Vicki Parker, Head of Talent Acquisition, UKICIMEA and Europe – Vistra

For most of the eligibility period, Vicki operated as a stand-alone recruiter for her Vistra region, with 300 roles to be filled and having a heavy reliance on agency support. She explored ways to reduce costs from £1.5m on external agency spend, drive internal talent moves, simplify and automate recruitment and onboarding processes, develop line manager education, increase brand awareness and combat a poor employer reputation on Glassdoor. Early on, the figures Vicki dealt with were 50% of recruits coming from agencies, 39% direct hires and 11% referrals. Her nominator said that Vicki “led the charge on identifying small yet impactful improvements that yielded tangible results … incremental changes ensuring significant differences without extensive investments in processes or technology”. 

Judges’ comments

Describing Vicki’s approach to recruitment as “phenomenal and just what is needed”, the judges commented on her qualities of being both people-centric and having a strong commercial perspective, viewing talent acquisition strategically. “Vicki is humble about her own role and knows there’s a need for continuous learning and development, but fortunately her talent has now been recognised and celebrated – well done, Vicki, and congrats, Vistra!”