Recruitment Partnerships: Trust, AI and Better Hiring

Recruitment partnerships create more value when technology, shared goals and human judgement work together. In this English-language conversation, Ritu Mohanka, CEO of VONQ, and Katharina Wulff of d.vinci HR-Systems discuss how a long-term partnership can improve recruiting workflows and the experience candidates have with employers. Ritu explains that the difficult part of an embedded partnership is not necessarily the technical integration. Partners first need a shared purpose, a clear definition of success and the confidence to have honest conversations when things do not go as planned. She describes how both teams worked through a rocky start by keeping one goal in view: helping customers and giving recruiters a better way to support candidates. During the transition of around 120 d.vinci customers from another partner to VONQ, the focus was on customer goals, timelines, trust and a coordinated handover—not simply on which partner owned each task. The conversation then turns to job distribution and multiposting. Ritu argues that recruiting teams should look beyond clicks and application volume and ask whether they are reaching relevant, interested candidates who can actually do the job. A cost-per-application approach can help connect distribution decisions with hiring outcomes instead of rewarding activity for its own sake. Ritu also shares her view of AI in recruiting. Automation can take repetitive administrative work off recruiters’ plates, while human judgement, empathy and decision-making remain essential. She sees recruiters spending more time speaking with candidates and advising business partners. In that context, an applicant tracking system can remain the system of record while connected agent workflows help it become a system of action. The goal is practical support with a human in the loop—not AI for its own sake. Finally, Ritu describes what she looks for when hiring at VONQ: curiosity, adaptability and potential to learn, rather than relying only on past employers or a CV. In this video, you will learn what makes a strategic recruiting partnership, how to measure job distribution by outcomes and where AI can support—not replace—recruiters. Recorded at Zukunft Personal Europe 2026. Katharina Wulff | d.vinci HR-Systems Ritu Mohanka | VONQ More information about d.vinci: https://www.dvinci.de