A Guide to The Perfect Recruiting QBR
Four times a year, Talent Acquisition leaders have the stage in front of all executives to review the service of recruiting. A great performance separates great leaders from the mediocre. Below is an overview of how to apply the Unicorn Talent template to your business.
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What is a Recruiting QBR?
A Recruiting QBR is a chance for the TA Leader to tell the story of the recruiting service to an executive audience for the purpose of aligning to a singular goal, distributing accountability, and most importantly, getting these executives to support your vision & execution.
Check out this Opinion Piece on the Recruiting QBR
That said, there's an art to executive storytelling, and to use this template most effectively, you have to understand your audience. If the business is meeting goals because recruiting can't keep up with demand this is not the time to talk about small wins. Use this time to communicate the root cause of these issues, Support it with data, and give them a clear action plan where they can participate to add capacity, motivate their team, or deliver you resources to build capacity.
The 3 sections of the Recruiting QBR
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
Start with the big picture: did you meet headcount demand or not?
If yes, explain why it worked. Highlight strong performance, give credit to your recruiters and hiring teams, and make it easy for managers to recognize wins. Keep your praise objective and grounded in data—your time is limited, and execs will want to shift quickly into solving current problems. Your first slide should communicate the full story at a glance.
If no, be direct. The business needs to know what’s at risk and what you’re doing about it. Our template helps you break this down into four common root causes:
Was there a planning issue (e.g., late headcount approval, changed forecast)?
Was it a recruiter performance issue?
Was there a funnel volume or throughput problem?
Was it related to hiring manager capacity or behavior?
List missed critical roles clearly and state your plan to fill them. Think of this like a hierarchy of needs—executives won’t care about funnel conversion rates until they know someone’s accountable for the enterprise AE role that’s still sitting open.
RECRUITING PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
This section provides the detail behind the summary. Break your analysis into five key areas:
Demand vs. Capacity Summary – Did the team have enough recruiting capacity to meet hiring goals?
Funnel Performance – Did you generate enough volume and progress candidates fast enough through each stage?
Hiring Team Performance – Were hiring managers responsive and engaged in a way that enabled success?
Recruiting Team Performance – Did recruiters meet individual productivity targets?
Budget Performance – Was spending aligned with forecasted support needs?
The Unicorn Talent QBR uses a structured format: highlight the problem by comparing actuals to targets, provide context on what caused the gap, and outline a forward-looking plan to address it.
APPENDIX WITH SUPPORTING DATA
Sometimes, stakeholders want to go deeper. Be ready. A strong appendix gives you the flexibility to back up your claims with detailed metrics without cluttering your main narrative. Whether it’s funnel conversion rates, pass-through by department, or aging by role, use this section to build credibility and answer tough questions with confidence.
Mastering the Recruiting QBR
Quarterly Business Reviews are one of the few moments recruiting leaders have to directly shape executive perception and influence business decisions. Done well, they shift recruiting from a reactive function to a strategic partner. This template gives you the structure, clarity, and data you need to deliver a confident, executive-ready presentation—one that earns trust, drives alignment, and opens doors for more support. Don’t just report what happened—use your QBR to lead what happens next.
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