Speaking at the Inhouse Recruitment Expo in London’s Olympia yesterday, Thompson told delegates they should resist working with the same partners – because that is what they have always done – and interrogate these partners’ business strategies over the coming year.

Thompson, who speaks to his job board partners once a month, called on in-house recruiters to ask themselves and their job board partners the following questions: Have you reviewed your media against your audience? Do they match who you’re after? Who do they want to build their market to? Who are they going after?

Thompson explained job boards tend to use the same jobs advertising channels that are at in-house recruiters’ disposal, but as they adapt and change their business strategies to target different groups, in-house recruiters can find these do not align with their own strategies.

And while Vodafone makes minimal use of agencies, Thompson said the same principle applies to the agencies.

“Recruitment agencies are experts in every vacancy you give them but have they backed it up – do they have the vacancies on their website? When you look at the LinkedIn profile of those recruiters, have they been there a week and [now] they are big data specialists?

“Get a bit of grounding, get a foundation – ask them ‘how have you changed your audience and how have you got there?’,” he added.