When Euan McNair joined Aegon UK in 2022, the organisation was spending £2.5 million a year on agency fees. Time to offer sat at 100 days. Every call centre hire came from competitors. And recruiter engagement was just 41%.
Three years later, agency spend had dropped to £100,000. Time to offer fell to 32 days. 40% of hires now come from outside financial services. And recruiter engagement hit a market-leading 96%.
How? By scrapping the CV, redesigning the hiring process around potential, and, critically, building the internal trust needed to make it all stick inside a regulated, 160-year-old organisation.
Join host Robert Newry as Euan shares the full story of a recruitment transformation that saved £2.4 million and changed how Aegon UK thinks about talent.
🔺 The triangle that underpins everything: Euan's framework centres on three experiences — recruiter, hiring manager, and candidate. His rule: if a change doesn't improve at least two of the three, it doesn't move forward.
📉 From £2.5m to £100k in agency spend: How Euan repositioned his in-house team as trusted advisors with the same tools and time commitment as an agency — and turned off the tap on external spend.
🚫 What happened when they removed the CV: A pilot where hiring managers never saw a CV — and ended up selecting a chef, a nail technician, a motorway maintenance worker, and a semi-retired executive. People they would never have hired under the old process. People who are still thriving at Aegon UK today.
📊 The numbers that proved it worked: No-show rates dropped from 25% to zero. Interview pass rates jumped from 41% to 86%. Offer acceptance rose from 73% to 98%. New joiner satisfaction hit 92% — in a record hiring year.
🎭 An escape room instead of a competency interview: How Aegon UK replaced \"tell me about a time\" with an immersive art heist scenario — and why the best candidate feedback they ever received was \"I forgot I was being assessed.\"
⚡ Why intentional friction is the antidote to bad hires: In a world obsessed with removing friction from the candidate journey, Euan argues that some friction is essential — and explains why his team deliberately chose not to automate interview scheduling.
💡 Three things to take away: Build trust by delivering results before you ask for change. Use pilots to let the data persuade sceptics. And think big, act small — have the audacious goal, but move in incremental steps.
Tune in to hear how Aegon UK turned a traditional, risk-averse hiring process into one that finds potential where others only see CVs — and brought the whole business with them.
Don't forget to hit 'subscribe' to be sure not to miss more episodes of the TA Disruptors podcast!
--------------------------------------------------
Thanks for listening, and here are some helpful links:
Connect with Robert on LinkedIn: https://hubs.li/Q0282KjJ0
Connect with Euan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/euanmcnairta/
Sign up for the TA Disruptors newsletter — it's the easiest way to be updated with the industry's brightest ideas and the freshest need-to-know data — every week: https://hubs.li/Q0282H370
--------------------------------------------------
Talent acquisition is changing faster than it ever has before. ChatGPT and other GenAI tools are literally turning the selection process on its head. This podcast is designed for disruptive Talent Acquisition leaders who want to get ahead. For the innovators, the movers and shakers, and the TA leaders who will survive and thrive in this new era by moving quickly to future-proof their recruitment processes. Even when you're feeling overworked and overwhelmed, we'll help you keep up with the latest ideas from the industry's brightest innovators and the freshest need-to-know data from new research. TA Disruptors has got you covered.
All brought to you from the team behind Arctic Shores.
","author_name":"Arctic Shores"}