Skills assessment ROI is the financial return a company gets from using pre employment testing, measured against what it costs to run the assessments. In practice that return comes from four places: fewer bad hires, faster time to hire, lower turnover, and quicker time to productivity. A talent leader who wants budget for assessment software […]
A boomerang employee is a former employee, including someone your company laid off, who comes back to work for you again later. In 2026, boomerang hiring is no longer a rare exception or an awkward favor. According to ADP Research’s analysis of payroll data, boomerang employees made up 35 percent of all new hires in […]
Worker misclassification happens when a company treats someone who legally functions as an employee as an independent contractor instead (or, less commonly, the reverse), and it is one of the most expensive mistakes a hiring team can make without realizing it. The label on the offer letter or the 1099 versus W2 form filed at […]
A realistic job preview is a hiring practice that shows candidates both the good and the difficult parts of a job before they accept an offer, using tools like job shadowing, video walkthroughs, sample work tasks, or candid conversations with current employees about what the role actually involves day to day. The goal is not […]
Skills based pay is a compensation approach that ties an employee’s earnings to the specific, verified skills they hold and use on the job, rather than to their job title, level, or years of tenure. Instead of two “Senior Analyst” roles automatically earning the same salary band, a skills based system pays each person according […]
A counteroffer happens when a candidate accepts or signs a job offer, then their current employer responds with a better deal, usually more money, a promotion, or a retention package, and the candidate withdraws to stay put. Staffing and recruiting firms tracking 2026 hiring data describe counteroffers as one of the fastest growing reasons a […]
Return to office mandates are measurably lowering candidate acceptance rates in 2026, particularly for senior and highly skilled roles, according to a growing body of labor research. Companies enforcing strict in office schedules are seeing smaller applicant pools, more late stage offer declines, and higher early attrition among the very candidates they most need to […]
AI resume fraud is the practice of candidates using generative AI tools like ChatGPT to invent, inflate, or heavily embellish work experience, job titles, projects, and skills on a resume, specifically to slip past applicant tracking system keyword filters and impress a human reviewer. It is a resume and application stage problem, distinct from a […]
AI reference checking uses software, not a recruiter’s personal phone calls, to reach a candidate’s former managers or colleagues, collect their feedback through a structured digital survey or a conversational voice or chat interface, and analyze the responses for consistency and red flags. Done well, it does not just digitize the old “would rehire, yes […]
Thirty eight percent of US job candidates say they have already withdrawn from a hiring process specifically because it involved an AI led interview, according to Greenhouse’s 2026 Candidate AI Interview Report, a survey of 2,950 active job seekers across the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, and Australia published in May 2026. Another 12% said they […]
Remote IT worker fraud is a scheme in which someone other than the person a company believes it hired performs the job, typically using a stolen or fabricated identity, a facilitator based in the country where the job is located, and a “laptop farm” that makes the worker appear to be logging in from inside […]
A ghost job is a job posting for a role that the company is not actively trying to fill, whether because the position is already spoken for internally, the budget has quietly frozen, or the listing was never meant to close. In 2026, a Clarify Capital analysis of more than 175,000 US job listings found […]
