Published Research & Reports

Peer-Reviewed, Publication-Numbered Research

All CFRE reports are assigned a unique publication number and undergo multi-stage peer review before release. Reports are organized by practice area and publication date. All reports are freely available upon publication.

Each report is grounded in our proprietary 142-point Comprehensive Evaluation Framework and draws on primary research, stakeholder interviews, and quantitative performance data. Our editorial standards ensure that every published finding meets the same evidentiary threshold required of peer-reviewed academic research.

The Annual Recruiting Excellence Index

Since 2013, CFRE has published the Annual Recruiting Excellence Index, a comprehensive cross-industry ranking of executive search firms across all evaluated practice areas. The Index aggregates Comprehensive Evaluation Framework (CEF) scores and provides benchmark data for corporate talent acquisition leaders seeking to identify the highest-performing search partners.

The Index draws on data from every practice-area evaluation published during the preceding calendar year, synthesizing firm-level performance metrics into a single, standardized ranking. Categories include overall firm excellence, practice-area leadership, client satisfaction, candidate quality, and process transparency. The Index has become a widely referenced resource among Fortune 500 HR departments, institutional investors conducting due diligence on portfolio company talent strategies, and executive search firms themselves seeking competitive benchmarking.

Each edition of the Index undergoes the same multi-stage peer review process applied to all CFRE publications. Historical editions dating back to 2013 are available through the CFRE research archive.