Evidenced x E.ON UK on Structured Interviewing and Future Skills

At the People 1st EMEA Conference, Evidenced hosted a fireside chat exploring the future of skills, hiring, and workforce development in the energy sector. The conversation brought together Lewis Moore, Chief Operating Officer at Evidenced, and Sally Lane, Head of People Development at E.ON UK, to discuss how they're building a transparent, data-driven, and inclusive approach to talent.

Introduction

Lewis: Welcome everyone. We’re kicking off the afternoon with a conversation I’ve really been looking forward to. I’m joined by Sally Lane, Head of People Development at E.ON UK. Thanks so much for being here, Sally.

Sally: Thanks, Lewis - hi everyone. Great to be here.

Lewis: For anyone unfamiliar with Evidenced, we’re a structured interviewing platform that helps organisations run consistent, fair, competency-based interviews with live guidance. E.ON UK has been using Evidenced to align hiring with its competency framework, so today we’ll dive into how that supports their wider talent and skills strategy.

To set the scene: it’s been an incredibly interesting time for the UK energy industry, especially with the energy transition. Sally, could you talk a bit about how that shift is affecting your people strategy?

The Energy Transition

Sally: It’s a really exciting time for the energy sector. E.ON is an energy retailer and solutions company, so we have a very diverse workforce - from installers and engineers to office-based teams. Sector-wide, there are projections of around 400,000 new jobs being created by 2030, which means huge opportunities for new skills to enter the industry.

But it’s not just about bringing in new people. It’s about helping existing colleagues re-skill and grow. People development sits right at the heart of our employee value proposition, creating an environment where colleagues can learn and develop in a way that works for them. Evidenced supports the early stages of that, particularly recruitment and onboarding.

Future Skills

Lewis: E.ON has been very intentional about future skills - not just talking about them, but putting structure around them. What does “future skills” look like for you in practice?

Sally: You often hear the term “green skills,” and we use that too, but for us it’s broader than technical or installer skills. We created something called the Future Skills Framework because leaders were struggling to picture what future skills gaps would look like. The framework helps them have conversations with their teams, understand coming skill changes, and start planning in a practical way. It’s simple, but incredibly effective.

Embedding Competencies: My Skill Guide

Lewis: Many organisations have competency frameworks, but yours, My Skill Guide, feels very embedded and alive within the organisation. How did that develop?

Sally: E.ON UK is part of the wider European business, E.ON SE, so My Skill Guide acts as a shared language across regions. We refreshed it earlier this year and it’s used everywhere - performance discussions, one-to-ones, development networks, and now recruitment.

Evidenced came at just the right time because we could refresh all our assessment materials and launch them through the platform. Leaders suddenly had structured guidance aligned with our competencies, which makes hiring far more consistent.

Data-Driven Hiring

Lewis: Now that you’ve digitised structured interviews, how is that data shaping your decision-making?

Sally: It’s given us a completely new layer of insight. For example, in the first three months we noticed a large number of interviews happening with candidates who ended up not being the right fit. That showed us where hiring managers were spending time unnecessarily - and where sifting could be improved.

We can also see which skills managers choose to assess. That was totally invisible before. If future-critical skills aren’t being assessed enough, we can spot that and guide leaders accordingly.

Skills Shortages & Inclusion

Lewis: At the Energy UK conference, skills shortages were called the number-one barrier to investment in the sector. How do you tackle that - especially when many “future skills” simply don’t exist yet?

Sally: Inclusion plays a huge role. Like many industries, engineering and STEM roles have long-standing under-representation challenges. So we’re focusing on attracting young people, career returners, and people who may never have considered energy as a career.

A big part of this is transparency. Our recruitment process is structured, open, and clearly explained - we publish the framework, sample questions, and expectations on our careers site. That helps people feel confident and prepared.

We also work with our colleague-led inclusion networks anytime we introduce a new tool or process - including Evidenced - to make sure it’s accessible and inclusive from day one.

A Dynamic View of Skills

Lewis: E.ON UK uses Evidenced for both internal and external hiring, which gives you a really unique comparison point. How does that help?

Sally: Our ambition is to build a dynamic view of skills - understanding internal capability alongside what’s happening in the wider market. There’s no point looking at one without the other. With the data from Evidenced, we can compare both and get a much richer picture of skills gaps, both for E.ON UK and across the sector.

Looking Ahead

Lewis: How do you see E.ON UK’s talent strategy evolving over the next few years?

Sally: We’ll continue growing our development networks and making better use of data - both internal and external - to deepen our understanding of skills. That will help us support colleagues better and stay attractive in a competitive market.

One Piece of Advice

Lewis: Final question - if you could give one piece of advice to any organisation preparing its workforce for the future, what would it be?

Sally: Start small. Our future skills work began with a very simple framework to spark conversations. It took us about 18 months to fully embed across 10,000 colleagues, but that foundation has been invaluable.

Closing

Lewis: Thank you, Sally - and thanks to everyone for joining the session.

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