Ask a recruiter how it’s going and you’ll probably hear some version of the same thing: buried. The calendar is a mess of reschedules, the inbox never empties and the actual reason they got into this work, connecting with people, keeps getting pushed to whenever there’s time. There rarely is. The whole job starts to feel reactive, spent answering the day instead of shaping it.
Greenhouse’s new report with Aptitude Research, The state of the recruiter experience, puts data behind this all-too-common feeling. 47% of recruiters describe their work as reactive and overloaded. 64% say leadership doesn’t fully understand the job. More than half spend at least half their time on work that doesn’t move hiring forward.
Thankfully, the report maps the way out of reactive mode, where recruiter time should actually go, what to hand to AI, (like busywork), and how the best teams are redesigning the role.
