HireBox Blog
Field-tested insights on hiring, candidate testing, sales recruiting and talent retention — from 61 articles by Patrick Valtin and the HireBox team.
October 2, 2026
TALENT ACQUISITION 2027: THE APPLICANT FLOOD IS COMING
For years, small businesses struggled to attract enough applicants. That challenge is changing — and the next hiring challenge won’t be finding applicants,…
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January 31, 2026
2026: THE TALENT CRISIS IS REAL — AND SMALLBUSINESSES ARE FEELING IT FIRST
The American labor market in 2025 looks deceptively stable on the surface. The official unemployment rate hovered around 4.3 percent in August 2025,…
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October 10, 2025
Why Small Businesses Have been Struggling to Hire in 2025
The American labor market in 2025 looks deceptively stable on the surface. The official unemployment rate hovered around 4.3 percent in August 2025,…
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December 6, 2024
Hirebox: A Proactive & disruptive Approach to Strategic Hiring Decisions
In the ever-evolving landscape of small businesses, where technology, economic conditions, and workforce expectations shift rapidly, one management…
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November 26, 2024
SMALL BUSINESS “STRATEGY 101”:
In the ever-evolving landscape of small businesses, where technology, economic conditions, and workforce expectations shift rapidly, one management…
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July 23, 2024
The State of Talent Acquisition in Mid-2024: Insights and Predictions for Small Business Owners
As we reach the midpoint of 2024, the landscape of talent acquisition for small businesses has undergone significant transformations, driven by…
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March 11, 2024
HOW TO BEAT “UNFAIR” COMPETITION FROM BIGGER CORPORATIONS?
In today’s dynamic job market, your small businesses is facing an array of challenges when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent. From…
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January 15, 2024
THE HIDDEN THREAT: The Perils of Neglecting Vital Soft Skills in Hiring
In the dynamic and competitive small business world, hiring the right employees is not just a matter of finding the most skilled or experienced…
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January 9, 2024
The Future of Talent Acquisition: Navigating Challenges in 2024 and Beyond
The world of talent acquisition is ever evolving, and in 2024, small business owners are facing a unique set of challenges as they seek to attract and…
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November 27, 2023
HARVARD STUDY: THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF SOFT SKILLS IN HIRING SUCCESS
While hard skills, such as technical proficiency and industry-specific knowledge, are undoubtedly important, an often underestimated and overlooked…
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November 13, 2023
Guardians of Growth: Why Small Businesses Must Champion Honesty Testing
When it comes to the dynamic world of small businesses, honesty isn’t just a virtue; it’s a strategic asset. In an era of rising corporate…
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September 4, 2023
Upholding Integrity in the Hiring Process –
In the dynamic landscape of the US market, where trust and integrity are pivotal, small businesses are facing an escalating challenge: the rising tide…
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August 14, 2023
Navigating Talent Acquisition Challenges in 2024
In the ever-evolving landscape of business, the next year will bring forth a new set of challenges in the realm of talent acquisition. In this article,…
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August 9, 2023
DEFINING SALES TITANS BEFORE YOU HIRE
In the realm of sales, where competition is fierce and success is measured in numbers, a league of extraordinary sales representatives has risen to the…
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August 9, 2023
NEED MORE SALES REPS?
Did you know that selling remains one of the least wanted positions on the employment market? Yet it also remains one of – if not THE most important…
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August 2, 2023
PERSONALITY VS SOFT SKILLS: Why You Need to Know the Difference
THE MEANING OF “PERSONALITY” Let’s start with that word, because it lies at the bottom of all confusions. The American heritage Dictionary provides a…
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June 22, 2023
The 10 Lessons I learned from evaluating, testing and selecting over 56,000 applicants in the last 10 years. Lesson 10
A few years ago, the Harvard Business Review (“HBR”) presented, in an article titled “The Value of Happiness”, much scientific evidence that employee…
Read article →June 22, 2023
The 10 Lessons I learned from evaluating, testing and selecting over 56,000 applicants in the last 10 years. Lesson 9
51% OF HIRING FAILURES OCCUR… AFTER THE HIRE So, you hired your best applicant and now you hope it will work out well for all. Well, your job as a…
Read article →June 13, 2023
The 10 Lessons I learned from evaluating, testing and selecting over 56,000 applicants in the last 10 years. Lesson 8
NEVER OFFER THE JOB BEFORE DOING THESE 3 THINGS You remember from lesson #4 that subjectivity is a deadly proposal in talent acquisition. From a…
Read article →June 13, 2023
The 10 Lessons I learned from evaluating, testing and selecting over 56,000 applicants in the last 10 years. Lesson 7
In lesson three, I mentioned that per our experience, 53% of resumes contain lies and over 30% of them contain gross lies. So, you definitely want to…
Read article →June 1, 2023
The 10 Lessons I learned from evaluating, testing and selecting over 56,000 applicants in the last 10 years. Lesson 6
What is the most important role of a CEO or business owner? You might be shocked by our suggested answer: You have got to be a great head hunter! One…
Read article →June 1, 2023
The 10 Lessons I learned from evaluating, testing and selecting over 56,000 applicants in the last 10 years. Lesson 5
In this lesson, we will address the subject of candidate ghosting. Ghosting is mostly known in online dating when your potential future half never…
Read article →June 1, 2023
The 10 Lessons I learned from evaluating, testing and selecting over 56,000 applicants in the last 10 years. Lesson 4
In this article, I will cover the second biggest mistake you definitely want to avoid when hiring people: Subjectivity. In fact, not doing your best to…
Read article →May 26, 2023
The 10 Lessons I learned from evaluating, testing and selecting over 56,000 applicants in the last 10 years. Lesson 3
The third lesson we learned is related to the biggest mistake one can make in selecting potential employees. Of all the mistakes we have made and…
Read article →May 18, 2023
The 10 Lessons I learned from evaluating, testing and selecting over 56,000 applicants in the last 10 years. Lesson 2
The second lesson we learned in the last few years is that if you do not make an active use of all available social media, you will be considered by…
Read article →May 16, 2023
The 10 Lessons I learned from evaluating, testing and selecting over 56,000 applicants in the last 10 years. Lesson 1
The 10 Lessons I learned from evaluating, testing and selecting over 56,000 applicants in the last 10 years.
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May 8, 2023
Hiring for Happiness:Why it is Key to Tackling Today’s Hiring Challenges
As the job market continues to be 100% candidate-driven, employers are facing unprecedented hiring challenges. One of the biggest challenges your…
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April 19, 2023
Bridging the Generational Gap
Looking to hire in order to support your business expansion? Learn how to understand, attract and retain young employees who, despite having a very…
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February 23, 2023
HIRING RIGHT: Why Some Employers Do Not Get It!
It is now obvious that we are currently experiencing the most competitive employment market in the last 40 years. So, how do you cruise above the noise…
Read article →January 24, 2023
2023: How to Detect Personnel Turnover and Reduce the Bleeding Away of Good Talent
Is there any way you could predict, detect AND reduce personnel turnover? This is a key question that needs to be addressed, as we enter 2023.
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January 9, 2023
Talent Acquisition: Why You Should Never Make a Hiring Decision Based on Hard Skills
Talent acquisition in the US will be even more challenging in 2023. You need to know what to expect in an increasingly bloody war for talent.
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December 20, 2022
Talent Supply & Demand in 2023: A Quick Outlook Part 3
Talent acquisition in the US will be even more challenging in 2023. You need to know what to expect in an increasingly bloody war for talent.
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November 30, 2022
Talent Supply & Demand in 2023: A Quick Outlook Part 2
Talent acquisition in the US will be even more challenging in 2023. You need to know what to expect in an increasingly bloody war for talent.
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October 27, 2022
Talent Supply & Demand in 2023: A Quick Outlook
Talent acquisition in the US will be even more challenging in 2023. You need to know what to expect in an increasingly bloody war for talent.
Read article →September 18, 2022
How Employers Must Deal with the Source of the Greatest Threat to Their Business Survival
Just as much as the success of your business depends on its personnel, so does its failures. According to the FBI, corporate theft is the fastest…
Read article →September 18, 2022
Why Employers Should Be Good At Detecting Soft Skills
Putting too much attention on hard skills and not enough on soft ones. The vast majority of employers don’t seem to get it or worse, tend to resist…
Read article →September 18, 2022
Before You Hire Your Next Sales Reps…
The following checklist should help you get prepared to be competitive! Go through it BEFORE you even start writing your ad. And avoid the mistake of…
Read article →September 18, 2022
Cyber-Sabotage & Talent Acquisition – Are your new recruits a great threat to cyber-security?
In the cyber universe, an insider threat is a malicious threat to an organization that comes from people within the organization, such as current or…
Read article →October 2, 2019
Why you need to hire more for soft skills and less for experience
“Many small business owners are focusing too much on selecting applicants primarily based on their hard skills,” explains Patrick Valtin. If you’re…
Read article →February 12, 2018
The Engagement Paradox
Dan Ariely – professor at Duke University – found that the common answer has to do with the internal state of the person. (1) The reality is that the…
Read article →February 12, 2018
2018 Sales Job Market Tough for Employers, Nirvana for Job Seekers
If you are looking to hire good sales people, you have to be willing to fight. But more importantly, you need to understand what will lead a good sales…
Read article →December 13, 2017
Talent Acquisition: The Integrity Paradox
Per the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, employee theft accounts for $50 billion in annual losses for businesses. In fact, 33% of bankruptcies…
Read article →November 6, 2017
EEOC Regulations & The Small Business World (Part 2)
Stop focusing on hard skills. As stated above, almost 50% of discrimination claims are retaliation cases. What it means is that in many cases,…
Read article →November 6, 2017
EEOC Regulations & The Small Business World (Part 1)
For example, few people knew that Steve Jobs personally interviewed over 5,000 applicants! Howard Shultz at Starbuck has always bragged about being…
Read article →November 6, 2017
TALENT ACQUISITION & RETENTION
A study by Hiscox found that U.S.-based companies have at least an 11.7 percent chance of having an employment charge filed against them. Hiscox claims…
Read article →July 17, 2017
How to Evaluate a Candidate’s Achievements During the 1st Interview
The successful hire is one with a mindset of achievement and results. There is a huge difference between achieving something and doing something.…
Read article →June 2, 2017
How to Be A Top Recruiter Using Marketing
HIRING IS MARKETING! Your challenge is NOT to find good people, it is to ATTRACT them. They are out there and there has never been so many. And if they…
Read article →May 30, 2017
10 Rules to Conducting Employment Interviews
It is all about reactions. What is more important than the answer to the question asked? It’s the reaction to the question! Always observe an…
Read article →May 22, 2017
The 10 Most Frequent Reasons Why New Hires Do Not Perform
50% of your success with new employees is dictated by your effectiveness in getting them to perform as fast as possible – not just for…
Read article →May 10, 2017
Can You Trust Resumes?
According to the independent investigative firm, Market International LTD, one-third of resumes contain material omissions or misstatements of one kind…
Read article →May 3, 2017
Why You Should Never Hire on an Impulse
A physical therapist loses her successful practice soon after she hired an over-emotional assistant who had been hiding her tendency to violence as…
Read article →April 18, 2017
Recruitment Statistics That Will Motivate You To Use Pre-Hire Screening
The most common effects of workplace violence incidents on employees include decreased morale, decreased sense of safety, decreased productivity,…
Read article →January 17, 2017
Hiring Sales Representatives: Focus on Behavior
It is estimated that direct replacement costs for a telesales employee range from $75,000 to $90,000, while other sales positions can cost a company as…
Read article →November 29, 2016
Personnel Selection: What Should Your Interview Evaluate First?
The successful hire is one with a mindset of achievement and results. There is a huge difference between achieving something and doing something.…
Read article →March 22, 2014
The Talent Of Attracting Great Talent
“I have participated in the hiring of maybe 5,000-plus people in my life. So I take it very seriously.” – Steve Jobs.
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September 7, 2013
The Buddy-Sponsor Factor
It is vital to show quite a lot of dedication with new employees, as they can be very sensitive to any lack of care or special attention. Poor…
Read article →September 6, 2013
Hiring Right: Why many employers have it all wrong
After sending this businessman over 25 very qualified applicants for an executive position, I realized I had made a terrible mistake: I did not suggest…
Read article →September 6, 2013
Harvard Business Review: “Your Approach to Hiring is All Wrong”
As a first reason for growing difficulties, HBR cites the lack of internal recruitment, which went from 90% in the seventies, down to 28% today. The…
Read article →September 4, 2013
Your Best Employer Branding Strategy for Ensuring Expansion and Stability is to Hire for Happiness
Knowing that over 90% of job seekers actually have a job and are passively looking for a better opportunity, the key marketing question in your search…
Read article →August 28, 2013
Sales Rep’s Crash and Burn Blamed on Employers’ Failure to Launch
Only 6% of newly hired sales reps exceed their employers’ expectations, while 48% will fail. The ensuing turnover for the average sales team runs at…
Read article →August 28, 2013
Sales Talent Failure to Launch: The 3 Most Damaging Reasons Why Your New Sales Hires Fail and Quit
“Every dollar invested in sales training returned $29 in incremental revenues, while continuous training gives 50% higher net sales per…
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