In the context of the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded and with numerous multinational companies present in the market, a B2B company with a more discreet brand, in full growth, faces the reality of having to find candidates outside its own sector for new positions; these candidates often put at risk internal pay equity, and they are also unlikely to commit to a single recruitment process until the pre-notice period has expired.

Thus, recruitment has become one of the biggest challenges for the HR function, both because of the increased time required to fill a vacancy and because many times, already accepted offers are overtaken by other ongoing processes, leading to the loss of the candidate when the position is already filled.

The onboarding process, clear communication of the employer brand value and alignment between the company values and the candidate are predictive factors of success for new roles. Retention is of renewed importance to avoid surprises, and companies increasingly have the ability to offer competitive conditions to candidates who show a willingness to leave, while maintaining commitment to the brand.

In this sense, the solution lies in a true partnership with recruitment and selection companies, who must understand the profiles sought and maintain an open and trusting dialogue with the candidate throughout the entire process, to reduce the likelihood of unpleasant surprises at the end. While before it was often a comparison between the two final candidates in the process that led to the ideal candidate, and the decision-making involved concessions to what was intended, today the decision on the ideal candidate is often a leap of confidence, because one must recruit more from the perspective of potential, in order to guarantee a medium-term professional project and the maintenance of internal equity (retention mechanism). 

Hiring well no longer just means filling vacancies quickly; it means attracting, evaluating, and integrating people capable of sustaining culture, performance, innovation, and organizational trust. That is precisely why the topic has become more complex: we have never had so many tools for recruiting, and paradoxically, it has never been so easy to dehumanize the process. This is where humanization becomes a quality requirement. Humanizing recruitment does not mean abandoning rigor or returning to intuitive and poorly structured practices. It does mean recognizing that decisions about people require context, listening, discernment, and responsibility. A good selection process is not limited to identifying “who fits”; it seeks to understand who the person is, who may become so, and under what conditions they are most likely to evolve, allowing companies hiring that person to take the leap of confidence, but based on sustained information.

Despite technological sophistication, many of the best practices in recruitment continue to be based on very clear fundamentals. The very ISO 30405:2023 standard dedicated to recruitment guidelines insists on principles that remain very relevant today: process planning, clear definition of criteria, consistent management of the stages, positive candidate experience and continuous learning based on results. In practice, this means questioning: what are we really looking for? What skills are truly critical? What is capable of being developed and what is essential for entry? Which observable indicators support the decision?

Not less important is to highlight that, in a market where qualified talent also chooses, the selection process has become part of the value proposition to the employee. A rejected candidate can continue to be an ambassador of the brand – or an active critic of it – depending on the quality of the experience they have had.

The best recruitment won’t be the fastest or the most automated. It will be the smartest in its use of technology and the most human in the way it chooses people.

Paula Calmeiro, Head of Recruitment, SHL Portugal
Sofia Brazão, People and Culture Director, Vendap

Published in Human Magazine on 4/5/2026