Europ Assistance: how to recognise the potential that stands the test of time in a business built on human interaction
With Skillvue, Europ Assistance transformed candidate pre-screening into a scalable, strategic process for the entire talent lifecycle — developing cross-functional skills from the very first step of the recruitment journey.
Europ Assistance
Financial Services
Generali
10,000
Hiring
In a business built on human interaction, the quality of hiring cannot afford to compromise.
Europ Assistance, part of the Generali Group, is one of the world's leading providers of assistance and travel insurance services. Its growth is constant: operations are expanding into new markets and converging with Generali Care into an integrated assistance hub.
In Italy, it operates with a business model built on the quality of human interaction: 24/7 assistance, claims management, multilingual customer care. Hiring and developing the right people is a critical lever for the business to function and grow, especially given the instability of the insurance sector — which doesn't always attract top talent and at the same time demands very specific professional profiles capable of evolving over time. In this context, every wrong hire costs more and every right person who stays is worth even more.
Thousands of applications, 2 seasonal peaks, 3 people in the recruiting team.
Europ Assistance Italia's hires are concentrated in 2 seasonal peaks per year, generating volumes in the order of thousands of applications in just a few months. For assistance and customer care roles, soft skills are the top predictor of success — problem solving, customer orientation, stress management — but are completely invisible in a CV.
Need to grow at the pace the business demands
Business needs were constantly increasing and the speed of response required was always higher. Being faster and more effective for HR in delivering expected results had become an operational necessity.
Managing complexity at seasonal peaks
With high volumes concentrated in narrow time windows, there was no room for slow processes. Every delay meant open positions at precisely the moment the business needed them filled.
Need for greater foresight on future needs
Identifying predictive growth skills already at the pre-screening stage was key to building useful information for an internal talent pipeline.
Too much time trapped in screening
With thousands of applications to manage, manual screening absorbed most of the available resources, leaving little room for in-depth analysis and candidate relationship building.
Difficulty identifying future potential
Bringing in people with the right potential for internal development paths required structured data that a CV alone was not able to provide.
Niche profiles hard to identify
Some strategic roles required very specific skills, difficult to assess from a CV. Without objective evaluation tools, the process slowed down and the risk of a poor match increased.
What needed to change
Scale pre-screening without scaling the team: manage thousands of applications with 3 FTE, freeing recruiters from screening to focus on interviews and potential evaluation
Make soft skills visible from the first step: objective data on cross-functional skills and English language needed to be available before committing hours of the recruiting team's time
Leverage AI as support to the recruiter: ensuring greater speed and decision-making effectiveness while maintaining full decision-making control at every step
Select for potential, not just immediate performance: identify candidates with promising skills indicative of future growth within the organisation
AI Assessment with Skillvue
Skillvue was integrated into Europ Assistance Italia's hiring process as the first structured step of the funnel, managing pre-screening across multiple profiles and geographic locations. Deployment is recurring, tied primarily to the two annual seasonal peaks.
Assessment is done independently as first step
After applying, every candidate completes the assessment independently from any device — phone, tablet or laptop.
Structured report for the recruiter
The HR team receives an objective, in-depth skills analysis. The first interview is based on data, not impressions.
Human-in-the-loop at every stage
The HR team maintains full decision-making control throughout. Skillvue data structures and informs the judgement, without ever replacing the recruiter's evaluation.
What is changing.
candidatesless noise, more concrete signals for the HR team
for what mattersmore personalised and targeted interviews, based on real data
for the futurehiring with tomorrow already in mind, not just immediate fit
Visibility on true potential from the first step
HR and line managers have structured soft skill data on every candidate before the interview — not just immediate fit, but concrete signals of growth over time.
Recruiters free to do high-value work
Time saved in pre-screening is reinvested in more in-depth interviews and potential analysis — activities that directly impact hiring quality and retention.
Enhanced candidate experience
More room for self-expression: when given the chance to prove themselves, candidates respond positively and enthusiastically.
"I believe hiring and development must speak the same language: the data collected today becomes the foundation for tomorrow's growth."
Nicole Cerruti
Recruitment Manager, Europ Assistance Italia