Refers to the emerging legal, ethical, and regulatory actions addressing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in employment screening and selection processes that result in bias or disparate impact against protected groups. These cases test how longstanding civil rights laws—such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—apply to automated hiring tools.

As employers increasingly rely on AI to process massive volumes of applications, job seekers have begun challenging algorithmic systems they believe discriminate based on race, gender, age, or disability. Notable cases include 2024–2025 filings against vendors such as Aon, HireVue, and Intuit, alleging biased or inaccessible AI tools. Federal agencies including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have asserted that both employers and technology vendors can be held liable for discriminatory AI outcomes.

These developments mark a new phase in employment law where accountability extends beyond human decision-makers to the digital systems they deploy. The movement underscores the importance of explainable AI, regular bias audits, and transparent vendor oversight to prevent automated discrimination at scale.

See Glossary Term: Explainable AI | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

See Topic Brief: AI Hiring Discrimination Lawsuits | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is an all-in-one human resource (HR) software that automates the hiring process. It helps HR teams manage every part of recruitment (from job posting to onboarding): (1) stores job candidate information, including resumés, cover letters, references, and other recruitment and hiring data that HR teams can easily access and organize; (2) tracks job candidates and their application status throughout the hiring pipeline; (3) weeds out unqualified candidates and recommends the best fit for a position based on the parameters set by HR and only those on the shortlist are moved to the next stage of the hiring process; (4) automates time-consuming administrative tasks such as manually screening applicants, reading resumés, scheduling interviews, and sending notifications and emails to job candidates and employees.

According to Owl Labs’ 2024 State of Hybrid Work report, this term refers to the process of individuals’ preparing for a potential layoff by applying to other jobs, upskilling or reskilling to become a more competitive candidate, and/or diversifying their income stream by taking on side hustle(s). This term has emerged in the volatile economic environment and job market.

Career networking (also known as job seeking through networking) uses an individual’s networks (family contacts, professional colleagues, friends and other personal contacts) in career development.  Career development can include job searching such as learning about career fields, job opportunities, and companies an individual may be interested in working in; and ways to achieve career goals. Technology is increasingly important to career networking; for example, social networks like Meta (formerly Facebook) and Linkedin, and online job-matching platforms like ZipRecruiter, Monster, and Career Builder.

See Topic: Social Capital

Catfishing by employers: when employees report that the position did not match what was described during the hiring process or the job had more responsibilities than anticipated. This can include:

• the role did not live up to the description provided by a recruiter or hiring manager
• the work responsibilities were different than expected
• the company culture was misrepresented
• the compensation or benefits were overstated.

Career catfishing by job candidates: when candidates have exaggerated their qualifications or background to land a job. This can include:

• overstating job responsibilities in previous roles
• overemphasizing skills or technical abilities
• boosting their work experience
• misrepresenting their education or certifications.

Various employer studies have found that catfishing by both employers and job candidates has increased in recent years.

A job description explains the tasks, duties, functions, and responsibilities of a position. A common job description outlines the expectations of a job in a way that is comparable to other similar positions.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), cost per hire is a key recruiting metric that calculates how much a company spends to fill an open position. It helps talent acquisition leaders answer important questions, like “Are we spending our recruiting budget wisely?” and “How could our hiring processes be refined?”

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), a custom career site is a proprietary website that lists your job openings in an intuitive and appealing way, encouraging visiting candidates to explore your brand and apply for available positions. Unlike third-party job-posting sites, career websites are owned by the company that is hiring, or by a recruiter hiring on behalf of another company. This gives them complete control over the design of the website, the messaging, the language, and the hiring process.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), embracing a data-driven recruitment process makes it possible to find and keep top talent at your company, especially when you incorporate the latest in recruitment metrics and analytics tools.

Moving beyond gut feelings and traditional relationship-building, this evidence-based approach delivers proven results for recruiting and HR teams striving to meet their business objectives—with less waiting, less hassle, and less missed opportunities.

Disruptive innovation refers to innovations and technologies that make expensive or sophisticated products and services accessible and more affordable to a broader market. The term was coined in the early 1990s by Harvard University Business School professor Clayton Christensen.  The term is often misunderstood to describe breakthrough technologies that make good products better—rather it refers to innovations that make products and services more accessible and affordable, and therefore, more available to a larger population.

Refers to job positions that generally do not require prior work experience. These roles are designed for individuals who are starting their careers, such as recent school graduates. Entry-level positions typically require minimal formal education though some may still require specific credentials such as degrees or certifications depending on the industry. These positions often provide training to help new employees develop skills necessary for advancement.

Refers to a core set of industries that provide the foundational goods, services, and infrastructure necessary for a nation’s functioning and growth. In the United States, this includes construction, manufacturing, energy, public services, transportation and logistics, and skilled trades. Collectively, these industries employ approximately 95 million workers across 3 million businesses and generate over one-third of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). Despite its outsized role in supporting daily life and long-term economic resilience, the Essential Economy faces persistent challenges—including labor shortages, skill gaps, and declining productivity. These challenges pose risks to national competitiveness and future prosperity.

A growing threat facing companies globally are jobseekers who are not who they say they are, using AI tools to fabricate photo IDs, generate employment histories, and provide answers during interviews.  An imposter candidate who is hired can install malware to demand a ransom from a company, or steal its customer data, trade secrets, or funds. Estimates are that by 2028 globally, the rise of AI-generated profiles will result in 1 in 4 fake job candidates. Some companies report seeing individuals using fake identities, fake faces, and fake voices to secure employment, even going so far as doing a face swap with another individual who shows up for the job.

To address this problem, there is an emerging industry of identity-verification companies to weed out fake candidates.

Refers to individuals who are actively looking for their first job. The term emphasizes the lack of previous employment experience, making it a common descriptor for new school graduates or those transitioning into the workforce from other life circumstances.

Refers to the situation in which individuals are unemployed when moving between jobs or looking for a first job. A person who resigns from a job without securing another job is categorized as entering frictional employment.

Frontline workers and essential workers refer to employees whose primary duties involve direct engagement with customers, patients, or the public or those responsible for maintaining essential services, often under challenging conditions. These workers typically serve as the first point of contact in their respective industries. Their roles are fundamental in healthcare, education, retail, logistics, law enforcement, and emergency services.

Frontline workers are often called essential workers although the two terms are not synonymous: not all frontline workers are essential workers, though some essential workers are frontline workers.

• Frontline workers provide vital services to the general public. They hold roles typically requiring close interaction with the public or with their colleagues. Examples include landscapers, construction workers, hotel employees, electricians, plumbers, and mechanics.
• Essential workers also provide vital services. They sustain critical infrastructure, provide services and operations, and ensure community well-being in sectors like healthcare, transportation, logistics, food and agriculture, law enforcement, public safety, and more. Examples include teachers, public health officials, social services administrators, transportation planners, and emergency management coordinators.
• Many worker roles overlap between frontline and essential categories depending on the context, such as doctors, nurses, police officers, firefighters, grocery store employees, food preparation and delivery employees.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), for talent acquisition teams, full cycle recruiting offers an end-to-end hiring process that delivers results, without frustrating candidates or overwhelming hiring managers. In today’s competitive talent market, it delivers a more efficient and more human approach to hiring.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not distinguish between gig workers and independent contractors. It classifies these workers as “self-employed individuals” who earn income by selling goods or services on their own behalf. The relationship between a self-employed individual and a company is often project-based—the job ends when the project is completed.

Some gig workers are temporary or contingent workers, though some are fulltime, taking on a range of projects from different companies. Few gig workers use gig work as a primary source of income; many have a regular full- or part-time job and use gig work as a side job. Overall, gig workers in the U.S. work in both traditional and digital workplaces; constitute a sizable number; and cover the gamut across age, education, demographic, and skill categories.

Gig economy workers do not receive a salary as workers do in traditional part-or full-time jobs. They typically invoice clients upon completion of their work, billing via an hourly rate (the time it takes to complete a project); fixed price (charging for goods or services delivered regardless of how long it takes to complete the project); and mixed (invoicing to cover the scope of the project plus charging for the cost of raw materials or hourly costs for labor).

Since many workers in gig work are classified as independent contractors rather than employees, as independent contractors they typically lose rights to a minimum wage, overtime, a safe and healthy work environment, and protections against discrimination and harassment. They also lose access to unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, and paid sick leave now required in many states.

See: Gig Economy

A green skill or sustainable skill refers to the knowledge and abilities people need to support environmental sustainability in the workplace and the economy. These skills include things like energy efficiency practices, sustainable agriculture, waste reduction, renewable energy technology, and environmental compliance. They are becoming essential across many industries, not just in traditional “green” jobs because of growing demand for environmentally responsible practices in sectors like construction, manufacturing, transportation, and education. Developing green skills helps prepare learners and workers for careers that contribute to a low-carbon, resource-efficient future.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), a high-volume hiring strategy remains an ongoing challenge for many companies looking to scale rapidly. Businesses in retail, hospitality, healthcare and other high-turnover sectors often need to recruit dozens or even hundreds of employees under tight deadlines. Without careful planning, this fast-paced hiring can end in poor applicant evaluation, staggering costs and negative candidate experiences that harm the employer’s brand.

I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) is a form used by the Federal government to verify the identity and eligibility status of all workers in the U.S. Some states mandate that this form be completed before any employee is hired.

Internal recruiting is the process of filling open job positions in an organization by hiring from within an existing workforce. Some companies allow their employees to apply to open positions alongside external candidates at the same time. Others provide their employees with exclusivity in the application process for a time before they post the job externally.

Search engines that gather job postings from job boards, employer websites, industry and professional association websites, and other internet sites. Postings are consolidated into a single searchable interface.  Job Aggregators typically sort job listings by various categories such as part-time/fulltime; hourly/salary; start date; and location

Examples include: Indeed,  SimplyHired,  CareerJet, LinkedIn Jobs, Linkup.

See: Candidate Sourcing | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

See: Job Board / Platform | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

See: Candidate Sourcing | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

An online service where employers advertise job openings and job seekers search for and apply to employment opportunities. Job boards may cover many industries and occupations or specialize by industry, occupation, geography, career level, or type of work.

Traditionally, job boards have operated primarily as an inbound recruiting channel: employers post openings and wait for interested job seekers to apply. Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are changing this model. Job seekers can use AI to identify openings, tailor resumes and application materials, and apply for positions more quickly. Automated application tools can further increase the number of applications employers receive. At the same time, employers are increasingly using AI-enabled tools to search for candidates, assess potential matches, communicate with prospective applicants, and support other parts of the recruiting process.

As these technologies evolve, the distinction between traditional job boards and broader recruiting and hiring platforms is becoming less clear. Job boards remain an important way to advertise employment opportunities, but employers may combine them with candidate sourcing, employee referrals, employer career sites, professional or industry networks, talent marketplaces, and other recruiting approaches.

A related term is a career site, an employer-managed website or webpage that provides information about job openings as well as information about the organization, such as its workplace, benefits, policies, career opportunities, and application process.

See: Job Aggregator

See: Matching and Hiring Platforms Vs. Job Boards | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

See:  Job Aggregator

Refers to the level of contentment that workers feel with their job. There are several indicators of job satisfaction often cited in the literature:

1. The company cares about its employees
2. The workplace has room for employees to engage in their hobbies or personal interests
3. Opportunity for promotions on a regular interval (5.2 years is the average)
4. Employees feeling respected by their peers
5. Culture of two-way positive and constructive feedback
6. Culture that promotes positive work-life balance
7. Relationships with reporting heads/supervisors
8. Fair and inclusive policies to ensure fairness toward all employees, regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, or disability
9. Culture that nurtures creativity in jobs
10. Job security, especially as technology/automation threatens legacy models of working

Research by the Pew Research Center studies 11 components of job satisfaction in addition to satisfaction with the “overall job”:

1. Relationship with co-workers
2. Relationship with manager or supervisor
3. The commute
4. Day-to-day tasks at work
5. Flexibility to choose when to work required hours
6. The benefits the employer provides
7. Amount of feedback workers receive
8. Opportunities for training/ways to develop new skills
9. Flexibility to work remotely
10. How much workers are paid
11. Opportunities for promotion at work

The probability that individuals will keep their job. Key factors that can threaten job security include outsourcing, global hiring, downsizing, economic recession, and technologies impacting job tasks.

Refers to the ways jobs are classified such as part-time and full-time, exempt and non-exempt, employees and contractor, and permanent/temporary employees. Job structures refer to when people work, where they work, expectations for how much they work, and the extent to which they have some choice over when/where/how much they work.

When demand for workers is high and the supply of workers low, job switching can be a strategy for workers demanding and often getting higher pay. When job switching is high, it can be referred to as a job-switching movement.

Job boards and matching and hiring platforms both connect employers and prospective workers, but they traditionally have served different functions in the recruiting and hiring process.

• A job board primarily provides a place for employers to advertise job openings and for job seekers to find and apply for positions. The model has historically depended largely on job seekers finding openings and submitting applications.
• A matching and hiring platform generally provides a broader range of services intended to help employers identify, evaluate, connect with, and hire candidates. Depending on the platform, these services may include candidate search and sourcing, skills or qualifications matching, applicant screening, candidate communication, interview scheduling, applicant tracking, and other steps in the hiring process.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is making the distinction between the two categories less clear. Job boards and recruiting platforms increasingly use AI and automation to recommend candidates and jobs, identify potential matches, search candidate databases, support outreach, and assist with screening and other recruiting activities. Some platforms that began primarily as job-posting services are therefore evolving into broader sourcing, matching, and hiring systems.

Job boards and matching and hiring platforms should not necessarily be viewed as competing or mutually exclusive approaches. Employers may use job postings to attract active job seekers while also using matching, sourcing, referrals, professional networks, and other approaches to identify prospective candidates who may not be actively applying for jobs.

See: Job Board / Platform | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

See: Job Aggregators | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

See: Candidate Sourcing | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

Matching and hiring platforms are different from job boards though they both aim to connect employers with job seekers.

• A job board is a tool that displays job listings from various employers in a central location. Employers can post their job openings for a fee or sometimes for free. When a job seeker applies to a job listing on a job board, it is the employer’s responsibility to manage the rest of the process with their own screening, scheduling, and tracking tools.
• Matching and hiring platforms offer a more comprehensive solution for employers. In addition to job listings, the platforms may offer features such as applicant tracking, interview scheduling, communication tools and pre-employment assessments. They may also use machine learning to help match job seekers with relevant job openings based on their skills and experience.

According to Indeed, businesses are turning more to matching and hiring platforms to streamline the recruitment process from job posting to job offer.

As defined by Education Design Lab (the Lab), micro-pathways are:

• Co-designed with learners and employers
• Consist of two or more stackable credentials
• Include a durable skills micro-credential
• Flexibly delivered to be achieved within less than a year
• Result in a job at or above the local median wage
• Start learner-earners on the path to an associate degree.

A micro-pathway can be packaged as a validated market signal connecting learners to employment in high-growth careers.

Example: Scaling Learner Opportunity and Economic Growth Across Arkansas – Education Design Lab | Learn & Work Ecosystem Library

A measure that organizations use to assess the strength of their recruiting process. The new hire retention rate calculates the percentage of new hires (e.g., middle management, specialists, operational workers, office staff, senior management, executives) who are still employed at the business entity 12 months after accepting a job offer.

Refers to individuals entering the workforce for the first time. This group typically includes recent graduates from high school or college seeking their initial employment opportunities. These individuals often lack significant work experience in their chosen fields but may have relevant educational qualifications or internships.

Refers to a job market in which hiring and layoffs have slowed and resignations are down (also referred to as a no-hire, no-fire market), resulting in less churn in the market.

Also known as job stress or work-related stress, occupational stress refers to the physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of a job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of an employee.  The causes of occupational stress include:

• Job demands — working long hours and shifts, high workloads, infrequent breaks, unnecessary routine tasks, ignoring workers’ skills, or feeling that the demands of their jobs exceed their capacity to cope
• Financial concerns — workers feeling they are not fairly compensated or  wages do not cover living expenses
• Frequent restructuring within an organization
• Risk of layoffs, job insecurity, or lack of advancement opportunities
• Poor work environment—poor lighting, lack of technology, uncomfortable office spaces, noise, lack of privacy, and toxic workplace culture
• Poor work-life balance—insufficient time for family, friends, hobbies, personal interests
• Low morale—workers often feel powerless when workers must respond to the demands and timelines of others with little control over events (too little authority, unfair labor practices, inadequate job descriptions)
• Management style—a workplace characterized by poor communication and workers not included in decision-making processes or not feeling supported by their coworkers and employers.
• Traumatic events—workers experiencing stressful situations and personal risk every day.

Stress can take a negative toll on workers’ health, leading to less productivity and job satisfaction. Over the short term, work stress causes strain; over the long term, it can negatively impact well-being.

OFCCP Compliance is the Internet Applicant final rule, issued by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. It addresses recordkeeping by Federal contractors and subcontractors about the Internet hiring process and the solicitation of race, gender and ethnicity of Internet applicants.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), offer management software eliminates manual, error-prone processes to get offer letters out to candidates faster. Branded templates and e-signatures are stored within the system for easily repeatable processes, while approvals are managed at scale during this critical stage of the recruitment lifecycle.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), onboarding software streamlines the onboarding process by replacing handwritten forms with online documents, including Employment Eligibility Verification (E-Verify), paperless I-9, iForms and background checks. Onboarding software can save your company money by eliminating all shipping and storage fees associated with the handling of paper forms and by removing your HR staff from the data entry process.

Pro-worker technologies, including artificial intelligence, refer to technologies that expand human capabilities and increase the market value of worker expertise. The term is the subject of a NBER paper, ‘Building Pro-Worker Artificial Intelligence’.

Key aspects of this concept:

•  Technology is pro-worker if it makes human skills more useful rather than less necessary.
•  “New task-creating” tools are pro-worker because they generate demand for novel human expertise.
• AI is most effective as a collaborator that handles unstructured data to support high-stakes human decision-making.
• Misaligned incentives and a “pro-automation ideology” are leading the private market to underinvest in collaborative, pro-worker tools.
• Several policy shifts (e.g., tax code reform, anti-trust enforcement, intellectual property protections for worker expertise, and targeted investments in health care and education) are redirecting AI development.

The paper’s view is that AI’s potential to serve as a collaborator by extending human judgment, enabling new tasks, and accelerating skill acquisition, is transformative and currently underexploited.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), any software application that facilitates chat or text messaging engagement during the recruitment process. A recruiting chat software application could be part of an end-to-end recruitment platform, or it could exist as a stand-alone application that can be added to the recruitment process.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), recruitment metrics are a measurement of the effectiveness of your recruiting process. Organizations can use these data to benchmark how their recruitment process stacks up against industry averages and to make improvements for correcting any inefficiencies. Some examples of recruiting metrics include:

• Candidate experience

• Cost of hire

• Sourcing channel

• Retention rate

Recruitment analytics is the practice of using data-driven insights to optimize hiring practices and strategies. It involves gathering, analyzing and interpreting recruiting data to identify trends, flag gaps and improve the company’s overall hiring performance.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), recruiting operations optimizes the process of talent acquisition. Recruiting operations is most often a role inhabited by a single person, but at larger organizations, it can also take the form of a small department. Regardless of how it takes shape, recruiting operations is a strategic function that oversees and improves the hiring process from end to end.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), recruitment is the process of finding and screening qualified candidates for a specific position and offering the position to the best candidate. An applicant tracking system can help manage the complex and rewarding recruitment process.

Recruiting software is an application designed to help organizations recruit employees more efficiently. Businesses of all sizes leverage it to handle job applications and manage and screen resumes. Other features include individual applicant tracking, requisition tracking, automated resume ranking, job posting, pre-screening and response tracking.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), screening is the process of testing an applicant on their trustworthiness, skills and personality to ensure that they are a good fit for the position. This can be done through screening questions and skills matching submitted with an applicant’s resume.

Refers to informal, unrecognized, or undocumented learning that occurs outside traditional education or training programs. It involves gaining knowledge, skills, or insights through experiences, self-directed exploration, or observation, often without formal assessment or credentialing.

As used by the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and Cleveland in the “Occupational Mobility Explorer tool,” the share of online job postings for a given occupation requesting a given skill relative to the number of online job postings requesting at least one skill. Online job postings that specify no skills are excluded from their calculation of skill intensity.

As described by LinkedIn, refers to the 39,000+ skills that are sourced from LinkedIn’s more than 800,000 million members globally (skills explicitly listed on member profiles or inferred from other aspects of members’ profiles, such as job titles, fields of study, etc.) or from job postings.

Skills define specific learned activities, and they range widely in terms of complexity. Knowing which skills a person possesses helps to determine whether their training and experience has prepared them for a specific type of workplace activity. Competencies identify the observable behaviors that successful performers demonstrate on the job. Those behaviors are the result of various abilities, skills, knowledge, motivations, and traits an employee may possess. Competencies take “skills” and incorporate them into on-the-job behaviors. Those behaviors demonstrate the ability to perform the job requirements competently.

A skill set refers to the various types of abilities and knowledge that allows someone to successfully perform a job or accomplish specific tasks. A person’s skill set may include specific technical skills as well as a variety of general types of skills.

Skills classifications systems identify the combination of skills needed to successfully perform a job or accomplish specific tasks. There are many types of skills classification systems. Most include some variation of skills that are classified as:

• Job-specific:  skills needed to complete certain tasks within a position.
• Soft skills:  the behaviors and abilities that allow someone to work successfully with others such as the ability to communicate with others, resolve problems, and share ideas in the workplace.
• Hard skills:  the technical knowledge and abilities needed to perform specific tasks.

An example is the Australian Skills Classification, led by Jobs & Skills Australia. The Classification explores connections between skills and jobs and is intended to be a “common language” for core skills. The Classification identifies three categories of skills for Australian occupations: (1) 10 core competencies common to all jobs to varying degrees of proficiency; (2) specialist tasks that describe the day-to-day work within an occupation; (3) technology tools – software and hardware that are used in an occupation. The Classification groups similar skills into skills clusters. This enables the Classification to be explored by similar skills as well as occupations.

The skills ecosystem is a term popularized with the advent of skills-based hiring. Skills-based hiring is hiring for skills required for a particular job role. Employers are trying to match their existing employee talent to new job positions and fill them with new employees. In the past, many employers used the college degree as a proxy for the ability to do the job—for perceived skills that have been achieved. Increasingly, the degree is viewed as an imprecise way of hiring so the skills ecosystem has gained attention as a new currency for hiring.

Automation is pushing employers to “unfreeze” their jobs, disaggregate them into component tasks and subtasks, and separate those that can be automated and reassemble the remaining tasks into newly formed “refrozen” jobs. As developments in technology reshape jobs, some employers are looking for new structures to organize work —that enable workers to flex as needed instead of unfreezing and freezing jobs.

According to Deloitte Insights, skills-based organizations are based on four principles:

1. Liberate work from the confines of the job by reorganizing work as a portfolio of fluid structures, including and beyond the job,
2. Reconceive workers from being employees in jobs to being a “workforce of one”—individuals who work on- or off-balance-sheet, each with a unique ability to make contributions and a portfolio of skills and capabilities that match the work,
3. Use skills rather than jobs to make decisions about work and the workforce—from who performs what work, to performance management, to rewards, to hiring.
4. Build a “skills hub,” an engine of skills data, technology, governance, etc. to power these decisions.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), sourcing is the ability to identify and classify candidates by skill and experience level, and then allocate them to open positions based on these metrics as the positions become available. The candidate’s resume then becomes available for the recruiter or hiring manager to contact the candidate.

The practice of systematically exploring possible futures in order to better prepare for change, uncertainty, and emerging opportunities.  Unlike traditional strategic planning, which often assumes the future will be a relatively predictable extension of the present, strategic foresight recognizes that social, economic, technological, political, and demographic changes can alter conditions rapidly and in unexpected ways.

Strategic foresight often includes activities such as trend analysis, horizon scanning, scenario planning, systems thinking, and future-oriented strategy development.

Strategic foresight does not attempt to predict the future. Rather, it helps leaders examine assumptions, identify emerging signals and trends, consider different plausible futures, and test how current strategies, programs, and business models might perform under changing conditions. The goal is to improve decision-making in the present while increasing an organization’s ability to adapt over time.

The practice has become more important in an era of rapid technological and social change, where traditional planning models based primarily on past patterns may no longer be sufficient. Examples include universities developing future workforce scenarios, governments studying the long-term implications of automation, employers planning for multigenerational workforces, and foundations investing in future-ready learning systems.

Strategic planning often asks, “Where do we want to go?” Strategic foresight adds an additional question: “What futures might we need to be ready for?”

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), Strategic Workforce Planning is the process of aligning your talent strategy with long-term business goals. It’s about anticipating workforce needs, identifying skill gaps, and ensuring your organization is equipped with the right people at the right time. The key benefits of SWP include improved talent retention, enhanced organizational agility, and the ability to adapt quickly to market changes.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), talent acquisition is the process of finding, attracting and engaging highly talented individuals and having them join an organization. It includes applicant tracking, onboarding, workforce planning, sourcing, recruitment marketing automation and more.

Talent assessment tools are used for pre-employment screening purposes, assessing candidates on their knowledge and skills, work style, and personality. Talent assessments can include multiple-choice questions, open-ended prompts, and questions requiring audio- or video-based responses.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), talent pipeline is a pathway between job seekers and employers. Organizations build a talent pipeline to create a supply of candidates it can access any time.

Talent pipelining is a type of proactive recruiting. It requires effort, strategy and maintenance. When it operates successfully, it provides organizations with a steady flow of high-quality applicants.

Your talent pool is your pipeline of top potential candidates.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), text recruiting software uses SMS, chat, and AI across multiple platforms to engage with candidates at scale. All communications are housed within a compliant platform, eliminating the need for recruiters to send texts to candidates from their personal phones.

This can include “Text to apply,” which enables candidates to send a word or code to a phone number to begin the application process. Once they send the code or keyword, they’ll receive an automatic response with further information. The candidate may receive a complete application, a document with more information, or a link to a form or website.

Refers to a measure of the number of individuals in an economy who are unwillingly working in lower-skill and/or lower-paying jobs, or who are employed part-time because they cannot obtain full-time jobs that use their skills. Both underemployment and unemployment are counted in U.S. government reports in order to provide a truer picture of the health of the job market. The causes of underemployment include economic recessions, rapidly changing workforce needs, lack of alignment between employer needs and education credentialing programs, impacts on hiring that occurred with COVID, and demographic impacts broadly and in specific industry sectors (equal opportunity for many populations – race/ethnicity, gender, age, disability).

There are three types of underemployment:

• Visible underemployment in which an individual works fewer hours than necessary for a full-time job in their chosen field. Due to the reduced hours, they may work two or more part-time jobs to make ends meet.
• Invisible underemployment in which an individual is unable to find a job in their chosen field. They work as a result in a job that is not commensurate with their skill set and, in most cases, pays much below their customary wage.
• Dropping/stopping out: individuals unable to find work in their chosen field have quit the workforce altogether (they have not looked for a job in the last four weeks, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ definition of “not in the labor force”)/

In addition to these categories, researchers also measure underemployment using education-based approaches. In this framework, workers may be classified as underemployed if they hold a degree (such as a bachelor’s degree) but are working in occupations typically requiring less formal education. Some methodologies also consider earnings outcomes, recognizing that workers may receive wage premiums even when employed outside fields traditionally aligned with their level of education. Because these approaches rely on different assumptions about job requirements, worker qualifications, and earnings, published estimates of underemployment can vary significantly.

Recent research, including analysis from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, highlights how different methodological approaches can lead to varying interpretations of underemployment and labor market alignment.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), video interviewing refers to an interviewing style which takes place remotely using digital video technology. Video interviews can be two-way, where both the interviewer and the job candidate are present during the video session, or one-way, where the candidate pre-records their interview with prompts from the recruiter.

According to iCIMS (provider of talent acquisition software), is a scheduled online event hosted on a single online channel that’s designed to connect large groups of candidates with recruiters. Candidates and talent acquisition professionals meet in a virtual space to discuss job opportunities.

This is part of a larger virtual recruiting strategy, where talent acquisition professionals make use of teleconferencing, virtual events, text engagement, and web-administered forms and assessments to conduct their recruitment efforts.

Services that assist individuals with disabilities to achieve employment. Common services provided by VR service organizations include:

• Exploring employment interests and skills
• Job search assistance – helping in finding employment
• Providing assistive technology and other services to help individuals keep your job
• Re-entering employment after a period of not working
• Training for a new career due to factors related to an individual’s disability
• Providing services for career advancement

As described by LinkedIn, the ability to recover and achieve a similar or better labor market outcome with limited losses in worker welfare following an external shock to the current labor market state (for example, economic slowdown, economic restructuring, or technology impacts).