Blog
What Is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)? A Plain Guide for Business Owners
An applicant tracking system keeps every job, applicant and next step in one place. Here is how an ATS works, how it compares with email, spreadsheets and Indeed, and when your business needs one.
IdealTraits Wins Indeed’s 2026 Partner Award for Technical Excellence
IdealTraits won the SMB Technical Excellence award in Indeed’s inaugural 2026 Partner Awards, for early adoption of Indeed technology and for helping build and pilot Candidate Sync.
Your Next Great Hire Doesn’t Have to Be This Hard
Your Next Great Hire Doesn’t Have to Be This Hard The automotive industry has a hiring problem, and it is getting worse. According to the 2025 NADA Dealership...
Why Job Boards Alone Miss Great Candidates — And What to Do Instead
Why Job Boards Alone Miss Great Candidates — And What to Do Instead If your hiring strategy begins and ends with job boards, you're likely missing some of...
Where Candidates Drop Off in Your Hiring Process (And How to Close the Gaps)
Where Candidates Drop Off in Your Hiring Process (And How to Close the Gaps) You posted the job, applications came in, and then — silence. Sound familiar?...
Everyone Says They Have Great Company Culture: Here’s How to Actually Prove It in a Job Ad
Everyone Says They Have Great Company Culture: Here's How to Actually Prove It in a Job Ad Browse any job board and you'll see the same phrases repeated...
August 2026 Jobs Report – Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its August 2026 Report, showing a labor market that picked up noticeably after a sluggish summer. Job growth came...
Before You Screen: How to Decide What Actually Disqualifies a Candidate
Before You Screen: How to Decide What Actually Disqualifies a Candidate Not every applicant is the right fit and that's okay. But knowing what actually...
Stand Out in a Competitive Job Market
In a competitive job market, the best candidates have options. Here is how to get your job seen: post to 100+ job boards at once, sponsor the roles that are hard to fill and write an ad the right person recognizes.
Stop Losing Candidates Mid-Process
Ask a hiring manager where they lose candidates and most will point to the interview. In our experience, it is rarely the interview. Good candidates do not...
July 2026 Jobs Report – Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its July 2026 Report, showing nonfarm payroll employment fell by 23,000 while the unemployment rate held at 4.1...
Hear What Your Team Isn’t Saying
By the time an employee tells you they're unhappy, they have usually been unhappy for a while. The resignation feels sudden, but the disengagement behind it...
Why Your Recruiting Strategy May Be the Real Reason You Can’t Find Good Candidates
Why Your Recruiting Strategy May Be the Real Reason You Can't Find Good Candidates It's easy to point at the labor market when your job postings sit empty for...
Resumes Don’t Tell the Full Story: Why Personality Predicts Success
Resumes Don't Tell the Full Story: Why Personality Predicts Success When a candidate hands you a polished resume, it's tempting to treat it as the whole...
June 2026 Jobs Report – Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its June 2026 Report, showing a labor market that held relatively steady after a mixed spring. Job growth came in...
Why Candidate Quality Matters More Than Application Volume
Why Candidate Quality Matters More Than Application Volume It feels like a win when job postings flood your inbox with hundreds of applications. But here's...
Why Your Job Ads Aren’t Working and How to Fix Them in 2026
Why Your Job Ads Aren't Working and How to Fix Them in 2026 If "your job ads aren't working" feels like a broken record you're hearing too often, you're not...
From ‘Help Wanted’ to Hired: How to Streamline Your Hiring Funnel
From 'Help Wanted' to Hired: How to Streamline Your Hiring Funnel In today's competitive talent market, the difference between landing top candidates and...
May 2026 Jobs Report – Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its May 2026 Report, showing a labor market that regained some footing after months of slowing momentum. Job...
Ghosted Again? Why Candidates Disappear — and How to Stop It
Ghosted Again? Why Candidates Disappear and How to Stop It If you're tired of candidates vanishing without a trace, you're not alone. Candidate ghosting hit a...
Skill-Based Hiring: Why It’s Becoming the New Standard Across All Industries
Skill-Based Hiring: Why It's Becoming the New Standard Across All Industries The hiring landscape is experiencing a dramatic transformation. Traditional...
April 2026 Jobs Report – Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its April 2026 Report, showing a labor market that continues to hold steady but with noticeably slower job growth....
Should You Use AI in Hiring? A Simple Guide for Businesses
Use AI in hiring for the slow, repetitive work and keep a person on every decision. What AI does well, where it goes wrong, the AI hiring laws in NYC, Illinois, California and Colorado with their dates, and five tips to start.
March 2026 Jobs Report – Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its March 2026 Report, showing a labor market that remains stable with moderate job growth following February’s...
Collaborative Hiring: How to Get Your Team Involved Without Slowing Things Down
Collaborative Hiring: How to Get Your Team Involved Without Slowing Things Down The days of HR making hiring decisions in isolation are over. Collaborative...
How to Improve Your Hiring Process in 2026: A Step-by-Step Hiring Strategy
Fix the slowest step in your hiring first, then run every applicant through the same 6 steps. A hiring strategy for 2026 with a worked example and a quarterly check-in.
January 2026 Jobs Report – Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its January 2026 Report, showing a labor market that opened the year with modest job growth and a slightly lower...
The New Applicant Journey: How Candidates Discover Jobs in 2026
The New Applicant Journey: How Candidates Discover Jobs in 2026 The applicant journey in 2026 looks dramatically different from just a few years ago. Today’s...
How to Hire People Who Fit Your Team Culture in 2026
How to Hire for Team Culture Fit in 2026 Hiring qualified candidates is no longer the biggest challenge facing employers. In 2026, the real differentiator is...
Career Switchers: The Most Valuable Talent Pool in 2026
Career Switchers: The Most Valuable Talent Pool in 2026 The traditional hiring playbook is quickly becoming outdated. While many employers still prioritize...
December 2025 Jobs Report – Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its December 2025 Report, showing a labor market that continues to cool but remains relatively stable as the year...
The First 90 Days: How to Set New Hires Up for Long-Term Success
The First 90 Days: How to Set New Hires Up for Long-Term Success The first 90 days onboarding period is crucial for determining whether a new hire will thrive...
Employee Recognition Programs for Small Business: Low-Cost Ideas That Work
How to build an employee recognition program for a small business on a budget: five steps, 15 low-cost ideas and what Gallup’s data says makes praise work.
How Exit Interviews Can Transform Your Employee Retention Strategy
How Exit Interviews Can Transform Your Employee Retention Strategy When employees walk out the door, they take valuable insights with them, unless you capture...
Remote vs. Onsite Leadership: Essential Skills Managers Need for Each Environment
Remote vs. Onsite Leadership: Essential Skills Managers Need for Each Environment The modern workplace has fundamentally shifted, with remote and onsite...
Employee Surveys: How to Use Feedback to Improve Retention and Engagement
How small businesses use employee surveys to keep good people: the benefits, which HR surveys to run and how often, 15 retention survey questions and 5 steps to act on feedback.
Creating a Candidate Experience That Converts: A Roadmap From Application to Day One
The candidate experience journey runs from the job ad to day one. Here are the 6 phases, where applicants drop out in each, and what to fix this week.
IdealTraits and Indeed: Celebrating Our Second Year as a Platinum ATS Partner
For the second year, IdealTraits is an Indeed Platinum ATS Partner. See how the Indeed ATS integration works: Indeed Apply, candidate sync and status sync in one hiring platform.
Producers vs CSRs: Hiring the Right Role at the Right Time
Producers vs CSRs: Hiring the Right Role at the Right Time Insurance agencies face a critical decision when expanding their teams: should they hire producers...
Hybrid Work and Recruitment Strategies: Adapting to 2025 Trends
Hybrid Work Models and Recruitment Strategies: Adapting to 2025 Trends The rise of hybrid work models is reshaping recruitment strategies, offering employers...
How Behavioral Assessments Improve Sales Hiring and Team Performance
How Behavioral Assessments Can Transform Sales Team Performance Building a high-performing sales team requires more than just hiring candidates with...
Improving Employee Retention Through Strategic Onboarding in Auto Dealerships
How Proper Onboarding Reduces Turnover in Automotive Dealerships The automotive industry has long grappled with a significant issue: high employee turnover....
Mastering Insurance Customer Service: Essential Soft Skills & Best Practices
Mastering Customer Service in Insurance: Essential Soft Skills & Best Practices In the insurance industry, exceptional customer service is key to...
Modern Hiring Strategies: How to Identify Top Talent Beyond Resumes
Beyond the Resume: Modern Strategies for Identifying Top Talent In today's competitive job market, recruiting top talent requires more than just scanning...
How to Keep Employees Happy and Boost Business Success
How to keep employees happy: hire for fit, give managers weekly check-ins, pay fairly with a clear path to grow, act on feedback and cut busywork. With Gallup and Pew data.
How Flexible Work Arrangements Improve Employee Retention, Even for On-Site Teams
Flexible work arrangements keep people longer when they give employees control and predictability. Here are the options that work for shift, on-site and office teams, what the research shows, and how to roll them out without losing coverage.
How to Assess Work Ethic in Job Interviews Effectively
How to Assess Work Ethic in Job Interviews: A Comprehensive Guide A candidate’s work ethic is one of the most critical factors in determining their success in...
Employee Referral Program: How to Build One That Brings Hires Who Stay
An employee referral program asks your team to recommend people they know and rewards them when a hire stays. Here is what the research says referrals really do, 7 setup steps, bonus ideas, fairness rules and the numbers to track.
Budget-Friendly Ways to Boost Employee Engagement and Workplace Recognition
Boost Employee Engagement with Low-Cost Incentive and Recognition Programs Small businesses often operate under tight budgets, making it challenging to invest...
Insurance Customer Service Skills: 8 Soft Skills to Hire For and How to Spot Them
The 8 soft skills an insurance CSR needs, what each one looks like on the job, and how agency owners can spot them before hiring: interview questions, a 10-minute role-play and validated personality tests.
Remote Sales Team Training: How to Train a Distributed Sales Team
How to train a remote or distributed sales team: a 7-step plan, a 30-day onboarding table, a weekly coaching rhythm and the tools you need, backed by BLS and Gallup data.
Dealership Employee Retention: How to Cut Turnover in Every Department
Dealership employee retention starts with measuring turnover by department. See what to fix first in sales, service, parts and the office, plus 7 ways to keep the people you hire.
How to Stay Ahead of Recruitment Trends: 7 Strategies That Work
Seven recruitment strategies that keep you ahead of hiring trends, from fit-based screening to faster replies, plus a simple way to improve your hiring process one step at a time.
IdealTraits Featured Among Capterra’s Top-Rated AI Applicant Tracking Software
Capterra lists IdealTraits in its report on 7 top-rated AI applicant tracking software tools. Here are the 2026 numbers, how Capterra picked the tools and what customers say.
The Surprising Connection Between Work-Life Balance and Retention!
In today’s fast-paced work environment, achieving a healthy work-life balance isn't just a buzzword—it's a crucial factor for both employee satisfaction and...
One-Way Video Interviews: What They Are and How to Use Them
A one-way video interview lets candidates record answers to your set questions on their own time. Here is what the candidate sees, what Indeed offers, questions to ask and how to score the answers fairly.
Resume Screening Tips: 7 Pitfalls to Avoid and What to Do Instead
Resume screening goes wrong in 7 common ways, from the keyword trap to rejecting every gap. Here is what each pitfall costs you and a simple 5-step way to screen resumes effectively and fairly.
How to Set Up Job Alerts on Indeed, and What They Mean for Employers
How to set up job alerts on Indeed on a computer or the app, how to edit, pause or stop them, why alerts stop arriving, and what job alerts mean for employers who post on Indeed.
Mastering the Art of Job Ads: The Power of Keywords in Attracting Top Talent
Keywords are words or phrases that help us identify the specific requirements of a job. From an employer’s perspective, they pertain to what qualities an...
Referring Job Candidates: How to Give, Ask For and Handle a Good Referral
How to refer someone for a job, how to ask your team for referrals that fit, and how to handle a referred candidate fairly, with what the research says about referred hires.
Indeed Trusted Media Network: How It Works for Sponsored Jobs
The Indeed Trusted Media Network shows your sponsored jobs on vetted partner job sites, using the same budget. Here is how it works, how it differs from the Audience Network, how to turn it on and when it is worth it.
Managing Someone with High Thorough and Compliance
By: Mara Miller When it comes to your team's success, your role as their manager is vital. Business goals, priorities, training, communication, and...
Indeed Sponsored Jobs Integration: How to Sponsor, Track and Measure ROI
How to sponsor a job on Indeed from IdealTraits, which Sponsored Jobs metrics to watch in Indeed Analytics, and how to measure ROI as cost per qualified applicant and cost per hire.
Managing Someone with Low Thorough/Compliant
By Mara Miller When it comes to your team's success, your role as their manager is vital. Business goals, priorities, training, communication, and...
Asynchronous Interviews: How to Screen Candidates on Their Own Time
An asynchronous interview lets every candidate answer the same questions on their own time, in writing, on audio or on one-way video. Here are the 3 types, how to set one up in 6 steps, and questions to start with.
IdealCharities – K-9 Stray Rescue League
IdealCharities is an IdealTraits employee-driven charitable fund, used to support charities and organizations important to our employees. Participating...
Managing Someone with Low Motivation/Drive
By Mara Miller Good managers will always know how to keep their employees motivated and engaged. By understanding their team, managers can push them to their...
Managing Someone with High Motivation/Drive
By Mara Miller Great managers understand their employees' different personalities and know what motivates them - manage people in ways they can thrive. The...
Managing Someone with Low Persuasiveness/Convincing
By Mara Miller The best managers know what it takes to keep their employees motivated and engaged. The IdealTraits assessments assist in understanding a...
Managing Someone with High Persuasiveness/Convincing
By Mara Miller Effective managers understand their employees' unique personalities and know what motivates them. It's important to know your employees and...
Phone Screening Candidates
By Mara Miller As an assistant manager many years ago, I was introduced to the world of "recruiting and hiring." Me being me and a cocky person, I vigorously...
Managing Someone with Low Structured/Routine
By Mara Miller Effective managers understand their employees' unique personalities and know what motivates them. It's important to know what motivates...
IdealCharities – Be the Match
By Kellie Lail IdealCharities is an IdealTraits employee-driven charitable fund, used to support charities and organizations important to our employees....
Managing Someone with High Structure/Routine
By Mara Miller When it comes to your team's success, your role as their manager is vital. Business goals, priorities, training, communication, and...
Indeed Salary Estimates: How They Work and How to Post Your Own Pay (2026)
Updated October 2026. The short answer: If you leave pay off a job ad, Indeed adds its own salary estimate. Indeed builds it from the job title, location,...
IdealCharities – Multiple System Atrophy
By Kellie Lail IdealCharities is an IdealTraits employee-driven charitable fund, used to support charities and organizations important to our employees....
Understanding Mid-Range Personality Scores
By Kellie Lail So you've learned how to identify a candidate's strengths and areas that could use some improvement when you're looking at high scoring...
Understanding High Personality Scores
By Kellie Lail Are you reviewing assessment results, excited to see that your candidate has scored over 60 in some sections of their personality assessment?...
Understanding Low Personality Scores on the IdealTraits Assessment
A low personality score on the IdealTraits assessment is 30 or below on one trait. Here is what each low score means, why it usually pairs with a high one and how to use it fairly in hiring.
IdealCharities – T.A.P.S.
By Jamie Zananiri IdealCharities is back with 4 new organizations they're supporting in 2022! IdealCharities is an IdealTraits employee-driven charitable...
IdealCharities – Oxford Community Memorial and Victims Fund
By Jamie Zananiri On November 30th of 2021, our close neighbor Oxford was rocked by tragedy. 4 students had their lives cut short, six other students and a...
Indeed Sponsored Job Budget: How Much to Spend and How Indeed Sets It
How much to spend on an Indeed sponsored job: how Indeed sets its recommended budget, how daily and total limits work, the minimum, and a 4-step way to set yours.
Updates to Indeed’s Job Search: How to Get Your Job Posts Seen
Indeed job search has changed since 2021. Here is what Indeed launched for employers in 2025 and 2026, and how to write an Indeed job posting that gets seen, costs less and brings in better applicants.
IdealCharities: Outreach East
By: Jamie Zananiri IdealCharities is pleased to announce their 2021 Quarter 3 charity, Outreach East! IdealCharities is an IdealTraits employee driven...
Why Experience Isn’t Always the Most Important Factor When Hiring (and What to Measure Instead)
Years of experience barely predict how a new hire will perform, and they do not predict who stays. Here is what the research says, when experience really matters, and how to start measuring skills instead.
IdealCharities : Wounded Warrior Project
By Jamie Zananiri IdealCharities is pleased to announce their 2021 Quarter 2 charity, Wounded Warrior Project! IdealCharities is an IdealTraits employee...
IdealCharities : Detroit Dog Rescue
By Jamie Zananiri IdealCharities is pleased to announce their 2021 Quarter 1 charity, Detroit Dog Rescue! IdealCharities is an IdealTraits employee driven...