Full version in the reportComparing the roles
HRD and Head of Recruiting: what is the difference
What business expects from HRD and from Head of Recruiting, how they are evaluated, who sets their tasks and what is changing.
Market research · October 2026
What business wants from HRD and Head of Recruiting
HRD is about money, HoR is about speed with fewer resources
In numbers
14
in-depth interviews
7/7
HRD and Head of Recruiting
≈70%
of companies are in cost-cutting or survival mode
70%
of respondents reported hiring fraud
This is the first page of a report based on 14 interviews with HRDs and Heads of Recruiting at IT/Tech companies. Only research participants receive the full report.
Look inside
A few pages of the full report
These are real pages of the report. The beginning of each is open; the rest is available to research participants.
Full version in the report
Full version in the reportChapter 1 of 14
Three types of companies: survival, status quo, gold mine
What happens to focus, team, hiring and HR in each type. Try to work out which type your company belongs to: it may determine what business will expect from HR in the coming year.
Full version in the reportTask tree
From money to the tasks of HRD and Head of Recruiting
How the overall goal (to make money: margin and profit, not revenue) breaks down into three tasks for HR: cheaper, more efficient, faster. And which tasks matter most in each type of company.
Full version in the reportA separate topic
AI in HR and recruiting: where it is used now
A map across all 14 interviews: which tasks AI already handles, where there are pilots, and where it was deliberately rejected, and why.
Full version in the reportChapter 12 of 14
Hiring fraud
70% of respondents said candidate fraud affects hiring. The full report covers how companies protect themselves: checks, investigations, dropping channels.
Full version in the reportChapter 14 of 14
Skills: what helps, what they have mastered, what comes next
What helps HRDs and Heads of Recruiting handle business tasks, what they had to master over the year and how they see their role in 1–2 years.
Beyond the 14 chapters, the report includes
Business task treeAI in HR and recruitingMethodologyWhat comes next
How to get the report
The full report is for research participants
This is NEWHR's own research, and we share the results with participants for free. The research continues: at least 20 interviews in November, and in December we are bringing in English-speaking leaders.
1
Submit a request
We will get in touch and agree on a time.
2
An interview of about 90 minutes
Business and hiring, your team, business expectations, difficult tasks, skills, AI, costs and budgets. All materials for participants are anonymized.
3
Get the full report
Plus the next waves of the research and a chance to suggest topics for new studies.
Who we are looking for. HRDs and Heads of Recruiting at IT/Tech companies with several hundred to several thousand employees who have been actively hiring in recent years.
Confidentiality. All materials for participants are anonymized. The exception is cases that a participant is willing to publish.
Questions: kira@new.hr · newhr.org