What We Learned From Our Latest Roundtable
AI is reshaping roles and recruitment processes, internal Talent Acquisition teams are evolving, and businesses are becoming more selective about where external recruitment expertise adds value.
At our recent virtual roundtable with The Talent Labs, The Future of Hiring: What’s Changed and What Comes Next?, we explored these changes and what they mean for organisations planning their future hiring strategies.
Drawing on our joint research, live polls and discussions during the session, four key themes stood out.
Read the full Talent Labs x Devonshire Recruitment Agency Trends Report.
Recruitment agencies still have a role, but expectations are changing
Our research gathered 137 completed responses from Talent Acquisition professionals and leaders, providing insight into how organisations view recruitment agencies and their role within modern hiring strategies.
When we asked where agencies create the greatest value, the leading responses were:
- Access to hard-to-reach talent: 28%
- Market insight and salary intelligence: 21%
- High-quality shortlists: 20%
The message was clear: the value of a recruitment agency isn’t necessarily about managing every vacancy. It is about providing access, expertise and market intelligence that can be difficult to replicate internally.
We tested these findings with our roundtable audience.
Around 80% of attendees said they use agency support for hiring, while 71% identified access to hard-to-reach talent as the greatest area of agency value.
Although the survey groups are not directly comparable, the discussion highlighted an important question: Is your recruitment partner providing more than CVs?
Organisations should consider whether their agency partners:
- Understand their market and culture.
- Reach candidates they cannot access themselves.
- Provide meaningful salary and market insight.
- Deliver relevant and consistent shortlists.
- Challenge the brief when requirements aren’t aligned with the market.
As businesses become more selective about the agencies they work with, these are the areas that will increasingly define a valuable recruitment partnership.
Future-fit hiring requires more than experience
AI, automation and changing ways of working are influencing the skills organisations need.
The roles themselves may not always be new, but their responsibilities and expectations are evolving. This means that focusing solely on job titles, qualifications and previous experience may limit access to people who could succeed in the future.
During the roundtable, we explored the importance of a solution mindset.
This is about how someone approaches problems, learns, experiments and adapts. It isn’t determined by a particular job title or technical background.
Future-fit attributes can include:
- Proactive problem-solving.
- Curiosity and experimentation.
- Resilience and adaptability.
- Systems thinking.
- Continuous learning.
- A willingness to explore different tools and approaches.
So, how can organisations identify these qualities?
Recruitment processes need to look beyond what someone has done and explore how they think and work.
Behavioural interviewing, practical exercises and questions about real challenges can help uncover how candidates approach problems, respond to setbacks and improve processes.
The key is to consider both experience and potential.
AI is changing recruitment, but adoption is still developing
AI is becoming increasingly integrated into recruitment and Talent Acquisition, from sourcing and candidate engagement to assessment, onboarding and workforce planning.
During the session, we explored how AI is supporting:
- Skills-based hiring and candidate matching.
- Sourcing and talent rediscovery.
- Candidate communication and engagement.
- Assessment and interview processes.
- Talent intelligence and workforce planning.
- Automated, multi-step recruitment workflows.
We also asked attendees about their current AI usage in the workplace.
57% selected Copilot and in-app assistance, while 21% were using standalone AI tools and a further 21% had introduced workflow automation. No attendees selected autonomous agents or multi-agent orchestration.
This provided an interesting snapshot of where AI adoption currently sits within the audience.
For Talent Acquisition teams, the opportunity is to identify where AI can improve efficiency while maintaining appropriate human oversight.
Technology can support recruitment processes, but understanding organisational culture, assessing suitability and making informed hiring decisions still require careful consideration.
Recruitment models need to flex around business needs
We also explored how organisations structure their recruitment capability.
Multiple agencies, fluctuating hiring demand, stretched teams, limited visibility of spend and difficulty forecasting can all create additional pressure for internal recruitment functions.
The challenge isn’t always that an organisation cannot recruit. Sometimes, it is that the recruitment model isn’t working as efficiently as it could.
We discussed three core approaches:
Traditional recruitment: An ad hoc approach that can work well for occasional or specialist hiring requirements.
Embedded recruitment: An external recruiter or team works as an extension of the internal Talent Acquisition function, providing additional capacity during periods of increased demand or specific projects.
RPO: A specialist recruitment team manages some or all of the recruitment process, providing a more structured and strategic approach when hiring demand and organisational requirements justify it.
There isn’t one model that works for every organisation. The right approach depends on hiring volume, cost, complexity, internal capability and how predictable recruitment demand is.
Your recruitment model should evolve as your hiring needs evolve.
What should organisations consider next?
The discussions highlighted several practical questions for hiring teams:
- Are you recruiting for future skills? Look beyond job titles and consider adaptability, curiosity and problem-solving.
- How can you access the skills you need? Freelance, contract and interim solutions may provide flexibility when permanent hiring is restricted.
- Is your recruitment capability fit for purpose? Embedded and RPO models can provide additional expertise and capacity when required.
- Are your agency partnerships delivering genuine value? Review whether your partners provide insight, consistency and access to candidates you cannot reach alone.
A hiring pause does not mean preparation should stop. Organisations can use this time to build talent pools, map the market, develop pipelines and review their recruitment strategies.
The question isn’t always, ‘Can we hire?’
One of the key messages from the roundtable was that recruitment is becoming less about filling individual vacancies and more about helping organisations access the skills they need.
That means understanding how roles are changing, using technology intelligently, developing flexible recruitment models and building partnerships that provide value beyond candidate supply.
At Devonshire, we help organisations access specialist recruitment expertise across Creative, Presentations, Marketing, Digital and Content, through permanent, freelance, embedded and RPO solutions.
Because the Right Hire Changes Everything.