Beyond Hiring: Building a Sustainable Talent Acquisition Engine at Deutsche Bahn

How does a company hire 20,000 people a year in a tight labor market? By ignoring age and grades, and using AI to predict future skill needs.

#1about 2 minutes

Understanding the scale of hiring at Deutsche Bahn

An overview of hiring over 20,000 people annually across diverse roles with a dedicated team of 800 talent acquisition specialists.

#2about 6 minutes

Balancing strategic vision with daily operational demands

Operational insights from the tight labor market are used to inform long-term strategy, addressing both immediate hiring needs and future demographic shifts.

#3about 4 minutes

Forecasting future job roles and required skills

Jobs are deconstructed into individual tasks and analyzed against technological trends to predict future skill requirements and guide proactive recruiting.

#4about 7 minutes

Using AI and finding hidden talent pools

AI is used to scale job prognosis, while programs for mid-career changers and age-agnostic hiring tap into undervalued talent pools.

#5about 6 minutes

The three pillars of a sustainable talent acquisition team

A sustainable talent acquisition engine is built on a holistic, data-driven approach, a culture of innovation, and a close partnership with the business.

#6about 5 minutes

Fostering team well-being and a culture of learning

Preventing team burnout requires strong leadership that creates psychological safety and a culture where failures are analyzed as learning opportunities.

#7about 6 minutes

Building a continuous learning organization within TA

An internal learning academy with dedicated, blocked time in everyone's calendar ensures the team constantly adapts to new technologies and trends.

#8about 4 minutes

The evolution from talent acquisition to talent architect

The future of the role is shifting from filling requisitions to architecting a company's talent base by managing internal and external skill markets.

#9about 5 minutes

Unlearning old habits to embrace innovation

To stay agile, teams must unlearn the "we've always done it this way" mindset and leverage the collective intelligence of all team members.

Notes and resources

In this episode, Rudi Bauer talks with Kerstin Wagner, Executive VP Talent Acquisition at Deutsche Bahn, about building future-ready talent strategies in a large, complex organization.

They explore how to balance strategic vision with daily operations, keep retention high, and rethink jobs in light of technological change. Kerstin shares insights on using AI to scale recruiting, identifying hidden talent beyond CVs, tackling age discrimination, and building sustainable talent acquisition strategies. She also offers her perspective on what recruiting excellence will look like ten years from now.