Graduate Recruitment in the AI Era: Insights from Tetra Pak’s Talent Strategy

Beyond Degrees, Towards Potential

There is a mismatch between what companies are looking for and the skills that exist in the talent marketplace. The right hiring process can ensure graduates add skills that are lacking among current talent, and this is increasingly leading organizations to take a skills-based hiring approach. For Tetra Pak, this meant moving away from outdated hiring models and recognizing the predictive value of focusing on specific skills aligned with the demands of the roles, as Chenay Louw, Global Manager, Talent Acquisition and Future Talent, says, 

“Our goal is to widen our talent pool, align hiring with real-world job demands, and ensure a diverse pipeline of future leaders.”

A skills-based approach also enables organizations to move faster and adapt their talent to business priorities. Reusable talent intelligence can make this happen across the entire employee lifecycle. In the webinar, Tetra Pak shared how they are keen on ensuring that data from the recruitment process doesn't disappear into a black box. They're using assessment outcomes to inform individual development plans, leveraging transferable skills and building cross-functional capabilities. This forward-thinking approach supports reskilling, upskilling, and continuous improvement, ensuring that their talent remains relevant and adaptable.

The AI Challenge: Friend or Foe? 

AI has transformed graduate hiring, but not always in predictable ways. Employers are seeing a 59% increase in applications, and while AI helps with efficiency, it also raises concerns about bias, fairness, and candidate authenticity. Many organizations are as a result, reviewing their assessment and hiring processes; considering if the assessments they are using are AI proof, exploring proctoring technology to detect use of AI, and creating candidate policies around use of AI.

Tetra Pak’s take? Be realistic about AI’s role. “We know candidates will use AI,” Chenay admitted. “For CV writing or interview prep, that’s fine. But when it comes to assessments or interviews, AI-generated answers create ethical concerns.” 

To counter this, Tetra Pak:

• Trains recruiters on AI literacy—helping them spot overly polished, AI-generated responses.
• Uses video interviews and a human connection, with the opportunity for candidates to think on their feet, problem solve and communicate—skills that are hard to replicate with AI.
• Implements multiple candidate touchpoints—reducing the risk of AI-generated “perfect” answers slipping through the cracks.

Building a Future-Proof Graduate Hiring Process

So, what does an effective, modern graduate hiring process look like? In essence, the core challenges that needs to be addressed haven’t changed a lot. It’s how we address them that is changing. In essence. organizations need to ensure they have the right tools that are fair, valid, reliable, engaging and objectively measure the right things.

Your hiring process should be built around a robust validated, hiring process that consists of a combination of assessments from structured interviews and ability tests, through to realistic job simulations, and skills assessments, depending on your needs. This ensures:

• A rounded, more accurate assessment approach that balances assessment of current capability with transferable behavioral skills to measure readiness as well as potential to drive long-term success.
• An emphasis on candidate experience that helps ensure future employee expectations are shared transparently and candidates have a seamless experience from the moment they make contact, through the entire assessment and recruitment process by leveraging modern tools and an engaging platform.
• Continuous upskilling and adaptability with a structured program for skills development of both technical expertise and leadership behaviors so new hires are equipped with the skills and experience needed to succeed. 

This is just a snapshot of what was covered in the webinar, to learn more about how graduate hiring has evolved, and how to build successful early careers strategies, watch our full recorded webinar replay.