Oleeo Chief Executive Officer Charles Hipps has outlined five recruitment trends he believes will shape hiring in 2026, highlighting growing pressure on employers as application volumes rise and candidate expectations shift.

Hiring teams are managing much larger applicant pools without a matching increase in recruitment headcount. Some campaigns now attract more than 20,000 applicants, while application volumes across several sectors are rising by 40% year on year.

That imbalance is changing how employers handle the early stages of selection. Instead of relying on recruiters to screen large numbers of CVs manually, companies are turning to tools and processes that identify suitable candidates earlier in the hiring journey.

Pressure on teams, Hipps argued, means employers need to rethink how they narrow longlists. The goal is to identify strong candidates efficiently without creating excessive workloads for hiring staff.

Assessment shift

One of the main changes Hipps identified is the growing use of structured and behavioural assessments at the start of the process. In his view, these are beginning to replace the CV as the first point of evaluation for many employers.

The shift reflects a broader effort to assess potential and job fit earlier, rather than relying mainly on educational background or previous employers. Qualities such as resilience, adaptability and determination are gaining more weight in initial screening.

He linked the move to both efficiency and fairness. Reducing manual sorting allows employers to handle larger candidate volumes while widening the basis on which applicants are judged.

Changing expectations

Hipps also said candidate expectations are changing, particularly among younger workers entering the labour market. Flexibility, career progression and workplace culture are increasingly seen as core requirements rather than optional benefits.

That puts pressure on employers with more rigid working practices. Those that fail to adapt risk losing candidates to rivals offering more flexible arrangements and clearer development paths.

Hipps added that employers with adaptable policies are seeing stronger retention and engagement. In his view, workplace flexibility is becoming tied not only to talent attraction but also to broader workforce performance.

Interview bottlenecks

While technology and assessment methods may ease pressure earlier in the process, interviews remain a significant operational challenge. Scheduling and conducting interviews at scale becomes harder when senior decision-makers are involved and candidate experience must still be maintained.

For many businesses, that creates a bottleneck after initial screening. Recruitment leaders are therefore being pushed to simplify interview stages and make each step more focused on specific competencies.

Hipps said structured interviews and stronger early-stage assessment can reduce unnecessary complexity. That approach, he suggested, allows organisations to maintain standards as hiring volumes grow.

Strategic role

Across his comments, Hipps presented recruitment as a business function moving beyond an administrative role. Employers are redesigning hiring processes in response to scale, labour market shifts and the need to make selection decisions more consistently.

The broader message is that recruitment is becoming more closely tied to workforce planning and organisational strategy. Employers that can update their processes without undermining fairness or overloading staff are likely to be better placed in a competitive market for talent.

Police officers and staff across the UK have called for better integrated IT systems, improved training and greater user input after a national survey found widespread dissatisfaction with police technology. The findings are based on responses from 8,081 people across forces.

More than half of police officers up to the rank of Chief Inspector were dissatisfied with the digital, data and technology provided by their forces. Among senior officers, dissatisfaction rose to 64%. Among staff, 50% were satisfied and 37% dissatisfied, leaving overall dissatisfaction across all respondents at 49%.

The survey, carried out by Policing Insight with support from a steering group including the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the Police Federation of England and Wales, the Home Office and the Police Digital Service, points to persistent concerns about fragmented systems, poor integration and weak support.

Only 16% of respondents said the police systems they use are well integrated. A quarter said they receive high-quality training that is timely, beneficial and ongoing. Meanwhile, 40% said the main operational systems they rely on are efficient and effective, and 39% said those systems are easy to use.

Some measures were more positive. Overall satisfaction had improved since a previous survey in 2018, while 61% of users were satisfied with the range and quality of devices provided by forces and 59% said they were always able to access police operating systems.

User frustration

Beyond the headline figures, respondents submitted more than 35,000 comments describing their day-to-day experience with police technology. They highlighted duplicated work, unreliable systems and poor support, particularly for officers and staff working around the clock.

Many said they were forced to enter the same information into multiple systems that do not communicate properly. Others described technology that was difficult to use, badly designed or introduced without enough consultation with the people expected to rely on it in operational roles.

The report linked those problems to wider effects on morale and performance, citing concerns about the impact of failing or poorly connected systems on investigations, intelligence sharing and, in some cases, judicial outcomes.

Some comments also referred to mental health and wellbeing, with accounts of colleagues being reduced to tears, taking sickness absence or leaving policing altogether because of frustration with the systems they were required to use.

A passage in the report states: “The key issues highlighted by 8,081 UK police officers and staff are a combination of fragmented and often outdated technology, poor process design, and insufficient investment.

“Those concerns are compounded by significant struggles around interoperability, a lack of user-centred design, weak governance, and minimal learning and support.

“All of which contributes to damaging workforce wellbeing and morale, limitations on the ability of officers and staff to do a good job, and in some instances a worrying potential impact on judicial outcomes.”

Calls for change

Respondents called for greater national standardisation of systems across policing, as well as more involvement from front-line users in design and development. The findings suggest many officers and staff do not see current systems as reflecting the realities of police work.

Chief Constable Rob Carden, NPCC lead for digital, data and technology, acknowledged the findings in the report. “I know that officers and staff are too often hampered by technical barriers. As highlighted throughout this report, the digital provisions we have in place make it difficult to share intelligence, limit collaboration and in some circumstances, slow investigations.

“We are working hard to remove those barriers, with significant work taking place in the background to address the issues highlighted throughout this report… Please rest assured that the issues highlighted have been heard, and will be recorded and acted upon as a priority.”

Simon Kempton, National Board member at the Police Federation of England and Wales, said the findings reflected repeated concerns rather than isolated complaints.

“The experiences described throughout this report are not isolated complaints or resistance to change. They are consistent themes repeated by thousands of respondents across forces and roles.

“Officers describe spending excessive time duplicating information across systems that do not communicate properly. Staff describe inefficient processes and unreliable workflows. Many speak openly about the stress created by systems that add complexity to already pressured environments.

“The message from officers and staff is clear. They want systems that are reliable, integrated, intuitive and genuinely supportive of the job they do. They want better training, better support and a stronger voice in shaping the technology they use.

“Above all, they want digital systems that help them serve the public effectively rather than placing further obstacles in their way.”

Vodafone has agreed to take sole ownership of VodafoneThree. The move follows the merger of Vodafone UK and Three UK and comes as the combined operator continues to implement remedies tied to competition approval.

James Gray, Managing Director of Graystone Strategy, said the transaction gives Vodafone control of the business through a £4.3 billion share deal with CK Hutchison. The change was widely expected, he added, given Vodafone’s group structure and its position in the joint venture.

The development comes at a sensitive time for the UK mobile market. Regulators approved the combination of the two operators subject to a series of conditions, including £11 billion of network investment over eight years, the continuation of certain lower-cost tariffs for three years, and the introduction of a regulated wholesale reference offer for mobile virtual network operators.

Wholesale access

That wholesale reference offer has been one of the most closely watched measures for smaller telecoms brands and potential new entrants. It created a structured wholesale deal that interested parties could request from Vodafone, providing a more formal route into the market for businesses that want to sell mobile services using another operator’s infrastructure.

Gray said the ownership change was unlikely to alter the Competition and Markets Authority’s earlier judgment. “My gut feel, based on what I’ve seen this morning, is probably not. Because all that’s happened is the structure has changed of the trading brand,” said Gray.

He added that VodafoneThree must submit an independent report after its first year showing what had changed and how the wholesale reference offer was working.

Competition impact

Debate around the merger has centred on whether reducing the number of network owners in the UK would weaken competition. Gray said the effect so far appeared limited, although he noted the merger was still at an early stage.

“I don’t think competition has been materially impacted by the merger, although to be fair the merger is still relatively young as mergers go,” said Gray.

He pointed to the fact that Vodafone and Three still trade as separate brands, leaving consumers with what appears to be a four-brand market even though two of those brands now sit under the same ownership structure. He also said there had been no significant rise in mobile bills so far.

In the MVNO market, however, both Gray and Mike Mills, Managing Director, Service Provider, at Gamma Communications, described a noticeable increase in activity. Mills said Gamma was seeing sharply higher interest, while Gray said more brands appeared to be exploring launches in the UK.

Among the names mentioned were Monzo and Klarna, which have signalled plans in the sector, and Revolut, which has already launched. Gray also referred to smaller brands entering the market, including Zim, Tech Money and Rocket.

Network rollout

Another key test for VodafoneThree is whether it can deliver the network investment promised as part of the merger approval. Gray said specific rollout targets were attached to the £11 billion spending commitment and that failure to meet them could extend some of the remedies.

Both speakers said they had seen signs of improving coverage. Gray said consumers on Vodafone and Three appeared to be getting better service as the operator used multi-operator core network technology to allow roaming between sites inherited from the two businesses.

“Again, speaking as a consumer on the Vodafone network as it happens, I’ve seen improvements, there’s no doubt about that,” added Gray.

Mills also said he had observed stronger local coverage and argued that VodafoneThree appeared to be carrying out the integration work it had set out to do. He added that the business had kept its MVNO operation focused during a complex merger involving both technology and organisational change.

Gray said the scale of the work should not be underestimated because it extends beyond radio networks into operational and business support systems, as well as brand integration.

Busy market

Much of the discussion focused on how the wholesale market has developed since the merger. Mills said the UK market was as dynamic as he had seen it in a decade, with activity spanning financial services, alternative network providers and brands targeting different age and income groups.

Gray shared that view and pointed to wider market forecasts. Research suggests the global MVNO market could reach USD $155 billion by 2031, with Europe accounting for USD $65 billion, he said.

He said alternative network providers had a clear rationale for launching mobile offers because they could sell more services to existing broadband customers. Retail was another area drawing attention, with Tesco Mobile cited as the UK’s largest MVNO at about five million customers and Lidl highlighted as a retailer that had discussed expansion across multiple territories.

Gray argued that retail mobile offers were becoming more closely tied to loyalty schemes, making them more relevant to a grocer’s core business. That could increase interest among major supermarket groups competing for share in a tough consumer market, he said.

Financial technology groups are also testing the model, helped by wider adoption of eSIM. Gray said that allows brands to add mobile services to a digital customer journey with very little friction, making travel SIM products an obvious starting point.

He said Revolut had been successful in that area before moving into local mobile offers, but added that it was too early to judge the long-term strength of the trend in more developed European markets.

Looking ahead, Gray said he expected more large consumer brands to enter the market because wholesale access had become easier and consumers were less attached to traditional network operators than in the past. “I would be very surprised if we didn’t see at least one of the big grocers come to market,” he said.