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As AI reshapes how candidates present themselves, Virgin Media O2 is fundamentally rethinking recruitment. Karen Handley, Head of Future Careers, explains how the company is moving beyond polished CVs to assess real-time thinking and innate potential. The goal: a fairer, more insightful process that finds genuine talent, not just perfect paperwork.
Karen Handley
Head of Future Careers, Virgin Media O2
How is Virgin Media O2 differentiating its recruitment practices to net key talent?
Virgin Media O2 is adapting its recruitment approach to better reflect how candidates engage with technology today. Rather than relying on traditional methods like CVs or polished written applications, which are increasingly influenced by AI, the focus is on understanding candidates’ motivations, strengths, and decision-making styles. By rethinking assessment methods and placing greater emphasis on how individuals think and respond in real time, the organisation aims to find genuine potential and create a fairer, more inclusive process.
Rather than relying on traditional methods like CVs or polished written applications, which are increasingly influenced by AI, the focus is on understanding candidates’ motivations, strengths, and decision-making styles
In an AI-driven recruitment market, how is it possible to ensure the best candidates aren’t unknowingly screened out?
One of the key risks of AI-influenced recruitment models is an over reliance on surface level outputs, like CVs, that may not reflect true capability. To counter this, recruitment processes can be designed to assess how candidates arrive at decisions, not just the final answer they give. Moving towards more personalised assessments that have diversity at the heart of the models also helps ensure that candidates with different thinking styles, backgrounds, or levels of access to technology aren’t disadvantaged early in the process.
