L’Oréal's Brandstorm competition attracted 380,000 applications this year.
380,000.
Now, I'm not suggesting we start putting candidates on a stage, installing buzzers in interview rooms or asking Simon Cowell to run the graduate scheme. There are also some legitimate questions about whether these processes favour certain personalities or ask too much of people simply trying to get a job.
But there's something interesting going on here.
These companies have made recruitment an experience. Something people want to participate in, talk about and, importantly, apply for.
Meanwhile, an awful lot of recruitment still looks remarkably familiar.
Write a job ad. Post it. Search LinkedIn. Send some messages. Get some CVs. Arrange some interviews.
Nothing particularly wrong with any of it. But you have to wonder whether, in a world where getting someone's attention is becoming increasingly difficult, it's enough.
We talk endlessly about candidate experience, but perhaps we don't talk enough about candidate engagement. About making the process itself interesting enough that brilliant people actually want to be part of it.
I'm not convinced recruitment needs its own X Factor.
But I do think we should be paying attention to why 380,000 people wanted to audition.
