2025 Recruiting Priorities: Quality, Efficiency, and the Human Touch
To our Talent Community,
The recruiting landscape has undergone profound shifts in recent years. From the uncertainty of the pandemic to the Great Resignation and subsequent economic adjustments, talent teams have had to adapt quickly to new realities. Now, as we look ahead to 2025, the data points to some clear priorities emerging for talent leaders.
Based on our analysis of recent benchmarking reports from Ashby and Gem and conversations with talent leaders, we're seeing four key themes that will shape recruiting success in 2025. Let's dive in.
1. The Continued Rise of Quality-Focused Hiring
The data is clear - teams are taking more time to ensure quality hires. According to Gem's latest benchmarks, hiring teams are conducting 42% more interviews per hire than in 2021 (20 vs. 14), contributing to a 24% increase in average time to hire (41 vs. 33 days).
Why the shift? With leaner teams and tighter budgets, organizations can't afford hiring misses. But it's not just about more interviews - it's about better ones. Through our advisory and training engagements, we’re seeing teams focusing on:
Implementing structured, consistent interview processes with clear evaluation criteria
Investing heavily in interviewer enablement and training
Using quality of hire surveys to track hiring effectiveness
Building feedback loops between interview assessments and post-hire outcomes
The focus on quality comes at an interesting time, as application volumes have surged. Ashby's data shows a 207% increase in applications for business roles and 161% for technical roles since 2021. This combination of higher volume and higher scrutiny puts immense pressure on recruiting teams.
2. AI-Enabled Efficiency Becomes Non-Negotiable
That pressure is reflected in workload metrics. The average recruiter now manages:
56% more open reqs (14 vs. 9 in 2021)
2.7× more applications to screen
More complex hiring processes with additional interview rounds
To handle this increased load, teams are turning to AI and automation - not to replace human judgment, but to enhance it. The key is identifying where technology can drive the most impact. These recruiting use cases will expand as technology improvements, but we’re seeing these be the early areas of opportunity:
Application screening and filtering (especially valuable as inbound volume has tripled)
Basic interview scheduling (Direct booking links get 72% of interviews scheduled within 24 hours)
Job description creation and optimization
Initial candidate communications
Database maintenance and talent rediscovery
3. Humanizing the Process to Differentiate
Even as automation increases, leading organizations are doubling down on human connection at key moments. The most successful teams are strategically allocating their human touch:
Role Design & Strategy
Partnering with hiring managers on ideal profiles
Aligning on assessment criteria
Setting hiring team expectations
Candidate Discovery
Understanding motivations
Selling culture and opportunities
Building authentic connections
High-Stakes Moments
Offer strategy and negotiations
Executive stakeholder management
Complex hiring decisions
The remaining time that consists of more tactical work is ripe to be enhanced or automated through technology, freeing up recruiters to focus on these critical human touchpoints.
4. Building Resilient Team Structures
The days of static recruiting team structures are over. Modern talent organizations need to flex and adapt quickly as hiring demands shift. We're seeing several models emerge:
Leaner Adaptable Teams
Recruiting teams are 20% smaller than 2021 levels
Shift away from dedicated sourcing support to full-cycle recruiters
RC:Recruiter ratios dropping from 1:4 to 1:5+
Mix of embedded full-time and flexible fractional recruiting support
Shared services for administrative tasks
Enhanced collaboration with hiring managers with increased emphasis on consultative partnerships with hiring teams
Tech-enabled Teams
Enhanced operations layer to maximize opportunity for automation and workflows
Partnering with IT and L&D teams to invest in upskilling teams to be capable of building and optimizing their own tools
Investments into exploring improvements to recruiter and interviewing productivity
What This Means For Your Team: Hiring is on the Rebound
As you plan for 2025, consider:
How can you strengthen your quality signals while maintaining hiring velocity?
Where could automation create capacity for higher-value activities?
Which moments in your process most need the human touch?
Is your team structure optimized for both efficiency and adaptability?
The organizations that will win in 2025 are those that can balance quality and speed, leverage technology thoughtfully, and preserve meaningful human connections throughout the hiring process. One of our founding partners joined a recent Gem webinar to talk through more of these themes.
We'd love to hear your thoughts. How is your team approaching these priorities? What challenges are you facing? Share your experiences with us!
—
Mike, Adam, & Jill
🗓️ Upcoming Events:
Training Course: Influencing with data (February 4th & 6th, 9-11am PT)
We have a few spots left in our popular Influencing with Data course starting next week!
TRANSFORM: GBD will be at Transform, will YOU? Let us know here.
🚀 January leadership moves in the market:
Lauren Hoe, former Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition & Onboarding at ThalamusGME, joined Descript as Senior Manager, TA.
Hyla Wallis, former Head of Talent at Checkr, joined Crusoe as Senior Manager, People Operations & Insights.
Michelle Meyers joined dbt labs as Senior Manager, Global GTM Talent Acquisition
Mark Alkhazov, former VP, Global Talent at Zscaler, joined Axonius as Global Head of TA.
Glenn Lindley, former Senior Director of Talent Acquisition at PubMatic, joined Highlevel as Director of Talent Acquisition.
Jaimee Finnigsmier, former Talent Acquisition Leader at Pinterest, joined Fetch as Director of Technical Recruiting.
Mike LaPorte, former Senior Director, Talent Acquisition at Activision Blizzard, joined ROLLER as Head of Global Talent Acquisition.
McElla Pappas Weber, former Director of Talent at Human Capital, joined Invert as Head of Talent Management.
Rob Hill, former VP, Talent at Index Ventures, joined Fonoa as Head of Talent Acquisition
Lindsey Keller joined Kleiner Perkins as Director, GTM Talent.
Llanée Anderson, former Technical Recruiting Manager at Pinterest, joined Reddit to lead Ads Monetization Recruiting.
Kylin Ellison, former Talent Consultant at Lydian, joined Quilt as Head of People.
Owen Buckley, former Director at Riviera Partners, joined Qurated Network as Partner.
Valerie Vadala, former Head of Talent Acquisition at Shutterstock, joined HUMAN as Vice President of Talent Acquisition.
Jaclyn Mack, former VP of People at Chainanalysis, joined Merge and VP, People and Talent.
Dwayne Nonales, former talent at Traba, joined the talent team at Anterior.
Eleanore J., former Recruiter at Freed, joined the talent team at Anterior.
Christopher Strazzella, former Managing Director, Global Head of Technology Recruiting, joined FIS as SVP, Global Head of Talent Acquisition & Executive Search.
Jaclyn Barry, former Talent Partner at QUAD, joined Sallie Mae as Talent Acquisition Manager.
Alissa Danaher, former Executive - Global Talent Acquisition, joined Epsilon as SVP, Global Talent Acquisition.
Carl Benning, former Director, Global Talent Acquisition at Chainalysis, joined Block as Senior Director, Global Talent Acquisition.
Natalie Stern, former Director of Talent Acquisition - GTM | Engineering | G&A, joined Roblox as an Executive Recruiter.
Elise Carstensen, former Talent at Resolve AI, joined Microsoft as Talent Acquisition Director.
Devin Schroeder, former Head of Business Recruiting & Leadership Recruiting at Discord, joined Zūm as Lead, Talent Acquisition.
Lars Schmidt, Founder & CEO of Amplify Talent, joined Agrovision as Head of Talent (interim).
Luke Eaton, former Consulting Specialist - Talent Technology at RoundOne AI, joined Matter Labs as Head of Talent Acquisition.
Mike Rubino, former Head of Talent at Chef Robotics, joined Promise as Head of Talent.
Mimi Han, former Talent Acquisition Senior Manager, Sourcing at Rivian, joined Databricks as Manager, Talent Acquisition (Sourcing).
Tom Brouchoud, former Talent Acquisition Consultant, joined Xero as Global Talent Partner.
Did we miss your career change? Let us know: hello@gbdtalent.com
📖 What We’re Reading & Listening to:
If Hiring Isn’t Uncomfortable, You’re Missing Out on Great People - Leslie Crowe, Bain Capital Ventures
The State of Culture and Inclusion: 2024 Trends and a Look Ahead at 2025 - Paradigm
How to Increase Your Luck Surface Area (Ultimate Guide) - Sam Matla
Recruiters at a crossroads: How AI may reshape talent acquisition, and who gets left behind - Dali Chabaane
The future of AI in the workforce - Deloitte
85 Problems with AI Recruitment today: A Principal Recruiter's Reality Check of Josh Bersin's AI Revolution - Andreea Lungulescu
Dropbox Engineering Career Framework - Dropbox
Generative AI Agents - Julia Wiesinger, Patrick Marlow & Vladimir Vuskovic.
Merit Cycles: A guide on best practices - Complete with participation from Gerald Lou & Frank Wagner
Scripts for difficult conversations: Giving hard feedback, navigating defensiveness, the three questions you should end every meeting with, more - Alisa Cohn (Executive Coach) on Lenny’s Podcast: Product | Growth | Career
Make your own Notion Face! - Notion
A free suite of copilots to help 10x the productivity of recruiting teams - Metaview
From Startup to Scale-Up: Cindy Nicola’s Playbook for Talent Acquisition Excellence - Art of Search Podcast
Red Chair Chats with Chancellor Woodson and Apple COO Jeff Williams
The Intelligence Imperative: How AI Went From Feature to Foundation - Tomasz Tunguz
Talent Tech Trends to Watch in 2025 - Jonathan Kestenbaum
Lennybot - Lenny Rachitsky
AI Will CHANGE Hiring, But How? + Lessons in Scaling a Company - Sherveen Mashayekhi
Joe Rogan Experience - Mark Zuckerberg - Powerful JRE
Satya Nadella | BG2 w/ Bill Gurley & Brad Gerstner - Bg2 Pod
📚 Playbooks:
Your Guide to Evaluating and Selecting an ATS: A guide with helpful process frameworks, and evaluation templates to help you make an informed decision about selecting the ATS that is the best fit for your company.
Navigating an IPO: A guide to help you navigate your team through the IPO process. It includes tools and tactics to prepare your team, proactively communicate to pending candidates, and evolve your recruiting operations to support the shift in business.