Unilever's talent assessment transformation: Built to scale, backed by science

Hiring in 80 countries. 250,000+ applicants a year. Hundreds of different roles.

What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, actually.

Overtime, Unilever’s hiring process had become fragmented, inconsistent, and inefficient. Each country’s recruitment team was independently designing its own processes, often reinventing the wheel and causing disparities in candidate experiences, recruiter workflows, and overall efficiency. This lack of standardisation led to high administrative burdens, slow time-to-hire, inflated costs, and below-industry-standard performance benchmarks.

By introducing a global assessment rooted in psychology, Unilever achieved a 40% boost in candidate satisfaction and saved thousands of recruiter hours.

At IHR Live London 2025, Katie Raeburn, Senior Customer Success Manager at SOVA and Tori Clarke, Talent Lead at Unilever provided a comprehensive overview of how Unilever has transformed its global recruitment processes.

Some key takeaways were:

• A global foundation keeps things fair and efficient, but allowing tailored tweaks for local needs ensures relevance and compliance in every market.
• Psychometric assessments reduce bias, boost quality of hire, and give candidates a level playing field, especially when dealing with huge application volumes.
• Saving hundreds of days of admin time means teams can focus on strategic talent decisions, not endless CV screens.
• Adoption isn’t automatic. Listening sessions, feedback loops, long support periods, that’s what turns a tool into a success story.
• Continuous improvement keeps the process aligned with business