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From 3000 applications to 15 top talents: how to identify and develop talent at scale
With Skillvue, Mediaset turned 3,000 applications into 15 targeted hires in just 5 weeks, using soft skills as the first filter and structured data on every candidate.
Mediaset
Media & Telecom
MFE – MediaForEurope
~€2.5B
~5,000
Hiring
The Company and The Context
Mediaset, part of the MFE – MediaForEurope group, is Italy's leading private commercial broadcaster and is undergoing an unprecedented phase of evolution: with the acquisition of ProSiebenSat.1 and a stake in Impresa, MFE has become the first private free-to-air broadcaster to control operations across three major European markets, reaching over 220 million people in six countries. The organisational leap is enormous: the workforce is growing from around 5,200 to over 12,000 people.
It is in this unprecedented expansion scenario that Progetto GRAPE (Graduate Program) was born: a hiring programme for interns and junior profiles to be placed across various departments at Mediaset's Cologno Monzese headquarters. Identifying talent predictively — especially high-potential junior profiles — becomes an indispensable strategic lever. But how to do it when you're receiving thousands of applications?
Thousands of candidates, a small HR team and CVs that all look the same.
Progetto GRAPE generated over 3,000 applications. The dedicated HR team set a target of 80 qualified candidates per week to advance to the next stages of the process, while maintaining a high level of candidate experience and without compromising the depth of the assessment.
Business needs were colliding with HR operational capacity
To maintain the target pace of evaluated profiles, a different filter from manual screening was needed — capable of operating at scale without sacrificing quality or letting high-potential profiles slip through unnoticed.
The first brand touchpoint had to be worthy of Mediaset
Mediaset is one of Italy's most recognisable brands and competes with tech companies and digital platforms for the same profiles. The smoothness of the hiring process cannot be underestimated.
A genuinely predictive evaluation model was needed
Interns and recent graduates have largely undifferentiated CVs. Soft skills like problem solving, logical reasoning and motivation — the variables that actually predict potential — are invisible on paper.
The chosen tool had to fit into a multi-phase ecosystem
From pre-screening to individual interviews to on-site group assessments. The initial evaluation tool had to produce auditable, comparable outputs to be used in the subsequent stages.
What needed to change
Manage application volumes within business timelines — 80 high-potential candidates pre-screened per week to keep the hiring process moving at pace
Make soft skills visible from the first step — create a ranking based on real skills, producing objective data validated against the Mediaset model
Ensure a candidate experience worthy of the brand — first touchpoint with Mediaset had to be positive, intuitive and accessible even for those who have never tried this assessment format
Integrate the tool into the existing process — outputs compatible with the multi-phase flow and to be used as a benchmark for future development of the tool
AI Pre-screening with Skillvue
Skillvue was integrated as the first filter of Progetto GRAPE, combining soft skills, logic tests and knowledge questions. The ranking is validated by the HR team on Mediaset’s leadership model; suitable profiles advance to the next stages.
AI pre-screening as the first filter
Every candidate is assessed on soft skills, logic and knowledge. The score lets the HR team build comparable weekly shortlists.
Ranking validated against the Mediaset model
The ranking is reviewed and integrated with Mediaset's leadership model. AI supports, the recruiter decides.
Integrated into a multi-phase process
First step of a multi-phase process: AI pre-screening, individual interviews, on-site group assessments.
Key Metrics & Impact
The measurable outcomes Mediaset achieved through Skillvue across Progetto GRAPE.
For the first time, Mediaset has visibility into its skills database
Before Skillvue, decisions based on individual subjective assessment remained personal knowledge. Now the team works with shared, standardised parameters.
Qualified shortlists, with immediate resource savings
Individual interviews started from a solid information base, not a blank page. A more efficient funnel and more informed decisions at every step.
Human-in-the-loop, always
The ranking produced by Skillvue was reviewed and validated by the Mediaset HR team against the company leadership model. AI produced the data; people made the decisions.
From graduate program to Talent Acquisition strategy
Once Progetto GRAPE demonstrated that Skillvue could handle high application volumes in compressed timelines with a positive candidate experience, the next step became quite natural.
Extend AI pre-screening to Mediaset Talent Acquisition processes — in a group growing rapidly across six countries, with the structural challenge of attracting digital talent in a demographically contracting labour market.
Mediaset has already extended Skillvue to a Junior HR Business Partner hire at HQ (1,500+ applications)
2026 target: extend AI pre-screening to Talent Acquisition processes
In a group expanding across 6 countries, identifying talent at scale is not a nice-to-have — it is the foundation for building a future-proof workforce