Public sector

Own the base every
hire comes from.

Applicants, referrals and the specialists Atlas finds all land in one place — and the first structured conversation runs the moment an application arrives, against criteria you set before anyone applied. Career-track eligibility, TVöD expectation and clearance sit on the profile, and every score points back to the sentence it came from.

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Criteria before anyone applies. The file writes itself — your panel still decides.
Kitas, schools & social servicesIT & digitalisation Building & civil engineeringGeneral administration
The atrium of a public administration building, glass front and an open stairwell
Stadt Stuttgart Mainzer Stadtwerke LVM Versicherung Königsteiner
The problem

More to fill,
and no shortcuts.

The bench retires.

27% of the public-sector workforce retires within ten years, 1.39 million people. Replacing them is the coming decade's core task.

The gap is not waiting.

Around 600,000 public-sector positions are already unfilled today, before the retirement wave even peaks.

It must survive scrutiny.

Article 33(2) requires selection strictly on merit, and every selection can be challenged. The documentation has to exist before the challenge, not be assembled afterwards under pressure.

Sources: dbb Monitor 2026 · dbb 2025/26

Where to start

Pick the door that
fits your problem.

Screening, referrals and sourcing are three doors into the same base — and the fourth is what keeps the people who came through them. Here the first conversation leads, because every selection has to hold up, and the file is what decides whether it does.

Recruiting & Hiring
Screening Referrals Sourcing
A department head in a blazer standing in the meeting room of a public office
Start here in public administration 01Screening

Who runs the same conversation with every applicant?

A structured conversation the moment the application lands — a phone call, a web chat, or a voice or video interview. It measures against criteria fixed before anyone applied, and it documents rather than decides.

97.6% of the detectable gender signal is removed before the first score. Measured on our own test set — the remainder is small, not proven to be zero, and we say so.
Phone callWeb chatVoice or video12 languages
What happens after they apply
1
SetThe criteria for the grade advertised are fixed before the posting goes live. Everyone is measured against the same list.
2
GatherCareer-track eligibility, TVöD grade expectation, extended police clearance and the §165 SGB IX invitation duty, asked and recorded as facts.
3
AnalyseIdentity comes off the text before anything is scored, each criterion is scored three times independently, and the median counts.
4
DecideThe file is complete before anyone asks for it. Your panel selects, and the Personalrat sees the same documentation.
Every score tied to the exact quote it came from — and a quote only counts if it is found literally in what the person said.
Identity signals removed in two passes before the first score; the raw transcript stays untouched for the human record.
The same questions for everyone, in twelve languages, so language does not quietly become a criterion.
A decision-ready report lands in your applicant system, honest feedback goes to the applicant.

The process does not select and never rejects. The merit selection under Article 33(2) stays with the people accountable for it — this only makes sure they open a complete file.

Explore Screening →
02Referrals

Who on your staff knows the next Erzieher?

The opening goes automatically to the employees it fits, on the channels they already use. One tap to refer, no form — and no shortcut past the criteria afterwards.

WhatsAppSMSNo office emailNo login
Referral in the field
Reaches Kitas, depots and officesno office email
Refer, or mark as no fitone tap
Reward lands on the first sharepoints
Reaches Kitas, depots and offices on WhatsApp and SMS, no office email needed.
One tap forwards the posting. A shared link, nothing more.
Every referral arrives with a colleague's judgment attached.
Referred candidates run through the same documented screening as everyone else.
Explore Referrals →
03Sourcing

Who goes looking for the roles nobody applies to?

Roughly 39,000 IT and digitalisation specialists are missing across federal, state and local government. They will not arrive by posting.

A briefing from this field
IT Administrator · Mainz
Windows Server in productionOpen to TVöD termsExtended clearance obtainable Factual, no jargon
Atlas: “Got it. I'll start with IT administrators around Mainz and show you the first matches to vote on.”
Finds the IT specialists and engineers who never read official job portals.
Outreach runs on Sprad's own verified stack, never through your accounts.
You vote matches up or down, and Atlas learns what the role actually needs.
Sourced candidates enter the same documented, criteria-based selection as everyone else.
Explore Sourcing →
04Growth

Who keeps the people you just won?

When a quarter of the workforce is heading for retirement, every resignation hurts twice: the replacement comes out of the same 600,000-strong queue you are already standing in. The same base that got someone hired is the one that keeps them — how the first months are actually going, what the next step would need, and where a career track really leads.

FeedbackHear from your offices and Kitas before people quietly leave. PerformanceReviews your department heads actually finish, drafted by Atlas. SkillsDevelopment paths built on real work, not on job titles.
Why screening leads here

The file has to exist
before the challenge.

In public administration the applications do arrive. What has to hold is the selection — documented well enough that a challenge under Article 33(2) finds a complete file rather than a reconstruction.

78% of candidates prefer an AI-led first conversation over waiting weeks for a human one.
What your panel opens
Career-track eligibilitycleared
TVöD grade expectationcleared
Police clearance (extended)cleared
§165 SGB IX invite dutystill open

Every rating points back to the sentence it came from, and a quote only counts if it is found literally in what the person said. Identity comes off the text in two passes before anything is scored, each criterion is scored three times independently — the median counts — and the total is added up in code, never by the model.

60% of applicants abandon a long application form the ones you want leave first
12 interview languages, the same questions in each language does not quietly become a criterion
1.39 million public-sector employees retire within ten years every one of those roles has to be filled on the record
Explore Screening → Our values and how a rating is built →

Sources: SSRN field study 2025 · fokus›digital 2026 · dbb Monitor 2026

One Talent Base

Every road leads
into the same base.

Whoever applies, gets referred or gets sourced keeps one living profile — owned by them, readable by you. Every door makes it richer, and your applicant system stays in the loop. The engineer the Bauamt could not take in March is the one who is open in September, and you will know.

How the Talent Base works →
Your Systems
Talent Market
Your Modules
Mara Klein
Daniel Funk
Sarah Vogel
André Kamga
Maria Keller
David Schmidt
Sourcing Screening Referrals Performance Your HRIS Your ATS
Owned by the talent
One Talent Base
Living profilesDeep contextAlways in sync

Living profiles

Talent keep their own profile current, because it works for them too. So your pool never ages: whoever came second two years ago is findable and current today.

Deep context

More than a CV: career-track eligibility, grade expectation, clearance, language, evidence from real conversations. Every rating links back to the sentence it came from.

Always in sync

Sprad runs both ways with the applicant management system you already use. No migration, no second tool to maintain — and if you have none, ours is free.

FAQ

What this field asks.

What does “own the base” actually mean for us?

Everyone who ever applied, was referred or was sourced sits in one place that belongs to your authority — not in a single recruiter's folder and not in an agency's system. The profile itself belongs to the person, which is why they keep it current. You can search it, you can see the evidence behind every entry, and you can take it with you if you ever change your applicant management system.

How does this actually satisfy Article 33(2) Bestenauslese?

The criteria are set before anyone applies, every score is tied to the exact quote in the conversation it came from, and nothing about identity ever enters the evaluation. That is the documentation a Bestenauslese challenge asks for, produced as a by-product of the process rather than assembled afterwards under pressure.

Does the AI decide who gets rejected?

No. It never selects and never rejects. It runs the same conversation with everyone, records the answers as facts with the quote they came from, and hands your panel a complete file. The selection decision stays with the people who are accountable for it, and the Personalrat sees the same documentation. Where a rating came from is explained in full under our values.

Does our Personalrat need to be involved?

Yes. Under §80 (1) No. 21 BPersVG they have an information right, and we provide the same documentation template used for works councils in the private sector: what's asked, what's scored, what's excluded, where the data sits.

Do we need a full EU-wide tender to procure this?

Only above 221,000 euros net. Below that threshold the UVgO applies and allows negotiated procurement without a full-scale EU process. Most single-department pilots fall well inside that range.

What about digital accessibility requirements?

Since 28 June 2025 the BFSG requires digital accessibility for public-sector IT procurement, and the candidate-facing side of this process is built to that standard from the start, not retrofitted.

Why does the shortage estimate for 2030 vary so much between sources?

Because it depends on assumptions about retirement timing and replacement rates that nobody can pin down precisely. Estimates run from 765,000 to over a million. We treat it as a range, not a headline number, because false precision would undercut the credibility this process is built on.

Do we have to replace our applicant management system?

No. Sprad runs on top of the system you already use, and results land where your team already works. If you don't have one, ours is free.

See it on your own role.

Fifteen minutes, your vacancy, your numbers.

Book a demo → Try it live