What you missed at Engage London 2024
Over 500 attendees, 30 speakers, 20 Marketplace partners, and one incredible day. The recruitment community gathered together last week at Bullhorn Engage London to share best practices, build connections, and learn from the leaders who are driving the industry forward.
Below, check out a few of the highlights from the day, and make sure to check out our Engage London Content Hub for the full keynote video.
25 years of innovation
Between economic uncertainty, fewer job orders, and increased competition, agencies are navigating a recruitment landscape that continues to present challenges. That’s why, this year, Bullhorn is focused on partnering with agencies to move Forward together – providing proven playbooks, access to teams you can trust, and smart solutions to help your business grow – and take advantage of the green shoots that are beginning to emerge.
Jeff Neumann kicked off the opening keynote by highlighting the customers who have been partnering with Bullhorn since the beginning. Together, we’ve been finding new ways forward for 25 years. “We pay very close attention to what’s impacting the world around us,” he said.
Bullhorn started supporting customers using the Salesforce platform in 2018, and since then, we’ve been committed to helping our customers build the best and most comprehensive portfolio across both Bullhorn- and Salesforce-based solutions. Whether customers leverage Bullhorn or Salesforce-based tools, these platforms are now converging on a common solution: the AI experience. We’re reimagining recruitment with AI infused everywhere.
But we know AI is only as good as the data that supports it. You need a partner who can leverage a S.E.A. of data — specific to recruitment, enormous, and actionable – to deliver the results you and your users are expecting. Across our platforms and products, Bullhorn has over 22 billion data points specific to recruiting, including 800M candidates and 453M submissions, so we know, for example, which candidates resulted in placements and which skills are the right fit for a job. Bullhorn’s Data Hub further expands the S.E.A. of data by bringing in information from Marketplace partners, payroll providers, and financial data. With this breadth and depth of data, Bullhorn knows what success looks like at scale.
AI infused everywhere
The Vision for Innovation at Engage London also included a look at Bullhorn’s latest AI capabilities, led by Bullhorn product expert Ben Carter. We took a look at how AI agents and assistants can infuse seamlessly into the natural workflow of what your recruiters do day in and day out.
Carter kicked off his deep dive by examining how AI can synthesise all of your jobs, understand the main details, and provide a new set of insights. With these insights, you can better understand salaries, job density, who your competition currently is, and who your competition will be in the future.
We also got an exclusive look at Bullhorn’s AI screening agent, which helps eliminate the top of the funnel with high-level knockout questions, allowing recruiters to spend more time with the highest-quality candidates. Bullhorn’s AI screening agent allows you to see past the CV and unlock better access to candidates. “This is going to get you so many more candidates you don’t realise you already have,” said Carter.
We also took a look at Bullhorn’s AI submitting agent, which generates client pitches that are personalised to the job client and candidate. The submitting agent also formats the CV based on prompt engineering to allow the best candidates to stand out.
While AI is infused everywhere across both Bullhorn platforms, how it will be deployed will look different to everyone. Where is AI appropriate, and where is it not? Where does AI help your recruiters the most? Where does it help your team get the best results? There are a ton of decisions to be made – and that’s why Bullhorn is here. As Neumann said, “That’s why we’re excited to be your partner and help you go forward together.”
Winning new business and expanding client offerings
It’s no secret that winning – and retaining – new business is top-of-mind for agencies, regardless of size, geography, or vertical. How are recruitment leaders finding new ways to drive growth, even in spite of the headwinds of the current market?
For Michelle Jones, Learning and Development Director, RBW Consulting, winning new business is about working smarter, not harder:
“Business development doesn’t have to be complicated. We use a simple model: what are we selling, how are we sellling, and when are we selling?”
David Gettins, Managing Director, Lorien Resourcing, spoke on growing your business without necessarily increasing headcount:
“It used to be that the only way you would grow as a business was to add more people, but now it is about adding more expertise.”
As part of our closing keynote with a panel of CEOs on the future of the recruitment industry, Matthew Wragg, CEO, Gattaca, noted that recruitment agencies are vital in today’s world of work:
“If you get the right tools and the right people, you can really help give your clients a competitive advantage.”
Providing a top-tier talent experience
Nearly two-thirds of those candidates who work with recruitment agencies are typically working with more than one, according to the latest GRID 2024 Talent Trends Report. It’s more important than ever for agencies to differentiate themselves from the competition – and from job boards.
Speakers and panelists at Engage London shared best practices for streamlining the talent experience while continuing to provide the personal connection and expertise that recruiters do best.
Chris McCormick, Group IT Director, NES Fircroft, spoke about digitising your talent strategy:
“If we can give recruiters the tools to engage with candidates, then we can make headways.”
Kizzy Price, Vice President of Change and Business Excellence, The Adecco Group, spoke on how AI agents can help build stronger engagement with candidates:
“If we’ve got those agents that are doing some kind of contact for every single candidate, imagine that as a recruiter to come in in the morning and all that has been done overnight. I think that’s game-changing.”
Leveraging innovative technologies to drive growth
Engage London was full of talk about AI, automation, and groundbreaking technologies to bring agencies to new heights. Our panelists touched on the challenges and opportunities that come with new tech.
Daniel Taylor,Managing Director, Morgan Hunt, recalled his first encounter with generative AI, and quickly realising its transformative potential:
“In January 2023, I logged onto ChatGPT for the first time, and I was somewhat puzzled…but I knew that things were starting to change and to change quite quickly. I knew that there would be winners and losers.”
In a panel on navigating the transformation journey, Roxi Sweeney, Head of Marketing and Digital, The Best Connection, spoke about how to make the process of tech implementation a success:
“It isn’t enough just to know you have to change, you need that plan, you need a strategy.”
During our closing keynote, Bev White, CEO, Nash Squared, spoke on how AI can help recruiters and sales teams do their best work, even in a challenging environment:
“Fundamentally, this is a people industry, but AI can be your greatest ally.
Thank you to all of the attendees, speakers, and sponsors who joined us for Engage London 2024! Keep an eye out on the Engage London Content Hub for more event recaps!
