Jen Cunningham

Vice President Global Talent Acquisition, Pearson

As a TA leader with 20 years in the industry, Jen is acutely aware of the need for disruption. This comes from two perspectives, firstly the generalised perception of recruitment across all stakeholder groups – business, candidates and frankly those delivering the services within the recruitment ecosystem and secondly our technology and processes meeting the needs of those we are serving and our ability to truly understand those needs and complexities to deliver true commercial value to the organisations we support. With that said Jen is a massive advocate for positive change, leveraging technology, data and relationships to be a force for good in the Industry. Opening up opportunities and removing barriers to entry for others to learn and grow and create meaningful and unparalleled career opportunities gets her out of bed every single day, be it with her own teams or those she hires into our businesses.

What’s a professional achievement of yours from 2024 that you are proud of?

Following a massive 12 month transformation of the Global TA Function I am most proud of the teams I lead. Seeing them thrive as individuals and as a collective group of experts is amazing! They embody what it takes to be successful in recruiting in this wild new complex world we live in. They lead with a hunger for meaningful change, driven by the desire to create a lasting, positive and valuable impact for both our business and candidates. Their ability to be curious, to learn and challenge the status quo- even when its hard to do so is great to see!

How has the RL Community helped you this year?

I really enjoy having a team of other like minded individuals with whom I can bounce idea’s off, and or play devils advocate with. I love to discuss and debate what’s on my mind and the RL100 is super helpful for that, especially when I feel like a lone voice amongst the noise of negativity of recruitment as a practice that can, at times, be disconcerting.

What is your prediction for the TA industry for 2025?

Asides from the typical and likely obvious ones of AI becoming the norm and recruiters being asked to do more with less I predict the shift of how we approach selection being front and center. Leaders and recruiters will need way more support and education on how to accurately measure soft skills. Skills such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, resilience, agility and problem solving will increase in demand, widening the already broad skills gap as technology continues to enhance taking over more transactional and even specialised work needing deep knowledge.