At a virtual round table, held by The HR World and sponsored by Vizzy, these and other aspects of the CV came under debate among HR professionals and experts. With lead speakers, Michelle Rajkumar, Director, Talent, People Team, Railpen; Chris Bleakley, Director of Resourcing, Spire Healthcare Group and Jess Woodward-Jones, Co-Founder of Vizzy, the round table became a lively debate featuring a sharing of ideas and practices used within the talent search arena.

While some people in the discussion still saw the use and value of the CV, there was a general acceptance that AI-generated CVs and cover letters, as well as an increase in application volume and a challenging jobs market, were problematic. For example, CV screening followed by in person or online interviews is generally being used to verify and backup first impressions.

While there was some openness toward other formats there was also some reservation – video CVs were given as an example of a format that didn’t always feel right for employers. There was a general acknowledgement however that the CV did not always capture the skills and aptitudes of individuals, and that Generation Z in particular could feel constrained by the format. In some professions the concept of the CV no longer exists, while questions were also raised over whether the document worked when considering internal talent.

Whichever format was chosen to package and communicate talent the discussion made it clear that anyone making recruitment selections in this way should undergo training in order to understand how to interpret and use the format effectively. When better insights are uncovered, talent acquisition teams and hiring managers can make more informed decisions as long as teams have a clear understanding of the skillsets – soft and hard – that are desired.

With experience and ideas being shared enthusiastically, the event demonstrated how methods and tools used to assess talent were evolving and adapting to current challenges. This aspect of talent acquisition will be interesting to follow in the future as new generations of employees enter the workplace and employers continue to try and find the skills their organisations need.

Has the CV had its day? Is it now impossible to put an accurate picture of a life and an individual’s work potential on to a few sheets of A4? More to the point, does your talent actually want to create a CV? Do they find it frustrating when they have to approach your business in a way that doesn’t match what they think they can offer?

These questions and more were discussed in The HR World webinar, Gen Z Doesn’t Do CVs — Are You Ready? sponsored by Vizzy, the company that has reimagined the CV and is already revolutionising how employers approach, assess and select talent.

On the call were Chris Woodward-Jones, CEO and Co-founder of Vizzy; Lynne Cutts, Talent Acquisition Specialist, Footasylum & SEVENSTORE, Tobi Ogundipe, Founder and CEO of JABARI (formally DIVERSE) and Lisandra Radu, L&D Senior Coordinator EMEA, VML.

Together they explored this area of recruitment with a particular emphasis on early careers. It became clear that while the CV sometimes has its place, when it comes to understanding more about their candidates, employers are becoming more open to receiving diverse material, illustrating what candidates can do and what they’re like. Indeed, Lynne Cutts said that having used Vizzy she and her team felt as if they knew their prospective candidates well before they’d met them in person.

Changing processes to go beyond the CV alone may require time and effort but it could be exactly what you need if today’s processes aren’t giving you the results you want. From the panel, it was clear that there is a strong likelihood that better hiring signals can lead to better hires, faster. Is your process giving you the signals you need to understand candidates and make informed hiring decisions?

This webinar is well worth a view – packed as it is with insights, inspiration, and first-hand experience. Check it out – it might change your view on CVs forever.

If you’d like to get in touch with the sponsor, Vizzy, who help brands like Burberry, Virgin, Montagu Evans, and Tiffany and Co. find top talent fast, please reach out to jess@vizzy.com

For decades, the talent strategy Genesis has been recruitment. When capability gaps appear organisations recruit. When performance lags, the assumption is that the ‘right people’ aren’t in place. When the business changes direction, the reflex is to go back to the market in search of new skills.

But it’s starting to feel like that logic needs a reset.

What if the most effective talent strategies don’t start with a job requisition – but with a much deeper understanding of the people already inside the organisation?

This question is becoming increasingly hard for senior HR leaders to ignore. Not because it’s intellectually interesting, but because the operating environment has shifted. Hiring budgets are tighter. Productivity increases are being demanded. Headcount growth is constrained. And HR is under growing pressure to justify talent decisions with evidence, not narrative.

Ironically, HR functions are sitting on more data about their people than ever before – yet many still struggle to access it, connect it, or turn it into insight that genuinely informs decisions.

When HR Has Data – But Loses Sight of the Human Story

Most HR teams are not short of information. Applicant tracking systems hold years of hiring history. HRIS platforms contain job, tenure and movement data. Performance systems record appraisals. Engagement surveys capture sentiment. Learning platforms log development activity. Exit interviews explain why people leave.

The issue isn’t data volume. It’s data fragmentation.

These data sources rarely talk to each other. And even when they do, few teams have the analytical frameworks or confidence to extract insight that goes beyond reporting what already happened.

This isn’t a critique of HR capability. It simply reflects how HR technology and operating models evolved over the last twenty years. But in 2026, those limitations are no longer benign. They’re becoming real liabilities.

It’s No Biggie: Other Functions Made This Shift Years Ago and HR Is Simply Catching Up

There is a reassuring perspective here. Other business functions have already navigated this transition. Marketing no longer operates on disconnected customer data. Finance doesn’t allocate capital without integrated forecasting and modelling. Supply chain relies on real-time data and predictive insight to manage risk. Customer service analyses every interaction to improve experience.

HR, by contrast, has been slower to unify its data and embed analytics into everyday decision-making. As a result, some of the most expensive and strategically consequential decisions organisations make – people decisions – are still too often driven by intuition and incomplete information. 

That gap now matters more than ever: when hiring was cheap and growth unconstrained, inefficiency could be absorbed. When talent markets were buoyant, attrition felt like a nuisance rather than a risk. Mobility, engagement and role fit mattered less – because talent was treated as replaceable.

The reality of 2026 is that none of those conditions apply anymore.

Why Hiring First Is No Longer a Sustainable Strategy

When HR lacks a joined-up understanding of its workforce, hiring becomes a blunt instrument. Organisations recruit externally without knowing whether capability already exists internally. They assess candidates without understanding which traits truly predict success in a specific role context. They repeat hiring patterns that generate churn, mis-fit or burnout – because outcomes are never connected back to long-term performance, mobility and retention data.

Graduate recruitment assesses potential through CVs and assessment centres. Succession planning relies heavily on managerial opinion. Leadership development builds capability that is rarely tracked or redeployed. Redeployment decisions are made without real insight into who can adapt, who can grow, and who is at risk against new role demands. HR isn’t short of processes – it’s short of corroborating evidence.

Without a unified, data-driven view of capability, hiring becomes the default response to uncertainty rather than the final lever in a well-understood talent strategy.

The most effective organisations we’re seeing today are starting to invert this logic. They begin by deeply, continuously and predictively understanding their workforce – and only then deciding where hiring, redeployment or development is genuinely required.

The Role of Integrated Talent Analytics

This is where HR has the opportunity to move from a reporting function to vital strategic infrastructure. By bringing together data across the talent lifecycle – recruitment, performance, engagement, learning, mobility and attrition – into analytical frameworks designed to answer real workforce questions.

It’s about seeing patterns across systems and enabling different conversations: which hiring profiles correlate with long-term performance; where internal mobility is failing silently; where burnout or attrition risk is emerging; where leadership potential actually shows up; and which gaps reflect true skill shortages versus misalignment between people, roles and work.

This level of insight allows HR to act earlier, intervene more precisely and align talent decisions directly to business outcomes.

The Journey from Cost Centre to Growth Enabler

One of the most persistent frustrations for senior HR leaders is being viewed as a cost centre rather than a value creator. That perception won’t change through narrative alone – it can only changes through evidence.

When HR can demonstrate how talent decisions affect productivity, risk, retention and performance, the conversation shifts. Talent investment starts to look like capital investment. Workforce planning becomes predictive. Hiring becomes a strategic lever – not a default response.

This isn’t about making HR more technically literate. It’s about equipping HR with the same analytical discipline other functions already rely on, while preserving the human judgement and ethical context that make people decisions nuanced.

AI Is Raising the Stakes – and the Opportunity

AI makes this inflection point even more critical. Not because it will replace HR, but because it will expose what HR truly understands about its people. AI won’t fix poor data – it will amplify it. Shallow, siloed or biased inputs will simply produce faster, more seemingly confident wrong decisions.

But when AI is applied to a strong foundation of integrated talent data, grounded in human science and behavioural insight, it becomes a powerful multiplier. It can surface patterns humans miss, predict risk earlier and support fairer, more objective decisions.

HR Transformation that’s a Natural Evolution – Not a Leap of Faith

For many HR leaders, embracing Talent Analytics can feel daunting. Concerns around capability, data quality and change are real. But this isn’t about a big-bang transformation.        

See it as a journey: some organisations start with hiring or mobility analytics. Others focus on attrition, burnout or leadership readiness. Many begin with targeted diagnostics before scaling data integration. The important point is this: there are now mature, proven providers like Cognisess who can support HR at every stage of their journey.

Why 2026 Will Be a Turning Point

The pressures facing HR aren’t going to ease. Organisations want fewer mis-hires, higher productivity, stronger leadership pipelines and better use of internal talent – whilst controlling cost and risk.

These outcomes won’t come from incremental improvement or better storytelling. They require a step change in how HR understands and manages its most valuable asset: its talent data.

2026 won’t be the year human judgement disappears. It will be the year it is finally augmented with clarity, confidence and evidence. And yes, the best talent strategies will still hire – but the smart work will have started way before the job is ever posted.

Colin Minto has 20+ years’ experience as a HR Leader in Talent Acquisition and HR Tech within some of the UKs biggest employers. He is currently is Chief of Staff at Cognisess – a pioneer in Talent Analytics and AI who work with some of the world’s biggest employers. From this unique perspective, Colin has observed that 2026 will be the year that separates out those organisations that manage talent from those that truly understand it.          

The conversation, cemented the need for an agile workforce in today’s organisations as well as highlighting crucial aspects of how to manage such a workforce to maximise return. The discussion determined that with the right approach, from recruitment to management, companies can maximise productivity and loyalty from their flexible and contingent workforce. At a time when companies are under huge pressure to react to external and internal challenges, securing an agile workforce which brings the right skills to the right part of the organisation at the right time has never been more important.

The discussion was chaired by HR World’s Managing Director, Tom Bright and featured input from Michael Farrier, Solutions Director at Indeed Flex.

In a webinar from The HR World, sponsored by Morgan McKinley Talent Solutions, the subject of hiring came under particular scrutiny.

Two Sides of the Same Hire: How to Impress Candidates and Empower Hiring Managers brought together Niamh McCarthy, Client Services Managing Director for EMEA, Morgan McKinley Talent Solutions; Justine Friedmann, People & Culture Director, IFX Payments and Ed Gairdner, Chief of Staff, iplicit to give their insight on the challenges and solutions to achieving a smooth hiring process that benefits both employers and candidate alike.

Against a backdrop of scarcity of skills across sectors, Niamh McCarthy highlighted the pressures and challenges facing companies in bringing new people into their organisations. Faced with the need to fill vacancies swiftly on one hand, but ensuring candidates truly fit prospective roles on the other, getting both these issues right can have a direct and positive impact on productivity for businesses and avoid the dangers of poor retention and associated costs. The discussion dived in depth to explore the relationship between talent acquisition, hiring managers and the candidates themselves, seeking to ensure expectations were met on all sides and that the process was as smooth as possible.

The need for good communications and discussions between the parties involved in the hiring process became clear as Ed described how they worked with external recruiters for their talent, ensuring these partners fully understood the company and their needs. Niamh made clear the need for shared accountability across those involved in the hiring process in order to make sure quality hires happened every time.

It also emerged that getting this area of recruitment correct was crucial for building and maintaining a great brand, not just as an employer but as a business more generally. Even if candidates were not successful the panelists stressed the importance of ensuring they had received a positive experience with the company – not least because while this job might not be right for them, there was always a chance that a later opportunity would be.

This webinar was packed full of direct experience and ideas from the frontline of talent acquisition. Ultimately it was clear that there was a need for real partnerships between those involved in identifying the need for new talent and those who are charged with finding the people who would meet those needs.

Inclusion at work is all about the human experience: how people feel when they show up, how they navigate your culture, whether they feel part of your values and yes, as overused as the phrase is – whether they can bring their whole selves to work.

Whenever I talk about the commercial benefits of DE&I, I always land on the biggest cost. Recruitment, talent acquisition, hiring… and ultimately retention.

I always kick off with a simple question:

Think back to a time you weren’t seen, heard or respected. Maybe you worked in a toxic environment. What happened to your mindset, your mental health, your commitment, your performance?

It’s the same story every time: inefficiency, quiet quitting, declining health and if you had the privilege, an eventual sharp exit.

I say privilege intentionally. Not everyone can afford their ‘stuff this’ moment and throw their office keys at the toxic boss. For many, circumstances keep them stuck. And for those with a marginalised identity, who probably fought harder than their majority colleagues just to get into the room, the risk of starting over can feel greater.

The grass isn’t always greener, and getting to those greener pastures can be a battle.

Great workplaces don’t happen by accident – why knew! 

They’re carefully curated: values, ethics, policies and behaviours all pulling in the same direction.

What do the best inclusive employers have in common?

Better tenure, higher levels of employee confidence, productivity, innovation and loyalty backed by engagement surveys consistently show that people recognise the culture is smashing it.

It doesn’t take a genius to connect this to DE&I and belonging, there’s a mountain of evidenced research to back it up:

• Belonging halves turnover risk. High belonging is consistently linked to around 50% lower turnover, better performance and fewer sick days.
• Where fairness and inclusion are visible, employees report less stigma when discussing mental health, higher trust and less burnout.
• Inclusion reduces chronic stressors (bias, microaggressions, unfairness, workload without control), which lowers burnout and improves intent to stay.

And it isn’t just about ‘the vibe’. It’s about the foundations: workplace wellbeing, flexible or hybrid working, family-building benefits, equal pay, policies that protect and benefits that create equity.

People stay when they feel respected.
People stay when they feel accepted.
People stay when they see a future.

FACTS and all of this is built through an organisation’s DE&I strategy.

Why aren’t employers joining the dots?

Because too many still treat DE&I like a couple of lunch-and-learns and a sprinkling of cultural-awareness days. Out-of-touch wellness webinars and ERGs with zero budget or authority have never shifted the dial on equity and equality, IMO.

Plus nobody is showing the money, now I am not one for maths, but here goes…

Company of 1,000 people, average salary £50k, annual voluntary turnover 20% that’s 200 leavers.

Conservative replacement cost at 0.5× salary = £25k each (recruitment, lost productivity, impact on team), that’s £5 million a year out the door.

If serious belonging and DE&I design cuts attrition by 25% (i.e. 50 fewer leavers), you bank £1.25 million, before you even count fewer sick days and better performance.

That’s the business case right there!

Six powerful actions leaders can take

So, what can leaders actually do beyond a token lunch-and-learn and a few rainbow-coloured LinkedIn posts? Here are six powerful actions that don’t just tick a DE&I box, they keep your best people from quietly updating their CVs.

Inclusion → psychological safety → better mental health → lower intent to leave → actual retention.

1. Listen first
Short term: run listening sessions or anonymous surveys to understand employee experience with a focus on inclusion, psychological safety and equity
Long term: use the data to build DE&I-informed people strategies that address barriers, create accountability and align with your goals

2. Make managers your DE&I allies
Short term: upskill managers in inclusive leadership, bias awareness and equitable decision making
Long term: bake DE&I into performance management and leadership frameworks, linking it to progression, development and reward

Review your career pathways
People don’t leave companies, they leave stagnant roles, unfair systems and poor line managers.
Short term: audit who is progressing, who isn’t and why, look at access to development, stretch opportunities and mentoring
Long term: build equitable progression pathways, address barriers such as bias in promotion processes and track outcomes by demographic

4. Centre belonging in your EVP
Short term: refresh internal messaging and onboarding to reflect inclusion, community and equity in a real, meaningful way
Long term: co-create and evolve your EVP with employees, showcasing stories about lived experience, benefits that reflect different needs and clear commitments

5. Track, measure and tell the whole story
Short term: set clear DE&I-linked retention KPIs, turnover by demographic, inclusion scores, exit themes and share insights internally – be bold!
Long term: regularly publish DE&I and retention data, and link it to business performance to show why inclusion drives results

6. Design policies and benefits that reflect real lives
Short term: audit existing policies, benefits and working conditions through a DE&I lens. Check for outdated language, gaps or one-size-fits-all thinking
Long term: co-develop inclusive policies and benefits that support different identities and life stages, from flexible working and parental leave to menopause support, neurodiversity adjustments and equitable pay

Final thoughts

Retention isn’t a mystery, it’s a choice. Build inclusion into the way you lead and the way you work or keep writing those cheques to replace the people walking out the door. And please, let’s stop treating DE&I like a side hustle, it’s the engine of performance and profit

There is an old Chinese proverb: “if you are planning for one year, plant rice; if you are planning for ten years, plant trees; but if you are planning for a hundred years, plant people”. For any organisation, whether in the private or public sector, the most important resource they have is their people, if they want to achieve any measure of success. Yet in difficult global economic times, many organisations seem to forget this most basic doctrine of ‘successful workplaces’, moving toward downsizing to keep their labour costs down in a survival mode stance. Moreover, with two significant wars, a global cost of living and energy crisis and various important world leaders pulling back into a protectionist and confrontational mode, the future of these organisations requires them to retain and develop their talent, and not dispense with them in a frenzied attempt to balance the books!

There are many things that organisations can do to retain and develop their staff. First, to provide them with a sense of purpose in their job, and a feeling of being part of something important, a sense of community. This is not easy to do but is fundamental to many people, a feeling of belonging to something bigger than themselves. 

Engaging work

Second, engage with them in more professional training and development of their skills. This means spending time with them to see what they might want to do in terms of upskilling. This is particularly important during difficult times when people are worried about their job security. 

Third, spend ‘quality time’ with them in terms of finding out how they feel about their job security, the organisations future and anything else that may be troubling them. This is difficult for many managers, but it is vital if you want to find out how people perceive and react to their job and the organisation more generally. A real problem we have in many organisations is: ‘many managers just don’t have effective social skills in relating to their staff’. This may be an opportunity to do something about this problem, in terms of providing the training for line managers to enhance their ‘emotional intelligence’ or social skills.

Work for meaning and for bread

Fourth, giving people more autonomy and control over their job, such as more flexible working and/or giving them more authority to take on more challenging work, in fact, anything that gives staff a sense of some control over their work. As Studs Terkel said in his book Working: “work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor, in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying”.

Creating a healthy and engaging culture in the workplace is what most GenZ and young millennials want, so anything that gets people up in the morning ‘bright-eyed and bushy tailed’ and eager to get to work, is what young and old alike want from their employer.

Feeling great at work

Retaining talent at work is not very complicated, it’s about being sensitive to people’s needs, and what they want to get out of their job and life in general. This means engaging them, finding the right kind of work for them and making them feel needed and valued. As Mark Twain once wrote: “keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can somehow become great”. 

Management is not just about making just-in-time decisions and demonstrating authoritative behaviour, it is about understanding and meeting the needs of those you work with and making them feel you care and understand them and their contribution. 

Professor Cooper’s latest book is Healthy High Performance: Unlocking Business Success Through Employee Wellbeing (Routledge Books, 2025).

At a time when the search for great talent is more challenging than ever, The HR World hosted a webinar, sponsored by Connectr Talent Technology, to examine the potential of emerging talent – how organisations can find, attract and onboard this important people resource.

Going beyond simply individuals at the start of their career, emerging talent also addresses those who are returning to work or making a significant shift in their working lives. These are marginalised groups including ex-offenders, ex-military, parents returning to work – indeed any and all candidates who might not otherwise be a core part of a business’ attraction and hiring strategy.

The webinar featured input from panelists Simon Reichwald, Chief Progression Officer, Connectr Talent Technology; Jonathan De Kryger, Leader Campus Recruitment North, Human Resources, Worldline and Gareth Stirling, Senior Recruitment Business Partner, Totalmobile Ltd.

Between them they highlighted the importance of ensuring an organisation’s search for talent goes beyond the usual parameters, explaining how partnerships with external organisations and dedicated initiatives could bring increased awareness of an employer and work sector to people who may not otherwise consider those areas.

The panelists emphasised the need to educate and communicate with talent pools in order to secure engagement and interest, not just to complete the application and onboarding process but to help create candidates who would have a long term career with the organisation and within that employment sector. As Simon Reichwald pointed out, drawing from this talent base frequently means securing more loyal and committed employees than from other areas, but this can only be done by putting in the effort as the employer.

While many companies may still struggle with the number of applicants they receive for available roles, attracting emerging talent is still crucial for organisations who want to benefit from a diverse and committed workforce. Technology can certainly help to sift and engage with a large number of applicants, but ultimately the organisation must be welcoming and committed to these kind of applicants if they are to achieve success and benefit from everything they have to give.

Michael Page’s Talent Trends 2025 report is essential reading for anyone invested in the future of work. With talent attraction and retention remaining core to HR’s value, the insights from this wide-ranging survey are invaluable for those seeking to align their strategies with evolving organisational needs. It is also a timely report: Right now working in HR, talent acquisition, and people management today means coming up against unprecedented challenges. Rarely have so many external influences converged to impact the profession, while employees and employers are facing complex and shifting dynamics.

The webinar was a chance for the experts to explore the findings from the report and show how HR and talent acquisition professionals can respond to the challenge outlined. To this end the webinar explored four key themes: the Employee Value Proposition, workforce mobility, flexible working, and how organisations can earn greater trust from both current employees and potential candidates.

A consistent message emerged: clarity is critical to effective talent attraction and retention. Clarity means organisations being honest and upfront about what being employed with them is about. It means being clear about everything from salary to culture, and most importantly it means following through on those promises. However, achieving this clarity in today’s volatile landscape is anything but simple.

Doug Rode described the current job market as dominated by a “wait and see” workforce—professionals who are willing to move roles until they find work that truly aligns with their values and goals. The panel agreed that employees now seek more than just a job; they want purpose and meaningful contribution.

Delivering clarity is especially tough given today’s powerful external forces. One area of tension discussed was workplace flexibility. As organisations promise more flexibility, they often struggle to keep those commitments amid changing business needs. New employment rights requiring flexible work requests to be considered from day one – though not necessarily granted – further complicate matters. Flexibility, after all, doesn’t always mean working from home, and its definition can vary widely by job type and sector.

Yet, getting flexibility right is critical. According to the report, 47% of UK professionals would consider changing jobs if their current work arrangement were altered.

In the end, strong communication is the cornerstone of successful talent strategies. When organisations clearly communicate what employees can expect – and deliver on those expectations – they not only retain top performers but also enhance their reputation among future candidates and even their customer base. A track record of offering meaningful, clearly defined, and competitive employment opportunities is a powerful differentiator in today’s ever-changing job market.

With a clear focus on the evolving role of skills-based hiring to help build agile, high-performing organisations the discussion was led with thoughts from Michelle Rajkumar, Global Talent Acquisition Leader and Lindsay Gallard, Chief People Officer, Six Degrees.

The conversation also featured new research from the round table’s sponsors Morgan McKinley Talent Solutions, giving their access to the latest information and trends around this crucial subject. 

What emerged from the conversation was that in today’s rapidly evolving tech-driven world, the traditional methods of talent acquisition are being challenged. Businesses are determined to stay competitive in all areas and to do this from a talent acquisition point of view, it has been necessary to shift focus from identifying traditional credentials to perfecting a skills-first mindset. In this context, those around the table identified adaptability, lifelong learning, and the role of technology as important in shaping the future of work.

Essentially, employers are now operating in a world where job roles are changing faster than job titles can keep pace. In this scenario the ability for employees to be able to adapt and develop their skills is incredibly valuable.

The discussion emphasised the need to value what people can do over where they’ve been. Organisations need to be able to analyse and measure ability and potential among employees, challenging traditional credentials and foregrounding ability and adaptability. For this approach to be sustainable and deliver value, organisations must build inclusive pathways, recognising the potential of their staff and ensuring they are able to move through the business easily and successfully.

Naturally technology has a huge part to play here. The discussion looked at best practice around the use of AI and automation, leveraging these technologies to streamline the recruitment process, from candidate screening to skills assessment. It was also felt that making data-driven decisions around talent management meant there was a better understanding of workforce needs resulting in better hiring and development decisions.

Retaining talent continues to be a challenge for employers, and the discussion proposed initiatives such as providing regular check-ins with employees to understand their needs and the key to their satisfaction. Culture was also an important part of retention while creating good internal mobility also meant employees could be developed and encouraged to stay with the organisation. 

Indeed, addressing internal mobility, through encouraging lateral moves around an organisation and creating a skills database so the organisation can stay on top of the skills and abilities it has within it’s workforce can also be key to keeping employees motivated and the organisation aware of the talent it has.

Finally, the discussion made clear that in the field of people development, diversity and inclusion are not just buzzwords but are essential components of a successful talent strategy. The discussion emphasised the need to ‘widen the gate, not lower the bar’ in ensuring hiring, and development processes are inclusive and equitable. Once again, the creation of a positive and inclusive company culture can help diverse talent thrive and progress.

There is no question that the future of talent acquisition and management lies in a skills-first approach that values adaptability, lifelong learning and diversity. Achieving this and making the most of this approach requires HR to ensure other areas of its work are aligned to this aim. Technology, culture and internal talent management must be addressed in order to build a workforce that is not only skilled, but also resilient and innovative. As the world of work continues to evolve, embracing these strategies will be key to staying competitive and thriving in a tech-driven landscape.