What 700+ UK recruiters revealed about hiring in 2026 - and what to do about it
Eploy's 2026 UK Candidate Attraction Report built on the views of more than 700 UK recruiters, is the clearest read on what is making hiring hard this year. Three findings dominate the data: a structural shortage of qualified candidates, a brand-new wave of AI-generated applications, and a widening gap between candidate experience ambition and reality.
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You shared your problems and challenges - so now Eploy and Hubert are running a three-part mini-series this summer to explore what to do about it. Each session is 20-minutes, takes one of the three findings, and gets specific: what the data shows, why it is happening, and most importantly; the workflow that answers it.
Finding one: Qualified candidates are scarce, or are they?
For three years running, more than half of UK recruiters have named scarcity of qualified candidates their number one challenge; in the 2026 report it sits at 52%. That persistence matters. This is not a post-pandemic blip that will self-correct; it is the new normal. But the more useful question is whether the market is genuinely empty, or whether the screening layer is rejecting people who could do the job?
CV-led screening filters on proxies; where someone worked, how confidently they wrote their CV, whether their history reads in a straight line. A CV does not measure whether they can do the work. Shift the assessment to a structured, skills-based AI interview and the picture changes.
Finding two: Candidates are using AI to apply
A year ago, "candidates using AI" did not appear on the list of recruiter challenges. Now in 2026, 28% flag it as a top concern, rising above 40% in some sectors including Legal, and Government. The instinct is to fight AI with AI and detect it but does this miss the point?
A polished CV was never proof of capability; a polished, AI-assisted written answer is no different. How do you assess what AI cannot fake: how a person reasons, structures their thinking, and describes their own work in their own words? A structured competency-based interview measures exactly that. Detection still has a place as a safety net - HubertDetect™ flags AI-assisted responses for recruiter review - but the real answer is moving the assessment to where genuine capability actually shows up.
Finding three: Experience and quality are not a trade-off
Candidate experience has been recruiters' top priority for seven years running, at 63%. This year, quality of hire jumped 8 points to 46%. Read together, the signal is clear: teams have stopped treating these as opposites and started treating them as two sides of the same investment.
The workflow that surrounds the candidate - the careers site, the application, response time, communication cadence - sets the experience floor. The assessment moment sets the quality ceiling. When both improve together, they compound. Better experience and better hires, from the same investment.
Join us this summer
More than 700 recruiters revealed their hard challenges. Together Hubert & Eploy are doing something about it; Charlotte Clarke (Eploy) and Greg Dunbar (Hubert) host all three sessions, with live Q&A throughout. Each session stands on its own, so you can join one, two, or all three.
Want the full picture first? Read Eploy's 2026 UK Candidate Attraction Report here.
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