KEY FINDING NO. 1
Most Utilized and Most Effective Recruiting Strategies
Social media tops the usage list when it comes to recruiting strategies, with more than half (55%) of organizations using it to connect with potential candidates over the past year. Many are also focusing on pay transparency by including salary ranges in job postings (46%), promoting their positive workplace culture (46%), boosting compensation (45%), and expanding advertising (39%).
The Most Effective Recruiting Strategies
Which three recruiting strategies have been the most effective for your organizaton?
61%
Offering more flexible work arrangements
16th most utilized strategy
61%
Improving compensation
4th most utilized strategy
49%
Streamlining the application process to make it easier for applicants to complete
6th most utilized strategy
48%
Voluntarily including pay ranges in our job postings
2nd most utilized strategy
Source: 2025 Talent Trends, SHRM, 2025.
N= 2,040
However, what HR professionals say are the most effective recruiting approaches involve addressing candidate priorities, with flexible work options and higher compensation tied at 61%. Streamlining application processes (49%) and sharing pay ranges upfront (48%) also demonstrated effectiveness to HR professionals, reinforcing the need to prioritize candidate-centric strategies over widespread promotional efforts.
What This Means for Your Organization
The “Top 7 Recruiting Strategies” chart highlights fluctuations in the frequency of strategy usage, with social media consistently maintaining its position as the most used method. However, despite its widespread adoption, social media is absent from the list of most effective recruitment strategies. This suggests that while social media continues to serve as a favored tool for many organizations, its actual impact on driving recruitment success may be limited, requiring a closer evaluation of its strategic value.
The consequences of not prioritizing candidate-first recruiting strategies often far outweigh the cost savings and operational simplicity of doing what is most convenient for the organization. A lack of focus on the candidate experience can ultimately lead to disengaged or frustrated applicants, which in turn lowers the chances of top talent choosing to join the organization. Candidates today expect clear communication, transparency, and respect throughout the hiring process. When those expectations aren’t met, the offer acceptance rate can plummet, leaving organizations with unfilled roles and extended time-to-hire metrics.
A truly modern recruitment strategy integrates both external engagement and substantive internal improvements. While a polished employer brand on social media and glowing employee testimonials can generate awareness, these efforts falter if the underlying policies do not support what candidates value most. Executives and department heads must be involved in crafting flexible work policies, redefining compensation bands to stay competitive, and approving budget allocations for technology that expedites hiring. Cross-functional collaboration between HR, finance, and operations teams is critical to establish compensation frameworks, design remote or hybrid work guidelines, and set realistic hiring timeline expectations. By aligning recruitment tactics with broader organizational policies rather than running broadcast-style campaigns in isolation, employers can deliver on the promises they make externally. In today’s candidate-driven market, the organizations that pair attention-grabbing outreach with genuine workplace enhancements will emerge as the most attractive destinations for skilled professionals.
Ultimately, while a lack of focus on candidate-first recruiting strategies may offer short-term conveniences, it jeopardizes long-term talent acquisition effectiveness. Organizations that fail to prioritize the candidate experience risk alienating the very talent they seek to attract, creating a cycle of missed opportunities and higher recruiting costs.
Comparison to 2024 Talent Trends
The most effective recruiting strategies in 2024 included:
- Improving compensation (56%, the second most utilized strategy in 2024)
- Offering more flexible work arrangements (54%, the 14th most utilized strategy in 2024)
- Providing monetary incentives to candidates (40%, the 12th most utilized strategy in 2024)
- Training existing employees to take on hard-to-fill positions (40%, the 10th most utilized strategy in 2024).
While organizations were not consistently prioritizing the most effective strategies last year, there has been some progress in aligning strategy use with effectiveness in 2025. However, flexible work arrangements remain an exception.
Despite being one of the top four most effective approaches in 2024, it was not among the top seven most utilized strategies last year and continues to be underused this year. This ongoing underutilization highlights a missed opportunity for organizations to leverage an effective strategy for improving recruitment outcomes.
KEY FINDING NO. 2
Building Talent from Within
Over a third of organizations (38%) are training existing employees to take on hard-to-fill roles. As a follow-up, we asked participants to describe how their organization is doing this, detailing any new, novel, or innovative policies or practices their organization has implemented. HR professionals shared a few examples below:
“Developing of in-house mentoring program, in-house data literacy program, holding technology and data ‘lunch-and-learns’ with internal demos, lectures, and external tech vendors.”
– VP in the Finance, Insurance, Information, and Real Estate Industry
“We rolled out a talent profile and future goals matching survey for all employees to begin matching career aspirations to future openings now.”
– C-suite officer in the Wholesale or Retail Trade, Transportation, and Warehousing Industry
“Hardest to fill is our more senior, manager-level hires. We think of these members of our team as coming up similar to a baseball farm system. We have a three-tier internal training program that follows employees through their time at our organization — the first four weeks is an intensive onboarding program; during the next one-to-four-plus years is ongoing soft and hard skills workshops, offered [approximately] eight times during a year; [then] an emerging manager program as they move into a management role. All three levels allow us to internally build our managers into the strongest, most skilled members of our team.”
– C-suite officer in the Government and Education Industry
What This Means for Your Organization
The solution for recruiting challenges might just come from within. Rather than relying solely on external hiring, organizations across industries are opting to equip their existing workforce with the skills needed to advance. This approach requires HR teams to collaborate across departments, design structured training initiatives, and personalize development paths that align employee goals with business needs. By prioritizing internal talent for opportunities, HR leaders can strengthen retention, bridge skill gaps, and build a pipeline of qualified candidates for hard-to-fill roles, all while fostering a stronger, more skilled workforce.
KEY FINDING NO. 3
Degrees Optional, Talent Essential
Spotlight on Eliminating College Degree Requirements
27%
of organizations have eliminated college degree requirements for certain positions as a recruitment strategy for their full-time positions.
76%
have successfully hired one or more candidates after eliminating college degree requirements for certain positions.
Source: 2025 Talent Trends, SHRM, 2025.
N= 2,040
Among organizations that have eliminated college degree requirements for certain positions (27% of organizations sampled), more than 3 in 4 of them (76%) indicated that their organization has successfully hired one or more candidates who would have previously been deemed unqualified for the position. The positions that organizations have removed degree requirements for were most commonly at the individual contributor level (92%) and the manager or supervisor level (53%).
What This Means for Your Organization
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 62% of Americans don’t have a bachelor’s degree, resulting in their disqualification from some employers’ talent pools due to educational requirements alone. To address this, organizations can benefit from conducting a thorough review of job descriptions and engaging with hiring managers to determine whether degree requirements are truly adding value to the open role. One effective method to facilitate this process is by conducting a job analysis. By systematically breaking a role down into its core KSAOs, employers can assess which qualifications are essential for success in the position. This method provides a clear framework for identifying whether advanced credentials, such as specific degrees or certifications, are necessary or if these requirements could be relaxed to attract a broader and equally skilled talent pool. Job analysis not only ensures alignment between role requirements and business needs but also helps create a more inclusive recruitment strategy, unlocking access to a wider range of capable candidates who might otherwise be overlooked.
Removing degree requirements can also play a vital role in reducing hiring biases. By focusing on candidates’ skills and experiences rather than formal education credentials, organizations can open doors to underrepresented groups who may not have had access to higher education due to systemic barriers. This shift in focus can encourage the hiring of candidates with nontraditional career paths or hands-on experience, addressing gaps in the talent pipeline while injecting fresh perspectives into the workforce. Additionally, it can help to close skills gaps by identifying and prioritizing practical abilities that directly contribute to job performance, ensuring that the right talent is hired based on competency rather than academic background alone. This approach not only strengthens organizational capability but also enhances equity and inclusion in recruitment strategies.
Among HR professionals who selected “eliminating college degree requirements” as a recruiting strategy:
- HR professionals in the hospitality, food, and leisure industry were significantly more likely than all other industries surveyed to utilize this recruiting strategy (38% versus 26%, respectively).
- HR professionals in the government and education industry were also significantly more likely than all other industries surveyed to utilize this recruiting strategy (31% versus 26%, respectively).
RECOMMENDATION
Implement New Strategies to Expand and Optimize Recruiting Efforts
Overcoming recruiting challenges requires HR professionals to rethink traditional hiring practices and focus on new solutions. By streamlining application processes, removing unnecessary degree requirements, and leveraging internal talent, organizations can broaden their candidate pool and fill critical positions efficiently.
- Simplify application processes for a better candidate experience.
- Review job listings to eliminate unnecessary degree requirements.
- Identify internal employees for upskilling into hard-to-fill roles.
Resources
SHRM Foundation
Center for a Skills First Future
TEMPLATE
Skills-First Job Description
ARTICLE