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2026 Pre-Hire Assessment Spend: The Data Breakdown
Companies are investing heavily in evaluating candidates before they even make an offer. But exactly how much are they spending, and where are those budgets going? If you want to understand the modern hiring landscape, you need to look at the numbers. At ThriveMap, we recently surveyed 200 talent acquisition leaders to uncover exactly how […]
AI is “breaking” online assessments? Not quite.
There’s a narrative building in hiring circles right now: AI means candidates can cheat on assessments. Take a photo, upload it to ChatGPT, get the perfect answer. Therefore, online assessments are broken. It sounds urgent. It’s also not really true. Candidates have always been able to cheat. They could ask a friend to sit the […]
AI Screening Bias Problem: Why Fairer Hiring Still Fails
Why “Fairer” Hiring Still Fails to Deliver Better Outcomes There’s a growing belief in hiring: ? AI will solve bias. And on the surface, that’s happening. AI screening tools can: Compared to manual CV screening, that’s a clear step forward. But focusing only on bias misses a bigger issue. ? Because even if hiring becomes […]
Why Not All Realistic Job Assessments Are Equal
You set up a realistic job assessment for your latest open role. Candidates log in, answer a few scenario-based questions, and receive a score. You get a neat dashboard showing who performed best. The process feels efficient. But are you actually evaluating if the candidate fits the reality of the job, or are you just […]
Work sample assessments: why they outperform traditional hiring methods
Most hiring assessments try to predict performance. Work sample assessments don’t predict it.They observe it directly. And the data is increasingly clear: candidates trust them more, see them as fairer, and perform better when they’re used properly. What is a work sample assessment? A work sample assessment is a hiring method where candidates complete tasks […]
50 AI hiring Stats for 2026: How Candidates are Really Using It
Candidates are embracing AI on their side of the hiring process. But when employers use it to screen and select talent? Confidence drops fast. Here’s 50 AI Hiring stats from our State of Assessment Market Report 2026. The survey data is from 1,000 UK workers. 1. AI in applications is real, but still not mainstream […]
Pre-hire assessment completion rates & candidate drop-off by industry
What 200,000+ candidate journeys reveal about how hiring performance changes across sectors Why do candidates complete nearly every assessment in some industries — but never even start them in others? At first glance, the explanation seems obvious. Different sectors have different candidates, different expectations, or different hiring challenges. But analysis of more than 200,000 pre-hire […]
AI Detection: A Small Feature That Solves a Growing Problem in Hiring
One of the biggest shifts in hiring over the past year hasn’t been a new tool, it’s been behaviour. Candidates are increasingly using AI to help them prepare, practise, and sometimes even complete pre-hire assessments. It’s understandable. The tools are accessible, the pressure to perform is high, and the line between “preparation” and “assistance” is […]