Recruiting Benchmarks: Budgets, Early Offers for Internships, and Retention of College Grads

September 9, 2024 | By Kevin Gray

Benchmarks

TAGS: benchmarks, budget, Internships, nace insights, retention, surveys, trends and predictions,

Updated benchmarks—gathered in concert with compensation data for NACE’s 2024 Recruiting Compensation Report—provide insight into the operations and approaches of URR functions. Data from the survey show that:

Recruiting budgets are stable—The median recruiting budget in 2024 was $114,000 annually. As compared to 2023, half of organizations reported that their recruiting budget has remained the same, one-third reported an increase in recruiting budgets, and slightly under 20% reported that their budgets have decreased. (See Figures 1 and 2.)
Early offers for internships are not standard practice—On average, respondents reported 10% of their internship offers were made more than 12 months in advance of the internship program start date. This is slightly higher than the rate reported in the 2023 Recruiting Benchmarks Report—7.3%.
Retention is strong among college graduate hires—More than eight in 10 college graduates who were hired in 2023 are still with the organization in 2024; more than three-quarters of college graduates hired in 2022 are still employed with the same organization. (See Figure 3.)

The 2024 Recruiting Compensation Report is an analysis of data collected through a survey conducted April 10 through May 17, 2024. The survey was distributed to 878 employer organizations that hold membership in NACE; 194 provided responses, for a 22.1% response rate. In addition, 41 nonmember organizations took part. The 2024 Recruiting Compensation Report & Dashboard provide the latest salary and benefits information for five core recruiting-related positions. The report also features current benchmark data for the recruiting budget; entry-level hire cohort; cycle time; offer, acceptance, and renege rates; and college graduate retention. Participants can access the report and dashboard through MyNACE. The report and dashboard are also available through the NACE store.