Field notes on hiring people for frontline work.
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How Berkeley achieved 100% graduate retention by optimising their pre-hire assessment
Most hiring teams optimise for speed. Time to hire.Application conversion.Assessment completion rates.Offer acceptance. These metrics are easy to measure and easy to improve. They also tell us very little about whether hiring actually worked. The real test of hiring success happens months later, when new employees decide whether to stay. Across early careers hiring, this […]
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 […]
Steps in the candidate selection process: 4 examples you can use.
The modern candidate selection process is having an identity crisis. On one side, speed. Automation. One-click apply. AI screening. Funnels that look more like e-commerce checkout flows than human decisions. On the other, reality: real jobs, real people, and real consequences when a hire goes wrong. Hiring teams are under pressure to move faster than […]
Traditional vs Realistic Recruitment
Most hiring teams are under pressure to improve time-to-fill.That makes sense, open roles create real operational pain. But speed doesn’t tell you whether the person who accepted the role will still be there in three weeks. And when candidates aren’t a good fit, it shows through early attrition, retraining costs, frustrated managers, and leadership asking: […]
The Candidate Expectation Gap: Why Filtering Faster Is Not the Same as Hiring Better
Why Most Hiring Systems Measure the Wrong Things Modern hiring processes are built to move people through a funnel. Applications in. Screens out. Interviews. Offer. Start date. Most of the metrics that define success sit at the top of that funnel. Speed to hire. Time to shortlist. Cost per hire. Interview to offer ratio. Those […]
The 10 Best Recruiting Podcasts for 2026
Hiring is changing fast. AI, assessments, candidate expectations, tighter regulation, and constant pressure on time and quality mean recruiters need more than recycled tips and shiny tools. They need clear thinking, real-world insight, and perspectives that challenge how hiring actually works. Podcasts remain one of the best ways to stay sharp, especially for in-house recruiters […]
7 hiring mistakes that lead to the wrong sales hires
Over half of early sales attrition is driven by fixable hiring process issues. Most poor sales hires are not down to bad candidates. They are the predictable result of how the hiring process is designed, especially for entry level roles where speed and volume matter. Here are the seven mistakes we see most often and […]
What makes an assessment defensible at enterprise scale?
Assessments do real work. They help carry the heavy lifting of hiring decisions by supporting who progresses and who doesn’t. As hiring programmes grow in volume and complexity, those decisions must hold up across roles, regions, and scrutiny from multiple stakeholders. That’s why assessments sit at the intersection of: At that point, defensibility is about […]