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

2024 HR Tech M&A Activity: A Year of Resilience and Growth

The HR technology market in 2024 was a story of resilience and growth amidst a rapidly changing global landscape. With the U.S. election dominating headlines and sparking conversations around the future of work, and consumer confidence rebounding from the challenges of prior years, the HR tech space has continued to demonstrate its vital role in…

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 These outdated practices, often criticized for their ineffectiveness and tendency to induce stress, are making way for a more dynamic and supportive…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…

Case Studies

How Paycor Transformed Workforce Management for All City Management Services (ACMS)

By Ben Eubanks

Paycor: Empowering Leaders to Build Winning Teams Paycor is a leader in Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions, delivering a unified experience for all things HR. With an unrivaled product depth and a single source of truth for employee data, Paycor ensures that users never have to switch platforms, log in to multiple systems, or re-key…

How Quantum Workplace Helped Seacoast Bank Build a Culture of Listening and Engagement

By Ben Eubanks

Quantum Workplace: Empowering Employee Success Through Engagement and Performance Quantum Workplace is redefining how organizations drive employee success by creating tools that prioritize engagement, performance, and alignment. With over two decades of data and methodology backing its solutions, Quantum Workplace has become the trusted partner for organizations seeking to inspire impact and build a magnetic…

How DuraServ Used isolved to Transform HR Insights and Gain Actionable Workforce Analytics

By Ben Eubanks

isolved: Transforming Employee Experience and People Analytics For nearly 40 years, isolved has been at the forefront of transforming employee experiences through its innovative human capital management (HCM) platform, isolved People Cloud. Originally established to help businesses navigate COBRA, isolved has evolved into a leading provider of integrated HR solutions for businesses of all sizes.…

How iCIMS Helped SiteOne Boost Completed Applications by 55% and Revolutionize Recruitment Strategies

By Ben Eubanks

iCIMS: Building Winning Workforces with Talent Acquisition Technology iCIMS is a global leader in talent acquisition technology, empowering organizations to attract, engage, hire, and retain top talent. With over 20 years of innovation, iCIMS has transformed how organizations worldwide connect with the right people and build exceptional candidate and employee experiences. In 2023 alone, iCIMS…

How Dolphin Hotel Management Transformed Hiring with Paycor’s Recruiting Solution

By Ben Eubanks

Paycor: Empowering Leaders to Build Winning Teams Paycor is a leader in Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions, designed to empower leaders with the tools they need to streamline HR processes and focus on strategic initiatives like talent development, employee engagement, and retention. Offering a unified platform for all things HR, Paycor eliminates the need for…

Driving Retention and Skills Transformation with Phenom’s Employee-First Solutions

By Ben Eubanks

Phenom: Redefining Talent Acquisition and Development with AI Phenom is transforming talent management by creating AI-driven solutions that connect candidates, employees, recruiters, and managers across a seamless platform. By fostering personalized, skills-forward experiences, Phenom helps organizations hire faster, develop employees to their full potential, and retain top talent longer. Phenom’s Intelligent Talent Experience platform powers…

How Paycor Empowered All City Management Services (ACMS)

By Ben Eubanks

Paycor: Empowering Leaders with Comprehensive HCM Solutions Paycor revolutionizes human capital management (HCM) by delivering a unified platform that simplifies workforce operations while driving strategic value for leaders. Paycor’s solutions empower organizations to streamline recruitment, onboarding, payroll, and career development processes, providing a single source of truth for employee data and enabling more effective decision-making.…

How Longchamp USA Boosted Retention and Streamlined Compliance with Mineral’s HR Solutions

By Ben Eubanks

Mineral: The HR and Compliance Partner for Growing Businesses Mineral, a Mitratech company, is the trusted HR and compliance leader for small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Serving over 1 million businesses through partnerships with 2,500 insurance brokers, health insurers, PEOs, and HCMs, Mineral provides the tools, data, and human expertise needed to simplify HR compliance. Its flagship…

How Oviva Healthcare Achieved a 301% ROI and Reduced Employee Turnover by 10.5% with HiBob

By Ben Eubanks

HiBob: Redefining HCM for a Global, People-First World HiBob’s modern HCM platform, Bob, empowers companies to navigate today’s global and hybrid workplace with people-first strategies. Designed for organizations with 100-8,000 employees and dispersed teams, Bob streamlines HR processes, supports data-driven decision-making, and creates exceptional employee experiences. HiBob partners with over 3,600 global companies, including Extreme…

How Paycor Helped Dolphin Hotel Management Win the War for Talent

By Ben Eubanks

Paycor: Empowering Leaders with Comprehensive HCM Solutions Paycor revolutionizes human capital management (HCM) by providing a unified platform designed to simplify and enhance every aspect of workforce management. From streamlining recruitment to empowering leaders with actionable insights, Paycor’s technology supports industries like healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, and professional services. Paycor focuses on empowering frontline…

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

we're only human podcast tile

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

hr tech awards

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

2024 HR Tech M&A Activity: A Year of Resilience and Growth

By Ben Eubanks

The HR technology market in 2024 was a story of resilience and growth amidst a rapidly changing global landscape. With the U.S. election dominating headlines and sparking conversations around the future of work, and consumer confidence rebounding from the challenges of prior years, the HR tech space has continued to demonstrate its vital role in…

Maximizing ROI in the Modern Workplace: How Employee Experience Technology Drives Business Performance

By George Rogers

Understanding Employee Experience Technology Employee experience technology encompasses tools designed to improve various aspects of an employee’s journey within a company. These tools aim to streamline processes, boost employee engagement, and facilitate a more connected and productive workplace culture, from recruitment and onboarding to performance management and offboarding. The essence of this technology lies in…

How Paycor Transformed Workforce Management for All City Management Services (ACMS)

By Ben Eubanks

Paycor: Empowering Leaders to Build Winning Teams Paycor is a leader in Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions, delivering a unified experience for all things HR. With an unrivaled product depth and a single source of truth for employee data, Paycor ensures that users never have to switch platforms, log in to multiple systems, or re-key…

How Quantum Workplace Helped Seacoast Bank Build a Culture of Listening and Engagement

By Ben Eubanks

Quantum Workplace: Empowering Employee Success Through Engagement and Performance Quantum Workplace is redefining how organizations drive employee success by creating tools that prioritize engagement, performance, and alignment. With over two decades of data and methodology backing its solutions, Quantum Workplace has become the trusted partner for organizations seeking to inspire impact and build a magnetic…

How DuraServ Used isolved to Transform HR Insights and Gain Actionable Workforce Analytics

By Ben Eubanks

isolved: Transforming Employee Experience and People Analytics For nearly 40 years, isolved has been at the forefront of transforming employee experiences through its innovative human capital management (HCM) platform, isolved People Cloud. Originally established to help businesses navigate COBRA, isolved has evolved into a leading provider of integrated HR solutions for businesses of all sizes.…

How iCIMS Helped SiteOne Boost Completed Applications by 55% and Revolutionize Recruitment Strategies

By Ben Eubanks

iCIMS: Building Winning Workforces with Talent Acquisition Technology iCIMS is a global leader in talent acquisition technology, empowering organizations to attract, engage, hire, and retain top talent. With over 20 years of innovation, iCIMS has transformed how organizations worldwide connect with the right people and build exceptional candidate and employee experiences. In 2023 alone, iCIMS…

How Dolphin Hotel Management Transformed Hiring with Paycor’s Recruiting Solution

By Ben Eubanks

Paycor: Empowering Leaders to Build Winning Teams Paycor is a leader in Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions, designed to empower leaders with the tools they need to streamline HR processes and focus on strategic initiatives like talent development, employee engagement, and retention. Offering a unified platform for all things HR, Paycor eliminates the need for…

Driving Retention and Skills Transformation with Phenom’s Employee-First Solutions

By Ben Eubanks

Phenom: Redefining Talent Acquisition and Development with AI Phenom is transforming talent management by creating AI-driven solutions that connect candidates, employees, recruiters, and managers across a seamless platform. By fostering personalized, skills-forward experiences, Phenom helps organizations hire faster, develop employees to their full potential, and retain top talent longer. Phenom’s Intelligent Talent Experience platform powers…

How Paycor Empowered All City Management Services (ACMS)

By Ben Eubanks

Paycor: Empowering Leaders with Comprehensive HCM Solutions Paycor revolutionizes human capital management (HCM) by delivering a unified platform that simplifies workforce operations while driving strategic value for leaders. Paycor’s solutions empower organizations to streamline recruitment, onboarding, payroll, and career development processes, providing a single source of truth for employee data and enabling more effective decision-making.…

How Longchamp USA Boosted Retention and Streamlined Compliance with Mineral’s HR Solutions

By Ben Eubanks

Mineral: The HR and Compliance Partner for Growing Businesses Mineral, a Mitratech company, is the trusted HR and compliance leader for small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Serving over 1 million businesses through partnerships with 2,500 insurance brokers, health insurers, PEOs, and HCMs, Mineral provides the tools, data, and human expertise needed to simplify HR compliance. Its flagship…

See the Latest from Lighthouse Research & Advisory

4 Fundamental Qualities that Separate Humans and #AI

By Ben Eubanks

Note: one of the research efforts we have undertaken here at Lighthouse is the We’re Only Human podcast. This show is now two years old and features interviews with HR and talent executives, business leaders, vendors, and more to help you stay on top of the interesting trends and insights you need to perform at…

Read More

3 Lessons on Creating a Culture of Employee Recognition

By Ben Eubanks

Employee recognition is a powerful tool to engage workers. Yet all too often recognition initiatives fail. One of the key reasons this happens is because employers tend to look at the process of creating a recognition program as a logical transaction — a “campaign” intended to keep turnover numbers down rather than a true holistic effort…

Read More

The Best Business is Built on Relationships: A Visit with ExponentHR

By Ben Eubanks

We’ve been keeping busy here at Lighthouse, and this past week I was on the road for my last travel of the summer. I visited the SHRM conference in Chicago, which is the largest HR event on the planet with more than 20,000 attendees. While I was in town I didn’t go to any sessions.…

Read More

20+ Onboarding Hacks to Improve the Employee Experience [Free Report]

By Ben Eubanks

One of the talent areas that most businesses can improve is onboarding. In some cases the experience is poor, but even for those doing a good job, it’s always fun to pick up new ideas and concepts that help to align new hires with your culture and approach. Despite some advanced practices happening in some…

Read More

Wal-Mart: Our Fastest Growing Business Line is Delivering Experiences [Case Study]

By Ben Eubanks

What if you go out to deliver someone’s groceries to their car and there is a screaming toddler and a frazzled young mom at the wheel? What do you do then? How do you train for that? One of the world’s most recognized companies is Wal-Mart. A behemoth with more than 2 million employees, the…

Read More

A Video Primer on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on HR

By Ben Eubanks

When the Industrial Revolution waned and knowledge workers became more common, what kinds of skills set apart the great employees from the not-so-great ones? No longer was a strong back or grip strength the only determining factor of someone’s long-term career options, because work became more mental than physical for many workplaces. The same shift…

Read More

4 Millennial Myths that Should Not Impact Your Talent Strategy

By Ben Eubanks

While there is a growing number of publications on generational differences, much is incorrect or misleading. Typically information falls into one of two categories: First, widely generalized statements that apply to anyone. Often these are a marketing exercise, like “Top 8 Tips for Managing Millennials in the Workplace.” Suggestions include tips like “explain the company…

Read More

Nearly Half of 2017 HR Tech Funding Events went to AI-Focused Companies

By Ben Eubanks

This year I’ll be releasing my new book, Artificial Intelligence for HR, focusing on how AI can enable HR to be more human, not less. This post includes some of the research I’ve been working on to support the book writing and development process. Learn more at AIHRBook.com Last year my friend and colleague George…

Read More
talent mobility maturity model

5 Common Challenges with Internal Talent Mobility

By Ben Eubanks

One of our specialties at Lighthouse Research is diving into internal talent mobility. We’re talking with vendors that sell the technology. We’re working with companies that are adopting these practices. And in a recent webinar with WorldAtWork, we explored multiple case studies of employers that have innovative or unique approaches to talent mobility. But we…

Read More

How to Get the Employee Experience on the CEO’s Agenda [eBook]

By Ben Eubanks

Short version: we’re releasing a new eBook and a companion webinar focusing on the employee experience and how to get executive attention and investment in building your own firm’s employee experience. Read on for details about the contents of both of these resources! It’s hard to turn around today without hearing about the employee experience.…

Read More

Thinking of Changing Performance Reviews? Focus on These Core Components

By Ben Eubanks

Performance reviews are dead, or so we have been told. The data shows a shrinking support for the traditional method: only 15% of companies have not adjusted their annual performance management process and do not plan to. But the data from our Performance Management, Culture, and Business Results study shed a different light on the…

Read More

Hackathons Solve for HCM Issues: Learning, Recruiting, Retention [Case Study]

By Ben Eubanks

“This message will appeal to people in our recruiting process who gravitate towards a culture of hackathons and innovation. It will also turn away others that don’t fit.” Gary Bolton, Vice President of Marketing at ADTRAN I recently had the pleasure of connecting with a handful of key staff members at ADTRAN in Huntsville, Alabama,…

Read More

3 Differences Between Great and Mediocre Recruiting Video

By Ben Eubanks

In the third and final installment in this series, we explore the difference between great and mediocre recruiting video content. The subject of the video, the placement, and the authenticity all play a role in making it more consumable for candidates (thus improving your ROI). Note that this is based in part on some recent…

Read More

Virtual HR Training Event: HR Metrics and Change Management

By Ben Eubanks

In the last few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Toronto and the Caribbean to speak about metrics, evidence, and leading change. It’s been wonderful to speak to hundreds of HR pros between the two events, but I also realize that many of you are looking for quality content and conversations to improve your…

Read More

What Is Your Workforce Thinking? Leveraging AI for Employee Sentiment Analysis

By Ben Eubanks

Below is a short excerpt from the book I’m working on that will highlight the impact of AI on the HR profession. My goal is to focus heavily on use cases that matter to today’s HR and business executives, and one of those that’s particularly intriguing is sentiment analysis.  Language is the fundamental currency for…

Read More