This March 2025, the Evidenced team spoke at Talent Labs Collaborate London, where we joined Talent Acquisition professionals from a range of industries to explore the evolving challenges in hiring. It was a fantastic opportunity to share our perspective, learn from others at the forefront of talent strategy, and discuss how TA teams can drive more impact with fewer resources.
Here are the key themes that stood out:
The True Cost of Getting It Wrong
Across several discussions, the impact of poor hiring decisions was a recurring theme - and the numbers were sobering. 95% of UK businesses admit to making at least one bad hire every year, with roughly half failing within the first 6 to 12 months.
It was clear that reactive hiring, rushed decision-making, and misaligned expectations are still widespread problems across industries. And these issues don’t just cost money, they can also compromise team dynamics and slow down overall business progress.
Skills Over Resumés: Easier Said Than Done
Many TA teams are eager to move toward skills-based hiring, but struggle with how to implement it in real terms. From lacking internal alignment to outdated job frameworks, there's a clear gap between intention and execution.
Yet the urgency is growing. With the majority of employees expected to require re-skilling by 2030, hiring for potential - not just experience - is becoming essential. The challenge now is building the systems and internal buy-in to make this shift scalable, consistent, and fair.
Candidate Experience Is Still Broken
One of the most surprising takeaways from the day was just how fragmented the candidate journey still is. According to shared data:
72% of candidates report being ghosted, and
81% receive little to no feedback during the process.
In a market where employer brand and reputation matter more than ever, this is a critical issue. Creating consistent, respectful, and communicative candidate experiences was recognised as a major differentiator - not a "nice to have," but a strategic imperative.
Inclusivity Requires Action Across the Funnel
From job descriptions to onboarding, teams are putting more effort into inclusive hiring practices, but this work needs to be continuous, intentional, and cross-functional. The conversations emphasised that true inclusivity is about embedding equity into the full lifecycle: writing inclusive job ads, building interviewer capability, redesigning onboarding, and beyond.
Inclusivity was also linked closely to employer branding and value propositions. Striking the right tone - one that resonates with diverse audiences without diluting authenticity - is a challenge many teams are actively working to solve.
Social Media, Branding, and Meeting Candidates Where They Are
With UK adults spending nearly 2 hours a day on social media, it's no surprise that platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram are becoming more central to sourcing strategies. But simply showing up isn’t enough.
There were great insights into how social sourcing often fails, mainly due to inconsistent messaging, poor targeting, or lack of engagement strategy. An effective employer branding strategy was said to rest on three pillars:
Brand Awareness
Job Marketing
Engagement Conversion
At the heart of it is knowing your candidate audience - their motivations, pain points, and how to communicate value to them on their terms.
EVP, TVP, and the Art of Value Communication
We also heard a lot about EVP (Employer Value Proposition) and TVP (Talent Value Proposition), and the fine balance between impact and inclusivity. EVP speaks to the broader organisation wide promise, while TVP is more tailored to what an organisation can offer to attract and retain talent.
The Hidden Cost of Interviewing
At the event we delivered a talk on The Hidden Cost of Interviewing, highlighting the often-overlooked ways inefficient interview processes drain resources - costs that rarely show up as clear line items in a budget:
We then shared practical, data-driven strategies Talent teams can use to optimise their interview practices, reduce wasted time and effort, and ultimately drive more effective, cost-efficient hiring.
Make it harder to just say no by increasing accountability of eager rejections (false negatives).
Calibrate and align Hiring Managers on what good looks like to reduce false positives.
Understand what questions and assessment are the best predictors of success to maximise the time spent assessing candidate.
Give interviewers more support & guidance in interviews to ensure they're staying on track, covering everything they're supposed to, and giving a great candidate experience.
We also gave insight into how Evidenced can help TA teams fix their interviews all in one place:
Final Thoughts
TA professionals clearly understand the stakes, and the opportunity, of adapting their hiring processes to the current business landscape. Whether it’s building inclusive processes, modernising sourcing tactics, or reducing the costs of poor decisions, the path forward is rooted in intentionality, collaboration, and a commitment to doing better for candidates and companies alike.
We're excited to take these insights forward in our own work - and continue learning from the Talent community.
A huge thank you to The Talent Labs for organising such an insightful and valuable day.