An EVP is more than a decorative piece for a career site—it serves as a warehouse of raw material. Many companies confuse the outcome with the starting point, crafting attractive statements but failing to create a real-life narrative. Effective marketing approaches this differently, treating core messages as resources from which new formats are consistently developed. Employer branding should follow this approach as well. The key is simplification. Three credible messages ar

Artificial intelligence has moved beyond experimentation in recruiting. Tools like CV parsing, matching algorithms, chatbots, and automated scheduling are now standard. The logical next step is the AI-conducted interview. More vendors now use algorithm-analyzed video interviews to assess candidates' language, word choice, speaking pace, facial expressions, and eye contact. The central question, however, is not whether this technology can  be used, but whether it should be exp

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act)  has been in force since 1 August 2024. That part is widely known. What is far less understood: recruiting is one of the most heavily regulated domains under the regulation. Most AI-driven hiring tools fall into the “high-risk”  category. As of August 2026 , extensive compliance obligations apply to any organisation using them. If you have not started preparing yet, you are effectively betting on time. So what exactly must Talent

Building and leading successful recruiting teams between global governance and local reality Matrix organisations are no longer an exception. They are the default operating model for larger companies. Global functions intersect with regional entities, business lines with country organisations, and projects with line management. For Talent Acquisition (TA), this means one thing above all: permanent simultaneity. Strategic and operational at the same time. Globally consistent,

Many organizations operate their recruiting based on ambitious targets: shorter time-to-hire, more applications, and lower costs. These goals are meaningful — but they are not a strategy. Goals define what  should be achieved. A TA strategy explains how  to get there and why  this approach leads to success. In today’s competitive labor market and global race for skills, operational efficiency alone is no longer enough. Talent Acquisition must chart a long-term path that ensur

Recruiting is designed to build. Increase headcount. Fill pipelines. Optimize time to hire. And then comes the phase no one likes to talk about: hiring freezes, restructuring, downsizing. Suddenly, there is nothing left to recruit. Nothing to do. At least at first glance. In these situations, many Talent Acquisition teams slip into a defensive mode. Waiting. Keeping a low profile. Tidying up. Doing the operational minimum. Hoping for better times. That reaction is understanda

Job advertisements are a paradoxical form of communication. They are expected to inform, inspire, set expectations, remain legally compliant, and, ideally, exclude no one. At the same time, they have an average attention span of less than 30 seconds. If they fail to convince within that window, they are skipped. Not out of disinterest, but out of efficiency. Here is where the true power of language emerges. The words chosen can make someone feel addressed, foster trust, and e

This week marked one of my personal highlights of the year: the mother of all HR barcamps — HRBC in Berlin. I’ve been attending since the very first one back in 2012, which was still hosted in Sarah Wiener’s restaurant. And every year, the event quickly reveals whether HR is in a comfort or an orientation phase. This time it was clearly the latter. And honestly, it was more interesting than it has been in years. Crises sometimes have their upside. Even the session pitches sho

Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT & Co. are increasingly being tested in recruiting. Upload a résumé, analyze a LinkedIn profile, assess personality and intelligence – and the “smart pre-selection” is done. Sounds efficient. But is it? A recent study by Tobias Marc Härtel in the Journal of Business and Psychology  examined exactly that. Microsoft Copilot analyzed 406 LinkedIn profiles. The individuals behind those profiles had previously completed validated psychological assessments

The current lawsuits against Workday  and Eightfold  mark a sharp escalation in the debate around AI in HR. And rightly so. Even though only two well-known providers of innovative recruiting solutions are involved, the implications affect every organisation that uses algorithmic systems in recruiting, especially those that have relied too heavily on technology and now bear the responsibility for it. The mere fact that the lawsuits have been admitted sends a clear and importan

Recruiters know this dynamic well: The role is critical, the business unit is under pressure, expectations are high — and suddenly the relationship with the hiring manager shows signs of strain. What begins as a constructive partnership shifts into tension. Factual discussions escalate into emotional friction. Collaboration can devolve into a power struggle, causing frustration on both sides. And yet, everyone wants the same thing: the best possible hire for the organization.

Recruiting does not end with the job advertisement. From that moment on, the most sensitive phase of the candidate journey begins: communication. Application confirmations, follow-up questions, interview invitations, and rejections. All of it appears to be operational communication. In reality, these are highly influential touchpoints. Language in the application process is felt more strongly than in many other settings. Candidates invest time, emotion, and hope, yet have no

Recruiting teams achieve an enormous amount every day. They fill roles under extreme time pressure, juggle hiring managers' expectations, compete in a tight talent market, and deliver a strong candidate experience. And yet, many teams don’t feel  like high-performance units. They function, but don’t dominate. They react, but rarely shape the game. True high performance in recruiting feels very different. You see it in process speed, hiring quality, the confidence with which t

For many years, my own position was clear – and it will sound familiar to many recruiting teams across the DACH region: a strong focus on the big players in the job board market. Above all, LinkedIn, complemented by Indeed, StepStone, jobs.ch, karriere.at , or other regional “big players.” The logic behind this approach was clean, rational, and easy to justify. Maximum reach. Simple processes. Clear economies of scale. One contract, one report, predictable volumes. Done. The

Employer branding and HR communication have never been quiet. But rarely have they been as interchangeable as they are today. Career pages, job ads and recruiting posts sound polished, friendly and professional. At the same time, they sound remarkably similar. With the widespread use of artificial intelligence in content creation, this effect has intensified. Texts are produced faster, are linguistically correct, and are formally well-structured. What often gets lost in the p

Again and again, I see job ads, org charts, or career frameworks that implicitly frame Talent Acquisition as an “entry function”, a “stepping stone,” or even a junior version of HR. Recruiting is the thing you do before  you move into “real” HR. This misconception is not just a technical oversight—it poses a significant strategic risk to organizations. It ignores the fact that HR and Talent Acquisition are two distinct, highly specialised disciplines that both shape organisat

Recruiting is no longer a linear process. The way people interact with employers has changed. Candidates no longer move through a predictable funnel—they encounter companies at many touchpoints: career sites, social media, review platforms, networks, job boards, referrals, and more. This diversity presents both opportunity and challenge. Recruiting is no longer just communication; it’s experience design . And that’s where touchpoint management  comes in: a marketing concept t

Employer branding faces its greatest pressure since the rise of social media. Generative AI now produces content, variants, and formats at speeds that once demanded a dedicated team. Meanwhile, candidate expectations and scepticism are rising. As communication scales, the cost of interchangeability increases, and small missteps quickly turn into systemic trust issues. A clear perspective appears when the topic is viewed through three lenses: automation, authenticity, and risk

The idea that prompting skills – the ability to type the “right words” into an AI system – would be the key to successfully using generative AI has been one of the dominant narratives in recent years, including in Talent Acquisition. Many organizations invested heavily in prompt libraries, training, and certifications, hoping to unlock efficiency gains and higher quality outcomes. By now, however, two things have become unmistakably clear. Prompting in itself does not solve s

The digital landscape is evolving faster than many recruiting teams can keep up with. For more than a decade, everything revolved around Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But today we are standing at the threshold of a new concept: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) . GEO refers to the optimization of content for AI-driven answer engines such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, or Microsoft Copilot. These tools are rapidly becoming the primary information source fo