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Each year, the CareerXroads (CXR) Community comes together to benchmark the state of recruiting across a wide range of industries and organizational sizes. Our latest benchmark format creates an interactive dashboard based on real responses from global employers and offers a pulse on what’s working, what’s improving, and what remains a challenge in today’s talent acquisition landscape.

While the full 2025 CXR Community Benchmark is reserved for members, there’s a lot we can share that gives meaningful insight into the evolving realities of recruiting without giving away the specifics that make this year's dataset so powerful. If you're wondering what recruiting teams are really doing across key areas like recruiter capacity, pipeline speed, internal mobility, automation, and quality of hire—this benchmark reflects what’s happening on the ground.

View the member-only report: 2025 CXR Community Benchmark

The Impact of Collective Insight

One thing becomes clear when reviewing this year’s data: talent acquisition leaders who operate within a connected, collaborative peer network often outperform broader market averages.

That’s not conjecture - it’s the quiet signal behind the numbers.

Our benchmark suggests that participating companies are achieving leaner time-to-fill and interview-to-hire ratios than what’s typically seen in public benchmarks. When you consider the shared practices, candid exchanges, and mutual accountability that define the CXR Community, the value of these relationships starts to show in the metrics.

Better outcomes often start with better conversations.

Themes That Emerged

While we won’t disclose exact figures to the public, here are the top themes and takeaways that came through loud and clear in this year’s results:

Recruiting Efficiency Remains a Strength

Organizations in the community are managing requisition loads, candidate pipelines, and offer processes with notable efficiency - particularly in FTE hiring. While hourly roles tend to move faster from interview to offer, FTE roles are catching up thanks to smarter scheduling, cleaner handoffs, and tighter interview cycles.

Offer Acceptance Rates Are Solid—but Speed Still Matters

Candidates continue to accept offers at healthy rates, especially for full-time positions. That said, the time candidates take to respond to offers is shorter than many realize. Delays - even small ones - can still cost companies great talent.

Internal Mobility and New Hire Retention Have Room to Grow

Most organizations report relatively low internal movement and moderate first-year attrition. While that might mirror market realities, it’s an area ripe for strategic focus. The opportunity? Turning retention and mobility into differentiators.

Quality of Hire: A Maturity Gap

Despite years of discussion, only a handful of companies report being "highly mature" in measuring quality of hire. Most are still in the early or moderate stages of formalizing these efforts. The message: we’re past the point where “we’ll get to it” is enough.

Automation Use Is Still Building

Despite the explosion of AI and automation tools on the market, only a subset of companies report being highly automated across hiring processes. Many are experimenting or selectively implementing tools like automated scheduling or screening—but full automation is far from mainstream.

Why This Benchmark Matters

At a time when recruiting leaders are being asked to do more with less, clarity matters. The CXR Benchmark doesn’t just help members compare their metrics - it helps them uncover patterns, validate instincts, and start better conversations with their teams and stakeholders.

Whether it's noticing that your interview-to-hire ratio is out of sync with peers, or realizing that your time-to-fill is much slower than it should be, this kind of insight can inform real change. It’s also the kind of data that doesn’t show up in generic whitepapers or paid research - it comes from real practitioners, contributing honestly, without the filter of sales or spin.

What’s Next?
This benchmark is one piece of a larger conversation happening across our member companies. Over the past year, CXR has hosted multiple research panels tackling topics like automation, employer brand, transparency in vendor relationships, and internal TA transformation. We’re rolling all of that into a comprehensive report - set to be released this fall at our annual Leadership Retreat in Park City, Utah.

A Quiet Advantage

If you’re outside the CXR Community, you won’t see the exact numbers but you’re seeing the signal. What happens when TA leaders regularly share what’s working, ask hard questions, and build trust across competitive lines? This benchmark is just one answer. Community doesn’t just feel good - it performs.

If you're a recruiting leader who values evidence-based practice, peer exchange, and raising the bar, there’s likely a spot for you here.

Ready to see what’s behind the numbers?
Explore what CXR membership looks like: Join the Community