Articles 
Over 150 HR leaders and practitioners from all over Europe came together at the Park Plaza London Riverbank Hotel for three days of presentations, lively discussions, sharing of best practices and an exciting glimpse of the future of HR at #AvatureUpfront EU 2024.
Through a diverse program of strategic presentations and collaborative technical workshops, busy attendees shared the creative ways they are employing Avature to bring their HR strategies to life.
One of the main talking points was the Avature roadmap presentation (more on that later), revealing a set of game-changing AI features on the horizon. But it wasn’t the only highlight!
Let’s take a look at the key topics that made this year’s conference our most successful to date.
The Road to a Sustainable Competitive Advantage With AI
Avature’s founder and CEO Dimitri Boylan opened the event by addressing a packed auditorium on the recent innovations taking place in the field of AI and their disruptive impact on the talent landscape.
In equal parts measured and inspiring, Boylan was quick to stress that seizing AI’s transformative potential is imperative to avoid falling behind. Yet, as he went on to explain, enabling a sustainable competitive advantage with AI goes beyond leveraging AI-powered features.
Avature’s approach to AI is governed by this principle. We’re embedding transparent AI trained on extensive, HR-specific data across our user-configurable platform. This means that Avature Intelligence empowers users to work smarter and more efficiently on a platform that can be tailored to our customers’ AI vision and adapted as that vision evolves. The result? An intelligent platform that is always fit for purpose.
As Boylan was keen to impress, we’re in the middle of a great technological leap. Navigating the opportunities and risks with a clear head and a solid technology foundation is essential if we want to land on the right side of the disruption and break from the pack with AI.
Driving Digital Transformation in Talent Acquisition
Whether looking to bring consistency into large-scale talent operations, replacing technology that was holding their organizations back or seizing the opportunity presented by a business decision, several Avature customers took the stage to walk attendees through their digital transformation stories.
They openly shared the challenges they were facing, how they tackled them, the results they achieved and the learnings they collected along the way, providing attendees with a wealth of insights to apply to their own transformation efforts.
Technology Consolidation as a Catalyst for Success
In a wonderfully sleek presentation from Coca-Cola Hellenic, Milan Baosic, Head of Talent Acquisition, and Manuela Nedkova, Talent Tech Program Manager, recounted how a vast talent acquisition operation spanning 29 countries has replaced rigid, clunky processes, manual reporting and inconsistent UI with a joined-up CRM and ATS.
By consolidating processes within Avature and leveraging workflows, stakeholder-tailored portals, enhanced reporting and analytics and seamless integrations at every level of the hiring process, they were able to reap huge benefits, including:
- A 500 percent increase in candidates per requisition
- A 95 percent hiring manager satisfaction
- An impressive 20 percent reduction in TA technology costs
Virgin Media O2’s Carrie Small, TA Excellence Manager, and Sharron O’Donnell, Head of Talent Acquisition, scooped the Best Presentation Award for their account of how the merger of two well-known brands was the catalyst for a significant overhaul of talent acquisition, as they were faced with two different, legacy recruiting systems and two wildly different TA operating models.
The People Leadership Team at Virgin Media O2 recognized that to attract the best talent, they needed to invest in a best-in-class solution that could support the critical optimizations they were seeking, as well as superior stakeholder experiences.
From identifying suitable candidates using AI-powered skills matching to automating screening and interview scheduling, enhancing reporting for better decision-making and much more, Virgin Media O2 has achieved outstanding outcomes since implementing Avature, which include:
- Slashing time to offer by 32 percent
- Achieving an industry-leading net promoter score
- Saving £4.5m in costs
Overcoming Critical Deficiencies With Avature
Patrick Kramer, Business IT Advisor – Talent Acquisition Germany, and Andrea Behrens, Lead of Talent Acquisition, from energy infrastructure specialists TenneT, also saw huge changes with the introduction of Avature. Faced with a lengthy time to hire, hampered further by poor process visibility, they turned to Avature ATS to tie together their tech stack and help drive an ambitious reimagining of their TA processes.
So far, they have unlocked impressive improvements in the critical areas of speed, candidate experience and data insights. The incorporation of smart automation has removed burdensome administrative tasks, resulting in a striking 39 percent reduction in time to hire, achieved against a backdrop of increased hiring demand and a static number of recruiters.
At the same time, the candidate experience has received a boost via a new one-minute application process. Additionally, the improved data visibility achieved with Avature dashboards and HM reports has lent an oversight to their processes that TenneT hadn’t previously enjoyed, allowing the organization to rely more confidently on data to inform its recruiting strategy.
With the addition of a chatbot for their three main languages, the further integration of AI and the development of their skills infrastructure all in the pipeline, we look forward to seeing where TenneT goes next!
The Case for Continuous Improvement
Although an Avature partner for six years, Specsavers Northern Europe’s TA team had been struggling to make the most of the platform. A case of ‘one-size-fits-no-one’ had led to patchy recruiter adoption, disjointed workarounds and an inability to draw on reliable data.
When the time came to revisit their existing processes and make some much-needed adjustments, Iben Ferré Hjortkjær, Senior Recruitment Project Manager, Northern Europe, and her team set out to standardize core talent practices and build more intuitive user experiences. They did so by focusing on under-the-hood configuration, adjusting workflows to better match actual hiring needs, and bringing consistency to reporting.
While still early days, the updates Specsavers Northern Europe introduced have translated into increased recruiter buy-in, a redefined candidate journey, and more consistent and relevant data. The significant uptick in user adoption has been mirrored by a renewed sense of teamwork and common purpose, leading to the same number of recruiters achieving a fantastic 37 percent increase in overall recruitment.
All in all, Specsavers’ revamp of their TA’s processes in Avature serves as a powerful reminder that digital transformation is an ongoing journey, and that finding a way to make the most of technology is an excellent opportunity to drive cultural change as well.
Creating Winning Experiences for Every Stakeholder
Understanding that user experiences can be a powerful differentiator in terms of productivity and engagement, several presentations focused on optimizing the journey from candidate to new hire and beyond.
Building Recruiting Experiences That Delight Candidates, Recruiters and Hiring Managers Alike
An improved candidate experience for early careers was the driving force behind the strategic presentation delivered by Catherine Campbell, Experience and Enabling Technology Manager (Early Careers), and Laura Humphreys, Head of Experience and Enabling Technology, from Deloitte UK.
As part of an ongoing transformation of its talent acquisition model, Deloitte UK has worked hard to turn a disjointed candidate journey into one defined by the personal touch and seamless movement through the steps.
A series of workshops with its tech team led to a number of carefully designed workflows to match a variety of profiles, all of which are supported by branded portals that offer full visibility for candidates and hiring managers. Recruiters have also been positively impacted by the updates, since further automation of communications and scheduling have removed some of the more tiresome aspects of the role, freeing them up to have the sort of conversations that really make a difference to candidates.
The effort has already paid off, with Deloitte receiving two Target Job awards for graduate employers, as well as achieving the sort of numbers that the Avature community is always delighted to see:
- Campaign setup down from 12 weeks to mere minutes
- 6,000 candidate hours saved during application
- Screening and assessment down from six weeks on average to just two weeks
- 600 hours saved in offer generation and overall cost savings of £300k
Stakeholder experience was also the focus for a number of the presentations taking place on #AvatureUpfront’s Power User Academy. This year, for the first time we saw customers join the Avature experts to share the technical insights into how they were turning Avature’s cutting-edge capabilities into their own success stories.
European Central Bank’s Power User Academy session, led by Peter-Alexander Weprich, Senior HR Analyst, offered a step-by-step guide through the thinking and practical execution of their fully transparent candidate experience.
Many in attendance were seen scribbling down notes as this eye-opening presentation provided ideas on how, with smart automation of scheduling, communications and feedback, carefully designed stakeholder portals and tailored workflows, they, too, could create a smooth, user-friendly experience in which candidates feel engaged and respected throughout.
During another fascinating Power User session, Juan Pablo Mendoza, Senior Recruiting Technology Consultant at BMC Software, gave us a first-class demonstration of how artificial intelligence can be harnessed to overcome a series of pain points common to the hiring experience.
These included the use of CV parsing to reduce candidate dropout rates, candidate recommendations and applicant ranking via AI-powered matching, and skills parsing from job descriptions to lighten the administrative burden on recruiters.
Beyond AI, Mendoza also showed how to leverage the theme builder to create landing pages and drive branded engagement campaigns. The highlight was showcasing how BMC is creatively bringing together many Avature functionalities to form a cohesive and engaging recruitment experience for all stakeholders.
Optimizing Pre-Boarding and Onboarding
The Power User Academy continued to share best practices for optimizing stakeholder experiences, this time focusing on enhancing pre-boarding and onboarding processes.
Felix Breickmann, Product Manager at freight and logistics giant DHL, led us on a deep dive into how the platform’s configurability can elevate the pre-boarding experience.
In his presentation, he invited us to watch an impactful live demonstration of DHL’s revamped pre-boarding process. He showed how the smart integration between Avature ATS and the company’s HRIS was creating efficiencies, improving engagement and reducing errors by removing much of the administrative burden from candidates and HR teams alike.
Building on the onboarding insights, Maarten Verleyen, Talent Acquisition Systems and Analytics Manager at Deloitte Belgium, brought fresh ideas to the table as he shared how the consulting firm is leveraging datasets together with dynamic content templates and custom portals to create a personalized onboarding geared towards providing a truly welcoming, personalized experience for each new starter.
Building a Thriving Talent Marketplace
The European Central Bank took to the stage once more, this time on the Strategic track. Sandra Savary, Team Lead – HR Solutions and Advice, and Luca Gabrielli, HR IT Expert, spoke about forging a seamless path from sourcing and recruiting to onboarding to talent management that places Avature at the center of its tech stack.
As they focused on the talent management experience, they explained how, using Avature, the ECB has been able to turn a struggling internal mobility program, in which a lack of transparency and attractiveness was seeing too many exciting initiatives splutter to a halt, into a thriving talent marketplace with further learning software integration.
Within just a few months of going live, engagement has been growing steadily. Employees from across the business are updating their talent profiles and receiving more accurate matching of opportunities and recommendations, allowing them to map out and gain greater autonomy over their personal career pathways.
All the while, the initiative is helping the ECB build a greater understanding of the skills within the organization and supporting its training and workforce planning initiatives as its needs evolve over time.
Unveiling Avature’s User-Inspired Executive Search Solution
Ever keen to improve our offering, in recent years, Avature has noticed a number of our customers finding innovative ways to configure our software for the business-critical task of identifying and recruiting senior leaders, a delicate, confidential process that can take place over months or even years.
It was their best practices that informed the design of our new Executive Search solution, which we unveiled during the conference. To do so, we enlisted the help of Vanessa Rühmann, Executive Director & Head of Quality, Efficiency and Innovation at Kienbaum Consultants International GmbH, who added color to the unveiling by sharing the company’s use of the solution.
Rühmann explained how the firm has leveraged Executive Search, tapping into referrals, AI-powered parsing, LinkedIn CRM Connect, Dropbox importing functionalities and many other leading-edge tools to create and engage executive talent pools with great success.
She was particularly enthusiastic about the potential of Avature’s AI-powered matching capability to identify elite prospects while reducing bias, paving the way for a future in which the most important roles are filled by the most suitable leaders.
Discussing the Evolving Role of TA: Stay Curious
With 58 percent of organizations noting that skills shortages are significantly impacting their business plans, has the time arrived for the talent acquisition function to take its seat at the head table? This was just one of the topics covered during an absorbing discussion among industry leaders at #AvatureUpfront.
Jen Corio, Director of Talent Acquisition at BMC, was quick to point out that for talent teams to be better heard, it’s imperative to look at the whole talent journey and make the conversation about people rather than simply about hiring.
As the discussion moved on to measuring success, Ed Gunzeln, an HR Leader and Sourcing Expert from EDG Consultancy, stressed why he believes KPIs should be geared towards improvement and not just used for benchmarking.
You go to a conference and you hear somebody say, ‘our cost-per-hire is this or that’ and you go back to your organization and say, ‘we need to do something different because we’re doing something wrong.’ But that’s not necessarily the case because every organization is different.”
Ed Gunzeln
HR Leader and Sourcing Expert, EDG Consultancy
As we adapt to a shifting landscape and the disrupting impact of AI, the importance of curiosity and continuous learning, both in the talent function and the wider organization, also featured heavily in the discussion.
Lianne Mason, Director of Talent Acquisition Operations and Recruitment Marketing at Otis, espoused a continuous learning mindset as the only way to ensure HR leaders remain up to date and make that impactful change within businesses. This sentiment was echoed by Coca-Cola Hellenic’s Milan Baosic, who added, “for the leaders preparing for the future, I would say: ‘stay curious in everything you do’.”
Looking to the Future
In addition to the wonderful sessions led by our customers, attendees were eager to take a first look at the features and developments that lie ahead for Avature in our roadmap presentation. Organized around engagement, autonomy and productivity, Avature experts unveiled innovations that included advanced portal analytics, a voice assistant integration, and transformative scheduling updates, among others.
However, it was AI that stole the show, with an enhanced Avature chatbot that will soon allow candidates to search and apply for jobs, undergo pre-screening, schedule interviews and more.
Perhaps the most groundbreaking development was Avature Copilot, a virtual assistant that will take talent teams’ productivity to new levels. Copilot will help users do everything from polishing screening notes to generating reports, creating campaigns, building career sites, and much more, allowing HR organizations to reimagine and transform the way they work.
Our builders also garnered great enthusiasm, particularly during the Technical track, where our specialists provided in-depth looks at the much-anticipated Data Lake and the updates that will soon be introduced to the Portal Apps Builder.
By the time Avature CEO Dimitri Boylan wrapped up the conference with an overview of our product strategy and his closing remarks, it was clear to all that while artificial intelligence has already inspired great leaps forward in how we attract, engage and retain talent, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of its transformational potential.
As attendees made their way from the Park Plaza London Riverbank Hotel brimming with ideas, the message coming from those who stopped to chat with our team was that the Avature community was on the cusp of a very exciting year ahead.
