Why TA leaders read this report
Because you need clarity, not more noise.
This report helps TA leaders and CHROs answer the questions leadership actually cares about:
- Why does TA feel busy, but delivery still feels reactive
- What should we fix first to improve predictability and decision quality
- Why do improvements not stick, and what operating discipline is missing to make progress compound quarter after quarter
- What will separate winning TA teams from 2026 to 2030
If you want TA to be trusted as a performance function, this report gives you the benchmark and the priority order to lead that shift.
Insights You Can Act On
Take the Recruiting Excellence Business Assessment for free and get your results instantly. You will receive your own report and see exactly how your TA function compares to the global benchmark from this study.
What you get immediately:
- Benchmark your team against the global dataset and spot your biggest gaps in minutes
- See exactly what to fix first to move from reactive delivery to predictable hiring
- Know how to build a business case, secure budget, and run improvement like a real project
Not ready for the full assessment yet?
Start with the 2-minute mini version to experience the format and get a result for one component. If it feels useful, you can continue and take the full assessment to get your complete maturity baseline across all 21 components.
Want to know where you stand?
Get your 2026 TA benchmark today.
Review Your Maturity Level
After our business assessment you can analyze your maturity directly.
Recruiting Excellence Methodology
The Business Assessment is grounded in the Recruiting Excellence Methodology: a standardized model to assess and build high-performing TA functions. It measures maturity in a way that is comparable, practical, and designed for continuous improvement.
It scores maturity through four lenses:
- People: capability, roles, and operating discipline
- Process: consistency and quality of execution end-to-end
- Technology: tools that enable scale, control, and automation
- Sentiment: adoption, trust, and day-to-day experience
This creates a clear baseline and a shared language to improve your TA function quarter after quarter.
This refers to the individuals responsible for executing, managing, and supporting the Talent Acquisition function. It includes recruiters, hiring managers, team leaders, and other key stakeholders who influence or directly participate in Talent Acquisition activities.
This represents the structured workflows, activities, and practices that guide the recruitment process from start to finish. And the strength of the process determines the predictability, transparency, and reliability of the recruitment function.
This encompasses the tools, platforms, and systems used to support and enhance recruitment processes and decision-making. Technology determines how easy it is for the people to follow the designed processes.
Understand how each element is perceived in daily practice and identify where friction or frustration exists in People, Process or Technology that may block effectiveness.
Optional: Team benchmark & workshop
For organisations ready to move from reactive hiring to predictable performance, with a clear baseline, leadership alignment, and a repeatable method to improve.
Run the assessment across your TA organisation and receive one consolidated report that shows maturity by team, location, or recruiting area.
See where performance differs across your organisation and pinpoint which gaps are systemic vs. isolated, side-by-side and in plain language.
See how your TA maturity stacks up against the global dataset, so leaders understand whether your capability is below market, at market, or ahead of the curve.
A structured session with your entire TA team to translate results into a clear fix order, ownership, and next steps your stakeholders can support.
Install a continuous improvement model that helps you prioritise, scope, and run improvement work quarter over quarter using the Recruiting Excellence assets.
Turn priorities into a quarterly roadmap with measurable outcomes, so you can track adoption and impact ,and build leadership confidence over time.
Talk to us about the workshop
Interested in running the team benchmark and converting results into a quarterly improvement roadmap? Drop your details and we’ll follow up.
Who we are
Talent Acquisition practitioners with an extensive recruitment knowledge 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.