The Business Challenge
When Talent Acquisition underperforms, the business feels it.
Slow hiring, rising cost and mismatched talent are rarely isolated problems. They are signs that Talent Acquisition is not yet built to deliver predictably as the business grows.
We define success using the only three metrics that matter:
One Methodology
A practical system for building better Talent Acquisition.
We do not merely advise. We give teams a repeatable way to assess, plan, improve and measure Talent Acquisition themselves, over time.
Assess
Understand the current maturity of your Talent Acquisition function across people, process, technology, and sentiment.
Prioritise
Identify the gaps that most affect velocity, cost and quality, so you start where impact is highest.
Build
Turn priorities into practical improvement work: projects, ownership, milestones and better ways of working.
Improve
Track progress, learn what works and keep improving as business needs change.
Our Solutions
Build exactly what you need, where you need it.
Every tool, workshop and advisory offer applies the Recruiting Excellence Methodology to a specific Talent Acquisition challenge. Start by understanding where you are, build capability around a focused priority, or get support to transform the whole function.
Tools
Recruiting Excellence Hub
A practical platform built on the Recruiting Excellence Methodology. Assess your Talent Acquisition function, prioritize & scope the right improvement work,
and track progress across your teams.
Maturity Assessment
Measure the maturity of your TA function now for free and compare yourself across 21 components against a global benchmark. Get a full benchmark report instantly upon completion and see where you stack up.
Recruiting Excellence Hub
The Recruiting Excellence Hub gives TA leaders one system to see how Talent Acquisition performs, decide what to improve, organise the work, involve every team and prove progress to leadership.
Workshops
Business Assessment
Workshop
Turn your assessment results into prioritized projects, practical roadmaps, and a clear plan your team can start executing immediately.
Continuous Improvement Workshop
Learn a structured approach for continuously improving Talent Acquisition through practical roadmaps, governance, and measurable progress.
AI in Talent Acquisition Workshop
Understand AI fundamentals, build practical AI solutions, and learn to confidently evaluate & select AI vendors for Talent Acquisition.
Hiring Plan
Workshop
Build predictable hiring through structured hiring plans, recruiter capacity planning, and proactive talent delivery.
Hiring Process Design
Workshop
Build a structured, repeatable hiring process that balances speed, quality, and fairness across all roles.
Merit-Based Hiring
Workshop
Replace opinion-based hiring with a structured process based on skills, behaviors and future potential.
Sourcing Strategy
Workshop
Design proactive sourcing strategies aligned to hiring demand, talent scarcity, and business priorities.
Recruiting Excellence Metrics
Workshop
Ditch outdated metrics and measure true impact with Hiring Budget, Recruiting Velocity and Quality of Hire
Career Site Analytics
Workshop
Turn career site traffic into hires by tracking visitor behavior, drop-off points, and conversion performance.
Advisory & Transformation
Practical ideas, evidence and conversations for Talent Acquisition leaders building better hiring organisations.
Custom Transformation Package
Get expert support from start to finish. Assessment, strategy, design, and execution. Tailored to your challenges.
Operating Model Design
Design how people, process, and tech work together to deliver the right talent, on time, every time.
TA Leader Coaching
One-on-one coaching to strengthen your leadership, influence, and ability to drive real change in Talent Acquisition.
What people say about Recruiting Excellence.
Our clients share how working with us and the Recruiting Excellence principles helped them build TA functions that consistently deliver the right talent, exactly on time. From improving recruiting velocity to enabling teams to own continuous improvement.
Eric Houwen
Act Group
“Thanks to the Recruiting Excellence Business Assessment, we now know what to fix, what to stop, and what to double down on.”
Gemma Logan
Touchstone Advisory
Working with Tony and Marcel is inspiring. They bring sharp insight, genuine connection, and a relentless drive that elevates talent acquisition from transactional to transformational. Their energy and vision push everyone around them to think bigger, move faster, and hire smarter. Together, they set a new benchmark for what great talent leadership looks like.
Stan Wasowicz
Scotty Technologies
“You can’t skip straight to AI and expect better hires. The Recruiting Excellence Methodology forces precision; clear job intake meetings, scorecards, and structured interviewing. Transforming hiring from guesswork into a repeatable science. It’s the only way to prepare your team for meaningful AI integration.”
Recruiting Excellence Founders
The Recruiting Excellence Foundation and Methodology are built by two Talent Acquisition practitioners with
extensive recruitment knowledge & experience in larger corporates around the world.
Tony de Graaf
With decades of experience across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific, I’ve built and transformed high-performing Talent Acquisition teams for some of the world’s biggest companies.
I don’t just talk about Talent Acquisition – I build and implement the strategies that make hiring a competitive advantage.
Marcel Rütten
With over 15 years in HR, I have established myself as a Global TA Lead, HR blogger, podcaster, and author, contributing significantly to the evolution of recruiting, personal marketing, and employer branding in Germany.
I am passionate about transforming HR practices to create people-centric organizations supported by technology and data.
Learn with Recruiting Excellence.
Practical ideas, evidence and conversations for Talent Acquisition leaders building better hiring organisations.
Recruiting Excellence Podcast
Straight-talking conversations for Talent Acquisition leaders. Marcel and Tony unpack the methods, decisions and mistakes behind better hiring, so you can use the ideas in your own team and improve your TA function.
Practical TA Blog
Practical guides for solving real Talent Acquisition challenges: planning, sourcing, interview quality, metrics, technology and continuous improvement. Read an article, take what is useful and apply it in your team.
TA Benchmark 2026
See how Talent Acquisition teams perform across the capabilities that affect hiring speed, cost and quality. Use the 2026 benchmark to understand where the market is moving and identify what matters for your own function.
It’s Podcast Time
Listen now to the Recruiting Excellence Podcast
with your hosts Marcel und Tony
Welcome to Recruiting Excellence – the show where we turn Talent Acquisition into business impact.
Each episode we show you, how to hire the right talent, on time, every time!
Our partners
Experts who translate the Recruiting Excellence Methodology into action, guiding organizations in optimizing their Talent Acquisition strategy, systems, and performance.
Send us your message
Interested? Send us your request using the contact form. We will review your request and get back to you as soon as possible with further details and information about pricing and availability.
Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us at any time. We will take care of your request promptly and get back to you as soon as possible.
