Research Library

Using the Research Library

The research below is drawn from more than five years of industry studies, practitioner interviews, and deep analysis of the most important topics facing talent leaders today.

Feel free to use the categories below to find what you are looking for, or you can search for content that matters most to you.

Insightful Highlights

Zapier's Head of Onboarding: "We automated hundreds of hours of manual tasks"

Research Reports and Graphics

How Learning and Skill Development Affect Business Agility, Employee Belonging, and Productivity [Report]

There’s an old proverb that essentially states “the shoemaker’s children have no shoes.” The more modern version is “the cobbler’s children have no shoes,” even though handmade shoes are mostly a lost art. However, the metaphor still has a profound message. Where we have expertise, we often use that expertise for the benefit of others,…

Performance Management is Out: Performance Enablement is In

In the realm of organizational success, the approach to enhancing employee performance is undergoing a significant transformation. Gone are the days when traditional performance management methods—marked by goal-setting, monitoring, and reviewing—were the norms. These outdated practices, often criticized for their ineffectiveness and tendency to induce stress, are making way for a more dynamic and supportive…

Ghosting isn’t Unsolvable [Infographic]

The phenomenon of candidate ghosting, where candidates suddenly cease communication with potential employers, has become an increasing concern in the hiring landscape. This trend manifests in various forms, including candidates who apply and never respond to outreach, individuals who participate in interviews but vanish without feedback and even new hires who fail to show up…

The Powerful Intersection of Performance, Development, and Recognition [Infographic]

The confluence of employee performance, development, and recognition within an organization holds transformative power as a cornerstone for fostering an invigorating and productive workplace atmosphere. When these elements are effectively integrated and supported, they enhance individual engagement and satisfaction and propel the organization’s collective success forward. Conversely, lacking adequate support in these areas can lead…

Creating a Positive Data-Driven Employee Experience [Infographic]

Crafting a top-notch employee experience is all about creating a workplace where everyone feels engaged, processes run smoothly, and the overall culture adds value. The secret? Using the right data at the right times. This approach transforms the day-to-day for employees, aligning their personal journey with the company’s goals. And here’s something interesting in our…

Quality of Hire is Critical: How to Make it Count

Recently there’s been a considerable amount of discussion on LinkedIn about this concept called “talent density.” Essentially it means that employers have to ensure that they have a high-quality workforce (a high concentration, or density, of top performers). In my opinion it’s just another name for quality of hire, the top metric that talent acquisition…

2024 Talent Acquisition Trends: What’s New and What’s Next [Report]

Every year I look forward to our team’s survey and analysis of the talent acquisition market, because it’s a space that moves quickly and has a tremendous amount of innovation both in the technologies as well as the practices that employers use to create successful outcomes. This year’s report is no exception, highlighting what is…

6+ Generative AI Applications in Talent Acquisition Today [Infographic]

Generative AI. It’s the topic in what seems like every conference agenda, presentation, and headline today. But so much of it is focused on things like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini (formerly Google Bard). However, there are a few “flavors” of generative AI being used by talent acquisition and HR teams today: Off-the-shelf public systems like…

4 Research-Backed Actions to Engage and Convert More Candidates

The data points are clear: candidate expectations today have evolved, and if you’re not staying on top of those changes, you may be missing out on the very best talent in the market. Based on our proprietary research from more than 2,500 candidates in the last two years, here are four practical things you can…

RPO Buyer Study: Key Findings and Preferences [New Research]

Each year we partner with the RPO Association to produce a research study to examine and understand how the recruitment process outsourcing market is changing, what buyers expect, and the realities of the current landscape. Our latest report was recently released featuring findings from more than 500 RPO buyers, and it’s currently available at no…

Case Studies

Case Study Report: The Value of Company Culture in the Age of AI

By Ben Eubanks

In a world where technology reigns supreme, we must not forget the heart of our organizations—the culture. The beating heart of company culture guides our values, beliefs, and actions towards a higher purpose. Fulfillment, communication, trust, and diversity form the cornerstones of a transformative culture that fuels growth and fulfillment in the workplace. By championing…

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Trusaic 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company Trusaic is a workplace equity technology company committed to advancing social good by helping organizations achieve pay equity, foster a more diverse and inclusive workforce, assist economically disadvantaged individuals with finding work, and ensure employee access to affordable healthcare. Trusaic’s mission is to create a better working world through data-driven, people-centered technology…

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SmartRank 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company SmartRank is a Non-Traditional Productivity-ATS that completely automates the job applicant screening process, stack-ranks and filters those applicants, and gives hiring managers exactly what they’re looking for without using/needing a résumé. This saves time, increases hiring quality, and reduces both hiring manager frustration and recruiter workload. SmartRank was originally founded in April…

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SkyHive 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company SkyHive is a Certified B Corporation and software provider of global workforce intelligence technology, optimizing labor market efficiencies in real-time for companies, communities, and national economies. Like the DNA of the human genome was coded, SkyHive has coded human capability. By doing so, governments, large enterprises, and educational institutions can reskill the…

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Schoox 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company Schoox is workplace learning software with a people-first twist. For organizations with frontline, remote, and corporate learners who need an engaged and skilled workforce ready to take on the new challenges of their evolving business, Schoox is an award-winning learning management and talent development company. This SaaS solution delivers social-, mobile-, and…

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HiBob 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company HiBob is on a mission to enable companies to thrive through change using people-first strategies. The HCM platform, Bob, simplifies the complexities of today’s global, hybrid, and remote world of work, driving greater impact for HR, managers, and employees. The ideal customer is a modern, multinational, mid-enterprise company with 250-3,000 employees with…

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Jobvite 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company Jobvite, an Employ Inc. brand, is a purpose-built proven talent acquisition (TA) solution built to innovate, scale, and solve the hiring complexities within sophisticated organizations across the entire TA lifecycle. Jobvite’s Evolve Talent Acquisition Suite is a comprehensive TA solution, empowering teams to address challenges across the entire talent acquisition lifecycle. The…

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Cornerstone 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company Cornerstone powers the future-ready workforce with a next-generation talent experience platform designed to unite technology, data and content and inspire a work environment of growth, agility and success for all. With an AI-powered, skills-forward, experiential platform, built on an open architecture designed for neutrality and scale, Cornerstone helps organizations modernize their learning…

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Harri 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company Harri is the revolutionary global leader in Frontline Employee Experience. The Harri platform is built for companies that have service at the heart of their business and believe that the customer experience will never exceed the employee experience. The Harri suite of talent attraction, workforce management, employee engagement and compliance technologies enable…

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15Five 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company 15Five is the holistic performance management company. 15Five equips HR teams with a complete, single-platform solution to improve manager effectiveness, drive high performance and engagement, and increase retention. 15Five was founded in 2011, by serial entrepreneur, David Hassell, and born of his deep desire to help people reach their fullest potential at…

Videos, Interviews, and Podcasts

RPO Buyer Study: Key Findings and Preferences [New Research]

Each year we partner with the RPO Association to produce a research study to examine and understand how the recruitment process outsourcing market is changing, what buyers expect, and the realities of the current landscape. Our latest report was recently released featuring findings from more than 500 RPO buyers, and it’s currently available at no…

Lighthouse Listens: 6 Innovative Talent Acquisition Technologies

As part of our ongoing research efforts, our team meets with technology providers across the HR, talent, and learning space on a regular basis. Last month we held a special set of briefings as part of a talent acquisition deep dive we called Lighthouse Listens. In it, we met with six different providers touching on…

Predicting Pay and Skills From Job Market Intelligence Data on #HRTechTalks

In today’s world, things change and evolve so quickly. Take pay for instance. It’s changing faster than the surveys and other data sources can keep up. So what do we do? One area of emerging data comes from labor market intelligence tools. In this episode of #hrtechtalks, we chat with Cary Sparrow, CEO of Greenwich.HR,…

New Findings on Worker Preferences, HR Jobs, and More #HRTechTalks

Frictionless Recruiting with MapRecruit on #HRTechTalks

Getting Comfortable with Data: featuring Salary.com on #HRTechTalks

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Personalization and Wellness: How AI Supports Wellbeing at Scale

“You need to have a competitive pay and benefits offering. When you go to do that, the employer ends up paying for a lot of things that go unused just because there’s too much to communicate. What’s just amazing about the time and space we’re in now is you can really use personalization to surface…

Compliance Challenges? You’re Not Alone: Featuring ThinkHR/MammothHR on HR Tech Talks

Since the start of this year, multiple new laws have passed that change responsibilities for employers, and that’s just a small sample of the overall changes in the workplace over the last few years. Even when you’re focusing on those evolving requirements, it can be overwhelming to decipher what applies to your company and how to adopt the new regulations.

In this discussion on HR Tech Talks, I am going to chat with Nathan Christensen, CEO of Mammoth/ThinkHR about why navigating compliance is a critical skill set for HR leaders and how his team supports this need for the business (without breaking the bank).

#HRTechTalks

Solving Pay Equity and Comp Challenges: Featuring Curo Compensation on HR Tech Talks

More and more companies across the globe are attempting to tackle the pay equity issue, but it’s not always easy if you don’t have the right tools to support the process. In some brand new research at Lighthouse Research & Advisory, we found that compensation technology is not only becoming more powerful, but it’s becoming a staple of the HR leader’s toolbox for navigating pay decisions across the board.

In this episode, I’m talking with Ruth Thomas of Curo Compensation about how this company has exploded into the scene of compensation management tools. We’ll also cover the firm’s priority focus on pay equity and how it is helping employers to create a fair and equitable playing field when it comes to pay.

#HRTechTalks

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Embracing Flexibility in Your Talent System: PeopleFluent on HR Tech Talks

When HR technology first became a “thing,” tools were rigid and structured. Today, some tools are still that way, but others have taken the opposite approach: they allow employers to customize and tailor the settings and capabilities around their unique and specific needs.

In our 2020 research, we found that 97% of firms that say they are adaptable also say that their HR technology plays a key part in that flexibility.

In this episode of HR Tech Talks, I’m going to talk with Stephen Bruce of PeopleFluent about how his firm has adopted this approach and how it results in better customer relationships, stronger capabilities that fit each client’s needs, and deep expertise in talent. We’ll touch on talent mobility, talent analytics, and the need for a flexible system to meet the needs of an agile organization.

#hrtechtalks

Technology Reviews

HR Tech Awards 2024: Winners Announced

By Ben Eubanks

In our daily work with talent leaders and solution providers, we run into some incredible technology. Some of the tools available to organizations right now help them hire, develop, and retain their people, and the platforms and systems are amazing in their ability to support intelligent decisions, personalized actions, and more. According to some sources,…

2023 Recap: A Turbulent Year with Significant M&A Changes in the HR Technology Market

By Ben Eubanks

Our annual reporting on M&A in the HR technology space is one of our most popular pieces of content year after year (see our 2022 version here). We look at some of the many announcements that happen over the course of the year, flag some key ones, and identify any big trends that seem to…

hr tech awards

Trusaic 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company Trusaic is a workplace equity technology company committed to advancing social good by helping organizations achieve pay equity, foster a more diverse and inclusive workforce, assist economically disadvantaged individuals with finding work, and ensure employee access to affordable healthcare. Trusaic’s mission is to create a better working world through data-driven, people-centered technology…

hr tech awards

SmartRank 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company SmartRank is a Non-Traditional Productivity-ATS that completely automates the job applicant screening process, stack-ranks and filters those applicants, and gives hiring managers exactly what they’re looking for without using/needing a résumé. This saves time, increases hiring quality, and reduces both hiring manager frustration and recruiter workload. SmartRank was originally founded in April…

isolved HCM Connect Conference: Serious Growth, Aggressive Roadmap, and a Critical AI Strategy

By Ben Eubanks

This week I spent time in beautiful Palm Springs at the isolved Connect user conference. If you’re not familiar with the name, isolved HCM’s hot pink brand is spreading quickly across the nation as they pick up customers, build out the product, and celebrate their increased successes in recent years. See my notes from the…

Ceridian Rebrands to Dayforce, Launches Range of New Features and Strategic Efforts

By Ben Eubanks

Fall for analysts like us in the HR technology space equates to travel season, with industry conferences and technology user conferences happening on a weekly basis between August and November. This week is Ceridian’s Insights conference in Las Vegas. Ceridian has been known for its Dayforce product for many years (the company has a 30…

2023 Compensation Data and Technology Buyer’s Guide and Landscape Report [New Research]

By Ben Eubanks

Every other year our team takes a deep dive into the world of compensation. We look at all of the top technology providers. We gather data from a wide variety of employers to understand how they are using data and technology to support comp practices. And we ultimately write the industry’s most in-depth research report…

hr tech awards

SkyHive 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company SkyHive is a Certified B Corporation and software provider of global workforce intelligence technology, optimizing labor market efficiencies in real-time for companies, communities, and national economies. Like the DNA of the human genome was coded, SkyHive has coded human capability. By doing so, governments, large enterprises, and educational institutions can reskill the…

hr tech awards

Schoox 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company Schoox is workplace learning software with a people-first twist. For organizations with frontline, remote, and corporate learners who need an engaged and skilled workforce ready to take on the new challenges of their evolving business, Schoox is an award-winning learning management and talent development company. This SaaS solution delivers social-, mobile-, and…

hr tech awards

Jobvite 2023 HR Tech Awards Case Study

By Ben Eubanks

About the Company Jobvite, an Employ Inc. brand, is a purpose-built proven talent acquisition (TA) solution built to innovate, scale, and solve the hiring complexities within sophisticated organizations across the entire TA lifecycle. Jobvite’s Evolve Talent Acquisition Suite is a comprehensive TA solution, empowering teams to address challenges across the entire talent acquisition lifecycle. The…

See the Latest from Lighthouse Research & Advisory

HR Tech Awards 2024: Winners Announced

By Ben Eubanks

In our daily work with talent leaders and solution providers, we run into some incredible technology. Some of the tools available to organizations right now help them hire, develop, and retain their people, and the platforms and systems are amazing in their ability to support intelligent decisions, personalized actions, and more. According to some sources,…

Read More

IAMPHENOM 2024: Supporting High-Volume Hiring with Tailored Solutions

By Ben Eubanks

Our latest research studies on learning and hiring are separate efforts that overlap on one critical aspect: skills. I’ve heard both of those sides of the equation at two different conferences over the last 48 hours, and it’s one that more and more employers are examining or fully committing to. This week I have been…

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2024 Talent Acquisition Trends Research Livestream: What to Expect

By Ben Eubanks

The first study our team ever began to do year over year was focused on talent acquisition. We gathered data from employers on their biggest priorities and challenges in order to help talent leaders to make better decisions. This year, our 2024 Talent Acquisition Trends study covers more than 1,200 employers and 1,000 candidates from…

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6+ Generative AI Applications in Talent Acquisition Today [Infographic]

By Ben Eubanks

Generative AI. It’s the topic in what seems like every conference agenda, presentation, and headline today. But so much of it is focused on things like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini (formerly Google Bard). However, there are a few “flavors” of generative AI being used by talent acquisition and HR teams today: Off-the-shelf public systems like…

Read More

4 Research-Backed Actions to Engage and Convert More Candidates

By Ben Eubanks

The data points are clear: candidate expectations today have evolved, and if you’re not staying on top of those changes, you may be missing out on the very best talent in the market. Based on our proprietary research from more than 2,500 candidates in the last two years, here are four practical things you can…

Read More

RPO Buyer Study: Key Findings and Preferences [New Research]

By Ben Eubanks

Each year we partner with the RPO Association to produce a research study to examine and understand how the recruitment process outsourcing market is changing, what buyers expect, and the realities of the current landscape. Our latest report was recently released featuring findings from more than 500 RPO buyers, and it’s currently available at no…

Read More

Case Study Report: The Value of Company Culture in the Age of AI

By Ben Eubanks

In a world where technology reigns supreme, we must not forget the heart of our organizations—the culture. The beating heart of company culture guides our values, beliefs, and actions towards a higher purpose. Fulfillment, communication, trust, and diversity form the cornerstones of a transformative culture that fuels growth and fulfillment in the workplace. By championing…

Read More

Recruiting Automation: Employer and Candidate Preferences [Infographic]

By Ben Eubanks

The world of recruitment is undergoing a seismic shift, thanks in no small part to advancements in artificial intelligence and automation. Recent data from our Lighthouse Research & Advisory Talent Acquisition Trends study underscores this transformation, revealing some thought-provoking trends. First, employers are now 41% more likely to report increased efficiencies in talent acquisition due…

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Speed Counts in Hiring: How to Shorten Cycle Times and Increase Candidate Satisfaction [Infographic]

By Ben Eubanks

Today, creating a positive candidate experience is not just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-do. Recent data points from Lighthouse Research & Advisory studies offer a compelling insight into why this is more important now than ever: Two out of the top three reasons candidates ghost employers are directly tied to speed and hiring workflows. A…

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Hiring Assessments: Do Employers and Candidates See Eye to Eye? [Infographic]

By Ben Eubanks

Updated January 2024 with new data from Q3 2023 Hiring assessments have gone through many iterations and evolutions since the days I was using them to screen high potential hires during my recruiting days. I remember having to stop the hiring process, send candidates a separate link to create an account and complete an assessment,…

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2023 Recap: A Turbulent Year with Significant M&A Changes in the HR Technology Market

By Ben Eubanks

Our annual reporting on M&A in the HR technology space is one of our most popular pieces of content year after year (see our 2022 version here). We look at some of the many announcements that happen over the course of the year, flag some key ones, and identify any big trends that seem to…

Read More

The Evolution of Pay Equity and Transparency in the Modern Workplace [Infographic]

By Ben Eubanks

Increasingly, our research is showing that pay equity and pay transparency are critically linked. In other words, employers that score highly in one will typically score highly in the other, and vice versa. That’s because as the market has shifted in recent years, we’ve seen a clear connection between transparency and openness on compensation and…

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What is the Complexity Coefficient and Does it Apply to Your Organization?

By Ben Eubanks

In our research on high-performing organizations, the term “complexity coefficient” is one that we use to describe companies that are outliers from the standpoint of investment into HR operations. What exactly is this coefficient, and why is it a crucial factor in organizational management? In essence, the complexity coefficient describes a phenomenon where an organization’s…

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Should You Expect Candidate Data with Your Next Recruiting Technology Purchase?

By Ben Eubanks

Several years back, economist and human behavioral science expert Dan Ariely ran an experiment on options and choices (one of hundreds of experiments he’s run over the years). He found that when you offer just two choices, people are more rational and split their attention between the premium and inexpensive options. But if you offer…

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First Look at 2023 Talent Acquisition Research: Pay Transparency, Ghosting, and More

By Ben Eubanks

Updated December 2023 with new candidate data from Q3.  Of all the aspects of human capital management, talent acquisition has seen a tremendous upheaval in the last three years. From a full stop in 2020 to full speed in 2021 and 2022, we’re now seeing some mixed signals about what the future holds. The essential…

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