Leadership lessons for 2025: Insights from recruitment CEOs on AI, agility, and tech adoption

Insights from recruitment CEOs on AI, agility, and tech adoption

The recruitment industry is evolving at a breakneck pace, shaped by market volatility, rapid technological advancements, and shifting client and candidate priorities. Like the years before it, 2025 promises to be a year full of advancement, innovation, and change.

To dive into the trends and challenges shaping the future of recruitment, Bullhorn’s Leah McKelvey closed out Engage London 2024 in a conversation with three distinguished recruitment CEOs from today’s leading enterprise recruitment agencies: Bev White of Nash Squared, Hannah Haigh of Meet, and Matthew Wragg of Gattaca.

Below, check out their thoughts on the future of recruitment, the transformative power of AI, and navigating change in an unpredictable landscape.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.


McKelvey: We’ve talked a lot about the economic uncertainty we faced over the past two years. What are your predictions for 2025?

Haigh: The market has absolutely been volatile over the last three or four years, both up and down. Our ability to be able to scale quickly and deliver high-growth value creation is better when the market is slightly more buoyant and less volatile. But I also believe that 2025 is about finding our rhythm and our way of delivering results.

Wragg: We’re all having to learn how to be world-class in this sort of environment. I think it’s going to be quite a tough year. We should get a little bit better each week as a business and look after ourselves.

White: This is the longest prolonged period of difficulty that we have ever seen, and I think that’s what’s made it so difficult. This has been like a dive into a valley, and the valley seems to have been going on for a long time. You have to take whatever the market’s giving you and adjust yourself accordingly. And agility is really important. The operational model that we had two years ago is not the one that’s going to work for any of us going forward.

McKelvey: I’d love to hear your perspective on building a business case for AI. How are you approaching that and making those types of investments in this environment?

White: I don’t think AI is optional. If you’re not in it now, you’re probably too late. Even though it might feel early, it’s not. Fundamentally, this is a people industry, but AI can be your greatest ally.

Haigh: It’s not just about how we implement AI and see the immediate effect. From an ROI perspective, it’s about figuring out how we work as an organization that engages our people, creates efficiencies, and creates more value for our customers. I don’t believe that we’re looking at a world where AI will become recruitment. We will have a people-centric approach to delivering solutions for our clients. A lot of the energy needs to come from a C-suite and leadership perspective of asking, “What do we really hold as our own? What do we make sure has that people sentiment all the way through it?” 

Wragg: I am more receptive to figuring out what will impact the market more and how we will reach more customers rather than just reducing price, improving process efficiency, or addressing other transactional bits.

McKelvey: One of the things we’ve talked about throughout the day is leveraging the tech investments you’ve already put in place. Can you share examples of what you’re trying to do to get more out of what you already have?

Wragg: I’ve got great people in my business, but they’ve all got completely different personalities. I had to figure out what core non-negotiables I wanted at a corporate level and then give my team the best tools to go and play with the rest. We had gotten to the point where we were trying to dictate a hundred different things that everyone must do, and frankly, what would work for a high-voltage engineer in Edinburgh would not work for a cyber security person in Dallas. We’ve learned a lot as a business over the last four years on how to try and get the best out of your platform without trying to control hundreds of individuals who have great ambition and who want to be doing fantastic work, but the lexicon they use, their approach, and their candidates are all slightly different. So we’ve ended up easing that back, determining the bits that we really want, and as for everything else, here’s what’s out there. We haven’t got everybody playing with every part of it, but the ones who are a bit more tech-native and want to play absolutely can. I’m at least getting the minimum expectations through. 

Haigh: It’s about thinking differently about your tech stack and everything that that you’re working with. We went through a time in that crazy buoyant market where it was so candidate-focused, and we probably neglected to improve our operations and automation systems when it came specifically to that business development element. And that turned on its head. Operationally, tech-wise, and systems-wise, we were probably best in class on the candidate piece. We had to ask ourselves, “How do we use the same systems we have and make them work for us now in the market we’re in?” So, that shift from candidate-driven to client-driven and customer-driven has been our big focus. We’re looking at the things that are more important in this environment. The second thing we have done is to create clarity over accountability about systems innovation. During that boom period, everybody was just racing to keep up, and therefore, everybody did lots of different things and was implementing different systems and different tools in different ways. And it worked, so no one questioned it because it was working. Over the last year or so, we’ve created absolute clarity about where tech and systems innovation sits within our business. Who is accountable for it? Who are the go-to people to execute those strategies and create that real innovation-led but disciplined approach to accountability? That’s always the challenge as a chief.

White: We implemented Bullhorn about four years ago. We got our systems running and operating, but we were still using spreadsheets to really understand what was going on from country to country. And that starts with me. So, if I’m not asking the right questions, directing people to the systems, and using the data to make decisions, the data will never be right because nobody sees the value in it. That’s been the key mantra now, which is, let’s be consistent. Let’s make sure that everybody owns the data entry and validation. Let’s use that data to help us make good-quality decisions. So that’s what we do. We use dashboards that we give to our managing directors every week and say, “This is what the system is saying is going on on your part of the business. Tell us about it.” And that’s starting to make a difference. It also means that we can then use all of the other fabulous tools we couldn’t have done before without having that core quality data team to work off the back of. Rubbish in, rubbish out – that’s a fact. 

McKelvey: Navigating change is a constant in any environment. What pitfalls have you experienced in some of these change management efforts?

Wragg: We did not invest enough time from a sales point of view because everyone was hustling hard to try to get to know this new company and new markets. We just didn’t dedicate enough time to ask, “What do we want to do with this?” [The change management process] needs to be owned by someone who has both the time and the passion but also the understanding and the ability to engage the organization to bring it along. This is a people business that helps people to work with people. You need to bring your own people along. We had to change at some point, and there’s never a great time. At some point, you just need to take that step.

Haigh: The hardest thing to level as a CEO or as a leader is how you get that balance right between not hanging around and overthinking elements of change that don’t have profound impacts on the bigger picture whilst also making sure that in a people business, you’re bringing people along, you’re educating on the value of that change, not just as a business, but to them. The amount of change in the business has been huge. My job, to varying levels of success, has been creating the belief that this change is a positive change. That’s key. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a strategic change or something related to systems, integrations, etc. It is about finding that balance between being consultative with your workforce and with your people, being action-oriented, and making sure that you’re creating an environment where, as best as you can, people see that change is something that will positively impact them, create more opportunity, and fundamentally make them more successful.

White: The reality is that change is constant now – and it should be. And with AI, it’s going to get faster and faster. So rather than be scared of it, let’s prepare to embrace it and learn and adapt more quickly. The key message for me as a CEO is to help people understand what it means for them and give them the tools and courage to go for it and not be afraid. That starts with you because if you look anxious, people will pick that up. Let’s create people who are change agents around everyone. Having that as part of the DNA of the organization will be vital. That’s where we’re investing a lot of our time now, making sure everyone has that positivity around them.

McKelvey: Thinking about next year, what are you most excited about within each of your organizations or the industry overall?

Wragg: I’m genuinely excited about this industry returning to what it was when I joined it 20-odd years ago. It was truly consultative because people didn’t understand how recruiting works and what it’s about. You could really have meaningful conversations with people and really influence them. I think we’re heading back towards that. If you can get the right tools and the right people combined together, you can have the ability to help companies by being a competitive advantage or help an individual go on an amazing career journey.  I can see that momentum building, and I’m really excited about getting back to those days.

Haigh: I’m not saying that I’m glad that we’ve had the last couple of years of more volatile conditions, but what it has done is created that laser-sharp focus on that forward-facing strategy, how we’re going to deliver it, how we’re going to be a true partner within the talent space. We are a fundamentally better business now than we were through 2021. We’ve got better people and more suited roles to them and the business. We’re delivering a much more dynamic suite of services to our customers. I am excited about seeing that play out. The shape of the business will be different in the future. But to me, that’s really exciting.

White: I’m fiercely proud of being a technology recruiter. I think it’s an amazing industry. We do incredible work. I think what’s coming next is focusing on how we can help organizations transform and change as we’re changing as organizations, giving them the very best talent, and giving people the next steps in their careers. We do a huge amount of good. We should never lose sight of that. And we should embrace these new, really cool tools to help us do it all in an even better way.

McKelvey: What advice would you give the staffing leaders in the room to achieve more success in 2025?

Haigh: Success is absolutely within our reach. It looks different from what it looked like before. No question. But finding a way to succeed in these conditions is the key to how we need to perform moving forward. There needs to be a collaborative approach in this industry to create positivity about what’s within our control instead of focusing too much on what’s not.

Wragg: Leadership can be really lonely. Don’t make yourself lonely. Sit at it. No one’s got it all together. Nobody else is perfect. Just engage, network, and work collectively as an industry.

White: As a leader, you need to be very bold and courageous, but the things that you were excellent at yesterday aren’t necessarily what you’ll need for tomorrow. You have to start by showing your vulnerability as a leader and that you can change and are available to your team to talk about it. That’s really key here. Let’s talk ourselves back up again. If this is the market, we have lots of things we can do to actually address it because people need people to run businesses.


Want to hear more insights from recruitment industry leaders? Check out the Engage London Content Hub for recaps, keynote videos, and more.

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