Talent Acquisition Newswatch - Issue 2.18
Skills, safety, and kindness: the new playbook for hiring and retention
TOP STORIES
AI
When AI Helps and When It Opens the Door to Fake Candidates Summary
Gartner forecasts that by 2028 roughly one in four candidate profiles worldwide could be falsified, a surge driven in part by easy access to generative AI and candidate misuse. Employers face escalating risks: fraudulent identities, fabricated credentials, and applicants gaming automated screening. Gartner recommends layered defences including clearer policies on acceptable AI use, stronger identity verification and background checks, in-person or proctored assessments, behavioural interviews, and monitoring tools that flag anomalies. Communicating fraud-detection practices and legal consequences to applicants can deter bad actors while preserving candidate trust. For talent teams, the guidance is to combine human judgment with technical safeguards to protect hiring integrity and cybersecurity without creating a hostile candidate experience.
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
Wage Growth Stalls - Why Pay Momentum May Freeze in 2026
Payscale data show wage growth is flattening and employers expect a moderation in pay increases heading into 2026 amid economic jitters. Tight labour markets that powered strong raises are cooling, causing organizations to rethink salary strategies while still competing for critical skills. Employers may shift from across‑the‑board increases to more targeted pay moves, bonuses, or benefits adjustments to manage costs. The report highlights the importance of transparent pay frameworks and targeted total-rewards packages to retain key talent without eroding margins. HR leaders are advised to model scenarios, prioritize scarce skills for investment, and consider non-salary levers - upskilling, flexible schedules, and wellbeing benefits - to sustain attraction and retention if base-pay rises slow.
DEI
Under Pressure But Still Standing: How DEI Programs are Being Reimagined Summary
Companies facing political and cultural backlash against DEI are adapting rather than abandoning inclusion work. Many are reframing initiatives under less controversial labels such as “belonging,” “inclusion,” or “fair opportunity” while keeping core practices that drive diverse hiring, retention, and innovation. The shift aims to protect progress and reduce public scrutiny, but it raises questions about transparency and measurement. Leaders are balancing external optics with the business case: diverse teams outperform and fuel creativity. To preserve momentum, organizations are emphasizing outcomes—representation, pay equity, and inclusive culture metrics - over labels, and investing in education that ties inclusion to performance and employee wellbeing.
HR INSIGHTS
Secrecy vs. Trust: NDAs, Whistleblowing and the Cost of Silence
The use of NDAs and other secrecy mechanisms is shaping workplace transparency and employee trust. High-profile complaints and litigation reveal how confidentiality tools can shield misconduct or suppress reporting if misused. HR leaders must strike a balance: protect legitimate trade secrets and privacy while ensuring whistleblowers and harassment complainants can speak up safely. Best practices include narrowly scoped NDAs, clear grievance channels, whistleblower protections, periodic culture audits, and training that reinforces psychological safety. Organizations that over-index on secrecy risk reputational damage, legal exposure, and lower engagement; those that prioritize accountable transparency protect workers and long-term performance.
LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
Kindness as Competitive Advantage: The Quiet Power Move for Leaders Summary
Thoughtful leadership that centres empathy and kindness is emerging as a high‑impact strategic capability. Leaders who model compassion build trust, stabilize teams during disruption, and improve retention and performance. Research and practitioner advice emphasize deliberate actions- active listening, visible support for wellbeing, candid communication during change, and psychologically safe decision-making - that create resilient cultures. Kindness is not softness: it involves setting clear expectations, holding people accountable, and making tough choices with empathy. Organizations that cultivate benevolent leadership report better learning, innovation, and employee engagement; executives are encouraged to make kindness a measurable competency in leadership development.
RECRUITING & RETENTION
Open Hiring’s Moment: Could No Resume Recruitment Reshape Talent Pipelines?
Open hiring and skills‑first approaches - removing traditional barriers like resumes or degree requirements, are gaining traction as a response to talent shortages and inequitable hiring. Pilot programs show benefits: faster fills, more diverse candidate pools, and stronger community ties. But scaling requires operational changes: competency-based assessments, structured onboarding, and internal mobility pathways to turn entry roles into career ladders. Employers must also measure long-term performance and retention to justify shifting sourcing models. When paired with training investments and clear progression frameworks, open hiring can widen access to opportunity while delivering operational resilience for employers.
LABOUR MARKET TRENDS
Older Workers Keep Clashing with Age Bias - What Employers Must Fix Now
Age discrimination and structural barriers continue to limit opportunities for older workers even as labour markets demand experienced talent. Recent reporting and studies show older employees face bias in hiring, limited training access, and stereotype-driven management practices that push them out or stall careers. Employers that proactively design age-inclusive policies, targeted reskilling, flexible roles, bias-aware recruiting, and recognition of transferable skills, can tap a reliable talent pipeline and improve retention. With demographic shifts and labour shortages in many sectors, integrating older workers into workforce planning is both a moral and economic imperative.
EVERYTHING ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW
The Hidden Cost of Power-Hungry Data Centres - A Macro Risk?: An AI data‑centre boom is powering the future of work but raises macroeconomic and infrastructure concerns. Rapidly expanding energy-intensive facilities could stress grids, inflate power costs, and concentrate economic benefits in specific regions, creating political and environmental friction. If growth outpaces grid upgrades and policy planning, the data‑centre surge could trigger bottlenecks and local backlash that slow AI deployment. Policymakers, operators and employers must coordinate on resilient grid investment, efficiency measures, and fair community compensation to ensure AI infrastructure supports broad economic gains without destabilizing markets.
Music at Work: The Productivity Playlist HR Didn’t Know It Needed: Research and workplace experiments suggest carefully chosen music can boost focus, creativity, and mood-effects that vary by task and individual. Instrumental or ambient tracks help deep-concentration tasks, while upbeat music can energize collaborative work. Employers should avoid one-size-fits-all mandates; instead, offer guidelines, quiet zones, and opt-in playlists while respecting colleagues who need silence. Thoughtful use of music, combined with ergonomic and managerial supports, can be a low-cost productivity lever if managed for inclusion and respect for different work styles.
When Retirement Planning Is Broken: Why Employees Face a Stark Reality: Many workers approach retirement underprepared, confused by benefits and unrealistic about savings needs. Employers can play a critical role by offering clearer retirement education, scenario planning, and phased-retirement programs that set realistic expectations. Transparent communications about likely incomes, healthcare costs, and options for partial work can help employees make better choices and reduce financial stress, improving retention and wellbeing while aligning expectations with workforce planning.
Poor Sleep Isn’t Just Tiredness - It’s Linked to 172 Health Risks: Emerging research connects poor sleep to dozens of conditions -172 in one analysis, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia and mental-health disorders. For employers, the implications are profound: sleep deprivation drives absenteeism, presenteeism, higher healthcare costs, and reduced cognitive performance. Effective workplace responses include sleep-friendly scheduling, wellness programs that address sleep, and culture changes to discourage chronic overwork. Investing in sleep health is a preventive strategy with measurable returns in productivity and employee cost outcomes.
When Candidates Only Want Remote - Practical Options for Recruiters: Remote‑only candidates present a fork: lose them or redesign roles. HR teams can respond by auditing which roles truly require on-site presence, offering remote‑friendly job architectures, or creating hybrid pipelines with clear expectations. Other tactics include location-agnostic pay bands, remote onboarding investments, and evaluating remote candidates’ cultural fit through work samples and structured interviews. Where roles must be on-site, transparent communication about reasons and potential pathways to remote-friendly roles helps manage candidate expectations and reduce drop-offs.
Age and Health: Women’s Financial and Physical Wellbeing Take a Hit: New reporting highlights declines in women’s financial security and physical health linked to caregiving burdens, pay gaps, and workplace inflexibility. These pressures compound over time, affecting retirement readiness and long-term wellbeing. Employers should respond with gender-aware benefits - care supports, flexible schedules, targeted financial planning, and proactive health interventions, to reduce disparities and retain female talent.
Outsourcing: The Quiet Threat Lurking in Talent Strategy: Heavy reliance on outsourced vendors can fragment talent strategy, erode institutional knowledge, and undermine internal capability building. While outsourcing offers short-term cost and speed gains, leaders must evaluate long-term talent trade-offs, manage vendor relationships strategically, and keep core skills and culture in-house. A balanced approach blends external specialists with internal development pathways to maintain agility without hollowing strategic capability.
Colleges and Employers Team Up to Fix the Skills Pipeline: Increasing partnerships between colleges and employers aim to close skills gaps by co‑designing curricula, apprenticeships and work-integrated learning. These collaborations produce job‑ready graduates, reduce hiring friction, and allow employers to influence skill supply. HR should deepen ties with local education partners, sponsor curriculum updates for emerging roles, and create recruitment pipelines that reward both academic credentials and practical experience.
CAREER INSIGHTS
Why Promotions Don’t Happen - And How to Make Them Happen: Earning a promotion requires clarity, visibility and strategic influence. Practical tips include documenting measurable impact, aligning goals with leadership priorities, soliciting targeted stretch assignments, and cultivating sponsors who can advocate at decision-making tables. Self-promotion should be evidence-based -use metrics, customer or stakeholder testimonials, and concise narratives about outcomes. Career development is a system: combine skill building, internal networking, and demonstrated results to move from aspirational to promotable.
INTERVIEW & JOB SEARCH SUCCESS
Let Wandering Minds Work for You: The Interview Edge of Creative Breaks: Allowing controlled mind‑wandering - brief breaks or low-demand tasks, can reset attention and boost creativity before interviews or assessment tasks. Candidates and hiring teams can use short, structured mental breaks to reduce cognitive fatigue and perform better on problem-solving exercises. For job seekers, scheduling micro-breaks during interview prep sessions and using reflective prompts can enhance clarity and responses. Employers designing assessments should factor in recovery time to reveal true performance.
3 TOOLS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR CAREER & PRODUCTIVITY
✅ Kickeresume - An AI-powered platform that helps users craft professional resumes, cover letters, and personal websites using recruiter-approved templates and GPT assisted tools. It offers resume and ATS checkers, sample libraries, and career mapping to simplify job search materials and boost interview readiness.
✅ PixieBrix (Chrome Extension) - Low-code browser extension allowing users to customize web interfaces and automate workflows directly in the browser. It features AI writing assistance, reusable “bricks,” fast deployment, team collaboration, and enterprise-grade security to enhance productivity across SaaS apps.
✅ Mockin - An interview simulator tailored to UX/UI and Product Designers. It presents realistic text-and-audio questions, then evaluates responses on clarity, design thinking, and structure - and provides actionable, STAR-method feedback personalized by senior designers and HR pros.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The very nature of work has changed. We can’t predict the future. Things move fast. Our computers are in our pockets, we’re on the go. Why don’t we start by telling each other the truth? Job security is over. Retaining people is the measure that might not even matter.” – Patty McCord, Former CHRO at Netflix