The UK job market is experiencing a quiet upheaval. As AI becomes ever more embedded in everyday life – both personally and professionally – recruitment teams are facing a new, unanticipated challenge: application overload.
Wave’s Recruitment Trends Report shows that by Q4 last year, application numbers had increased 86% across the board. Some employers are reporting increases as high as 119%, with Management Consultant roles now consistently receiving over 700 applications per vacancy.
What would have once been considered a nice problem to have for recruitment teams, too many applications now signal a deeper problem. We’re experiencing a paradox where highly polished, AI-assisted applications actually signal low levels of intent.
Candidates are using generative AI to create CVs and cover letters, and one-click-apply platforms are making it far easier to submit applications en-masse. The barriers to applying are disappearing quickly, leaving employers with an ever-increasing number of candidates making it through to assessment centres.
Rediscovering human potential through assessment centres.
Assessment centres have long been a staple in recruitment, particularly in Early Careers. But in the face of this increase in applications, they’re no longer just a stage of the process, they’re an essential moment of truth.
By creating a space where candidates must show, not just tell, assessment centres give employers the clearest view of who a candidate really is: their mindset, their adaptability, their ability to communicate, collaborate and think commercially. No matter how sophisticated your AI set-up is, these are all qualities that are impossible to emulate.
Here at TopScore we’re noticing a spike in employers seeking to top-up their digital assessment centre capacity this year, as they experience in real time the implications of application overload on their 2024/25 recruitment cycle.
Because of this, we’ve put together a three-point plan for employers to take back to their teams as a quick way of addressing the overload as organisations look ahead to the 2025/26 season and beyond.
1. Rebalance your hiring funnel
Assessing candidates sooner, or increasing the number of candidates you take through to assessment centre stages, will be a crucial way of reducing noise and identifying the quality amongst the quantity in your applicant pool. Additional pre-assessment centre stages such as one-way video interviewing, for example, could be a useful filter in combatting the deflation of the CV.
2. Design tasks that test uniquely human skills
Whether you run assessment centres virtually or in-person, design tasks and questions that will tests candidates beyond what they already know by applying situations that are uniquely relevant to your organisation. Consider how you can best test for more human, abstract skills, such as emotional intelligence.
3. Harness tech to focus your decision making
Digital assessment centre platforms can enable you to truly scale your recruitment events with ease, which will be essential as volumes increase. But data offered by platforms such as TopScore can also sharpen your decision making, improve assessor fairness and ensure you’re identifying the right traits amongst your cohorts.
TopScore is committed to delivering simple, streamlined and sustainable assessment centres. As the recruitment landscape continues to evolve, we’ll be working with our partners to ensure their assessment centres are at the forefront of rediscovering human potential – no matter where AI takes us.
If you’d like to have a conversation with us about the impact of AI on your recruitment, or how the TopScore can support and future-proof your assessment centres, contact us here.