Challenge: High volume, and a fast-moving industry
Publicis’ emerging talent team faced a daunting task: managing thousands of applicants competing for a limited number of roles each year in a fast-moving industry.
Traditional CV or education-based screening carried major risks, often overlooking diverse and unconventional talent. While CVs provided a familiar comfort blanket for hiring managers, the team recognised the need to identify candidates with the skills and resilience to thrive in the agency world.
The challenge was clear: develop a process that is scalable and efficient, fair and inclusive for candidates, and predictive enough to give hiring managers confidence in their decisions, all while delivering an excellent candidate experience.
Goal: Build a fairer, consistent, and scalable process
Publicis set out with three clear ambitions:
- Level the playing field for applicants from all backgrounds
- Create consistency across its family of agencies, with one process and one standard
- Give hiring managers confidence that the talent pipeline would deliver individuals ready for the demands of the industry
At the same time, the group wanted the process itself to strengthen its reputation as an inclusive and forward-looking employer — showing candidates that Publicis understands potential can’t be reduced to grades or where someone studied.
Solution: Behavioural insight at scale
To bring that ambition to life, Publicis partnered with Arctic Shores. Together, they designed a selection process that could scale efficiently, while putting fairness and behavioural insight at its core.
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Task-based assessments replaced CV sifting at the very start of the funnel. Instead of filtering candidates by education or experience, every candidate had the opportunity to showcase their potential through a series of engaging tasks.
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The assessments were mapped to Publicis’ early careers roles, ensuring successful candidates showed the behaviours needed to thrive, including collaboration, problem-solving, resilience, and creativity under pressure.
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Arctic Shores also supported the team with workshops and guidance led by its Customer Success Manager and Business Psychologist. This helped align hiring managers, build confidence in the science, and embed the new approach across agencies.
The result was a process that delivered the necessary scale and new approach for talent acquisition, while opening the door to candidates from every background.
“Arctic Shores has helped validate candidates' strengths from the in-person assessment centres/interviews. Generally, the top candidates on the day tend to be the people with the higher scores”
— Hattie Thatcher, Associate Delivery Director, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness
The results: Scale, confidence, and a stronger brand
Since introducing Arctic Shores’ assessment, Publicis has seen clear benefits:
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Successfully introduced a process to allow Publicis to see beyond the CV, and introduce a process that is AI-resilient.
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Created a process that saved significant time for the team in the early screening stages, allowing them to dedicate greater attention to the most meaningful aspects of the candidate journey and provide a more personalised experience for each applicant.
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More predictive power: higher scores in the assessment as an early-stage screen predicted the likelihood of receiving a final offer
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Hiring managers are more confident in the calibre of candidates progressing to later stages
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Throughout the first sift, Publicis maintained the representation of diverse candidates that they’d worked hard to attract
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88% positive candidate satisfaction ratings, with feedback that the process feels fair, less stressful, and more reflective of Publicis’ culture
The impact has been felt on both sides of the hiring equation. Candidates see an inclusive, innovative employer that values potential over polish.
Hiring managers get a shortlist of high-quality candidates who are better matched to the demands of the role.
And the emerging talent team finally has a scalable, data-led process they can rely on.
“Since the inception of Artic Shores, along with other DEI outreach interventions, we have tripled the number of hires from underrepresented groups joining our business.”
— Laura Boyle, Head of Emerging Talent, Publicis Groupe
The takeaway
Publicis isn’t just recruiting entry-level talent—it’s building the next generation of creative talent for one of the world’s most competitive industries. By working with Arctic Shores, it’s shown that fairness and rigour don’t have to come at the expense of efficiency.
For creative industries where CVs fail to capture true potential – especially for early careers candidates – Publicis’ approach offers a new standard to follow: scalable, inclusive, and predictive recruitment that works for everyone.
