy to support more effective sales and marketing campaigns, Stuart Johnson, Head of Sales at Mercury stressed that the technology must align seamlessly with day-to-day workflows and support the larger strategic picture: “The tools are only as useful as the data strategy they support,” he advised. 

Adding a marketing perspective, Jenny Wood, Global Head of Marketing at Salt, pointed out that the common obstacles to AI and analytics adoption in recruitment is a lack of buy in early enough in the process or poor understanding of the impact it will deliver. “If sales and marketing are both part of the build, they’re more likely to embrace it,” she explained. “Similarly, if both are present when meeting a client, and collaboration begins early aligning marketing insights with sales execution, it will create more cohesive, data-driven, fit for purpose solutions.” 

With various “carrot and stick” methods being used to encourage better adoption of tools, Jenny explained that she encouraged reciprocity, such as sales ensuring job roles are posted on websites as a baseline before asking for additional campaign support.  

If everyone is using the same generative AI tools in the same way, how can recruiters stand out? Ben Cawood, CP Sales EMEA at SourceWhale said automation is enabling higher volume communication in less time but outreach must include at least one line of personalised content. “Quality over quantity is essential, and AI and analytics can provide both the insight and means to personalise at scale,” he said, advocating more face-to-face and video interactions. 

Panel 2 – Tech to capitalise on new growth trends and revenue streams 

How are solutions and partnerships enabling recruiters to deliver higher-value services, adapt to growing demand for contractor services, and compete more effectively? 

The second panel explored tech solutions for unlocking new growth opportunities, from growing demand for global talent to international expansion. Amanda Cai, CEO at Jove Insurance kicked off discussion by saying that while compliance is a rising priority for recruiters and their clients, contractor and supplier validation is being disrupted by AI-enabled solutions that speed up the process and remove human error. “With recruiters and RPOs expanding into regions like LATAM, DACH, and APAC to capitalise on demand for contingent workforce solutions, Jove’s borderless insurance, which supports remote workers and international contractors, is reducing compliance friction, speeding up onboarding for RPOs and MSPs, and ultimately minimising risk through validation tools.” 

James Ockelford, Managing Director at Engage Partners, shared insights on why he decided to build a proprietary scheduling platform to reduce the number of clicks for consultants, enabling faster candidate placement and more efficient workflows. “Compliance, a notorious bottleneck, has been streamlined with tech, reducing the time to onboard candidates and offering clients peace of mind,” he said. “By handling compliance in-house, Engage gains a competitive edge, building client trust in their ability to manage workforce requirements swiftly and securely.” 

“Tech optimisation starts by recruiting people with the right skills and mindset into management and leadership positions, incentivising coaching and training for best practice in the use of tech and process in data management.” 

Egle Williams is Head of Strategic Change & Operations at Hydrogen Group, which recruits in 70 countries. Egle highlighted increasing demand for scalable contract solutions, the challenge of managing global logistics such as payroll and the rise of skills-based hiring as the key drivers for tech transformation. She highlighted the evolving role of recruitment managers as change managers as key to optimising technology.  

“It’s about embedding it into daily practices and keeping communication open, letting everyone know what’s on the roadmap, and keeping sales at the forefront of the journey,” she said. “Tech optimisation starts by recruiting people with the right skills and mindset into management and leadership positions, incentivising coaching and training for best practice in the use of tech and process in data management.” 

Egle added that sales leaders were key to successful optimisation of tech and data and should lead pilots because they understand the impact it must have on sales.   

Closing remarks 

Wrapping up the discussion, Alex Evans revisited a core theme for the session: AI’s potential to empower recruitment without sacrificing the human touch. “AI should enable and enhance, not homogenise” he concluded, urging the recruitment leaders to be mindful of the problem they really needed to solve rather than being dazzled by the potential promised by an explosion of solutions. “AI can improve efficiency and effectiveness, but it should enable smarter, more personalised client and candidate experience with consultants recognised and valued strategic advisors”, he concluded.