The document outlines a corporate recruitment maturity model co-designed by industry leaders to enhance future recruitment strategies in alignment with business growth. It emphasizes the importance of evolving recruitment practices from basic execution to a more integrated, candidate-centered experience while leveraging technology and analytics. The model encourages organizations to assess their current recruitment approaches and build a pathway for progression through defined roles and responsibilities across various functions.

1. www.pwc.com.au
Corporate Recruitment 2020
– Maturity Model
Published
February 2017

2. PwC
Late in 2016 a group of corporate Talent Leaders and leading industry vendors got
together to co-design an industry Maturity Model for Corporate Recruitment.
The catalyst for this was an Australia Post project to redefine a compelling future
recruitment model to enable their growth strategy. Several industry workshops took
place in Sydney and Melbourne.
In total, over 100 people were involved in creating and refining this model which
we’re now publishing. We hope it allows you to:
• Stimulate conversations with your team, the business and leadership
• Assess your current approach to recruitment against the future
• Build a roadmap to prioritise and sequence how to move your
organisation forward.
• If you’d like more information about the Maturity Model, its content or
indeed the process of co-design please contact one of the team below. We
are also conducting a benchmarking survey (Jan/Feb) using this content so
that you can compare your current state against your industry peers.
2
Introduction and tips for use
Talent leaders/recruitment team
• Use it as a diagnostic and benchmark for your talent strategy so that you can establish
where you are relative to the model
• Against that background set shared goals and, again, determined investment and
execution priorities
• Reference to measure progress and identify interdependences in planning – identifying
gaps and advantages.
HR team and
HR business partners
• Use as a way to align to shared
goals and agree investment
and execution priorities
• Create a shared language
across the business for the HR
team and a common
tool to drive and
measure progress.
Business unit leaders/executive teams
• Establish the delta between where you are
and what optimised could look like in your
context
• Build shared view of the future and what’s
possible and explore the impacts that has in
business planning and roadmaps
• Understand what might impact thinking in the
future and determine appropriate responses.
Conversations to start
CEO
TQSolutions Consulting
0407 873 413
Gareth.Flynn@tqsolutions.com.au
Gareth Flynn
Head of Design for People
PwC Australia
0412 322 044
Lynette.Nixon@pwc.com
Lynette Nixon

3. PwC
Participating organisations
3PwC

4. PwC
New Basic
Getting the basics right in order to make
the most of what we have
Shifting Expectations
Shifting the focus of effort from process
execution to candidate experience
Transforming
Building competitive advantage
by developing new partnerships
and shifting to a marketing and
analytics mindset
Foundation
OrganisationMindset
Operating Model
(Inflexible moving to agile)
• Fixed model – eg in-house with
limited resource, capacity and
capability; substantial reliance on
third party agencies
• Flexible Model – eg Recruitment
Centres of Excellence created and
broader skills/capabilities deployed
as required
• Highly agile model – adapting to
business need with strategic
partners and specialist vendors
providing flex to the model; Function
and business responsible for
recruitment
• ‘Everyone is a recruiter’ – fully
leverage internal and external
networks including customers,
advocacy groups and other
organisations
Funding
(Cost centre moving to revenue options)
• Functionally owned by HR with
restrictive funding model, seen as
cost centre by the business
• Additional funding released as links
to business performance become
visible
• Recruitment can demonstrate direct
links to P+L and revenue streams
through improved analytics
• Business accepts Recruitment’s
influence on bottom line and funds
appropriately
• Model has the ability to generate
revenues/profit through the
commercialisation of its activities to
other external organisations
Cross-functional alignment
(Business involvement in recruitment)
• Broader business expects HR to
‘own’ recruitment
• Business starts to see it’s integral
role in recruitment ‘ownership’
• Recruitment, HR and marketing
forge partnership to fully leverage
the brand in the internal and external
marketplace
• Fully integrated function with clear
links between operating business
units and corporate functions such
as finance, marketing, technology &
HR
Sourcing & Brand Strategy
(Reactive and generic moving to
proactive and customised)
• “Post & pray” mentality – focus on
active job seekers/specific vacancies
– Linear process of talent sourced
and screened as roles become
available. Brand messaging is
generic and ‘catch-all’
• Elements of proactive sourcing are
introduced, emergence of talent
communities, sourcing CRM
activities
• Attention to employer brand as a key
pillar of talent strategy – ability to
attract the right talent through well
defined EVP
• Focus moves from merely brand
appeal to brand influence in the
consumer and labour markets.
Advanced marketing capability
supports segmented EVP and
targeted communications to talent
communities
• As knowledge of talent becomes
deeper and relationships longer
term, employment related
messaging becomes increasingly
tailored and customised to
individuals – an EVP of ‘1’
4
Corporate recruitment maturity – 2020
Foundation – Organisation mindset
Involves the establishment
of dedicated sourcing and
branding expertise and the
introduction of proactive
sourcing / talent pipelines
More sophisticated metrics
allow business to
understand recruitment's
influence and impact on
bottom line, resulting in
further investment
Business recognises that to be successful it
has to integrate several key functions including
HR / Recruitment and Marketing / Finance &
Analytics. E.g. Recruitment & Marketing work
together to develop integrated consumer /
employment brand strategy
Significant level of referrals of
talent from the business and
other external participants
including external advocates.
ERP / EOI is now the highest
yielding sourcing channel
Leadership includes insights
and trends from Recruitment
as crucial part of decision
making. At this level the
business is highly self-
sufficient and enabled
Optimised
Creating a new eco-system in which talent
is accessible, mobile and relevant;
influenced by the principles of the sharing
economy

5. PwC 5
Corporate recruitment maturity – 2020
Foundation – Tech & Analytics
New Basic
Getting the basics right in order to make the most
of what we have
Shifting Expectations
Shifting the focus of effort from process
execution to candidate experience
Transforming
Building competitive advantage by developing
new partnerships and shifting to a marketing
and analytics mindset
Candidate Management
(Fragmented, manual moving to integrated,
automatic)
• Platform manages the individual recruitment
process and provides basic reporting
functionality (eg ATS)
• Technology enables greater relationship
management, allowing segmented
engagement with candidates (eg CRM)
• Next generation CRM, CRS, BI, self-service
models put greater focus on the person and
their experience, not just the process
• Seamless candidate relationship
management for full employee
lifecycle with some elements shared between
organisations on common talent platforms
Technology Agility
(Static moving to agile)
• Long-term, fixed functionality –Organisations
typically adopt tried and tested technology
• Long-term, flexible technology solutions that
can be tailored by external vendor as
required
• Organisations more willing to try new tools +
technology on a trial basis to test functionality
and document lessons learned
• High agile, scalable, adaptable etc.
Organisations partner with tech-solutions
vendor to implement and maintain best of
breed tech solutions with a ‘fail fast’ mentality
Foundation
Tech&Analytics
Interoperability
(Fragmented moving to integrated)
• Effort expended on core HR/recruitment
system to manage ‘requisitions’ and process
– independent from other systems
• Broader technology eco-system created,
focussing on engagement and relationship
based systems and tools
• Agile technology solutions are deployed +
reviewed to service all cross-functional
recruitment and employment related activities
• Fully integrated platform or ‘marketplace’ of
technology solutions supporting the complete
‘workforce’ lifecycle
Technology ownership & operation
(arms length moving to integrated)
• Organisation owns and operates their own
technology platforms
• Increased partnerships with specialist
technology and outsource vendors
• Technology platforms starts to become
integrated and ‘shared’ across vendors and
organisations
• Technology becomes a common platform
across organisations to support the new eco-
system and common employment language
Technology enabled Administration Platforms
(Manual moving to Automation)
• Administrative tasks manually triggered (eg
requests for additional information, hiring
approvals etc)
• Semi-automation of administrative tasks –
Prompts sent to recruiter eg pre-populated
data from candidate input
• Administration functions automatically
processed through tech – candidate/
employee data auto-populates across all
administrative functions
• Full automation of administration processes
eg outsourcing of recruitment admin to co-
bots/user-interface bots,
Application of data
(Descriptive moving to Predictive)
• Recruitment data used mainly for reporting
on core hiring activity and process & lag
metrics used for performance management
(eg Time to hire)
• Data allows greater visibility of talent within
the organisation and predicative analytics
emerges as tool for improving job fit &
performance based on success profiles
• Candidate data is stored within talent
community CRM systems where deep
personal profiles drive the predictive
applications
• Experimentation with Machine Learning and
Algorithm based matching of roles/people
based on skills/capability data. Eg
Candidates filtered through smarter
algorithms to identify potential internal/
external talent
• Candidates become part of a pre-qualified
network shared internally among business
leaders
• Use of smart data rather than big data for
talent related decisions. Data used to predict
hiring patterns and workforce requirements.
• Machine Learning and algorithm based
processes iterate and drive more efficient and
accurate hiring data
Marketing platforms
(Narrow moving to Diverse)
• Social media & traditional platforms
introduced for basic job/career profiling
• Social Media increasingly used to engage
and interact with extensive talent
communities across multiple channels
• Ad-tech and consumer profiles used to tailor
& position message and opportunities to
target audience
• Digital marketplace and talent network
generated from online marketing and
branding activities
This is the world of the
traditional 'Applicant
Tracking' or
'Requisition
Management' system
A significant level of resource
in HR & recruitment functions
are deployed against
administrative / manual tasks
ad activities (low value add)
A broader set of Recruitment metrics are
used and are increasingly measuring
business relevant outcomes e.g. NPS,
Revenues, Cost Avoidance, Productivity
and Engagement
Companies adopt a 'fail fast'
strategy and experiment / trial
new technologies. Niche
technologies are introduced
as plug-ins to core systems.
Best of breed technology strategies result in
an optimum balance between automation and
human intervention. Seamless integrations
allow technologies to talk with one another
and for data to flow between them
Optimised
Creating a new eco-system in which talent is
accessible, mobile and relevant; influenced
by the principles of the sharing economy

6. PwC 6
Corporate recruitment maturity – 2020
Foundation - Recruiters
New Basic
Getting the basics right in order to make
the most of what we have
Shifting Expectations
Shifting the focus of effort from process
execution to candidate experience
Transforming
Building competitive advantage
by developing new partnerships
and shifting to a marketing and
analytics mindset
Foundation
Recruiters
Team composition & skills
(Homogeneous moving to
Heterogeneous)
• Most people in Recruitment have a
generalist HR/Recruitment
background or have simply ‘fallen’
into the industry from elsewhere
• Emergence of career
recruiters/talent advisors – addition
of new competencies – skills in data
analytics, consumer marketing,
employment branding and human
centered design
• Highly specialised Professionals with
core marketing/user experience or
analytics capability to design and
deliver meaningful hiring
experiences – eg People involved in
hiring become stronger marketers
and brand ambassadors
• Recruiters evolve into talent
relationship specialists and talent
advisors, working within a broader
eco-system internal and external to
the organisation that work for
Interpersonal skills
(IQ moving to EQ)
• Basic business communication
etiquette – eg transactional
relationship with Hiring Managers
• Develops closer working
relationships with Business and the
external talent market – gains
deeper understanding of specific
role skills/capability requirements
• Higher emotional intelligence is
required in order to influence key
(and more senior) people within
business as well as various external
market participants and other
corporates
• Ability to significantly influence
market/industry specific networks
and navigate complex matrixed
organisational and market
relationships
Functional role
(Process management moving to
relationship management)
• Follows standard assessment
procedures (Screening, Interviewing,
Referencing)
• Basic awareness of cognitive bias
• Builds relationships with Hiring
Managers and uses key success
factors to tailor selection procedures
– understands and actively employs
effective bias reduction techniques
• Success profiles are modelled based
on data and objective data;
Assessment is based on unique role
requirements and objective proof
points. Predictive assessment
methodology drives much of the
hiring process
• Utilises Data/Technology solutions
for the removal of bias – susceptible
elements of selection and
assessment process.
Degree of specialisation
(Generalised moving to specialised)
• Generalist – Generic knowledge
across business/market sectors,
Limited understanding of broader
market beyond immediate
boundaries
• Specific job-family expertise within
organisation – awareness of best
job-seekers in the market at time
• Domain/industry/sector
specialisation – enabling effective
succession management and
external search/networking
• Specialisation is deep and highly
valuable to the individual recruiter
and the organisation they support.
Specialisation allows them to
provide input into strategic decisions
in their organisation/for their
industry.
Recruiters and Recruitment
start to build their
commercial acumen and
speak the same language
as the business
Emergence of talent
communities allows recruiters
to have greater visibility of
internal and external talent in
particular job families
Predictive behavioural / econometric
tools are introduced to super charge
success profiles and link
performance to quantifiable data held
by the business
Recruiters won't process manage / administer
anymore, they are purely relationship based and
brand marketeers. The Recruitment function is
augmented with skills from other disciplines
including finance, technology and marketing.
Optimised
Creating a new eco-system in which talent
is accessible, mobile and relevant;
influenced by the principles of the sharing
economy

7. PwC 7
Corporate recruitment maturity – 2020
Impact on experience of business operations
New Basic
Getting the basics right in order to make
the most of what we have
Shifting Expectations
Shifting the focus of effort from process
execution to candidate experience
Transforming
Building competitive advantage
by developing new partnerships
and shifting to a marketing and
analytics mindset
Impactonexperienceof….
Businessoperations
Success Metrics
(reporting metrics moving to P+L metrics)
• KPI’s based around process
efficiencies
• Recruitment KPI’s evolve to align
more to business outcomes –
Redefined metrics of success (eg
eNPS, Diversity, Culture) to put the
consumer at the heart of the
process
• Quantitative KPI’s linked to business
P&L drivers – time to productivity,
new-hire impact on P&L, Peer-
based metrics, impact to NPS
• Qualitative KPI’s and measures
linked to business P&L developed
(Quality of Hire, team cohesion,
productivity, engagement, Brand
Awareness) linked to Business P+L
Workforce Planning
(Limited moving to strategic
workforce planning)
• Limited workforce planning capacity
or capability, no links to business
• Closer ties to business to forecast
large annual trends, whilst reviewing
historical hiring informing basic
recruitment planning
• Analytics increasingly used to
predict demand, resource
requirements and to assess and
improve performance of recruitment
• View of talent availability based on
annual business cycles, tied to
broader strategy
• Strategic workforce planning + Data
and insights generated by analytics
fully support short, medium and long
term talent objectives in support of
business strategy
• Recruitment can easily respond to
short term business demands whilst
maintaining its plans towards future
talent goals
Talent Mobility
(Static moving to dynamic)
• Organisations recruit external talent
in isolation to broader areas of the
business and often overlooking
internal mobility options
• Internal Mobility programs and EOI’s
create opportunities for existing staff
across the business to transition to
other areas of the organization
• Global/regional mobility mindset with
active/organic talent networks for
critical skills and job families
• Talent is seamlessly mobile within
and between organisations
leveraging strength of each to build
joint talent eco-systems
Talent Management
(Linear moving to matrix)
• Employment
opportunities/progression articulated
in terms of career ladders
• Strong focus on employee
engagement & Mobility – internal
talent pools allow pre-qualified high
potential candidates to be profiled
and shared internally within the
business
• Predictive ‘Marketplace’ or platform
connecting internal and external
candidates with current and future
career opportunities
• Proactive hiring and job seeking
become a reality as exchanges
between talent and organisations
become more sophisticated eg
Organisations access “shared” talent
pools and promote their career
opportunities and brand
Traditional recruitment
functions are divorced
from success / talent
management activities
Talent Management activities
are typically focused on the
limited number of internal
opportunities available to talent
Increased workforce visibility and employee
related analytics will permit much richer
workforce planning and skill needs
identification that will drive recruitment's
future talent pipelining activities
Recruitment KPIs are aligned to the business KPIs and objectives
in relation to business performance and how recruitment
influences it. This requires a cross functional approach to access
all relevant data and a clear understanding of how one function
impacts the overall outcome
Optimised
Creating a new eco-system in which talent is
accessible, mobile and relevant; influenced
by the principles of the sharing economy

8. PwC
New Basic
Getting the basics right in order to make
the most of what we have
Shifting Expectations
Shifting the focus of effort from process
execution to candidate experience
Transforming
Building competitive advantage
by developing new partnerships and shifting
to a marketing and analytics mindset
Impactonexperienceof….
Internal+ExternalCandidates
On-boarding
(Fragmented moving to integrated)
• New hire taken through basic (and often
inconsistent) experience focused on
systems, compliance and provisioning
• On-boarding experience provides
candidates and business users with
engaging, relevant, timely information,
preparing new hires for their first week
in role
• Seamless and consistent recruitment,
pre-boarding and onboarding
experience across the organisation (up
to first month in role) resulting in high
levels of engagement and productivity
• Candidate identity/reputation/pre-
qualification moves with them
between assignments/jobs and
organisations further streamlining the
onboarding process
Candidate engagement
(General moving to customised)
• Basic communication expectations for
candidates are mostly addressed
• Traditional channels are used
• Greater reliance on marketing & talent
management to build a strong brand to
attract and engage with candidates
• Channels are diversified to include
some that are more relevant to
the audience
• EVP articulates consistent message to
internal + external candidates
• Segmented channels & methods of
engagement are tailored to target
audience needs
• Fully segmented recruitment marketing
& communications. Talent networks
utilised to engage potential candidates
using the most relevant channel and
highly customised message and
candidate experience
Assessment
(General technical moving to
predictive analytical)
• Assessment is mostly against a fixed
set of technical skills and experience
requirements
• Candidates pitch to organisation to
‘choose’ them
• Automated profiling of candidates as
they pass through early recruitment
stages so they can be approached for
opportunities in the future
• Candidates assessed against success
profiles based on multiple dimensions,
mostly competency based
• Predictive tools help candidates identify
the right opportunity and organisation for
them
• Cultural ‘fit’ more important than
technical skill-based requirements
• Candidates and organisations
increasingly rely on peer to peer review
data
• Predictive econometric tools use hard
data to build accurate success profiles
and assessment protocols
• Assessment is fully gamified to engage,
challenge and excite candidates within
the talent communities or during specific
hiring processes
Unsuccessful Candidate Experience
(Limited moving to advocacy)
• Little focus on unsuccessful candidate
experience – Managing unsuccessful
candidates often seen as a drain on
recruiting resources
• Expectations shift and the provision of
constructive feedback is seen as a
minimum expectation, candidate
charters are developed governing the
experience provided to successful and
unsuccessful applicants.
• Some unsuccessful applicants are
moved into talent communities
• Utilisation of unsuccessful candidates
increases within the organisation as
alternative opportunities/positions
materialise
• Internal candidates act on prior
feedback received by undertaking
training programs to upskill themselves
or considering secondment
opportunities that will assist their career
goals
• Complete innovation of ‘rejection
experience’ so that candidates leave the
process as advocates for the
organisation having developed
themselves through their engagement
with the business
• Unsuccessful applicants in one
organisation can access other
opportunities through the shared talent
eco-systems that exist
8
Corporate recruitment maturity – 2020
Impact on experience of internal and external candidates
On-boarding has no 'owner' and is
typically left to the business to
manage. The user experience is
patchy and inconsistent
Introduction of new success profiles and
automated assessment tools permits validation
and assessment of people 'pre the hiring
process' as part of the talent community
Candidates and workforces are segmented allowing
richer and more tailored branding and communication.
The range of channels is diversified to allow people to
be communicated on their platform of choice
As relationships with external organisations grow, the rejection experience from one
company will open doors to another. Mobility of hires and rejected applicants between firms
will be commonplace, as will the ability of rejected candidates to upskill themselves via
training programs / secondments based on the feedback received post a hiring process.
Optimised
Creating a new eco-system in which talent is
accessible, mobile and relevant; influenced
by the principles of the sharing economy

9. www.pwc.com.au
www.tqsolutions.com.au
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