Best of 2025: Top Hiring Lessons for Leaders — And What’s Coming in 2026
If 2024 was a reset, 2025 was the acceleration.
Not because the market sped up for everyone, but because the companies that were serious about growth stopped waiting for the economy to “stabilize” and started hiring strategically.
That shift showed up everywhere we operate in the U.S. middle-market private company space. Contrary to popular belief, hiring didn’t come to a halt this year — and it certainly won’t take a vacation during the holidays. In fact, many companies have doubled down in November to secure talent ahead of Q1.
As one client put it: “We can’t afford to lose the first 90 days of the year because we were indecisive in Q4.”
Below are the top hiring lessons of 2025, based on hundreds of conversations with executives, candidates, and hiring teams, plus the emerging 2026 trends we’ll expand on in Ascentria’s upcoming January Compensation & Hiring Guide.
Top Hiring Lessons of 2025
1. Candidate experience is non-negotiable (and interviewing goes both ways).
Top talent is more selective than ever. They’re evaluating leadership, culture, communication, and how they’re treated throughout the process. Poor candidate experience now directly translates to poor employer branding and diminished hiring of A-Players.
And here’s the part many companies forget:
You cannot build a successful referral program if your candidate experience is terrible. No employee will send you their best and most qualified friend if they’re embarrassed by your process.
Leadership takeaway:
Candidate experience = employment brand experience.
Treat it like your most public-facing product, or be content with hiring B Players.
2. Skill-based and results-oriented — not pedigree or activity-based.
The traditional “blue-chip pedigree” mindset has officially aged out (read: the belief that only candidates from Top 10 B-Schools and name-brand companies are worth hiring).
Leaders are shifting toward:
Demonstrated results in similar cultures with similar dynamics (e.g., Private Equity-owned or Founder-led corporations)
Adaptive capability
Learning agility
Real-world problem-solving
This aligns with global data: the World Economic Forum notes that skills for nearly half of all roles will shift significantly by 2027 — meaning adaptability is now the premium skill.
Leadership takeaway:
Hire for outcomes and capability, not logo lists or activity masquerading as impact.
3. Hybrid/Flex Schedule is table stakes — and consistency is the real differentiator.
Both companies and candidates are sending mixed signals about hybrid work — and the fallout is predictable: confusion, distrust, and failed offers.
Here’s what 2025 made clear:
Remote roles still attract the most significant volume of top-tier applicants
Return-to-office (RTO) expectations are rising, especially in leadership, sales, and customer-facing roles
Changing your stance mid-search is guaranteed to cause candidate fall-off
Local candidates who can be on-site 3+ days/week often require a fair comparison to out-of-area remote talent (and some “in office” talent expects higher salaries to justify driving to the office)
Some roles benefit from 100% in-office time; others (Sales, Marketing, many Ops roles) simply don’t
Leadership takeaway:
Be clear. Be consistent.
Hybrid is the best approach, and align your RTO strategy with the actual value of being in the building.
4. Expect speed and rigor — hiring isn’t slowing down, and neither are expectations.
The myth of “holiday slowdown” persists every year, but in reality, many companies use Q4 to get ahead. Our clients in PE-owned and founder-led companies move faster, not slower, to secure talent and protect Q1 performance.
The biggest shift?
Leaders demanded both urgency and alignment.
A long interview loop is still a long interview loop — it just happens in November now.
Leadership takeaway:
Speed wins. So does clarity. You need both to compete.
5. AI + automation are tools — not replacements (especially for senior hires).
AI can improve and speed up recruiting efforts: sourcing, research, workflow automation, and scheduling. But candidates, especially senior ones, have made their preferences clear:
They want to talk to a human.
Not a chatbot.
Not a digital twin of their future boss.
Glassdoor’s latest analysis shows that employees in high-AI-exposure roles did not see meaningful increases in satisfaction, reinforcing that tech can support the work but not replace relationship-building.
Leadership takeaway:
AI should speed up the process, not substitute human judgment or connection.
6. Internal mobility & succession planning are still the most underused retention tools.
Companies that planned ahead kept their best people.
Companies that didn’t… hired them back later at a premium.
Organizations with clear internal mobility pathways see 2x higher retention and faster time-to-performance. This became a differentiator in 2025, and the companies that invested in succession planning this year stayed ahead. We also saw firsthand how valuable intentional succession planning has become in both PE environments and founder-led businesses.
Leadership takeaway:
Internal mobility is a competitive advantage, and so is grooming your next generation of leaders.
Emerging 2026 Talent Trends to Watch
A preview of what we’ll explore in-depth in our January 2026 Compensation & Hiring Guide.
1. The great “employee–leader disconnect” is widening.
Glassdoor’s 2026 Worklife Trends show huge increases in employee complaints around misalignment, lack of trust, and confusion about leadership decisions, especially on:
The value of AI
Expectations around being in-office
Communication transparency
Career pathing and development
What leaders need to know:
Your workforce wants visibility, consistency, and rationale.
Fail to provide it, and retention suffers.
2. Return-to-Office isn’t “slow-mo” anymore — it’s happening.
Hybrid remains strong, but more companies are formalizing return-to-office guidelines, especially for leadership, Sales, Business Development, and Operational roles.
There’s still nuance here:
Full-time in-office mandates are unpopular
Hybrid remains dominant
Remote roles continue to attract the deepest pool of talent
Travel-heavy roles (Sales, BD, some Marketing) remain exceptions
And shifting expectations mid-process still kills offers instantly
But the broader trend is undeniable:
More companies are bringing people back, more often.
Candidates know it. Leadership knows it. The market reflects it.
What leaders need to know:
RTO mandates are no longer theoretical, but they require definition and validation. Make it part of your EVP — not an afterthought.
3. The rise of Boomerang Hiring (and the return of formal alumni programs).
We are seeing a quiet but meaningful uptick in former employees returning to their previous companies — often at higher seniority levels.
This trend is strongest in:
High-growth private companies
Founder-led organizations
PE-owned businesses with evolving structures
Organizations improving their culture & clarity
What leaders need to know:
Your next high-impact hire might be someone who has already succeeded in your organization.
Hiring in 2026 Demands Clarity, Consistency & Capability
If 2025 taught us anything, it’s this: poorly aligned hiring is expensive.
The companies winning today are the ones who’ve doubled down on:
Speed + alignment
Candidate experience
Results-oriented talent selection
Clear hybrid/RTO expectations
AI that accelerates but doesn’t replace humanity
Internal mobility and succession planning
A strong alumni ecosystem
And the ones who will win in 2026 will be the leaders who close the gap between what employees feel and what leadership intends.
For deeper insights, including updated salary benchmarks for Sales, Marketing, Operations, HR, Accounting, Finance, and Leadership roles, our January 2026 Ascentria Compensation & Hiring Guide is coming soon.
Follow the Ascentria Search Partners LinkedIn Company Page to get the release announcement as soon as it drops.