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Right leaders, right results

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An essential guide to hiring the best leaders for culture and growth

Right leaders, right results

Author:

Claudia Wardle

Executive Search, AMS
Healthcare and Life Sciences Lead

Chapter 1

What makes an effective leader?

Culture fit was the most important factor businesses look for when hiring new leaders, according to a recent poll conducted by the Executive Search team at AMS.

The poll aimed at senior talent professionals and executives identified “culture fit” as the top priority in hiring senior talent. It’s an interesting juxtaposition to the long-held view that organisational needs always win the day when organisations consider how and who to bring into their leadership teams.

There were also notable interesting differences between sector hiring. Respondents from pharma, education and financial services highlighted “culture fit” as a key priority, with “development and potential” being of a more important consideration to the retail, consulting and technology sectors. HR and talent professionals had a focus on “organizational needs” as well as “culture fit”, indicative of a focus on business priorities. By far the least important factor though across all sectors? “Individual reputation”, refreshing in the era of skills-based hiring.

What is “culture fit”?

It is not simply a matter of slotting into a culture like a jigsaw piece; the concept has more nuance and is dual-pronged. On one hand, it involves assimilating into organizational culture in the appropriate way—be this blending in or revolutionizing; on the other, it refers to the leader’s ability to impact and shape wider culture (a key feature of “development and potential”), contributing to evolution and growth.

Is there a “recipe” to a good leader?

Effective leadership encompasses a broad range of traits and skills, but, depending on the organization’s culture and circumstances, these may be found or required in varying amounts. In other words, there is no fixed recipe. The right leader for one business is not the right leader for another. Likewise, the need for a leader right now may look completely different for a business compared to three years ago. Moreover, leaders are nuanced. To reduce an individual to simply a “strategic leader with extensive M&A experience,” for instance, does not capture the full picture. A more refined approach to hiring leadership is needed to ensure a positive culture and ultimately business success.

The Situational Leadership model – and why it matters

Effective leadership isn’t simply about finding the right person for the role; it also depends on leading the team. The Situational Leadership® model addresses varying employee needs by encouraging leaders to adapt their style based on current circumstances and team dynamics. This approach recognizes that effective leadership isn’t “one size fits all” since employees differ in their need for guidance. Situational leaders tailor their approach to each situation, engendering a positive culture through trust, transparency, and openness to feedback. They assess team members’ readiness and ability before choosing the appropriate balance of support and direction. [2] (Fig. 2)

This framework helps to visualize the benefit of different leadership styles for different groups of people and demonstrates the grander mechanisms at work when leaders step into wider company dynamics.

Chapter 2

Hiring the right leaders with AMS

This adaptability and variation in leadership is mirrored in the approach taken by AMS Executive when identifying, selecting and appointing top talent. We employ a 10-step methodology that reflects both our unique position as a strategic, long-term search partner, and our unwavering commitment to not just finding great leaders, but the appropriate leaders for unique cultural and business circumstances.

1.

Determining responsibility

We assemble the best team for each project. For example, the search for a Head of People for a consumer health business may be spearheaded by our lead consultant for healthcare, supported by our Consumer lead and a member of our Research Centre of Excellence specialized in HR searches.

2.

Consultation & briefing

Collaborating closely with the hiring committee to understand our partner organization’s culture, vision and strategic objectives, we capture thorough context to tailor our search accordingly.

We also take DEIB seriously in executive search is crucial because it fosters a wide range of perspectives, drives innovation, and enhances decision-making, ultimately leading to stronger organizational performance and a more inclusive workplace culture.’

3.

Developing a leadership profile

Via our work with key stakeholders, we craft a leadership profile to provide our executive search cornerstone. This may be prescriptive and fixed if the hiring organization’s ideas are more defined, or, if our partner’s vision is still somewhat amorphous, it may be open and subject to evolution.

4.

Mapping & research

AMS Executive conducts extensive research to rigorously analyse the talent landscape to identify leaders best suited to the position in question, as well as high-calibre individuals in our network who may offer thoughts and ideas. Our project team will develop the optimum targeted, yet agile, search strategy.

5.

Candidate approaches

We use a combination of direct approaches, leveraging our networks, industry and leadership databases, social media and telephone and email to engage top-tier candidates. We capture the employer’s brand and vision to “sell” the opportunity.

6.

Interviews & assessment

AMS Executive oversees a multi-stage interview and assessment process that adheres to each search’s unique needs. We are flexible, sometimes conducting only the preliminary interviews and assessments, while for other searches assuming responsibility for behavioural assessments and psychometric tests.

7.

Due diligence

To mitigate risk, AMS Executive performs comprehensive due diligence checks, including reference verification and background assessments.

8.

Offer management

We manager offer negotiations, ensuring a fair and competitive compensation package reflecting both candidate worth and our partner’s budget. We handle all interactions with utmost sensitivity and diplomacy, with clarity and mutual satisfaction front and centre.

9.

Onboarding

We can support the hiring organization with onboarding and integration, collaborating to set initial objectives and expectations, and even facilitating introductions and connections with key stakeholders. At agreed checkpoints, we follow the progress of the new leader and ensure cultural fit and performance evaluation.

10.

What next?

Whatever else our partner may need in the world of talent, be it Leadership Coaching, Employer Branding, or something larger scale like RPO, we facilitate these discussions and introduce our relevant colleagues.

Success stories

Two recent AMS Executive case studies illuminate the effectiveness of our framework and tactics in action.

Case Study 1

Head of Eastern Europe, Global Pharmaceutical company

In a nutshell
AMS worked with an international pharmaceutical client to appoint the head of a newly integrated cluster.

Context & cultural considerations
The Head of Eastern Europe was required to lead a newly integrated regional cluster, focussing on strategic initiatives and market growth.
Success demanded an accomplished General Manager who embodied cultural values of mutual respect and consensus-driven decision-making, who would foster collaboration among diverse teams, prioritize quality and compliance and uphold a patient-centric ethos.

Our approach
We maintained a closely collaborative relationship with the hiring committee, performing an in-depth market analysis that revealed alternative organizational targets better suited to organizational needs than those determined at the briefing. We recommended exploring a broader range of candidates and suggested a reassessment of resource allocation to attract the ideal candidate, informed by our data. Keeping culture fit at the core, we prioritized candidates who demonstrated an integrative leadership style and a commitment to fostering strong relationships.

The result
We appointed a leader with extensive General Management experience, strong financial acumen, and data-driven decision-making skills. His collaborative leadership style and ability to foster cohesive teams aligned seamlessly with the client’s culturally rooted focus on consensus and mutual respect. His integrity and strategic vision will enable the successful integration of the two clusters, driving performance, market share growth and long-term success in alignment with the business’s overarching objectives.

Case Study 2

Group CFO, International Clean Energy company

In a nutshell
We built out our clean energy partner’s executive team, including appointing the Group CFO.

Context & cultural considerations
The founders required a CFO who could lead financial strategy while driving the organizational mission to deliver renewable solutions to low-income households across a specific region of Africa. The role demanded a nuanced understanding of the region’s energy and infrastructure landscape, the ability to oversee investments in innovative technologies and expertise in financial analysis and planning.
Culturally, the leader needed values of community engagement and eagerness to cultivate partnerships enhancing local logistics and supply chain management.

Our approach
Our strategy was to target leaders possessing a deep understanding of the cultural landscape in the relevant African region and strong negotiation skills that would enable them to navigate local complexities. We focused on those exhibiting a passion for nurturing community involvement while simultaneously introducing robust systems that enhanced efficiency.

The result
We appointed a commercially astute CFO with diverse sector experience, including in the relevant region of Africa, whose track record in growth and problem-solving met our client’s need for innovative solutions. The leader’s collaborative style and dedication to understanding local communities ensured that the organization could effectively navigate the complexities of the market while fostering meaningful relationships with stakeholders. This approach not only enhanced operational efficiency but also positioned the client to drive sustainable growth and make a positive impact on those communities they serve.

Why come to AMS?

As outlined at the beginning of this paper, the results of a recent AMS Executive survey underscored the need for culture fit as the foremost factor in appointing a leader. It was furthermore posited that a refined approach must be taken to ascertaining this fit and a leader’s potential to determine the right culture to underpin business success. Elements that must be taken into consideration include business scale, stage, maturity, sector, objectives, financial health as well as market dynamics, crisis preparedness and manifold others.

As the specialized leadership division within the industry-defining talent giant AMS, AMS Executive is uniquely poised to navigate complex landscapes and identify, attract and appoint leaders who will shape cultures that drive organizational excellence.

About the Author

Claudia Wardle is responsible for executive search and leadership solutions in the healthcare & life sciences sector, supporting partners ranging from top 10 pharma to medtech start-ups. She left academia to enter the world of talent and culture and was trained in executive search at a world-renowned firm. She joined AMS in 2022 to spearhead strategies that drive organizational excellence and foster innovative leadership within the sector and more broadly.

About AMS Executive Search

Executive Search at AMS has been delivering executive search and leadership advisory services for over 30 years to 190 clients across diverse industries, including life sciences, banking, and energy.

We deliver around 100 searches annually across 6 continents, leveraging our unparalleled global expertise as part of AMS, world leader in talent solutions. Our deep industry insights combined with specialisms in areas such as digital transformation, ESG and DEIB, allow us to address our partners’ strategic needs while shaping the future of leadership and workplace culture.

Our focus is long-term value rather than one-off placements, with solutions carefully tailored to each client’s unique needs; we appoint leaders who meet immediate requirements and are strategically aligned with long-term vision. By integrating advanced technologies, AI-driven insights and our commitment to diversity, we push the boundaries of traditional executive search, identifying and placing leaders who drive innovation, foster cultural evolution and ensure sustainable business success.

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More and more corporations are migrating some or all of their contingent hiring from Procurement to TA and HR. Here are the (manageable) risks and the untapped rewards.

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Talent Acquisition Enters the Contingent Workforce Arena

Contributors:

Josh Bersin

Founder, The Josh Bersin Company

Mark Jones

Executive Vice President, Contingent Workforce Solutions, AMS

Dustin Talley

Principal Consultant and Founder, Talent Simplified

Rebecca Wettemann

CEO and Principal Analyst, Valoir

More and more corporations are migrating some or all of their contingent hiring from Procurement to TA and HR.

Here are the (manageable) risks and the untapped rewards.

There’s a profound migration going on and only a few experts in the Talent Acquisition space are aware that it is even happening.

Over the past few years, organizations in the U.S. and parts of Europe have moved large swaths of their contingent workforce hiring from their internal Procurement department to the HR and TA departments instead. And this new practice is poised to take off in the coming decade. Right now, more than one-third of the US workforce (38%) is made up of external workforce professionals, which include gig workers, independent contractors etc.

In the next 10 years, that number is going to climb to more than half, says Mark Jones, Executive Vice President of AMS.

This new recruitment reality brings unique challenges in a job market rife with corporate downsizing among technology and other firms, an uncertain job market, and possible fears over inflation as a new administration enters the White House in January 2025. How can any TA/HR professional think about their organization in terms of the future recruiting and skills strategy without thinking and including what will be 50% of the entire U.S. workforce in the not too distant future?

Like many concerns challenging today’s workforce, much of it stems from the aftermath of the COVID lockdowns of 2020.

Across the U.S., companies raced to hire people, and many were hired as permanent employees often with inflated salaries during the post-pandemic hiring boom, says Jones. He adds that for the last 24 months, this trend has reversed, and downsizing employees has cost organizations a great deal of money.

“Flexibility suffered as a result and now CHRO’s are thinking how do they ramp up and down with more flexibility which comes back to including the external workforce in their thinking and strategy,” says Jones.

According to Dustin Talley, Principal Consultant and Founder of Talent Simplified, a contingent workforce advisory practice and an AMS partner, many companies are waking up to the fact that their extended workforce is a huge part of the overall talent strategy. He adds that this shift has led to increased collaboration and ownership between Talent Acquisition and Procurement teams.

“Organizations adopting this approach aim to ensure agility and speed in how work is executed,” says Talley. “Additionally, involving TA allows for greater flexibility when budgets are available, but headcount is restricted, enabling organizations to adapt quickly to changing business demands.”

The TA Power Play

In a study of 53 mid-market and Global 5000 companies entitled “Pulse Insights: Ownership of Contingent Workforce Programs,” Talent Simplified found that a “significant portion” of contingent workforce programs is managed through shared ownership, with 39% of study participants indicating shared responsibility between HR/TA and Procurement. Also, nearly one quarter (24%) is HR/TA owned, while 35% are owned by the Procurement departments.

“Notably, 55% of programs are primarily owned by Procurement, compared to 39% owned by HR/TA, with 6% indicating equal ownership,” reads the report.

This trend toward collaboration highlights an evolving approach to contingent labor management, integrating the strengths of both departments to enhance efficiency and responsiveness in meeting workforce needs, says the report.

The report also found that 15% of participants indicated a shift in program ownership from Procurement to HR/TA in the last five years, suggesting some organizations are looking at talent in parallel with their full-time workforce.

For HR analyst Josh Bersin of the Josh Bersin Company, contingent hiring is no longer an outsourcing process to delegate to procurement, it’s a strategic source of skills and scale.

“While most companies delegate project hiring to line leaders, when HR is involved, organizations can build a much more strategic solution,”
he says, adding that this includes internal gig work, strategic contractors, and skills-based outsourcing.

Does this mean the end of the procurement department? Hardly, says AMS’ Jones.

“This does not mean that procurement do not need to be involved with the external workforce or that they do not offer huge value — they absolutely do, and they need to be involved,” says Jones. “A better strategy now is to combine the strengths of TA/HR as well as procurement when it comes to leveraging the external workforce to achieve better strategic outcomes.”

The Contingent TA Advantage

This new development stems back to how Procurement and TA have traditionally searched for workers and filled open roles, with their different missions and desired outcomes.

According to Jones, Procurement and TA have what he calls “fundamentally” different functions, with contrasting skills and focus areas. For example, Procurement tends to approach managing contingent workers through the lens of cost, which makes sense given that the spend on the external workforce can often be an organizations biggest cost outside of the cost of their permanent employee base, according to Jones.

“The cost focus then moves into operational processes ensuring they are designed and implemented to ensure there are guardrails and processes put in place to ensure costs are being controlled as tightly as possible,” he says.

Procurement typically excels at compliance and its ability to ensure that external workers are known and visible in their new roles when they start, and that they comply with the firm’s policies and the firm is protected via contracts.

TA professionals, on the other hand, often do not have the same fervor to manage costs as their approach is often linked to quality-of-hire and being the guardians of the brand. This includes the candidate and hiring manager journey and perception of the brand and process, says Jones.

“Workforce planning and helping the business plan on how they will fill open roles is a strong remit of talent acquisition, which then ties back to the overarching strategy of looking at all aspects of the talent ecosystem,” says Jones.

Organizations are increasingly looking at contingent workers as resources to be tapped on an ongoing basis, and a talent pool that needs to be managed over time, rather than just one-off contractors, says HR analyst Rebecca Wettemann, CEO and principal analyst for Valior. She adds that this is particularly true in sectors where the workforce is “aging out,” expertise is limited, and more mature workers may be willing to work on a contingent basis beyond retirement.

“Bringing TA and HR teams to contingent hiring enable the organization to use the same criteria and processes — and, potentially, tech — for permanent hires that they do for contingent workers. This will enable more effective workforce planning and strategic hiring and allow organizations to optimize their staffing with full visibility into all workers,”
says Wettemann.

Talley agrees. He says that TA brings a talent-first mindset that works great alongside Procurement’s focus on cost and compliance. When they’re both in the mix, companies can move faster and stay flexible as things change. At the end of the day, it’s about finding the right balance to meet the business’s needs now and in the future.

“TA’s involvement also ensures that the extended workforce is strategically managed and effectively utilized,” says Talley.

With TA in charge of contingent hiring, there’s a different way of thinking and deploying strategies. For example, TA will typically support a broader strategic conversion within the business to answer questions such as what skills are needed as a business to stay competitive, and where are we going to find them in the coming years, says Jones.

TA leaders can bring their experience finding skilled candidates to the contingent job search. Companies often start the hiring process by saying, “I need a contractor” or “I need a full-time employee,” but once TA defines the need based on the skills the job requires, they can opt for a contract worker until the need for a full-time hire arises.

“Workforce planning will be improved by including TA in the process and this will likely improve decision making in terms of speed and ownership of who makes the decisions and what resources are hired,” says Jones.

A New Contingent Partnership

Transitioning contingent hiring to TA teams is not without challenges. Balancing priorities between contingent and direct hires can be difficult, and the needs of contingent hires often take a backseat to permanent positions in the enterprise.

“Additionally, TA teams may lack oversight of key areas that require management of contracts with vendors and SOW providers, leaving gaps in contract execution and compliance,” says Talley. He adds that managers may also expect equal recruitment effort for contingent and full-time roles, which can strain TA’s capacity.

“Keep procurement in the picture!” advises Talley. “The best programs use the strengths of both. You need both to get it right.”

If any perceived conflict occurs between Procurement and TA, it’s probably due to a lack of communication within the organization over how hiring is being done and the benefits it will bring, says Jones.

Also, procurement have been the traditional owner of the external workforce and it has been treated as a commodity buy, recalls Jones.

“I have seen situations where there is a degree of skepticism as to why any change is needed or that any change could be viewed negatively,” says Jones. “It’s not that one function is better than the other but is a reality that the external workforce is something that TA need to understand given it will grow and the status quo of how the external workforce has been viewed and managed historically is changing.”

Best Practices Going Forward

Moving from a fully Procurement contingent model versus a TA complement — or complete takeover, for that matter — requires a commitment to best practices and not the wholesale implementation of new procedures and protocols. For Jones, the best practice is for talent acquisition to be joined up with procurement and leverage the strengths that procurement bring in terms of vendor negotiation and cost control rather than TA having to put everything in place for themselves.

“I would recommend that the TA team have a solid grounding on the external workforce ecosystem which will come through previous industry experience or through formal certification programs,” he says, citing SIA CCWP certification as an example.

Historically, contract and full-time employee hiring have been treated differently in terms of the core responsibilities of hiring teams and therefore the core underlying knowledge in contingent programs is not as detailed as might be needed. This will require upskilling and knowledge building, according to Jones.

“This can also come from ensuring that there is a good mix of people on a team that have a good understanding of the various elements of the external workforce,” he says.

One of the strategies that TA teams can leverage across all industries is the ability to implement contingent Direct Sourcing, whereby leveraging an organization’s brand to source contract workers directly (either through an in-house recruiting team or via an external provider such as AMS).

“Direct Sourcing is very similar to Recruitment Process Outsourcing, which is why I often refer to it as Contingent Process Outsourcing,” says Jones.

Direct Sourcing’s key benefits include improved quality of hire, a better candidate experience and significant cost savings. AMS typically save our clients between 10 to 15% versus staffing supplied resource and in some cases this number is even north of 20%, says Jones. He adds that Direct Sourcing is not a replacement for staffing agencies but there are roles that can be carved out for Direct Sourcing and tied into the overall TA hiring strategy across the business in general.

The TA Path to Contingent Hiring

Talent Acquisition teams are focused on achieving consistency, speed, and strategic alignment by including this segment of the workforce. If done right, organizations could create a seamless experience across all talent categories allowing them to build stronger pipelines of high-caliber talent.

“Ultimately, organizations want to deliver a workforce strategy that balances flexibility and efficiency with all talent channels that positions their organization for long-term success,” says Talley.

Jones agrees that fundamentally better talent options to support their business’s objectives and their hiring manager’s needs is paramount.

“This includes creating more flexibility in the hiring process and embracing the increasing world of external workforce options while ensuring that the candidate experience and perception of the brand remains positive,” he says. “It’s a perfect role for TA.”

written by Phil Albinus in partnership with the Catalyst Editorial Board.

With contribution from:

Josh Bersin

Founder, The Josh Bersin Company

Mark Jones

Executive Vice President, Contingent Workforce Solutions, AMS

Dustin Talley

Principal Consultant and Founder, Talent Simplified

Rebecca Wettemann

CEO and Principal Analyst, Valoir

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Judy Ellis

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Driving Business Growth with DEIB: The Ultimate Advantage?

Contributors:

Celine Raffray

VP, Talent Acquisition, Bristol Myers Squibb

Judy Ellis

SVP, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Advisory, AMS

Michael Caley-Cook

Senior Manager, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) Centre of Excellence, AMS

Kathi Enderes

Senior Vice President of Research, Josh Bersin Company

Paul Modley

Managing Director, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) Centre of Excellence, AMS

Jacqui Welch

CHRO at the New York Times and Non-Executive Director, AMS

In today’s rapidly evolving cultural and political landscape, the importance of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) cannot be overstated. The significant benefits of DEIB for businesses lie in how DEIB strategy can drive both business and cultural success, positioning organizations for long-term growth and resilience.

Research consistently demonstrates the tangible benefits of DEIB. McKinsey’s findings, reveal that companies in the top quartile for board-gender diversity are 27% more likely to outperform financially than those in the bottom quartile. Additionally, Harvard Business Review found that diverse teams have been shown to be 70% more likely to capture new markets and 87% better at making decisions than homogenous teams.

Inclusive leadership plays a pivotal role in fostering a thriving DEIB environment. According to a 2023 study by Deloitte, inclusive leadership can increase employees’ feelings of belonging by an impressive 70%. Inclusive leadership also helps organizations adapt to diverse customers, markets, ideas, and talent, which is crucial for staying competitive in a global market.

These indicators underscore the substantial benefits that diverse teams and inclusive leadership bring to businesses, driving both financial success and a positive organizational culture. This accentuates the tangible impact that these teams and leaders can have on business outcomes.

The current DEIB landscape

The US Supreme Court decision to end affirmative action in higher education triggered considerable controversy with social and political disagreement about the role of diversity initiatives in the corporate world. While the requirements for US federal contractors to conduct diverse outreach and employers with 100 or more employees to file EEO-1 reports remains in place, the politicization of DEIB has led to increased scrutiny and has sparked debate about the role of diversity initiatives in the corporate world.

Concerns about the perception that diversity initiatives unfairly prioritize certain candidates over others have become more prevalent. Some might suggest this controversy is based in the lack of awareness that the purpose of affirmative action, as stated by the US Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, is “to ensure equal employment opportunities for applicants and employees” which highlights that these efforts do not equate to the candidate selected but rather creating a level playing field that results in the most qualified candidate being hired. “It is based on the premise that, absent discrimination, over time a contractor’s workforce generally will reflect the demographics of the qualified available workforce in the relevant job market.”

In July 2024, SHRM announced it would be dropping ‘Equity’ from its terminology, opting to lead with ‘Inclusion’ instead. This decision has attracted criticism from DEIB and HR professionals who believe it shifts the focus away from addressing systemic inequalities and individual barriers.

Despite these challenges, DEIB remains a steadfast priority for most Fortune 500 organizations.

As Kathi Enderes, Senior Vice President of Research at the Josh Bersin Company, notes, “From research that we conducted earlier this year, we identified that 92% of companies haven’t reduced their DEIB spend, even though hiring for DEIB roles went down.”

While the need for dedicated DEIB roles remains, organizations may be shifting their focus towards integrating DEIB principles into all aspects of their operations, rather than relying solely on specialized positions. This indicates a continued commitment to DEIB, even if the approach is evolving, highlighting its enduring importance in the corporate world.

Compliant Diversity Sourcing and Outreach

To continue prioritizing DEIB while mitigating compliance risks, businesses can take several practical steps:

  • Inclusive Recruitment: Ensure job adverts emphasize that everyone is welcome to apply, while encouraging individuals with underrepresented protected characteristics via strategic and effective outreach and recruitment strategies.
  • Communicate Commitment: Clearly communicate the organization’s commitment to DEIB and promote transparency on progress.
  • Engage Partnerships: Collaborate with Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), educational institutions (including Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions), and DEIB-focused community organizations to tap into diverse talent pools.

Client success stories where these strategies have positively impacted DEIB efforts can serve as powerful examples of progress. For instance, organizations that have partnered with community-based organizations and educational institutions have seen significant improvements in their diversity metrics and overall business performance.

DEIB remains a priority

Celine Raffray, VP, Talent Acquisition at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), emphasizes that DEIB is crucial to business success. She reaffirmed the company’s strong commitment to inclusion and diversity, underscoring its strategic importance in achieving meaningful outcomes for stakeholders. By integrating DEIB into the broader business strategy, organizations can demonstrate a genuine commitment to creating a more equitable and inclusive workplace while also advancing business objectives.

As Raffray noted, “At BMS, we are guided by a single vision — transforming patients’ lives through science. To fully realize this vision, we truly rely on the strength of our rich history and long-standing commitment to inclusion and diversity to ensure that we can drive meaningful impact and outcomes for our patients and communities, our colleagues, and our business and industry. Understanding and addressing the needs of patients from diverse communities is central to our strategic business priorities, ensuring we can achieve meaningful outcomes for all. Our evolved Global Inclusion & Diversity strategy and priorities are the first steps on that path forward and remains key now, more than ever.”

Raffray’s insights highlight the critical role of DEIB in driving business results. The following benefits further illustrate how DEIB positively impacts organizations:

  • Business Performance: Diverse teams consistently outperform homogenous teams in various areas, including innovation, decision-making, and market expansion.
  • Talent Acquisition: A strong DEIB reputation can attract and retain top talent, especially in a competitive job market.
  • Customer Engagement: Diverse teams are better positioned to understand and meet the needs of diverse customer bases, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty.
  • Alignment with Customer Base: A diverse workforce mirrors the customers companies serve, improving the ability to meet their needs and driving better customer outcomes.
  • Employee Engagement and Retention: Inclusive workplaces where employees feel valued and respected see higher engagement and lower attrition, reducing recruitment costs and fostering long-term loyalty.
  • Risk Mitigation and Reputation: Prioritizing DEIB enhances a company’s reputation for social responsibility and helps mitigate risks associated with bias and discrimination.
  • Competitive Advantage: By fostering inclusivity, companies can enhance workplace culture and improve business performance, driving long-term success.

Conclusion

DEIB remains a steadfast priority, as evidenced by consistent strategic focus among our clients. Insights from the Josh Bersin Company further validate this commitment. While certain aspects of diversity may attract heightened scrutiny or debate, companies that recognize DEIB’s strategic value understand the importance of maintaining a comprehensive approach that champions all dimensions of diversity. This focus ensures organizations continue to foster inclusive environments that drive innovation and business success.

Jacqui Welch, CHRO of The New York Times and Non-Executive Director at AMS, emphasizes the critical role of DEIB: “I believe we have an opportunity to re-familiarize ourselves with why so very many years ago we began the work of diversifying our workplaces. The case has long been made that a diverse workforce fosters innovation, enhances decision-making and strengthens the relationship between business and consumers. Creating workplaces where all people can do their best work is a matter of good business sense. This is a moment to reframe DEIB as part and parcel of any high functioning, values driven enterprise. It is an operating principle and a value.”

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contribution from:

Judy Ellis

SVP, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Advisory, AMS

Michael Caley-Cook

Senior Manager, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) Centre of Excellence, AMS

Kathi Enderes

Senior Vice President of Research, Josh Bersin Company

Paul Modley

Managing Director, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) Centre of Excellence, AMS

Jacqui Welch

CHRO at the New York Times and Non-Executive Director, AMS

Celine Raffray

VP, Talent Acquisition, Bristol Myers Squibb

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AMS has combined forces with The Josh Bersin Company, to provide a comprehensive overview of emerging trends in Talent Acquisition for 2025.

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Emerging
Trends 2025

for Talent Acquisition

The strategic outlook for leaders looking to drive value in Talent Acquisition

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Introduction from our CEO

Talent Acquisition Trend #1

Implementing skills-based approaches to hiring and mobility

TA leaders state a growing priority to move ahead on their journeys to becoming skills-based, but JBC research shows that progress is slow. Only 12% of companies work on a business-aligned skills strategy and only 20% of companies use skills insights for hiring.

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Talent Acquisition Trend #2

Redesigning the TA tech stack with AI at the forefront

AI and enhanced tech capabilities are prompting TA to shift its technology approach from “stack” to “ecosystem”. 2025 will bring an opportunity for integration and consolidation of the tech ecosystem not only to mitigate excessive spending but also to reduce complexity.

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Talent Acquisition Trend #3

Developing a multifaceted approach to fill talent gaps

A competitive market and talent shortages call for diversified strategies that look beyond external hiring. Some of the recruiting strategies our interviewees are focused on include, refreshing the EVP, prioritizing early careers hiring and building talent pipelines.

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Talent Acquisition Trend #4

Upskilling and elevating the TA function for the future

TA leaders recognize the opportunity and importance of elevating TA in 2025. A key element of this is positioning TA as a “strategic partner”. The TA leaders we interviewed cite collaboration, new skills, and a shifting mindset as necessary to advance the function’s role in the business.

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Webinar: Emerging Trends in Talent Acquisition for 2025: Expert Insights from JBC & AMS

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Terry Vanquickenborne, Vice President Research, JBC

and

Janet Mertens, MD of Operations, AMS

as they take an in-depth look at the trends and share actionable insights and case studies from industry leaders.

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Gen Z’s DEI expectations

A make-or-break challenge for talent leaders

While DEI programs face regional challenges, particularly in areas where they’ve sparked heightened debate, one trend is clear: emerging professionals globally seek employers committed to creating inclusive and supportive environments. For many in this group, DEI initiatives are more than preferences—they are priorities that shape their career choices and perceptions of employers.

DEI is at a crossroads

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) encompasses a commitment to fostering workplaces where people of all backgrounds and identities—across age, gender, abilities, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic and veteran status, and more—feel valued, respected, and empowered to contribute fully. This mission has long guided organizations, but its momentum grew significantly in 2020 after George Floyd’s murder and the widespread calls for racial and social justice that followed. Organizations across sectors committed to attracting qualified talent from all communities and removing biases and artificial barriers that prevented the development and progression of talent from historically underrepresented communities.

Today, however, DEI efforts face new challenges. The mission of DEI is in the crosshairs of some critics, especially in the wake of the 2022 US Supreme Court decision to end Affirmative Action in higher education. This shift has led some organizations to slow or scale back their DEI initiatives, citing legal and political pressures. Indeed, the job site, noted a 23% decline in listings for DEI-related roles between November 2022 and November 2023, with a few high-profile US companies reducing or eliminating DEI positions and altering programs. In response to criticism, a few organizations have even chosen to remove ‘equity’ from their DEI initiatives.

Despite these headwinds, the need for DEI remains as relevant as ever. Emerging professionals, employees, and leaders globally continue to advocate for workplace cultures where all individuals are respected, valued, and supported.

DEI is a deal-breaker for Gen Z

While DEI has faced recent scrutiny, it is far from obsolete. In fact, a key segment of today’s workforce not only values diversity, equity, and inclusion—they expect it. Many employees, particularly from Generation Z, are vocal about refusing to work for organizations that merely pay lip service to these ideals. For them, DEI is seen as a fundamental social responsibility that every employer should uphold.

Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, brings high expectations for employers’ commitments, and for many, a lack of genuine DEI initiatives is a deal breaker.

“Gen Z wants to work and contribute to a business that is representative of the communities they may live in or come from along with needing to see others that are potential role models within the organization,” says Dawn Pitchford, Client Director of UK&I for AMS.

“This is not an ‘extra’ for them. It is the norm, and expectations are elevated for many Early Careers programs,“ adds Pitchford.

Employers ignore DEI at their peril

Today’s employers need to listen to Gen Z, warns Rebecca Wettemann. Unlike some earlier generations, the CEO and principal analyst of HR consultancy Valoir says that Gen Z is not afraid to call out leaders in the workplace that, as she puts it, “don’t walk the walk.”

“While they’re more likely to choose a place to work based on DEI and culture, Gen Z are also more likely to be outspoken when employers don’t have clear policies and practices around DEI,” she says.

In fact, DEI is such a priority for younger workers that they will remove themselves from the recruitment process if they cannot see a sincere dedication to DEI. Recruiters who conduct sentiment checks during the application process and beyond have encountered young candidates who share feedback openly on what they experienced during the hiring process and how an organization projects themselves from the start, says AMS’ Pitchford.

“This will be a major factor for them to continue or ultimately accept an offer with an organization that meets their DEI values and ethos,” she says.

According to Lauren Cunningham, Early Careers & Campus Client Director at AMS, she and her team constantly discuss how to bolster DEI especially in the recruiting process, beginning with when candidates first apply for a position. Calling this “part of their job,” she says employers will also need to move beyond race, gender and sexuality when considering candidates for open positions. Young workers and recent university graduates want to see the promotion and development of people with, say, neuro diversity or other forms of mental health challenges and abilities. 

One major push for Cunningham and her AMS team is using DEI to drive social mobility, especially in the UK&I region.

A growing number of young Brits entering the workforce from the UK state secondary school system, for example, often find themselves at the beginning of their careers with poor grades, a lack of skills, and little dedication to work because of a lack of opportunities. According to the UK Education Policy Institute’s Annual Report 2024, by the end of secondary school (high school in the States), disadvantaged pupils were 19.2 months behind their peers. This gap has widened since 2019 (by 1.1 months), reaching its highest level since 2012.

However, compared to the US, there is a firmer focus on social mobility for many UK and Irish employers with a shift from only looking for candidates from ‘Russell Group’ universities. The Russell Group, which includes prestigious institutions like Oxford, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics, has traditionally been the main source of top talent. However, there is now a growing recognition that exceptional candidates can also be found in a broader range of educational institutions, where talent may be overlooked despite its potential.

In response, the UK government has created guidelines for structured apprenticeship-based hiring that’s funded by the government. All UK organizations are given a levy that they must spend on apprentice programs or return the funds back to the government, explains Cunningham. “Everyone has apprenticeship programs that range from age 14 up until they get an apprenticeship with a degree, which is awesome,” she says.

Interestingly, there are fewer programs that take place across the pond, presumably since social mobility is a smaller challenge in the States compared to the UK “I just don’t hear our clients in the US talking about that at all,” says Cunningham.  

 Judy Ellis, SVP of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Advisory at AMS, adds, “In the US, there’s a prevailing belief that economic mobility is inherent, stemming from our lack of a history of formal social classes. The concept of the ‘American Dream’ reinforces the idea that upward mobility is attainable for everyone. However, emerging trends show that this ideal is not always a reality. Research from Pew shows that first-generation college graduates lag behind their peers, despite having the same educational credentials. This disparity suggests that the barriers to mobility are still significant, even though there’s a widespread sentiment that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. As a result, social mobility is beginning to emerge as an important part of DEI talent strategy in the US, as organizations begin to recognize the need to address these barriers and create equitable opportunities for all talent.”

How Rolls Royce, Tesco revved up their DEI engines

Right now, recruiters in the UK are paying extra attention to young males who are entering the workforce to give them greater representation and opportunity in the modern workforce. Some social scientists are especially concerned with young white males.

Why? Cunningham says that gender and ethnicity-based hires have leveled off slightly as positions have been filled — and young unemployed males have gained attention recently, especially on the back of the summer riots, with concerns that many feel left behind, having lost faith in the ‘system’. Also, young male job seekers may not have higher degrees and few opportunities to work in the trades than previous generations.

Experts agree that the future is not good for undereducated and unskilled candidates who are ready to enter the workforce. Thankfully, some leading UK employers are continuing in their DEI efforts to further expand the focus of these programs to workers without degrees. Major UK grocer Tesco, for instance, recently unleashed Stronger Start Retail Apprenticeship, a program that targets younger workers who either have poor grades or have dropped out of school with the chance to earn a Level 2 National Standard in Retail degree via help from The Prince’s Trust and Lifetime Training, the grocer’s training provider. In fact, the supermarket chain pledged to hire 2,000 workers over the next two years via an apprentice program with a chance at attaining a well-paying job.

“Our Stronger Starts Retail Apprenticeship is open to all young people but we’re particularly wanting to hear from school leavers who are aged 16-18 years who haven’t managed to obtain any GCSEs, as well as those with qualifications,” Emma Taylor, Tesco’s Chief People Officer said in an interview.

“They will work hard to develop new skills, build their confidence and learn about all aspects of retail. At the end of the program, we hope they will be ready to develop further and become a shift leader at Tesco,” she added.

Meanwhile, British multinational aerospace and defense company, Rolls-Royce sponsors the Social Mobility Undergrad of the Year Award Celebrating Resilience, an annual prize that highlights the achievements of young workers who have thrived in the face of adversity, such as starting their lives in the foster care system. “We hope the Undergraduate of the Year Award for Celebrating Resilience 2024 will celebrate the success of students who have fought against the odds to pursue further education,” according to the award’s website. “We look forward to helping our winner and finalists take the next steps in their careers.”

In the US, there’s a prevailing belief that economic mobility is inherent, stemming from our lack of a history of formal social classes. The concept of the ‘American Dream’ reinforces the idea that upward mobility is attainable for everyone. However, emerging trends show that this ideal is not always a reality. Research from Pew shows that first-generation college graduates lag behind their peers, despite having the same educational credentials. This disparity suggests that the barriers to mobility are still significant, even though there’s a widespread sentiment that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. As a result, social mobility is beginning to emerge as an important part of DEI talent strategy in the US, as organizations begin to recognize the need to address these barriers and create equitable opportunities for all talent.

Judy Ellis, SVP of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Advisory, AMS

How TA tech can help propel DEI

Talent acquisition technology can play a role in promoting and achieving their organization’s DEI mandates. These solutions, many offered by AMS along with its array of TA consultation services, can deliver a noticeable benefit when measuring the mix of applicants and how they are progressing throughout the application process. For example, reviewing the stages of a candidate’s hiring journey can highlight where some potential hires may be disadvantaged compared to others, as well as helping employers understand where further engagement or education is required in the form of coaching support.

“Utilizing our AMS coaching platform, clients can target specific DEI segments to serve additional digital content or webinar-based coaching sessions that will assist candidates from disadvantaged groups to perform on a better, more level playing field,” says Pitchford.

Other forms of TA technology, such as data intelligence, may eventually shift organizations away from tracking headcounts based on diversity demographics. “I went to an interesting early careers conference and a speaker said that in the future, we’ll be absolutely horrified that there were tick boxes for all of these different things,” recalls Cunningham. “But it’s just so ingrained right now, because otherwise there’s no way to track this information.”

Of course, these identifiers are not allowed to be used in hiring decisions as the TA teams cannot view this information. “It’s all hidden, but it’s impossible to know who you are hiring, where, and also if it’s used for good purposes without collecting this information on the application form,” says Cuningham.

In the face of these challenges, will DEI evolve or will it eventually fade away?

One leading industry expert thinks DEI is here to stay because the need for new talent will never disappear.

“Our research shows a continued, ever-strong focus on DEI in hiring and promotion. Despite the backlash on “wokeism” in US politics, employers still have a heavy focus on diversity, particularly because hiring is harder than ever,” says Josh Bersin, Global Industry Analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company. “Budgets for heavy DEI training are being reduced, but DEI focus on all other talent practices remains as high as ever.”

Pitchford is confident that DEI will remain a priority for employers and will eventually settle into ‘business as usual” for nearly all employers. Looking at a more diverse workforce to fill future talent roles will remain a necessity in many sectors due to lack of talent especially in data intelligence, AI, green and other in-demand skills, she says.

“Clients need to embrace DEI as part of their attraction approach now and start to adapt by educating the whole business on the importance of a more diverse workforce,” says Pitchford. “This will help businesses to grow and prosper for the future. A diverse workforce allows employers to draw from the best talent across all backgrounds, driving innovation and enhancing business outcomes.”

If you finding yourself facing the challenges outlined in this paper please reach out to us.

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The strategic outlook for leaders looking to drive value in Talent Acquisition

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Emerging
Trends 2025

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The strategic outlook for leaders looking to drive value in Talent Acquisition

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AMS has combined forces with The Josh Bersin Company, to provide a comprehensive overview of emerging trends in Talent Acquisition for 2025.

The research combines interviews with some of the world’s leading talent acquisition professionals with research and data from the acclaimed AMS and JBC Talent Climate series. It provides actionable insights for leaders looking to drive value through strategic talent acquisition.

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Fair Play: Ethical AI in Talent Acquisition

How to Get AI Ready for a Secure and Efficient Recruitment Process

The buzz around the ever-evolving intelligence and pace of AI has helped it become a pervasive force at work and at play. With its boundless intrigue, AI incites both excitement and unease as individuals and industries alike endeavor to make sense of this groundbreaking technology and choose and use it wisely.

A recent AMS poll found that respondents were most eager for expert advice about the risks and benefits of AI in talent acquisition. While AI is reinventing the hiring process, TA leaders must never lose sight of its potential risks — as the saying goes, “with great power comes great responsibility.” In this guide, we will explore the significance and importance of ethical AI, and how best to mitigate the risks in talent acquisition to ensure responsible and compliant deployment.

Your Ethical AI Journey: An Overview

Practical Steps for TA Leaders

Develop a Comprehensive AI Strategy

Identify where AI will have the most impact and ensure it aligns with your organizational goals and values.

Establish Governance and Accountability

Set up risk assessments, conduct regular audits and create clear policies for ethical AI use.

Upskilling and Change Management

Ensure your TA teams are trained not just in using AI tools but in understanding the ethical and responsible frameworks guiding their use.

Partner with Experts

Work with consultants or third parties to evaluate risks and optimize the integration of AI.

Ethical AI in Talent Acquisition: Its Importance

With its dynamic and complex environment, characterized by numerous critical deadlines, talent acquisition is perfectly suited for AI transformation. In fact, following the debut of ChatGPT in late 2022, forward-thinking TA teams are already using generative AI tools to heighten efficiency, lighten recruiters’ workloads and enhance their abilities. Using AI in TA can lead to many important ethical outcomes, including:

Improved Accessibility: AI can enhance accessibility and grammar on printed and digital materials, that can create a better work environment for individuals with dyslexia, vision and hearing impairments, and physical disabilities via voice-controlled systems and adaptive hardware.

Bias Reduction and Increased Diversity: If trained in an ethical manner, AI can minimize bias by focusing on merit rather than irrelevant demographic factors, such as name, race, gender, ethnicity, appearance and age. Instead, hiring managers can focus on a candidate’s skills, expertise and interaction during live or virtual interviews. When AI is designed and deployed with ethical considerations in mind, it can promote diversity, ensuring fair treatment and creating more inclusive hiring processes.

Enhanced Data Safety and Privacy: Safety protocols like encryption, secure data storage and strict access controls help ensure that employee and candidate data are protected from breaches and misuse. Safe AI tools also help organizations comply with regulations and privacy law, minimizing legal risks.

Increased Accountability: Explainability is a requirement to ensure you are using AI compliantly. Understanding how your AI tool influences candidate selection, evaluation, and hiring recommendations means you can articulate the reasoning or logic behind an AI-enabled decision to candidates, colleagues and other stakeholders. It also ensures the TA professionals have insight into how and why decisions were made, so the AI is not operating in a vacuum.

Informed Decision-Making: With proper implementation and monitoring, AI provides actionable, data-driven insights, enabling recruiters to make more informed hiring decisions. By analyzing trends and performance data, it can help refine and optimize talent acquisition strategies over time.

Task Optimization Enabling Human Impact: By automating time-consuming and repetitive tasks like answering candidate questions or scheduling interviews, ethical AI tools can handle a large volume of tasks and free employers to focus on meaningful human interactions. This can create more transparent and authentic hiring processes and experiences.

Ethical and Responsible AI: The Background

AI can evolve talent acquisition, but improper use poses risk to fairness, trust and legal compliance. Ethical and responsible AI are complementary frameworks to ensure fair, safe and effective deployment of AI. Understanding the meaning behind the way we refer to these topics is a good place to start.

So, what’s the difference between Ethical AI and Responsible AI?

Ethical AI:

Focuses on high-level principles like fairness, non-discrimination, and respect for human rights.

Example: Ensuring that AI models do not disadvantage specific groups based on race, gender, or other protected characteristics.

Responsible AI:

Operationalizes ethical principles through governance, accountability, and compliance with regulations.

Example: Regular AI audits to identify and mitigate biases, ensuring models comply with data protection laws.

“Today’s TA leaders need to be certain that they’re operating within the boundaries of both Ethical AI and Responsible AI when using these tools in the recruitment process. For a successful AI deployment, TA leaders need to surround themselves with a team of experts in process design, change management and upskilling to incorporate new technologies. This will help make sure they avoid common pitfalls that could arise with AI tools.”

Luke Kohlrieser, Head of Technology & Analytics Talent Consulting

Responsible AI: The Global Governance Environment

As AI use continues to rapidly expand into the recruitment process and beyond, it is vital to recognize and address the various safety considerations associated with its use. The sweeping EU AI Act is at the forefront of establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for AI. With its categorization of AI applications into a four-tier classification system based on risk level, it is setting a precedent for using AI safely.

Unacceptable Risk

This category includes AI systems that pose a clear threat to safety, rights, or livelihoods. These systems are prohibited, along with those that manipulate human behavior.

Examples include systems that manipulate behavior subliminally, exploit vulnerabilities of individuals, categorize people based on sensitive characteristics.

High Risk

These AI systems significantly affect safety or fundamental human rights and require strict compliance measures.

Examples include AI used in recruitment tools, making decisions on promotions, task allocation and performance monitoring. They must undergo rigorous assessments and ensure transparency and accountability.

Limited Risk

AI applications in this category pose minimal risk. While they still require transparency (e.g., informing users they are interacting with AI), the compliance obligations are lighter.

Examples include chatbots or AI-driven customer service tools.

Minimal or No Risk

This category encompasses AI systems that pose little to no risk to people using these solutions.

These systems can operate without regulatory oversight, such as spam filters or AI for basic data processing tasks.

In the absence of federal regulations, the United States is using the EU AI Act as a reference point. Meanwhile, state-level regulations are emerging, such as the Colorado AI Act, which incorporates several principles from the EU AI Act. Additionally, states like California and Illinois may soon implement regulations similar to New York’s Local Law 144, which governs the use of automated employment decision tools (AEDT). Canada is advancing its own AI legislation through the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA), and a continued collaboration with industry experts and the public to shape effective regulations.

As the global AI regulatory landscape continues to evolve — and more laws are coming — planning is important. If you set the stage now for your ethical AI roadmap, and conduct the right audits, you will have an easier time responding to the changes that come with laws and data protection standards as new elements are introduced.

Here is a brief list of AMS analysis of recent AI laws:

Who Owns the Risk in an AI Anti-Bias Audit?

Recruiters using AI must still obey civil rights laws: Guidance from the EEOC

EEOC Commissioner: Recruiters must avoid AI recruiting tools that intentionally select candidates based upon their protected characteristics

“The regulatory framework for AI is becoming increasingly fragmented as Governments around the world race to keep up with both anticipated and unanticipated impacts of AI use.  For talent professionals, this means they have to keep abreast of a changing environment from both a legal regulation and an ethical AI use perspective. Against this backdrop, the role of talent teams is being elevated as they work closely with their compliance, governance and legal teams to ensure new guidelines and regulatory frameworks are enforced across geographies.” 

Gordon Bull, Chief Legal, Risk and Compliance Officer

Ethical and Responsible AI: Hiring Process Considerations

Using AI to handle daily tasks for you is helpful in HR, but AI can do much more than manage time-consuming tasks. This technology could enhance fairness in the hiring process by eliminating bias and identifying candidates from diverse backgrounds, who may have been overlooked in a traditional hiring process.

By using AI, TA leaders can ensure that every effort was taken to hire the right person with no regard to their race, gender, religious background and other factors. Instead, AI can focus on hiring the right person for the job.

AI in hiring goes beyond the recruitment process itself and can contribute to culture-building and supporting DEIB initiatives and goals. For example, AI can help create structured and consistent questions for all candidates, thereby reducing inconsistencies in the interview process that might introduce bias. A selection of AI tools can analyze language and patterns in job descriptions, candidate outreach and interview questions that identify and remove bias. This helps TAs avoid terms and phrases that may unintentionally thwart candidates from underrepresented groups seeking employment.

One of the ways you can plan to hire safely is by identifying an ethical AI problem that resonates with you and identify what next to explore:

Select an ethical statement that is relevant to your organization:

“We don’t want to replace human judgement with AI.”

You can:

• Ensure you have done the proper strategic planning to understand how your goals line up with ethical AI safeguards
• Learn how AI safely functions in screening and assessment tools
• Plan for data security with regards to AI usage
• Leverage controlled pilot programs to ensure AI adoption at a manageable pace.

“How do we ensure we don’t run into legislative or compliance issues down the line.”

You can:

• Assess your current state of AI usage and discover any areas that are out of balance with upcoming legislation
• Put the right foundations in place to ensure a smooth execution of AI initiatives
• Leverage upskilling to ensure AI Is aligned properly with your business

“We’re looking to leverage AI for maximum impact, even if its new territory.”

You can:

• Look at your end-to-end process for AI usage. Is it organized in a way that will deliver the transformation you are hoping for while maintaining a regulatory framework?
• Have an advanced understanding of data and insights as it relates to AI
• Look at using AI and automation-assisted branding to scale your brand strategies while maintaining a unique tone of voice.

Staying Ahead: Empower Your Workforce with Ethical AI Skills

To fully leverage AI’s potential to streamline processes, improve decision-making, and enhance candidate experiences, organizations must prioritize ethical AI training for their talent acquisition teams. Training staff who use AI is not only a legal obligation under the AI Act but also a strategic necessity. “Without proper upskilling, teams risk falling behind in a rapidly changing landscape where competitors may gain the upper hand by adopting ethical AI more quickly and effectively,” says Nicola Matson, Head of Technology & Analytics Advisory (UKI & EMEA). “Upskilling isn’t just about learning to use new tools—it’s about fostering a mindset that embraces innovation and ethical considerations,” she adds. “Failure to invest in AI upskilling could leave organizations and their employees at a disadvantage, both in terms of productivity and career growth.”

To stay competitive, companies must recognize that AI is not just a tool—it’s a strategic advantage that must be used responsibly. Preparing your team with the knowledge and skills to work alongside ethical AI ensures that they can confidently navigate the future of talent acquisition and remain at the forefront of industry innovation.

Navigating the Ethical AI Landscape: Get Expert Strategic Guidance

As a talent acquisition leader, AMS has the expertise to help organizations on their AI journey. When a TA team implements an AI tool, they are adopting a capability – but deploying it ethically requires strategic guidance from experts who know how to integrate AI into the hiring process responsibly. “There’s plenty of work and governance to get ready,” says Laurie Padua, Managing Director, Talent Consulting at AMS. “Partnering with an organization like AMS can help you to identify risk and embed ethical AI into your processes and people to facilitate change and drive outcomes safely.” This means creating structure and rules around AI with an expert to establish clear guidelines and protocols, ensuring its responsible use and continual optimization.

“TA leaders know hiring and AMS knows about the cutting-edge innovations that can help them find and retain the right talent for the coming decade. When navigating through uncharted waters, you want someone at the helm who has the experience and expertise to ensure a safe journey.”

Laurie Padua, Managing Director, Talent Consulting, AMS

Talent consulting for AI is crucial to your governance framework and ethical strategy because it ensures the responsible and effective integration of AI technologies within your organization. By working with experienced consultants, you can align AI initiatives with ethical guidelines, minimize risks and maintain transparency in decision-making. Talent consultants help identify the right skills and expertise, promote fairness and ensure compliance with regulations, which is vital for building trust, mitigating bias and fostering accountability as AI becomes increasingly embedded in organizational processes. Ultimately, it strengthens your ability to govern AI use responsibly and ethically.

Conclusion

In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, the pace of AI innovation is accelerating and its impact on talent acquisition is profound. To remain competitive, organizations must adopt AI swiftly and strategically. But speed without a robust ethical and responsible framework can lead to serious risks—legal, reputational and operational.

At AMS, we specialize in guiding organizations through the complexities of integrating AI into talent acquisition. Whether you’re just beginning to explore AI or looking to optimize its use, we provide comprehensive support at every stage. From initial strategy workshops and risk assessments to implementation, governance and ongoing enhancements, our experts ensure that your AI deployment is not only effective but also ethical and compliant.

Start your journey to using ethical AI with

AMS Talent Consulting.

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AI + Human Instinct: The Perfect Blend

Contributors:

Josh Bersin

Founder, The Josh Bersin Company

Matt Poole

Head of Service Development, AMS

Krishna Sai Charan

Vice President, Everest Group

Rebecca Wetteman

CEO and Principal Analyst, Valoir

Artificial Intelligence has grabbed headlines since it exploded into the public consciousness with the launch of ChatGPT. The reality of course, is that AI as a concept has been in test phase for far longer with many organizations, but recently the conversation has shifted from “AI will do that” to “AI is doing that”.

This shift from test to use has heightened the need for further discussion on the ethical use of AI. Here’s why talent acquisition leaders of all stripes must not forget the important role that humans will play in overseeing the role AI plays in the hiring process.

Talent acquisition leaders are facing a critical decision when it comes to adopting AI.

As ChatGPT approaches the second anniversary of its debut, HR and TA leaders are, eagerly if cautiously, exploring new ways in which their organizations can deploy these groundbreaking machine-learning tools to hire new employees. While business leaders marvel at the power and potential of Gen AI — and financial officers foresee the benefit of leaner staffs on the bottom line — savvy recruiters can already see the hazards of turning over their day-to-day hiring procedures to technology that has its capabilities rooted in the ability to create its responses from thin air.

There’s too much at stake when using AI without realizing the legal and ethical consequences of employing these tools indiscriminately and with little or no human supervision. Despite the promises of greater automation, recruiters must remember that AI and its breathtaking capabilities cannot be a substitute for the emotion, compassion and ethical judgment that are essential qualities for attracting and retaining the workforce of today, let alone tomorrow. After all, being hired or rejected for a new role has a major impact on a candidate’s life. The role of the TA leader has never been more critical and as AI tools improve and are more widely adopted, the TA leader will bear the ethical and practical consequences of how these tools perform.

Talent is where personal connection and empathy are non-negotiable cornerstones and AI, properly and responsibly deployed, can enhance our lives, says Matt Poole, Head of Service Development for AMS.

AI Has Entered the Recruitment Space

Whilst there are fears that AI will eliminate human interaction from the process, AI can actually enhance the candidate experience. For starters, AI gives recruiters a richer array of options when presenting job opportunities to candidates. Currently, the recruitment process is still rooted in, what Poole calls, the “trifecta of annoying processes” — the job ad, CV, and cover letter.

Forward thinking TAs have already turned to AI to scour these source materials for candidates with the desired job titles, in-demand skills, experience and other factors that make a candidate stand out. Recruiters doing this by-hand typically are inundated with applications, leading to the dreaded “CV blackhole” and applications with no response. AI tools that are tested and proven to be bias-free are able to cope with a much larger workload, ensuring candidates aren’t missed. Recruiters are also using AI to craft interview questions, write higher quality job descriptions and adverts, and create multimedia rich outreach collateral for candidates, all of which are typically time consuming tasks for TA teams.

In response to this time burden, AMS’ sourcing managers are combining Large Language Models (LLMs) with talking avatars to bring hyper-personalized content to life. By simply inputting a job title and location, the tool generates data-driven personas and custom messaging tailored to each audience. Talking avatars narrate key traits, enhancing engagement through real-time, relatable storytelling. This AI-driven approach empowers our Talent Acquisition teams to deliver precise, authentic outreach that resonates deeply, says Poole.

AI tools can also help recruiters engage with candidates during what is typically a lengthy and emotionally taxing recruitment journey that requires multiple interviews, and often with few updates. Recruiters often have to manage dozens of candidates as they move through the recruitment process, which can often take weeks and sometimes months, and can result in the candidate dropping out of the interview process to accept a better job offer. In fact, some recruiters don’t even reach out to candidates if they have been rejected but AI can help bring closure to the candidate.

“Once recruiters have decided to put a candidate forward for interviews and an offer, AMS wants to streamline many of the repetitive, manual administrative tasks that sit on the recruiter’s desk and frankly bog down their workload,” says Poole.

“The tasks themselves do not have to be complex for AI to have value, but the broad personalization it can bring to even those simple tasks can uplift the whole experience for everybody,” says Poole. “It’s kind of a floor raiser, really.”

Poole and his team are adamant that AI is not a decision-making solution but a tool to aid decision making. “At AMS, our approach is to keep the human in control, in the role of the decision maker,” he says. “Actually, what we want to do is speed up the point at which we can get the decision-maker to the decision. That’s where AI will be most effective.”

As companies have started to explore the power of AI in small-scale AI trials and pilot programs, some recruiters have realized that AI tools have their share of limitations and challenges. They understand that they require human oversight. Many of these drawbacks are not so much design flaws, as fundamental building blocks of the approach that has unlocked generative AI. A feature and not a bug, according to Poole. After all, he says that gen AI tools are designed to be creative, and it is intrinsic to their design that they are unable to be 100 percent accurate and reliable. “It makes picking the right tool for the use case incredibly important” he remarked. Not every problem requires an AI-shaped solution.

As businesses automate more of the process steps in recruiting, two “human centered” parts remain, according to Josh Bersin, founder of the HR technology consultancy The Josh Bersin Company. The first is the scoping and description of the job.

“This is far more than AI-generated job descriptions, a recruiter needs to work with the hiring manager, hiring team, and business leaders to scope the job, understanding the role, understand the culture, and force the hiring manager to consider internal candidates, org design, or other issues before simply posting a requisition,” he says.

“The second is interviewing and getting to know the candidate, which includes understanding their cultural fit, skills, interests, aspirations, and fit,” adds Bersin.

TA leaders also need to understand that they are not the only ones using AI — candidates are using machine learning tools to write cover letters, sharpen resumes and even take tests for job skills. “I attended a client roundtable recently with an oil and gas company and the most important thing to them was not how can we use AI in all of these cool ways. It was how do we know if candidates are using AI to game our interviews or any of our assessment processes?” recalls Poole.

Poole believes that AI adoption will be “meaningful but slowish,” as organizations attempt to get AI right and use these tools for good. “Ultimately in recruitment, we deal with people’s livelihood. This is not like counting apples into a warehouse, so we have to treat AI in the right way,” he says

The Ethical Use of AI

At the forefront of a TA leaders’ mind is the need to ensure that the AI models used by vendors in their supply chain, are properly scrutinized for bias and fairness and deployed in an ethical manner. And this is a job for humans, says Poole.

“Most of our TA clients at this point are very aware of the EU AI Act, the different US state legislations like New York’s local law 1 44, among others, says Poole.

Given the lack of guidelines, AMS unveiled the ‘AMS AI Ethics Advisory Board’ in 2024. This new body will help guide AMS and its clients on what they need to consider when deploying AI-powered recruitment tools, especially those that need further testing.

Poole says he has encountered clients who are aware of the ethical and legal concerns when using AI but they are confused about the current spate of laws that are being considered on the local and national level. Clients have told Poole that this confusion can be a barrier to AI adoption.

“Typically, there’s someone on their team who has an understanding of what the legislation is actually saying and what “ethical AI” actually means in practice, but beyond that many executives and stakeholders need real educating. A lot of clients fail to understand or just haven’t quite got to grips with how complex this can be, particularly in global or multi-regional organizations” says Poole. For example, the EU passed a thorough piece of AI regulations although it has yet to take effect. Meanwhile, the UK government has decided to take a “wait and see” approach to see how the market self-regulates, whilst in the United States different state legislation sets the bar at different levels.

“If you are a global enterprise and you’re trying to apply a use case to your business, there is significant complexity. We’re already talking to clients regularly about this and have had time to consider the implications; we come with a prebuilt perspective that they haven’t had the chance to get to yet,” says Poole, who adds that AMS has partnered with TA solution provider Holistic AI for webinars and knowledge sharing on this topic.

Krishna Sai Charan, a vice president at HR consultancy Everest Group, agrees that companies must oversee their use of AI with a human supervisor.

“We are seeing a myriad of use cases where recruitment professionals are leveraging AI alongside intelligent automation for boosted productivity and a superlative candidate experience,” he says. “However, while it is imperative for organizations to leverage AI as an enabler within the recruitment ecosystem, the human touch will continue to be important for creating meaningful connections that technology alone cannot achieve.”

AMS has been running an AI Accelerator in 2024; an internal, cross functional team charged with bringing AI capabilities into AMS’ tools and service proposition in a responsible, ethical way.

Our Ethics Board set overall parameters and govern where our work takes us, and our steering committee and product development teams work with us to bring new capability to life. Separately, we have an AI risk committee, which quite apart from the utility of the use cases, is simply there to make sure that the way we bring the tool to life is compliant, fair and so on. So, our development of AI tools is very much rooted in robust product development processes that our clients are able to benefit from. They can take advantage of our expertise and work in this area without needing to fund their own investments.

Talent acquisition teams can take advantage of the power of AI without compromising control, quality, and ethics, according to Rebecca Wetteman, CEO and principal analyst of HR consultancy Valoir. She says that while most organizations today are keeping a human in the loop as they learn more about the effective use of AI, in the future talent teams will be able to manage AI agents to automate and scale many parts of the talent acquisition process. For talent acquisition to effectively and safely leverage AI, she says that teams need to understand the potential bias in models and training data so they can effectively correct and take advantage of data masking capabilities that reduce the possibility of bias.

“It’s important to note that AI can be an accelerant to TA practices — but that can mean accelerating good or bad practices. Organizations that have fair, transparent, and ethical TA practices to start with and choose technology that can reinforce those practices can leverage the benefits of AI while managing the risks,” she says.

Ultimately, humans and technology need to co-exist in much the same way they always have, which is with a degree of open-mindedness and what Poole calls the “push-pull” that occurs whenever innovation reshapes something in the workplace. In the same way that the Internet transformed how organizations do business, AI will change the “tasks to be done” and therefore reshape the roles we all play in that, he says.

This will require access to expertise to help ambitious organizations reach their goals. “As we move forward,” Poole says, “let’s ensure that our human values guide the future of AI and not the other way around.”

written by Phil Albinus in partnership with the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contribution from:

Josh Bersin

Founder, The Josh Bersin Company

Matt Poole

Head of Service Development, AMS

Krishna Sai Charan

Vice President, Everest Group

Rebecca Wetteman

CEO and Principal Analyst, Valoir

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3 practical steps to build a skills based talent strategy

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The road to a skills-based future

3 practical steps to build a skills based talent strategy

Contributors:

Author:
Kirstin Schulz
Head of Consulting, Talent Acquisition and Advisory – EMEA, AMS

Author:
Nikki Hall
Chief People Officer, AMS

Editor:
Nicola Matson
Head of Technology and Analytics Advisory – EMEA, AMS

Section 1

What we’ve learned so far

Skills-based approach in talent acquisition and management

A few years into the rise of skills-based approaches in talent acquisition (TA) and talent management (TM), it’s time to reflect: What have we learned? How has the conversation evolved? And most importantly, what tangible results have we seen?

A skills-based approach refers to an increased focus on skills during the hiring process to attract a diverse pool of candidates that can contribute their expertise to valuable work. In our work with many organizations, we have encountered the full range of views: From organizations still undecided on the value of skills-based approaches, to those experimenting in specific areas, and others fully committing to large-scale transformations across the entire talent lifecycle. We’ve also noticed that “skills-based” has become an umbrella term, encompassing different strategies and methods of implementation. Each approach aims to drive impactful change and revolutionize how talent is managed to and achieve organizational outcomes.

In this guide, we’ll share insights from our own skills journey, as well as from our work with other organizations, illustrating how we’ve learned that moving to a skills-based organization is a journey with many twists and turns—a journey that requires thoughtful planning with an ability to pivot and an open mind to learn and adjust along the way.

There is no one way of doing it

In its most transformational form, becoming a skills-based organization means shifting away from “job roles” with fixed remits and responsibilities embedded within a defined organizational structure. Instead, the focus should be placed on identifying, developing and deploying employee skills to deliver work across functional or role boundaries.1,2

For others, a skills-based model emphasizes integrating skills throughout the entire talent lifecycle, providing clearer visibility into the skills required for jobs, assignments or projects. It further emphasizes putting skills at the centre of all HR and talent practices, from hiring through to performance management, reward, mobility, promotion and L&D interventions, while leaving the concept of roles, jobs and organizational hierarchies broadly untouched.

This is not surprising, given that organizations differ in their appetite for change and in how they are impacted by macroeconomic talent trends.

Regardless of your approach, the desired and expected benefits are mostly wide-ranging and transformative, such as the following:

  • Improved ability to identify and re-train employee segments whose skills will become obsolete
  • Improved talent outcomes like retention of high performers
  • Improved diversity outcomes
  • Improved resource and skill utilization
  • Improved organizational agility, effectiveness and ability to ward off the impact of well-documented skill shortages.

What can skills-based hiring look like for organizations?

From a TA perspective, we have seen skills-based approaches applied mostly through challenging a long-held focus on attributes such as education, degree requirements, job title and experience. There has been a lot of valuable discussion about how a shift away from these traditional job requirements and candidate search criteria can help widen the talent pool and have positive impacts on diversity metrics.3,4 For instance, we helped one organization, implement skills-based TA as part of their attraction campaign to foster an inclusive culture.

On the other hand, some organizations put the focus mostly on identifying transferable and adjacent skills during the sourcing process. The pandemic has taught us some interesting lessons here, as flight attendants were quickly retrained to assist medical staff 5, and companies like Unilever reported the redeployment of 8,000 employees and 30,000 employee hours.6 Many of our sourcing teams can showcase their own successes. For example, we have sourced outside-industry talent at scale for one of our Financial Services clients, discovering candidates who wouldn’t have been considered before. Another notable success was hiring talent from entirely different backgrounds, such as hiring watchmakers for hard-to-fill service technician roles for medical devices; though the “object” might be different, the underlying skill set of manual dexterity and the ability to work with fine and delicate machinery is transferable.

In our experiences, the extent of which organizations embed skills-based approaches into their hiring processes and principles can vary significantly: From an increased focus on skills during the hiring process, through to redesigning the operating model (see visual). While many organizations have made progress with the first category of interventions, the second remains ambitious for many.

And a final observation – when approaching skills-based practices through the lens of TA, the perspective of candidates should never be an afterthought: When you “sell” the prospect joining a world of opportunities where you can apply and grow your skills, but instead ending up in a standard role with a defined remit, and no obvious path to ‘what next’ – who is accountable for ensuring that the skills-proposition delivers on its promise?

Keeping focused on the business outcomes you are trying to drive throughout the move to a skills-powered talent journey is critical. It’s easy to lose sight of this when you are in the midst of implementation, especially when evaluating the rapidly changing technology options available, including AI, as well as developing your skills taxonomy. We benefited from a strong PMO and expert consultants to help us evaluate the options available to us.

– Nikki Hall, Chief People Officer, AMS

Section 2:

Three practical steps to build a skills based strategy

1. Choose a starting point

The first question is where do we start? Should we take strategic leaps or focus on specific areas like hiring, talent management or talent marketplace? Implementing skills-based approaches varies by organization. For some organizations, we have started with skills-based hiring initiatives, while for others, we began with a talent marketplace or a skills-driven LMS. Ultimately, the best approach depends on selecting one or several use cases that address a clear business challenge. Once the use case is identified, a solid business case for change is essential: Whether seeking commitment for a small pilot or embarking on a complex transformation with a technology implementation, project sponsors will need to secure buy-in for resources, time and investment. For large-scale initiatives with ambitious goals, clearly defined workstreams, subject matter experts (SMEs), a robust PMO and strong governance will be crucial. Additionally, a well-thought-out change management and adoption strategy is vital: Although integrating skills throughout the entire talent and HR lifecycle feels logical and intuitive, change impacts can feel overwhelming once you get into the operational detail.

Finally, you will need the right technology partner. Whether they are already within your existing tech stack or one you need to procure, it’s important to allocate enough time for a thorough vendor selection process to ensure you choose technology that will evolve and grow with you as you expand. Be clear on your use cases and how they shape your requirements, ask the right questions, and understand the vendors’ product roadmap to ensure long-term alignment. In particular, the foundational skills ontologies and capabilities of AI in identifying relevant skills and skills connections have accelerated in recent years and should now be able to do much of the heavy lifting. However, it’s important to remember that having skills mapped in a technology is only half the battle—getting business leaders and people managers on board is just as critical. This is because considering talent with transferable or adjacent skills often sparks a conversation about trainability, upskilling, time-to-competency and the necessary resource investments, which your HR teams need to be prepared for.

2. Plan and run a skills program

As outlined above, there are a lot of ways to approach a skills program and many methods of running it. In this section, we’ll review some common principles to consider.

  • Understand the broader business context: It may sound obvious, but it is worth spending time fully understanding the wider business context in which you are running the program. How will the program contribute to your organizational business strategy, how will you manage the risk of funding being challenged? Are there any other key change initiatives that could inadvertently create challenges if you send conflicting messages or underestimate the impact of change?
  • Establish strong governance: This project will likely compete with other HR and non-HR projects, so getting early sight of adjacent projects that might affect or impact your skills transformation is useful—as is fully understanding any other changes that may hit the workforce at the same time.
  • Focus beyond technology: Don’t treat this as just a “technology implementation.” While technology is the enabler of change, there are many other crucial elements to consider for success. Understanding how much of the process is system-enabled vs. what will happen offline, and identifying which HR policies, ways of working and embedded behaviors will need to change are all key factors in resource planning and change management. Taking a holistic view will ensure the solution is properly integrated into your organization’s broader objectives.
  • Map out the transformation program: Tackling a large transformation can feel overwhelming, so it’s crucial to clearly outline each element of the program, including launch timelines and target audiences (enterprise vs. pilot groups). Creating small, sprint-like testbeds for new processes or functionalities will help you avoid tunnel vision and help clarify questions that will directly impact user experience and adoption, such as:

    – How will AI improve the accuracy of an individual’s skills profile? – What are the potential side effects of self, manager or peer skill ratings?

    – How will you manage the process for assigning and accepting skills-based gig opportunities?

    – Does the UI feel intuitive and engaging?

    – What language will resonate most with users?

  • Create effective workstreams: Whether the transformation is large or small, creating the right workstreams with the right collaboration approach is important:

    – Technology and systems: Extending or implementing a skills-based approach to hiring or talent management will likely include some kind of technology enabler, either through extending what you already have in place or implementing new ones.

    – Process and experience: SMEs accountable for understanding the depth and breadth of talent process changes must understand the effects on different user groups.

    – Change, communications and adoption: Probably the most critical of all workstreams—SMEs leading on this will need to be well-versed in understanding change impacts and getting to the hearts and minds of all impacted users. Anticipating concerns, signposting change, embedding the initiatives in a compelling narrative and creating a strategy to maximize adoption is critical.

    – Project management and governance: Successfully coordinating all activities, managing and mitigating risks and ensuring you have the right governance in place is the accountability of the PMO. Depending on the size of your program, you may be unlikely to map out the entire journey at the start. Agility is important, especially if you must work in new product releases with changes to assumed features and functionalities that you thought you bought, and other little curveballs that might occur.

  • Always tie decisions back to your core objectives and the KPIs you aim to improve. Whether it’s reducing external hiring costs, identifying workforce segments that will require upskilling or boosting employee sentiment, regularly reviewing your success criteria will help you stay focused and avoid getting distracted by issues that don’t significantly impact your goals.

3. Identify the enablers and obstacles you need to prepare for

  • Your approach to skills – The way you approach skills can significantly impact the success of your project and has the potential to stall the project early on if you get tied up in knots. While some vendors may suggest you “just get started” and let their AI handle the rest, it’s important to critically evaluate how their approach affects key areas, such as skill accuracy and user experience. Here are a few factors to consider:

    – Broad vs. specific skills: Skills can range from general, like “Leadership” or “Communication,” to highly specific, like “Python programming for machine learning.”

    – Customization of skills: The flexibility to add, remove or adjust skills, as well as link skills to others and define skill levels can differ across platforms.

    – Linking skills to roles: Some systems allow skills to be tied directly to roles, while others focus on linking them to individuals. It’s also important to check if skills can be pushed to individuals in key roles.

    – Skill ratings and validation: How skills are rated, validated and used for decisions (such as promotions, hiring decisions or simply deciding which next online course you should take) should be clearly mapped out to ensure accuracy and fairness.

  • Minimum viable product (MVP) – Defining and agreeing on an MVP will help you determine if you are comfortable going live with a piece of functionality. Aiming for perfection from Day 1 is only going to delay the launch—incremental improvements can be tackled in the next stage.
  • Managing change and adoption through pilot groups and feedback – In a global, matrixed organization, different regions and cultural perspectives often influence views on which functionalities are most critical and how best to drive system adoption. Aligning user groups and senior leadership expectations can be challenging. However, establishing a clearly signposted “release roadmap,” testing your assumptions via pilot groups and sounding boards to gather feedback and socializing your plans can significantly improve alignment and adoption.

In conclusion…

The idea of a skills-based organization is very attractive and makes intuitive sense. Whether you are an ardent supporter fully on the journey or experimenting in small pockets, expectations are high. If executed well, it has the potential to truly re-frame how we think about “talent” and how we tackle the talent puzzles many organizations are facing. However, the impact of a skills-based model depends on how it’s implemented—and some may argue, “Haven’t we always hired, promoted and developed talent based on skills?”

Regardless of where you are, our recommendation is to always take it back to the fundamentals: The rationale for why you are pursuing this initiative, what “skills-based” means to your organization and how that translates into clear and compelling use cases is the foundation for success. Maintaining an end-to-end talent lifecycle view in mind helps align the big picture and systemic perspective with the smaller tweaks you are making in parts of the talent process, even if you’re only experimenting in select areas.

Ultimately, success isn’t just measured by ROI but also by the real stories that emerge—hiring top talent that would otherwise not have made it to the shortlist, fostering new connections and collaborations through learning and mentoring platforms or colleagues flourishing in ‘non-traditional’ career trajectories. When done right, this approach can unlock significant value and transform how your organization manages talent.

Sources used:

1 Deloitte (2022) The skills-based organization: A new operating model for work and the workforce
2 The Skills-Powered Organization: The Journey to the Next-Generation Enterprise (Ravin Jesuthasan and Tanuj Kapilashrami, 2024)
3 McKinsey (2022): Taking a skills-based approach to building the future workforce
4 LinkedIn (2023): Skills-First: Reimagining the Labor Market and Breaking Down Barriers
5 Grounded Flight Attendants Are Being Redeployed To Hospitals In Coronavirus Battle
6 Deloitte (2021) , Global Human Capital Trends: The social enterprise disrupted: Leading the shift from thrive to survive

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A checklist to guide your AI transformation

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AI-Enabled Talent Acquisition

Your AI transformation checklist

In today’s competitive job market, leveraging AI in talent acquisition can significantly enhance your recruitment process. However, implementing AI comes with its own set of risks. Like any technology, achieving a return on investment requires careful implementation and proactive change management.

This checklist highlights the key considerations for each stage of your AI journey, from exploration and implementation to optimization in talent acquisition.

Exploring AI

  • Ensure you have a clear understanding of the opportunities and risks of implementing AI in TA 
  • Audit your organizational needs. Where do you have challenges that AI could help solve? 
  • Identify where AI fits in your Talent Acquisition Strategy and where it doesn’t  
  • Define clear goals and objectives for use of AI 
  • Ensure there is a shared understanding of this amongst your senior team in TA and HR 
  • Establish rules around where to limit AI usage
  • Identify nuances where human judgement and final decision making are critical
  • Understand regional and local regulations 
  • Create guidelines about sharing sensitive organization information with AI systems  
  • Identify where training is required for AI adoption 
  • Create a detailed plan outlining the steps needed for AI usage
  • Document KPI, timelines and required resources

Implementing AI

  • Select the right providers that can support your requirements
  • Review how this new technology will fit with your current tech stack 
  • Define clear objectives – with measurable goals like time-to-hire or improving candidate quality
  • Develop a plan to incorporate AI i into your existing workflows and systems
  • Track your KPIs to measure the impact of AI on your TA processes
  • Use data and enhance your feedback loop, to improve your chosen AI tool is still effective over time
  • Secure internal and leadership support, as well as a culture of adoption, with the right change management approaches

Optimizing AI

  • Set up smart training and education to introduce/re-introduce and demystify the tool 
  • Highlight success stories and how recruitment outcomes can be enhanced so team can see tangible benefits
  • Pilot AI in controlled recruitment environments and allow the team to become comfortable with the impacts of technology
  • Show why you have selected the AI you have, and show how intuitive and easy to use it is
  • Create an ecosystem of shared experience and suggestions for future improvements
  • Address concerns around job displacement and privacy, provide reassurance and issue management

How AMS can help

Our TA Consulting team offers a suite of solutions to support you at every stage of your AI journey. No matter where you are with AI, strategic planning can yield a variety of benefits, including:

  • Aligning your team on overall AI strategy
  • Receiving an AI Readiness Review and Roadmap
  • Confidently implementing AI use cases in TA
  • Choosing and implementing AI technology
  • Eliminating AI roadblocks and mitigating risks
  • Upskilling your team and boosting AI adoption
  • Harnessing AI enabled data and insights
  • Enhancing your brand and candidate experience
  • Driving transformation and measure AI’s impact on hiring

How AMS can help

Our TA Consulting team offers a suite of solutions to support you at every stage of your AI journey. No matter where you are with AI, strategic planning can yield a variety of benefits, including:

  • Aligning your team on overall AI strategy
  • Receiving an AI Readiness Review and Roadmap
  • Confidently implementing AI use cases in TA
  • Choosing and implementing AI technology
  • Eliminating AI roadblocks and mitigating risks
  • Upskilling your team and boosting AI adoption
  • Harnessing AI enabled data and insights
  • Enhancing your brand and candidate experience
  • Driving transformation and measure AI’s impact on hiring

To explore Talent Consulting for AI and its benefits,
check out our strategic services overview tailored to align with your business goals.

Learn more

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