Consulting for the people who own hiring.

For the people accountable for hiring outcomes. We audit how hiring actually works in your business, then fix the parts costing you good people.

GoogleAmazonDisneyStarbucksPepsiCo

The problem is rarely the recruiters. It is the system they are working inside.

We work on the hiring system itself: the bar you hire against, the process your team runs, and how recruiting partners with the business. Every engagement opens with a diagnosis, not a proposal.

Find your service

Consulting that fixes the system, not just the symptoms

Every engagement starts with a diagnosis. Pick the problem you are trying to solve and we will show you where to start.

  • TA Strategy & Process

    Audit how hiring actually runs in your business, then redesign the parts costing you time and good candidates.

  • Hiring Bar & Bar Raisers

    Agree what good looks like, write it down, and build the people who hold the line when it matters.

  • TA Leader Coaching

    Private coaching for the person accountable for hiring, on the problems they cannot raise internally.

  • EVP & Employer Brand

    Work out why the people you want should join you, and say it in a way they actually believe.

  • Hiring Standards & Interview Guides

    The scorecards, guides and rubrics your interviewers will open, instead of the framework nobody reads.

Led by practitioners who have run talent teams

John shapes the approach. The people who deliver it have run talent functions at the kind of company you are trying to hire like.

  • Every engagement opens with a diagnosis of how your hiring actually works.
  • You leave with artefacts your team uses, not a deck they file.
  • We tell you straight when consulting is not the answer.

“What are we actually paying recruiters to do?”

John Vlastelica

John founded Recruiting Toolbox in 2005, after almost ten years leading corporate recruiting teams at companies including Amazon and Expedia. He co-created Amazon’s Bar Raiser programme, defined the Talent Advisor model much of the industry now works from, and is consistently one of the highest-rated speakers at LinkedIn Talent Connect. He was named a 2026 Talent 100 Honoree.

10,000+

Hiring managers trained

Across enterprise teams in more than 20 countries, from first-time interviewers to VPs.

20+ years

Years in the category

We ran talent functions at Amazon, Expedia and Starbucks before we started teaching this.

99%

Would recommend us

From post-programme surveys across more than 300 client engagements.

Teams who changed how they hire.

Bloomberg

He really understood our problems, culture, and opportunities, and made the content really relatable and actionable.

Recruiting Manager

The Gap

Best sourcing training I have had in my entire career.

Senior Recruiter

Illumina

I found a ton of value in every slide, every conversation, every tool shared.

Senior Recruiter

Amazon.com

Feedback was great, professional, entertaining, and respectful of their intelligence and time.

Recruiting Director

Slack

This has been one of the best trainings I have taken, after having worked 21 years in the industry.

Recruiting Director

Disney

Awesome content and applicability. I left with a toolkit to be a better leader.

Recruiting Manager

Starbucks

I can leave today and immediately implement these strategies and tools.

Tech Hiring Manager

Google X

Amazing. Worth every penny. Highly recommend.

Recruiting Leader

Nike

Engaging, credible expert who spoke our language. Extremely helpful to move this organization forward.

Recruiting Director

Start improving before you even talk to us.

Twenty years of playbooks, podcasts and interviews on hiring well. Start with whatever is breaking for you right now.

  • Talent Advisor

    What a talent advisor actually does differently

    Not confidence, not seniority. Four concrete behaviours that separate advisors from order takers, and how to build them.

  • Talent Advisor

    Why your hiring managers ignore the training

    John on the gap between running a session and changing what managers actually do in the room.

  • Talent Advisor

    The intake conversation that changes the hire

    Most briefs are accepted as written. A better intake asks what the role is for before it asks what it needs.

Find out if you qualify for a free strategy session.

Forty-five minutes with one of our consultants on what is actually breaking in your hiring. No pitch, and we will tell you if we are not the right answer.

For Director+ TA leaders with a team of 10 or more.

FAQs

The questions Heads of TA ask us before they commit. If yours is not here, ask us directly.

Most programmes run as a half day or full day in person, or two to three live virtual sessions. We recommend a shape once we have seen your interview loop.

Always. We start with a discovery call and build around your real roles, levels and hiring bar. Off the shelf is not what we do.

We cap most sessions at around 20 people so everyone can practise and get feedback. Larger groups run as multiple cohorts.

Yes. Bigger rollouts usually pair live sessions for managers with self paced online modules for everyone else.

It depends on format, group size and how much tailoring is involved. Tell us the shape you need and we will give you a number.

Contact us

Tell us what is not working in your hiring. If we are not the right answer we will say so, and point you at who is.