When hiring is down, HR and TA departments usually have to make do with less and get creative. Which is why many companies are turning to internal talent to fill gaps in challenging times: not only is it more cost-effective, but it also ensures a strong culture fit and removes the burden of hiring and onboarding.  

I doubt anyone needs my two cents on why promoting people you already hired is a good idea. So, if you’ve been paying attention, this would probably be a good time to call me Captain Obvious and close the window on your browser.  

But! Talent Marketplaces are a new twist on the old classic, because they utilize new tech and automation to help place the right people in the right positions.  

How does it work? Let’s dive in.  

What is a Talent Marketplace? 

Talent Marketplaces are data systems designed to match current employees with new job openings. The complexity and value of that matching depend on the platform being used, but can include everything from skillsets to experience, interests, availability: you name it. Like any systems powered by AI these days, there are plenty of options in terms of configuration so long as the data is there to power it.  

When configured correctly, it is kind of like a map of your talent in real time—able to chart how and where people can move within the company. Whether you’re looking for temporary help with a project, or to fill a full-time role, it is a powerful tool that goes beyond the casual, person to person recommendations that organizations typically use to fill internal roles.  

Limitations 

We all want AI to be the magic bullet that solves all our problems. And the sales folks involved would probably like us to believe that (I’m sure!). But the reality is these are tools like any other, with upsides and downsides that depend on how you use them.  

Here are some things to consider when making the decision to implement a Talent Marketplace strategy: 

• They are more effective in larger orgs – cross referencing the skills and abilities of eight employees who already have full-time jobs and do everything doesn’t make much sense. But at scale—with hundreds or even thousands of employees, let’s say—it can start to produce some very interesting and valuable connections.  

• Data management is critical – accuracy is critical for a Talent Marketplace to be effective. That means up-to-date job titles, skill sets, and interests for every single employee. That makes managing a Talent Marketplace a big job. There’s nothing worse than the system failing to match because it doesn’t know Tabitha learned how to code in Python last summer.  

• Creating an effective Talent Marketplace doesn’t happen overnight—although we are talking about a computer system, this one has a very strong, human behaviour piece. For example: assessing workplace skills only works if people are actually willing or interested in changing jobs…and if they can leave their current position without making another hole somewhere else. There is a culture-building component to doing this sort of thing well, which is likely going to need to start small before it becomes effective. 

The Dream Scenario 

Of course, there is also a tremendous amount of promise in these systems. Once mature, and if well maintained, it would be capable of powering some difficult and unintuitive decision making.  

For example. Let’s say you’ve got a temp program that hires recent grads. They all have different backgrounds and degrees, but start at entry-level positions doing clerical work of some sort.  

When you get a junior developer job, or an accountant, or even a graphic designer, your system is going to know which of these folks have a relevant background, which would allow you to at least try them for a bigger role with your organization.  

Their managers might not know or care what they can do outside of their entry-level job—but with a Talent Marketplace, you get a greater, data-driven insight into what your people can do.  

If sufficiently advanced, you could imagine integrating skills testing into these platforms as well, so that your existing staff could take a test that grades their ability to do the job you’re hiring for, regardless of what their skills and experience are on paper. Every organization has a handful of smart, dedicated employees that are being underutilized—this is precisely the kind of tool that could help there.  

Wrap 

With the sheer amount of technology that has been unleashed on the world this year, everyone is playing catchup.  

Tools like Talent Marketplaces are so new that no one is really using them optimally, or even knows how they could fit into their organizations.  

But their promise is also enormous (like many AI applications!). The trick will be waiting to see which platforms stand out as the most useful and robust, and how organizations adopt them effectively.  

But that is for the future—for now, if you’re looking for help filling roles, working with a staffing company like Raise can make a huge difference. Check out https://raiserecruiting.com/ to see how we can help your business today! 

The post What is a Talent Marketplace? appeared first on Raise.

For better or worse, employers and employees can’t assume that work is going to happen in the office everyday.  

Yes—plumbers, cashiers (and the knights at Medieval Times) still have to go to the “office” everyday. But for everyone whose work happens on a computer most of the time, the reasons to go in or stay at home are murky these days. Employees want the freedom to work from home. Employers want to make use of expensive office space.  

A lot of companies are pushing people back into the office, many of them 5 days a week—and while that may work for a while, many employees are starting to weigh their options and consider what they can do to stay at home at least a few days a week.  

Maybe your organization has struggled with a similar question, one that seems to be at the heart of back to work policy: how do we attract and retain talent while limiting people’s work from home?  

It’s not an easy question to answer. But here are some stats and ideas that can help you navigate the work from home conundrum.  

1). The majority of workers prefer to work from home 

According to Angus Reid’s 2025 survey, between 59% and 74% of surveyed workers preferred to work from home.  

Now, if you asked me if I preferred to work from a lodge in the Swiss Alps or home I’d probably go with the former—but that doesn’t mean my employer is willing to spring for my airfare and lift tickets.   

Which is to say—working conditions are inevitably a negotiation between employers and employees. What employees want and what employees get will depend on negotiation and compromise. Work from home is no different.   

And those negotiations are certainly being influence by today’s weak job market. What we are seeing in the back to work shift today is how a relatively weak labour market is giving employers an upper hand in those negotiations, at least for now.  

2). Flexible working arrangements are in the top 3 things candidates look for 

LinkedIn recently surveyed top candidate priorities, and flexible work is a big one—with 44% listing it as a priority, behind compensation at 63% and work/life balance at 49%.  

For employers, that makes flexible work a powerful inventive you can use to attract candidates, especially at lower salary ranges. And if you don’t offer some kind of remote work, it can push talent away.   

Most hiring managers don’t decide their company’s world form home policy (if only!); and we’re only able to work with what we’re given.   

If your organization has any wiggle room in offering remote or hybrid work, it can work wonders for your hiring. And if that isn’t possible and you are struggling with a search, it might be worth showing your leadership some data on how important flexibility is to today’s workforce.  

3). International labour could be a big part of the remote work equation  

Of course, if people can work remotely onshore, that means offshore staffing becomes an option too. And a larger talent pool typically means cost-savings for employers.  

There is nothing new about offshore hiring; but improved communications technology, as well as advance in GenAI and other automated tools, are changing how people can do work.   

We see this already in software development to lower production costs, but employers are looking at what other industries might be open to a global labour market.   

Of course, it isn’t as simple as just hiring halfway across the world—opening dedicated hiring in multiple countries at once is a compliance headache, if not a total migraine. But for companies willing to take the plunge into some risk, research and lawyer fees, there look to be substantial benefits on the horizon.  

Wrap 

Hiring, for better or worse, never stays the same for long. Trends in remote and hybrid work are just one of many trending issues relevant to HR and procurement professionals today.   

But if you can stay on top of what’s making headlines today, you might be a bit more prepared for what comes next.  

The post Rethinking Where Work Happens appeared first on Raise.

That’s bad news for folks looking for work, as the economy isn’t adding a tonne of new jobs.. It also means continued high competition for open jobs for the immediate future.

Which is good news for people hiring….right?

Yes and no.

Weak job markets are a peculiar thing—like mayo on French fries—and like anything else, they have their upsides and downsides. More applications, for example, are great as long as the people applying are qualified—otherwise you just have more piles of (digital) paper to sift through.

It also means a shift in candidate motivations—the more motivated a candidate is to find work the less picky they will be about what job they get. Which can be a fine thing on its own, unless you end up hiring a candidate who isn’t really interested in sticking around.

How can you adjust to take full advantage of a market where more people are looking for work than usual? Read on for three things you can do to hire better in a down job market:

Do your research

Just because the job market is down in general doesn’t mean it’s down for YOU. Every industry and every role is different—and there are plenty of hot industries which have not, I am sure, even noticed that hiring is down.

If you take the time to understand what the job market is doing in your industry, for the role you’re searching for, in the place you are hiring, it will make a huge difference when it comes time to hire.

If you’re looking for a tool that can help you understand your job market, check out Raise Talent Intelligence.

Think long-term

A weak job market means more applications from qualified candidates. And when you have multiple qualified folks looking for a job, it can be tempting to negotiate lower salaries or reduced vacation/benefits.

And that can be a positive for your business in the short-term—but what is going to happen next year if the job market heats up? There’s a chance your new employee will go somewhere else to get what they really wanted.

Yes, you need to keep comp in line with the job market and current trends, but keep that as one data point among many when trying to achieve what you really want—a successful hire to meet your business objectives.

Keep a record of great talent that you don’t hire

Businesses are only ever as good as the people working for them, and sometimes a search goes so well that you end up with more people you want to hire than you have openings for.

Much like having too many vacation days, this is far from the worst problem to have—but that doesn’t mean there is nothing you can do about it.

Make a note of those Silver Medalists who fell just short of your top candidate. Let them know you’d be open to working with them in the future if the need arises. Maybe even set them up on job alerts, if your systems allow.

Exceptional talent only comes by every once in a while—a weak job market can help you connect with more of these people, so you can make more great hires when the time comes.

Wrap

Access to talent is an unquestionably good thing, but that doesn’t mean your strategies and tactics won’t benefit from change.

Some hires are still better than others, and if you’re not able to maximize your hiring—whether in times of feast or famine—your organization will come up short of where it could be.

Research, thinking long-term, and staying connected with the talent you don’t hire are all great ways to position yourself in a well-supplied talent market. And if you’re in an industry where talent is still sparse, you can always touch base with the experts at Raise to help build a hiring program that works for you.

The post How to hire effectively in a weak job market appeared first on Raise.

Insurance sellers. Mountain climbers. People who manufacture, sell and/or eat fortune cookies (so crunchy!).   

But folks in HR? Not so much—that’s because when something unexpected happens and hiring needs to happen now, they’re going to get an email or a Teams message every 20 minutes for the next four weeks until someone signs a contract.  

And sometimes there’s not much you can do about that—HR is all about people (who are unpredictable) and is also very sensitive to business needs (which can change on a dime).  

But that doesn’t mean that businesses are helpless in the face of uncertainty.  

Especially today, when it’s hard to predict how the economy, politics, or technology will change next, it’s more important than ever to have a plan for contingencies.  

How do you do it? Here are Raise’s four key strategies for hiring in uncertain times.  

Hire (More) Contingent Workers 

In any scenario, there are lots of things to like about hiring people on contract. You get:  

• Highly skilled workers experienced in adapting to new employers 
• The ability to scale quickly 
• Limited-term commitments 
• Cost savings and fewer burdens in terms of benefits, etc.  

But in times of uncertainty? These upsides become even more pronounced.  

Contract workers will hit the ground running, and you always have the option to extend them if work goes long. If it’s a good fit for both parties, you can even convert them to FT positions down the road.  

Contract workers are a contractually simpler way to hire in terms of the burdens on HR. While they might miss out on some of the benefits of full-time workers—like long-term relationships with your existing staff, or strong integration in your company culture—the straightforward relationship you have with contract workers has many benefits. Making a great hire of any kind is going to make a positive impact for your business. But the rewards for hiring the right person on contract can be exceptionally valuable because of the flexibility and speed it provides.  

In short, contract workers are a much simpler way of getting work done, which is exactly what you want when you’re not sure what’s coming next.  

Forecast Your Business Needs 

I know what you’re thinking. Why is he talking about forecasting after just pointing out, in excruciating detail, how uncertain everything is!  

But forecasting isn’t about predicting the future—it’s more like a pace car for your business that you can check your speed against as the race goes on.  

Forecasting tells you what should happen barring surprises, so you have a baseline for decisions. If something drastic happens, like one of your main competitors going under, you can calculate the expected impacts on your business—how many new hires you’ll need, how fast you’ll need them.  

Having that baseline understanding of your business is critical. But this can be a very difficult task for large organizations—especially those working with multiple vendors for their sourcing and/or payroll.  

The key there will be getting an expert analysis of your program that will identify where you can streamline and find efficiency, like Raise did with a leading Western Energy provider.  

Identify Mission-Critical vs Nice-to-Have Roles 

When revenue flows like water to the sea, it’s easy to hire your way out of problems.  

But when things are tight and you’re not sure what’s coming next, it’s time to channel your inner beaver and build some dams.   

Once you understand the fundamentals of your business, and the connection between your delivery and your labour, you’ll have a much better idea of what hires can wait until next year and which ones need to happen yesterday.  

Most businesses will know when they’re missing something truly important, like a server without a chef. But what about the Maître d’? The bussers?  

They grey area can be immense—your ability to sift through and come up with a strong list of priorities can make a huge difference to your organization. It can also give you goals and a trajectory for your business, as you check off critical hires and  start planning for expansion into your nice-to-haves.  

Outsource, Outsource, Outsource 

The best kind of risk for your business is the kind you can pass on to someone else.  

Outsourcing parts of your hiring—whether sourcing, payroll, or direct sourcing—insulates you against sudden and dramatic shifts. If your business contracts and layoffs are unfortunately needed, your recruitment partner takes care of the details with no additional burdens on you.  

If you need to scale up quickly, an experienced partner will have the people, process and tech to make that happen quicker than you’d be able to manage on your own.  

Outsourcing provides speed, efficiency, and a straightforward relationship with your workforce that is essential in times of uncertainty.  

Wrap 

You can’t plan for everything. Getting things right in uncertain times will always be a mixture of luck, smarts, and preparation.  

What you can do is stay agile by hiring a flexible workforce that includes contract and outsourced workers. You can do a deep dive on your business needs and forecast your critical hires in the short and medium-term.  

But most importantly, you can work with a partner that has experience in your industry like Raise, who is able to provide oversight and guidance for your workforce needs.  

The post Hiring In Uncertain Times appeared first on Raise.

In 2025, we chose to take a more focused approach to our grant by supporting three exceptional organizations whose missions deeply align with our values. While the number of recipients varies year to year, our commitment remains the same: to invest in bold, community-rooted initiatives that are driving meaningful change. This year’s recipients represent diverse communities and challenges, but all share a powerful commitment to building more inclusive and equitable futures.

We are incredibly proud to be working alongside these organizations and to share in their impact.

Autism Society of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB)

Operating in Northern Alberta, the Autism Society of the RMWB is a vital lifeline for individuals and families living with autism. Their work goes far beyond support groups and awareness campaigns they are shaping meaningful pathways to inclusion, employment, and independence for people of all ages.

Our grant is helping support their Youth Employment Skills Program, a locally delivered initiative that prepares neurodiverse youth for workplace participation through mentorship, workshops, and community partnerships. This investment ensures that more young people on the autism spectrum have the chance to explore careers in safe, supportive environments.

You can learn more about their approach on their Employment Supports page.

ComIT

ComIT is on a mission to remove barriers to the tech industry through free, high-quality training and mentorship for underserved populations particularly Indigenous learners, newcomers, and those facing socioeconomic exclusion.

With this year’s grant, we are supporting ComIT’s Employment Empowerment Initiative, which connects graduates of their free programming bootcamps with job placement support and interview coaching. In a field often gatekept by formal education and access to networks, ComIT is working to ensure that talent—not access—defines success.

Northern Journalism Training Initiative (NJTI)

The Northern Journalism Training Initiative (NJTI) is creating space for Indigenous and northern voices in Canadian media one story at a time. Through immersive training and mentorship, they equip young journalists with the tools and confidence to report with nuance, cultural context, and care.

Our grant is supporting NJTI’s “Voices from the Land” program, which offers paid reporting placements, media skills training, and portfolio development for Indigenous youth across the North. Journalism has the power to shape narratives—and NJTI is ensuring those narratives include the voices that have long been pushed to the margins.

We’re honoured to support these incredible organizations and look forward to walking alongside them in the year ahead. Each partnership represents a shared commitment to breaking down barriers, uplifting underrepresented voices, and creating pathways to meaningful work. We can’t wait to see the impact they’ll make.

Want to see who we’ve supported in the past?

View 2024 Recipients | View 2023 Recipients | View 2022 Recipients

The post The Meaningful Work Foundation Announces 2025 Grant Recipients Announcement appeared first on Raise.

Spotlight on Regional Events

Houston, Texas
In Houston, Raise team members volunteered at Manna House Third Ward Food Pantry—supporting frontline food distribution efforts that serve individuals and families facing food insecurity. By jumping into the intake process, helping on the assembly line, and engaging directly with the community, the team contributed to a mission that brings dignity and support to those who need it most.

Calgary, Alberta
Our Calgary team partnered with The Mustard Seed, a long-standing organization focused on housing, mental health, and emergency supports. Volunteers prepared and served meals for over 400 guests, gaining firsthand insight into the challenges surrounding poverty and homelessness in the region—and the importance of responsive, community-based care.

Greater Toronto Area (GTA)
In the GTA, Raise employees took part in several volunteer projects with local nonprofit partners:

• At Safety Net Charities, volunteers sorted clothing and essentials for families experiencing financial hardship.
• With Oakville Green, teams helped restore local ecosystems by removing invasive plant species.
• At Furniture Bank, staff assembled and refurbished home goods for individuals transitioning out of crisis.
• In Blueberry Fields, volunteers supported spring planting and garden prep—helping a community grow from the ground up.

These efforts reflect Raise’s broader commitment to supporting resilient, inclusive communities through hands-on action.

Accra, Ghana
Raise Ghana led a coastal clean-up in the Jamestown fishing community, addressing ocean pollution while supporting local livelihoods. The team’s work advanced UN Sustainable Development Goals related to climate and marine ecosystems, and a follow-up donation helped equip the community for future shoreline maintenance.

India
In India, Raise employees took part in several volunteer projects:

• In Kolkata, Raise supported the Barasat Swimming Centre in improving safe access to facilities for women and children, while also donating learning materials for local schools.
• In Bangalore, a Raise-sponsored summer camp brought structured, joyful activities to students from Maruthi Vidyalaya, creating space for creativity and connection.
• In Mumbai, employees spent the day with residents at a senior living facility, serving meals and spending quality time with elders and their caregivers.
• In Vadodara, employees visited the Arpan Center for Children with Multiple Disabilities, spending a joyful day singing, dancing, and connecting through shared performances.

Virtual Participation with Zooniverse
For team members unable to join in person, Raise provided a virtual volunteering option through Zooniverse. Dozens of participants contributed to real-time research projects across environmental science, biology, and history—showing that meaningful impact doesn’t always require being on-site.

Why This Matters

At Raise, B Corp certification is more than a label. It reflects how we hire, how we lead, and how we show up for our communities. B Corp Day 2025 wasn’t about checking a box—it was about doing the work. And thanks to our global teams, that work made a real difference.

B Corp Day may just be a few days across our business, but the work reflects Raise’s year-round focus on people, community, and performance. As outlined in our stewardship page, we believe businesses have a responsibility to support their communities—not just through words, but through direct action.

Whether planting trees, serving meals, or cleaning shorelines, our teams exemplified the kind of leadership that B Corps are known for: practical, collaborative, and rooted in local impact.

Want to see our teams in action?

Follow Raise on LinkedIn for highlights and photos from B Corp Day—and stay connected as we continue making a difference.

As we move forward, we carry this momentum with us—into every partnership, every placement, and every local initiative. We’re proud to be a B Corp, and proud of our people for bringing our purpose to life.

The post Raise Celebrates B Corp Day 2025 appeared first on Raise.

But that’s not the world we live in.

Instead, we have a job marketplace populated with an unknown number of bad actors. People who are trying to get jobs not because they want to work for you, but because they want to take advantage of your business.

• They could be trying to get paychecks without doing any work
• They could be someone unqualified who is hoping to fake it until they make it
• They could be a cyber-criminal trying to get access to your systems in hopes of stealing and distributing sensitive data.

Bu no matter the reason, it’s more important than ever to make sure candidates are who they say they are. Part of our approach involves advanced technology capable of screening out bad applicants by testing skills rather than resumes (check out SkillsProject to learn more!)

But there is still plenty you can do to spot fake applications before you even get close to hiring. Here are some of the things Raise looks for when trying to find fake job applicants:

Is their experience too good to be true?

When you post a job you always hope for the perfect candidate—someone who has the skills, the experience, the education, all wrapped up in a nice looking, professional, well-written resume.

But what if it’s too good to be true? Sometimes you can look at a resume that should be a slam dunk, but something seems off—especially if they have everything you’ve asked for and then some. This would be a good sign that the candidate is exaggerating or fabricating qualifications and experience.

Many legitimate candidates will use AI to help tailor their resumes and cover letters. And in those cases, you’ll find candidates using the wording of your job postings. After all, you’ve asked them to demonstrate their skills and experience in a certain way, so getting AI to help makes sense.

But it can also start looking suspicious. If there are no differences between the experience they have and what you’ve asked for it could be a red flag.

Many fake resumes will sound and look alike as well. If you see a handful of resumes that have the same format, same bolded keywords, there is a good chance they’re fake.

We’ve also found that many fake resumes will often use the same companies over and over—if you’re noticing a trend on resumes you think could be fake, keep an eye out for those companies later.

Is their work experience (including timing and locations) suspicious?

Because they are being generated by AI, fake resumes will often have trouble being consistent in the way that people usually are.

For example, most workers tend to stay in the same areas over a period of years. Yes, people move from time to time, but mostly they have good reasons to move, and do so only when necessary.

An AI resume might not be paying attention to those details—they could have someone live in 4 different cities and 3 different countries in 3 years. Or they could have people switching between small, medium and large businesses at random. Maybe even in different industries.

Same with education. If someone completed school in April, what are the odds they started a job across the country a month later? It’s almost impossible.

It’s always a good idea to prod applicants on these sorts of things in interviews. If they work for a company that your company has worked with, ask if they could get a referral from a colleague—fake applicants will be unable and unwilling to discuss specifics of past employers, especially if it might involve evidence of their employment.

Some companies on resumes might not even be real—fake companies are the kind of “hallucination” that might get put out by an AI generator. Obviously you won’t be able to easily find evidence of every company—but it’s the sort of red flag that might prompt you to ask pointed questions in the interview or phone screen.

Are there any mistakes or errors?

Some errors will indicate a fake resume while others could point to it being real.

For example, spelling errors/typos aren’t typically made by AI, which would indicate that a person wrote (or at least edited) the content.

Alternatively, errors such as having 5 years of experience in a technology that has only existed for 2 years is suspicious. AI generators might get over eager and lie about people’s experience.

A well-crafted AI resume will probably be indistinguishable from the real thing—but you can still catch people who aren’t putting maximum effort into the process (and especially people translating from another language).

Is there a LinkedIn profile attached?

Not every candidate will have a profile on LinkedIn, but in conjunction with other red flags this can be suspicious.

If they do have a profile, check how many connections they have, and how much detail there is on their work experience.

If there are some inconsistencies between their resume and their profile, or the profile seems very bare bones/thrown together quickly, it could be the sign of a fake candidate.

Wrap

Most jobs will get all sorts of applicants: qualified people, unqualified people, and everybody in between.

With how easy it is to create AI applications, you’ll also get some fake applicants looking to sneak through. If your recruitment team knows the signs of fake applications, uses quality screening tools, and does a good job following up on inconsistencies, you’ll be in a good spot to protect your business.

Raise uses all of the latest technological innovations to protect our clients from fake applicants. If you’re interested in learning more about how Raise can help you hire better, check out our website.

The post How to Spot Fake Job Applicants appeared first on Raise.

Today, there are more job scams on the internet than ever before. People receive piles of random text messages from unknown numbers offering work; they see suspicious looking job ads, even on legitimate platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn; and sometimes they get contacted by folks claiming to be recruiters who aren’t. 

This is all bad news for honest people looking for a job, who have to be careful to avoid bad actors looking for their personal info or their banking information. And it makes looking for a job more time intensive and stressful.  

But it’s also a huge problem for people in HR and the staffing industry. 

That’s because once enough fake jobs and job offers show up, candidates stop trusting the platforms and channels they used to use for jobs. And without trust, candidates are less likely to apply, meaning fewer applications, and fewer quality applications for open roles.  

So even if you are offering a legitimate job over SMS to a candidate they might just ignore it because it if it looks like every other fake job offer they receive.  

After all, who has the time to follow up on every job invitation they get? If 8/10 of them are fake, no one has time or attention for the occasional real job that comes through. 

Today we’re looking into this problem in detail, starting with candidate behaviour.  

What do candidates do when they see a suspect job ad?  

We recently ran a poll on LinkedIn to find out. We got over 250 respondents, and you can take a look at it here.  

We found that 2 out of 3 job seekers will just skip applying if a job ad looks suspicious, while 1 in 4 will check the employers website. And 2% of respondents would consider contacting the company directly when they see a suspicious ad.  

And if the jobs are fake, that’s great—most candidates are ignoring suspicious postings OR checking the company website.  

But there’s something worrying here too, insofar as sometimes candidates may mistake real job ads for fake ones. At Raise, we get regular inquiries about our job ads and recruiters from candidates trying to verify their authenticity. And if only 2% of candidates try confirming job ads, that means for every candidate that verifies an ad, there could be dozens or hundreds of people who skip it incorrectly, assuming it is a fake.     

The impact on candidates 

Here’s what one Reddit user had to say about a scam job offer someone posted: 

“I’ve gotten this exact text with a different company name. So scammy. Worrying still, I’ve gotten others with role titles I have applied for but they do the scammy things like being from “robert”, and being from a company not mentioned in the job posting (I keep track). They even use an email address name@business.com, but it’s tricky to find out if the business is even legit. They’ll have a website and everything. I spend as much time vetting legitimacy of ads and responses as I do finding and applying. These have all come off of LinkedIn lately, so I’ve abandoned them as a source. I even filed a report with LinkedIn explaining the scammy activity I’ve wasted time on, and they replied by closing the case with an automated message that I should be only flagging each post or company in their post or company page.” 

This is just one example, but it shows some of what candidates are feeling when they apply to online jobs today. It is so easy for a user to abandon a platform, or company, or channel if they think it is suspicious—importantly, most applicants will never verify whether or not a job is real or fake—they’ll just move on to something more trustworthy.  

Again, from the candidate’s perspective, this makes a lot of sense. Think about the friction candidates now experience when job seeking online: 

1. Risk of giving away personal information to bad actors 
2. Competing against hundreds or thousands of other applicants, including from AI generated resumes with fake qualifications 
3. No feedback on how or why they don’t get interviews 
4. Getting added to email campaigns or job alerts that may or may not be relevant to them  

It’s so much easier to skip something even remotely suspicious than figure out if it is legit or not. Which makes it really important to show candidates that they can trust your company. 

What can you do about it? 

It’s still possible to source quality talent online, but there is no question the landscape is changing. From both the employer and candidate perspective, trust and legitimacy are the most important thing. Anything you can do to show candidate’s you’re sharing a legitimate opportunity is key. 

Here are a few steps you can take to improve your online talent searches: 

1. Make sure your job ads look credible and legitimate—include branding elements like logos whenever possible 
2. Lead candidates back to your career site from job boards where possible 
3. Include a contact number and disclaimer at the end of your job ads, telling people where they can verify your job posting 
4. Consider creating a blog or web page detailing how and why your company is legitimate. Many jobseekers will try googling “is company X legit” when they are unsure about a job opportunity. You may be able to capture that traffic on your website and convince them you are the real deal.  

Wrap 

With new technology comes new challenges, but also new opportunities. While it can be hard to convince candidates that your company is legitimate, it is also a chance to build connection and trust for your brand.  

The best part? If you can appear legitimate and credible to your candidate audience, it could give you a big edge when it comes to attracting talent compared to your competitors.  

The post How Scam Jobs Could be Impacting Your Recruitment appeared first on Raise.

Not long ago, payroll was done by hand. Can you imagine? Reams of paper in filing cabinets, punched timecards, and handwritten paychecks. They probably even stamped and mailed everything by hand too. My Goodness.  

Of course they didn’t have much choice—payroll is an essential function, and while we have the luxury of all sorts of technology to get the work done, that wasn’t always the case.  

Even today, some payrollers are still doing manual inputs into Excel sheets—a practice that will soon seem just as antiquated as ink on paper seems to us today.  

And for the most part, all of this advancement hasn’t changed much for workers—sure things are a bit more accurate, and maybe a bit more timely on average, but payroll is still just payroll (it’s not as if they’re getting paid before payday!).  

And so it’s worth asking— 

• How has technology changed the world of payroll, and how can companies keep up with those changes for a rapidly evolving workplace? 

• How do you adapt to more remote workers, and more employees in different countries, each with different legal considerations? 

• What is going to happen with casual and gig worker whose employer is basically an application on their phones?    

The State of Payroll—2025  

Prior to the extensive use of automation, there were practical limits that companies had to run up against when trying to payroll large amounts of people.  

If you were going to payroll 10,000 people, you needed to make sure there were an adequate number of customer service reps, with an adequate number of phones, to solve issues when something inevitably goes wrong on payday.  

Ditto for processing payment—it used to be that you would need a sizable team, all working in the same office, in order to process all those checks and benefits and expenses on time. And more workers on your payroll meant more team members, bigger offices, and more computers and phones.  

In the last 5-10 years though, many of these limits have been removed, and businesses are finding massive efficiencies and a newfound ability to scale quickly. Platforms that can be used from workers’ phones (like the Raise app) allow workers to do much of the work of payroll themselves, without being bottlenecked by the size of your payroll department.  

Add in automations that scan your payroll database for errors and inconsistencies, and all of a sudden those 26/year, caffeine fueled all-nighters for your payroll team start seeming a lot more manageable—with technology doing much of the heavy lifting, there is less of a burden on humans to do piles and piles of manual work (like data entry) for a looming and inflexible payday deadline.   

The Rise of 3rd Party 

About 12% of companies outsource payroll, and within certain industries that number is much higher. The benefits of using a vendor to handle your payrolling needs really depends on the complexity of those needs.  

With a small workforce limited to one or two countries, running payroll internally can make sense. There’s very little risk to employers because the processing volume is manageable—any exceptions that could cause compliance risks, like Independent Contractors, T4s and W2s can be handled case by case (provided you’ve got someone on the team who understands the difference!).  

But in today’s workforce, with large amounts of remote workers in various jurisdictions, and a greater reliance on technology to manage the size and complexity of payroll projects, it starts looking a lot riskier. For small or medium businesses in particular, misclassification and consequent lawsuits could be a huge problem. And rather than create internal compliance teams, more and more employers are starting to look at outsourcing their Payroll and Employee of Record EOR)/ Agent of Record (AOR) services.  

A quick look at the gig economy illustrates why this is such a big deal right now. You’ve probably seen some of the news about classifying gig workers, since in some ways they work like employees and in other ways they don’t. 

And because so much of the typical HR function of Uber and the like are run primarily through tech rather than people, there are some pretty big gaps between automation and customer service for folks who need it. Just ask the lady who’s Uber accidently drove off with her 5 five-year old, and was told that Uber wouldn’t provide contact info for driver without a standardized form submission.   

It’s worth noting that many of these issues stem from a conscious decision that businesses are making—trying to reduce the costs of payroll and EOR burdens without making a consequent investment in trained and qualified support personnel.  

Blame my AI 

Systems that automate human processes can be highly exposed to risks without proper human oversight; and businesses that try to cut costs in an attempt to be competitive may do so at the risk of the companies that hire them.  

With increased capacity to onboard more contractors faster, comes more exposure to problems and risks—that contractors aren’t using self-serve systems correctly, or have found ways to game them; that your AI has encountered a situation it doesn’t understand and makes a critical error; or that your contingent workers are running into technical problems and are stuck waiting for hours for an artificially small, overworked support team.  

But at least so far, blaming your AI isn’t a real legal defence—employers are on the hook for any shoddy decisions their technology makes. Which means that for many businesses, programs that blend human and technical power are often best at scaling operations while mitigating risks.  

The costs of not being 100% sure 

Just last year, a Californian trucking firm paid out $4.2 million in a lawsuit for worker misclassification relating to ICs.  

While that’s a dramatic example, smaller scale lawsuits are quite common—as technology continues to alter the employer/employee relation in new and complicated ways, more and more businesses are finding value in outsourcing their EOR and payroll needs.  

If you’re interested in learning more about how a trusted payrolling partner can make a difference, check out Raise’s Payroll Services—whether you’re looking for ideas on how to organize your payroll, or starting to connect with vendors who can derisk your payroll operations, Raise is here to help you meet today’s payroll challenges.  

The post The State of Payroll appeared first on Raise.

The following four recommendations will help alleviate your stress and allow you to perform your duties better. Read on to find out how they can benefit your company. 

1. Experience Isn’t Always the Most Important Criteria

Hiring managers tend to rely on experience to help assess a candidate’s suitability. After all, experience is easily verified and looks credible on a resume. But people’s success at one company doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll thrive when they come to work for you. 

When qualified professionals start working at a new organization, they can still disappoint in a number of ways. They may clash with the specific rules and standards that their new employer follows, or they may not fit in with the overall office culture. Either way, experience on its own doesn’t necessarily guarantee a good fit. You need to examine other criteria when you consider hiring someone. 

Testing skills can be a great way to get beyond experience—if you’re hiring for technical roles, check out SkillsProject from Raise. 

2. Consider Your Culture

Culture is much more important than you may think. You can book interviews with the top talent in your industry, but they’ll still walk away if your office culture isn’t up to snuff. Culture is an extension of your company, so if you want people to believe that their work will excite and fulfill them, your office needs to reflect that. 

It’s important to remember that culture isn’t about having a cool office or a relaxed atmosphere. Increasingly, it’s not even just having a remote workplace where candidates have flexibility.  

Companies with the best culture simply make their employees feel valued and included. Remember that you can leverage your own employees’ job satisfaction to recruit new workers. A referral from a happy worker is the best way to build a rapport with a potential candidate. 

3. Talent Acquisition Should Be a Full-Time Concern

A hiring manager’s work is never done. Even if you’ve just hired the perfect candidate, you still need to go back out and find the next one. That’s why talent acquisition has become so important in the last few years. It represents a more proactive approach to hiring so that a company is never left with a vacancy it can’t fill. 

So even if you’re not filling immediate openings, you could be maintaining pools of prospective candidates. That way, you’ll be prepared if to fill a position immediately when one opens up. You can scout potential applicants through LinkedIn, university job fairs, and more. A successful talent acquisition strategy reduces the length and cost of your job searches, which leads to greater efficiency. 

4. Work with an Outside Recruiting Agency

Sometimes, you just can’t find the right candidate within a tight deadline. That doesn’t mean you have to settle for failure, though. Recruiting agencies can provide you with short or long-term employees depending on your specific needs. These firms maintain large databases full of qualified candidates, so you’re sure to find the perfect match no matter what your needs may be. 

The post 4 Steal-Worthy Tips for Hiring Managers appeared first on Raise.