The Best Hiring Strategy Template for 2025

In this article we discuss:

• What Is a Strategic Hiring Plan?
• Trends Shaping Hiring Strategy in 2025
• Your 2025 Hiring Strategy Template

2025 has officially become an employer’s market again. Applications are outpacing hiring demand, according to the Workday Global Workforce Report, and competitive job markets like technology and communications are processing 30+ applications per posting. That means hiring decisions now have bigger, more direct implications for larger business performance.

In response, HR leaders are taking a step back to build something more strategic. They’re asking sharper questions about the capabilities they need, the skills they already have, and how to design hiring plans that can flex with the business.

HR leaders and hiring teams have the opportunity to develop intentional strategies and recruit talent that can position their companies to succeed for years in the future. What follows is a practical framework for building this type of plan; one that’s responsive, skill-centered, and designed to support adaptability as the business world evolves.

What Is a Strategic Hiring Plan?

A strategic hiring plan is a documented, forward-looking roadmap for building the type of workforce a business needs to achieve its most important goals. It connects talent decisions directly to business priorities by identifying role requirements, skill gaps, and how best to target high potential candidates, whether via new talent acquisition, upskilling, or leveraging internal talent. 

Instead of reacting to turnover or chasing headcount, the right hiring strategy plan enables organizations to move with purpose and stay ahead of change. A strong strategic hiring plan answers questions like:

• What are our most important business priorities in the next 6–12 months? 
• What are our longer term goals?
• What skills and capabilities do we need to support those short-term and long-term goals?
• What talent do we already have, and where are the gaps?
• Where can we tap into internal talent before hiring externally?
• How do we make hiring more agile, inclusive, and data-informed?

When done well, a strategic recruitment plan brings together people data, business strategy, and cross-functional input—from the C-suite, HR, finance, and operations—to guide smart and systematic hiring decisions.

Trends Shaping Hiring Strategy in 2025

The way we think about hiring is changing. Traditional practices like backfilling roles based on job titles or sticking to rigid org charts no longer cut it. Today’s most effective recruitment strategies are shaped by agility, insight, and a deeper understanding of how work actually gets done. These five trends are driving the future of hiring and should shape the way you build your strategic plan.

Trend 1: Skills Over Static Roles

Job titles are losing ground to skills. Businesses need capabilities that match their goals, not just a resume that ticks the right boxes. HR professionals agree—the Workday Global State of Skills Report found 86% are comfortable hiring candidates based on their skills profiles.

Skills-based hiring gives teams more flexibility to adapt, restructure, and innovate over time by reorganizing work according to what teams can do, not what job titles suggest. It also opens doors to a broader and more diverse pool of candidates who may not have traditional credentials but bring significant value.

Trend 2: Internal Mobility as a First Option

Filling roles from within isn’t just good for morale—it’s good business. It saves time and cost, accelerates onboarding, and strengthens institutional knowledge. Workday research found 67% of HR leaders say internal mobility has had a positive impact on their organization and that internal hires are 80% more likely to be rated as top performers. This has huge implications for accelerating areas like innovation and growth. 

To promote and execute internal mobility, organizations need visibility into the skills of their current workforce and a culture that encourages movement, development, and trust in talent already on the team.

Trend 3: AI-Powered Recruiting

AI in HR is helping recruiters and hiring managers move faster and smarter. From surfacing best-fit candidates to automating early-stage screening, AI can reduce time-to-hire and eliminate bias in the recruiting process. When paired with human insight, it creates a more streamlined, personalized experience for candidates and hiring teams.

More than half (54%) of AI pioneers in HR told Workday they believe it’s helping their HR teams deliver greater strategic value, with key areas like performance management, skills management, and talent recruitment as high areas of impact.

Trend 4: Adaptive Team Design

Rigid roles don’t reflect how work gets done anymore. As priorities shift, teams need to reconfigure quickly, without rewriting org charts every time. That’s why more organizations are designing roles around the work itself, not just traditional job functions.

For hiring, this means rethinking how roles are defined and scoped. Instead of posting a backfill for a departed employee, leaders are asking: “What does this team need to deliver right now?” That can lead to hybrid roles, shorter-term assignments, or hires with a broader skill base who can flex across functions.

Trend 5: Real-Time Workforce Insights

Workforce planning with outdated data leads to missed opportunities. Today’s hiring strategies depend on access to current, unified information about people, performance, and business needs. Real-time insights help teams make better decisions, from workforce management to budget alignment to candidate prioritization and more.

Your 2025 Hiring Strategy Template

Now it’s time to put strategy into action. This section serves as your step-by-step hiring strategy template, structured around six essential building blocks. Each one plays a specific role in shaping a plan that’s flexible, skills-first, and aligned to your business goals.

Use each of the sections below to define your approach and document the decisions that will guide your hiring planning process. Whether you're planning for the year ahead or recalibrating mid-cycle, these components will help you build with clarity and consistency.

    1. Business Goals

Start your hiring strategy by anchoring it to the outcomes your business is trying to achieve. Clear goals help you prioritize what roles matter most and align talent planning with growth.

• What are the top three business objectives for the next 6–12 months?
• Which roles or teams are directly tied to those goals?
• How will hiring help accelerate or support each one?

Effective hiring starts with alignment. A well-defined connection between business goals and top talent priorities helps avoid reactive decisions and brings focus to where and how growth happens. This step shapes the “why” behind every role you plan to fill.

    2. Talent Inventory and Gap Analysis

Once goals are clear, assess where you stand today. This step helps you map the skills you already have and where you’ll need to close gaps.

• What capabilities currently exist across your teams?
• Where do you have gaps that could slow down execution?
• Are there hidden strengths you’re not yet tapping into?

Think of this as your skills baseline. It doesn’t need to be exhaustive, but it should highlight what’s working, what’s missing, and what’s possible with development. An honest inventory gives your strategy flexibility and helps avoid over-hiring when upskilling or internal shifts could close the gap.

    3. Internal Mobility Strategy

Promoting from within supports both performance and retention. A clear internal mobility strategy helps turn your workforce into your best talent pipeline.

• Which roles are strong candidates for internal promotion or movement?
• How do employees find and express interest in open roles?
• What’s the manager’s role in supporting mobility?

A strong internal mobility plan ensures employees can see, pursue, and prepare for new opportunities inside the organization. Start with transparency: make it easy to find and apply for open roles. Then focus on enablement, or how leaders can identify talent early, advocate for movement, and coordinate across teams.

    4. Sourcing Strategy

Not all roles require the same approach. This section outlines where and how you’ll find the right people, from high-volume hiring to niche searches.

• Which roles require external sourcing and through what channels?
• Where have your best hires come from in the past?
• How will you build long-term talent pipelines, not just fill reqs?

Effective sourcing strategies often include a mix of evergreen pipelines, employee referral programs, and targeted outreach across job boards and platforms like LinkedIn. Consider proactive sourcing for critical or hard-to-fill roles, and revisit past candidate pools before starting from scratch. 

Employer brand matters here, too. Be sure your outreach reflects who you are and why candidates should care. Consider what values are indicated by your social media presence—and update job descriptions to reflect a consistent tone of voice.

    5. Technology and AI

The right tools can enable more effective talent acquisition without losing the human touch. This step is your plan for using tech to amplify—not replace—smart hiring with AI-powered hiring tools.

• Where can automation simplify manual steps?
• How will AI support better decision-making?
• What tools integrate well with your current applicant tracking system?

Look for tools that support the full hiring lifecycle, from candidate discovery to offer acceptance. AI can help prioritize best-fit profiles, automate scheduling, and surface insights across large talent pools. More recently, AI agents have even autonomously taken on processes such as workforce monitoring so teams can stay focused on engaging candidates and employees.

But human judgment still plays a central role. Choose tech that augments your team’s capabilities and keeps the process personalized and fair.

    6. Metrics and Measurement

A strategic plan is only as strong as your ability to track its impact. This step keeps your hiring outcomes visible and actionable.

• What metrics reflect both speed and quality?
• How often will you review and recalibrate your strategy?
• What does success look like six months—or a year—from now?

Strong measurement starts with selecting KPIs that reflect both efficiency and effectiveness, like time-to-fill, quality of hire, and retention. But don’t stop at metrics. Build routines around reviewing what’s working, where friction exists, and how to adapt as goals shift. This is how you make hiring smarter over time.

Activate Your 2025 Hiring Strategy

A hiring strategy delivers value when it shapes decisions, clarifies priorities, and improves execution. That only happens when it’s treated as a working part of the business, not a standalone document.

The approach outlined here enables your organization to plan systematically, hire with purpose, and connect talent decisions to business outcomes. It helps teams stay focused on what matters—capabilities, timing, and fit—while reducing guesswork and rework.

A well-activated strategy brings consistency to how roles are scoped, how candidates are evaluated, and how hiring impacts are measured. It turns hiring into a steady lever for meeting goals and driving growth.

Seventy-five percent of industries are showing an increase in high‑potential voluntary turnover—but what does that mean for business leaders? Learn more in this Workday report.