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Some observers say changes to MSR risk-weighting would have limited near-term impact and are unlikely to prompt banks to rush back. View the full article

Google is adding hover link pop-ups on desktop in AI Overviews and AI Mode, plus more prominent link icons within responses across desktop and mobile. The post Google Says Links Will Be More Visible In AI Overviews appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

iOS 26.3 was a decidedly small update. It introduced a new tool to transfer data to Android, and gave some iPhones the ability to hide precise location data from cellular networks. But beyond some other small changes and security patches, that's all there was to write home about. iOS 26.4 is a different story. The update, which is currently in beta testing, adds a number of interesting new features to compatible iPhones, especially if you're an Apple Music user. As with all beta software, iOS 26.4 is currently in testing, which means these features are subject to change at any time. It's possible some won't make it to the official release of iOS 26.4, while others could look different than they do now. While you can install the iOS 26.4 beta at any time by enrolling your device in the beta program, do so at your own discretion. I'd recommend using a secondary device to test this software if you can, but either way, make sure the device in question is fully backed up to a computer before installing the beta. Playlist Playground lets you generate playlists with AIThe latest trend in streaming services seems to be AI-generated playlists. YouTube Music recently rolled out the option, while Spotify offers a couple different takes on the feature. The idea is to tell the AI what type of music you want to listen to, whether that be a specific artist or genre, or just a concept or mood (e.g., "Make me a playlist for drinking coffee on a lazy Sunday morning"). Now Apple Music is the latest service to introduce such a feature. The first iOS 26.4 beta comes with "Playlist Playground," which works about how you'd expect. You tell Apple Music's AI what you want to hear, and it generates a playlist with 25 different songs. You can adjust the playlist if you don't like the result, as well as edit the title, cover image, and description. Apple Music gets a visual overhaul In addition to Playlist Playground, Apple Music's UI is also changing in iOS 26.4. You'll see new full-page artwork when listening to music, as well as redesigned albums and playlists that adjust their colors based on the artwork. Plus, there's now a "Concerts Near You" feature that helps you find shows in your area, based on the music you like to listen to. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. iOS 26.4 finally introduces end-to-end encryption for RCSRCS support is the best thing to happen to the iPhone in a long time. It makes texting Android users about the same as texting iPhone users, which has not been the case for most of iMessage's history. But while most of the standard perks rolled in with the update, including functioning group chats and high-quality image sharing, one key feature did not: end-to-end encryption (E2EE). Without (E2EE), your messages can be intercepted and read by those with the skills to do so. With E2EE, they cannot. It's a major security feature that's key to both iMessage and RCS, and one of the reasons you shouldn't send messages over SMS, as it doesn't support E2EE. Not all Android setups support E2EE over RCS, but it's still a bummer that the iPhone's Messages app doesn't either. That's now changing. With the first iOS 26.4 beta, Apple is now testing E2EE for RCS. You'll find the option in Settings, though Apple notes that not all devices or carriers support it. Someday soon, however, iPhone users texting Android users over RCS will be able to enjoy the added security benefits of E2EE. Apple changed how you choose wallpaper packs on iPhoneWith iOS 26.4, Apple changed the Wallpapers settings menu. Before, you could select from pre-downloaded wallpaper packs on your iPhone; now, you can choose which packs you want to download instead. It's a small change, but an interesting one at that. It seems Apple doesn't want to assume you're interested in all of its wallpaper options anymore, and instead would rather pick and choose the ones you want to try. Apple also made similar changes to picking watch faces in the Apple Watch app. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Your iPhone's Reminders now has an "Urgent" sectionIf you ever label reminders as "urgent" on your iPhone, you'll find them in a new location. Now, when you open Reminders, you'l find an Urgent section, alongside other options like Today, All, and Scheduled. macOS 26.4 introduces a Charge Limit feature on MacWhile this isn't an iOS feature, it is a key new change in the first macOS 26.4 beta. Apple is now testing a "charge limit" feature on Mac, similar to the charge limit feature that already exists on iOS; when your device is plugged in for a long period of time, it will limit how much the battery can charge to. You can set the cap as low as 80%, or as high as 100%. The idea is, by limiting the charge level, you reduce how often the battery completes a full charge cycle, which can prolong its lifespan and delay aging. The "younger" your battery is, the longer it'll last between charges, so enthusiasts like to use these features to maximize how much battery life they can get out of their devices. View the full article

An effective talent acquisition team is crucial for any organization aiming for success. It relies on diverse roles like recruiters and branding specialists who work together to align strategies with business goals. Continuous training in sourcing and candidate engagement improves efficiency. Furthermore, a strong employer value proposition and a focus on the candidate experience can greatly impact turnover rates. Comprehending these components can transform your approach to talent acquisition and set your organization apart in a competitive market. Key Takeaways An effective talent acquisition team aligns recruitment strategies with organizational goals, ensuring a cohesive approach to attracting top talent. Diverse roles within the team, including recruiters and branding specialists, enhance efficiency and candidate engagement throughout the hiring process. Continuous training in sourcing techniques and technology is essential for maintaining high recruitment standards and adapting to industry changes. Data-driven analytics track key performance metrics, enabling the team to refine processes and improve candidate experiences systematically. Strong employer branding and a positive candidate experience foster robust talent pipelines and reduce turnover rates. The Role of Talent Acquisition in Organizational Success Talent acquisition plays a pivotal role in driving organizational success, as it focuses on attracting and retaining top talent that aligns with the company’s goals and culture. A strong talent acquisition team directly impacts your organization by ensuring you maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace. Research shows that organizations with effective HR talent acquisition functions experience lower employee turnover rates, which translates to reduced hiring costs and higher productivity. By aligning recruitment strategies with business objectives, your talent acquisition services improve employee engagement and satisfaction, nurturing a positive workplace culture. Utilizing data-driven approaches, like tracking time to hire and candidate experience ratings, enables your talent acquisition team to refine hiring processes continuously. Organizations that prioritize building a world-class talent acquisition team often enjoy improved employer branding, leading to faster fill rates for vacancies and a more robust pipeline of qualified candidates. This ultimately drives long-term organizational success. Key Components of an Effective Talent Acquisition Team An effective talent acquisition team consists of various roles that work together to streamline the hiring process and improve collaboration. A well-defined recruiting team structure includes recruiters, coordinators, branding specialists, and analysts, each covering fundamental aspects of recruitment. This teamwork aligns recruitment strategies with business goals, ensuring that efforts reflect the organization’s culture and long-term objectives. Continuous training in sourcing, candidate engagement, and technology is vital for maintaining high standards in human resources talent acquisition. By utilizing data analytics, the team can track key performance metrics, like time to hire and candidate experience ratings, allowing for process refinement. Furthermore, incorporating an employer value proposition (EVP) into recruitment messaging helps attract top talent, clearly defining why your talent acquisition company is an appealing place to work. These elements collectively improve the effectiveness of your talent acquisition team, leading to better hiring outcomes. Candidate-Facing Teams: The Frontline of Recruitment In today’s competitive job market, candidate-facing teams serve as the frontline of recruitment, crucial for building and nurturing a robust talent pipeline. As a member of a talent acquisition agency or talent sourcing company, you’ll recognize the importance of these teams in optimizing the candidate experience. They maintain a steady flow of qualified candidates through strategic sourcing. Technology-driven coordination improves communication and streamlines logistics. Roles include sourcing specialists, recruitment coordinators, and employer branding professionals. Human oversight guarantees high recruitment standards during automating repetitive tasks. Business-Facing Teams: Aligning Recruitment With Business Goals As candidate-facing teams play a pivotal role in attracting talent, business-facing teams focus on aligning recruitment efforts with the broader objectives of the organization. These teams act as internal consultants, working closely with hiring managers to develop customized strategies that reflect specific business goals and organizational culture. Their comprehension of business nuances drives successful hiring outcomes, eventually supporting overall company initiatives. By integrating recruitment strategies with the organization’s culture, business-facing teams improve retention rates and employee engagement. They likewise engage in broader talent management practices, such as internal mobility, ensuring a holistic approach to workforce planning. Key Functions Impact on Recruitment Align with business goals Supports company initiatives Collaborate with hiring managers Customizes recruitment strategies Improve employee engagement Boosts retention rates Manage internal mobility Optimizes workforce planning This integration with candidate-facing and centralized functions optimizes the effectiveness of talent acquisition efforts. Centralized Functions: The Backbone of Talent Acquisition Centralized functions serve as the backbone of talent acquisition, streamlining various operations to improve recruitment efficiency across the organization. By managing technology, standardizing processes, and producing analytics, these functions elevate recruitment efforts considerably. Here are a few key aspects: Consistent Employer Brand: They maintain a uniform brand identity, ensuring messaging aligns with your organization’s values. Tailored Strategies: Centralized teams focus on early-in-career recruiting, crafting distinct marketing and assessment strategies to attract new talent. Strategic Executive Recruiting: They employ high-touch engagement tactics for in-house executive recruitment, crucial for attracting top-level candidates. Support for Teams: By assisting both candidate-facing and business-facing teams, centralized functions boost overall recruitment efficiency. Ultimately, these centralized functions are fundamental for creating a world-class talent acquisition organization, ensuring a cohesive approach to attracting and hiring the right talent. Understanding Employer Value Proposition (EVP) Comprehending your Employer Value Proposition (EVP) is vital for attracting and retaining top talent, as it defines what makes your organization unique in the competitive job market. An effective EVP highlights your unique benefits, including career pathways, compensation transparency, and organizational culture. Gathering feedback from employee surveys or focus groups is important for crafting an EVP that resonates with both current and prospective talent. By incorporating your EVP into recruitment campaigns, you improve the quality of applicants, as candidates are drawn to organizations that clearly articulate their offerings. Organizations with a strong EVP often experience lower turnover rates and higher employee engagement, nurturing a sense of belonging. Key Elements Benefits to Candidates Impact on Organization Career Pathways Growth opportunities Increased retention Compensation Transparency Trust and clarity Improved reputation Organizational Culture Strong community Higher engagement Importance of Data-Driven Recruitment Strategies Data-driven recruitment strategies are crucial for optimizing your hiring process. By tracking metrics like time to hire and cost per hire, you can make informed decisions that lead to better outcomes. Utilizing predictive analytics not just identifies bottlenecks but likewise helps you focus on the most effective recruitment channels, enhancing the quality of your hires considerably. Metrics for Success Even though many organizations rely on intuition and experience in their hiring processes, embracing metrics for success can greatly improve recruitment outcomes. By utilizing data-driven strategies, you can improve your hiring efficiency and make informed decisions. Here are some key metrics to evaluate: Time-to-hire: Organizations leveraging analytics can reduce this by 20%. Cost per hire: Tracking this helps identify budget inefficiencies. Candidate experience ratings: Surveys can improve satisfaction by up to 30%. Retention rates: Analyzing these can lead to a 50% reduction in turnover. Focusing on these metrics enables you to refine your strategies, resulting in more targeted recruitment efforts and higher quality hires over time. Embracing data is vital for long-term success in talent acquisition. Predictive Analytics Utilization How can organizations better anticipate their hiring needs and streamline their recruitment processes? By utilizing predictive analytics, companies can analyze historical data and trends to forecast hiring needs and identify potential talent shortages. This approach can boost time-to-fill rates by up to 30% by proactively sourcing candidates aligned with anticipated demand. Furthermore, data-driven strategies can improve candidate quality by 25%, allowing for precise targeting based on skills and past performance. Implementing predictive analytics tools can also reduce hiring costs by as much as 20%, focusing resources on high-potential candidates. In addition, these metrics enhance the candidate experience, providing insights into behaviors that lead to more personalized engagement throughout the recruitment process. Building a Positive Candidate Experience Creating a positive candidate experience is essential for attracting top talent and ensuring that candidates feel valued throughout the hiring process. Here are key elements to reflect on: Timely communication and feedback can reduce candidate drop-off rates by up to 40%. Streamlining the application process with user-friendly technology can decrease application time by 50%. Personalizing communication by addressing candidates by name improves their satisfaction and perception of your brand. Regular pulse surveys provide insights into candidate experiences, allowing for actionable improvements. Emphasizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives Emphasizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in your talent acquisition strategy is crucial for creating a competitive advantage in today’s diverse marketplace. Implementing DEI can increase your likelihood of outperforming industry peers by 35%. Furthermore, organizations with diverse teams are 70% more likely to capture new markets. Here’s a quick overview of key DEI strategies: Strategy Impact Inclusive job postings Reduces bias in candidate selection Diverse hiring panels Promotes fairer evaluation processes Regular DEI audits Identifies and corrects biased practices Focus on retention Reduces employee turnover by 20% Creates employee loyalty Improves job satisfaction and commitment Leveraging Technology and Innovation in Talent Acquisition As organizations aim to improve their talent acquisition processes, leveraging technology and innovation has become essential for staying competitive in the job market. Here are some key ways to improve your approach: AI-driven tools: Automate repetitive tasks, allowing you to focus on relationship building and strategic decision-making. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): Utilize advanced resume parsing to streamline recruitment, reducing manual evaluations and saving time. Candidate Relationship Management: Nurture talent pipelines to engage potential candidates, maintaining interest even before positions open. Data Analytics: Track metrics like time to hire and candidate experience ratings, providing insights that drive ongoing improvement. Incorporating these technologies not only boosts efficiency but also improves the candidate experience, positioning your organization as an attractive employer. Continuous Improvement and Adaptation in Talent Acquisition Processes To improve your talent acquisition processes, you’re going to want to embrace data-driven decisions and cultivate agile methodologies. Regularly analyzing metrics like time to hire and candidate experience can pinpoint areas for improvement, as you adapt to labor market changes guarantees you attract a diverse pool of candidates. Embrace Data-Driven Decisions Incorporating data-driven decisions into your talent acquisition strategy can greatly improve recruitment outcomes. By tracking key metrics, you can enhance your processes and align them with organizational needs. Consider these points: Monitor time to hire and cost per hire for efficiency. Analyze candidate experience ratings to boost satisfaction. Use analytics to optimize job descriptions with effective keywords. Align recruitment campaigns with DEIB initiatives to promote diversity. Establishing dashboards with tools like Tableau or Energy BI can provide real-time insights, allowing for informed decision-making. Regular analysis of recruitment data helps identify trends and bottlenecks, enabling you to adjust sourcing strategies and improve targeting. Embracing data-driven decisions guarantees continuous improvement and adaptation in your talent acquisition efforts. Foster Agile Methodologies Nurturing agile methodologies in your talent acquisition processes means prioritizing continuous improvement and adaptability. By regularly collecting and analyzing recruitment metrics, you can adjust strategies based on real-time data. Implementing iterative cycles, or sprints, allows you to test and refine sourcing techniques efficiently. Agile Practices Benefits Regular Feedback Improves candidate and hiring manager satisfaction Cross-Functional Teams Cultivates collaboration and responsiveness Iterative Processes Enables quick adaptation to market changes Embracing these agile frameworks helps you stay ahead of shifting labor market dynamics, ensuring you proactively address challenges in sourcing diverse talent. In the end, this approach leads to a more effective, integrated talent acquisition strategy. Frequently Asked Questions What Are the 5 C’s of Recruitment? The 5 C’s of recruitment are vital for effective hiring. First, you need the right Candidate with the necessary qualifications and experience. Next, evaluate Competency to guarantee candidates can perform required tasks. Compatibility is critical; candidates should align with your organization’s values and culture for better retention. Then, assess Capacity to see if they can grow within the company. Finally, consider Cost to maintain budget efficiency during the recruitment process. What Are the 3 C’s of Talent Management? The 3 C’s of Talent Management are Competence, Commitment, and Culture. Competence involves ensuring employees have the necessary skills through training and development. Commitment reflects how engaged and motivated employees feel, which can be improved by nurturing a strong employer brand and a positive workplace. Culture comprises the shared values and beliefs that shape employee interactions. Integrating these elements creates a cohesive strategy that improves performance, reduces turnover, and supports organizational goals. What Are the 3 P’s of Recruitment? The 3 P’s of recruitment are People, Process, and Performance. People refers to the team members, like recruiters and coordinators, who attract and select candidates. Process involves the systematic steps taken in recruitment, ensuring efficiency and consistency from job postings to onboarding. Performance measures the effectiveness of recruitment efforts through metrics, such as time-to-fill and candidate experience ratings. Effectively aligning these elements is essential for hiring top talent and improving overall organizational success. What Are the 5 Core Functions of Talent Management? The five core functions of talent management are workforce planning, recruitment, performance management, employee development, and succession planning. You start by analyzing current talent and forecasting future needs in workforce planning. Recruitment aims to attract candidates who fit your company culture. Performance management sets clear expectations and provides feedback. Employee development focuses on training to improve skills, whereas succession planning prepares for future leadership roles, ensuring your organization remains competitive and effective. Conclusion In summary, an effective talent acquisition team plays an essential role in organizational success by blending diverse roles and aligning recruitment strategies with business goals. By nurturing a positive candidate experience, emphasizing diversity and inclusion, and leveraging technology, these teams improve their efficiency and attract top talent. Continuous training and data analytics further support their adaptability and performance tracking. Finally, a well-structured talent acquisition team leads to lower turnover rates and contributes greatly to an organization’s overall success. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "What Makes an Effective Talent Acquisition Team?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

An effective talent acquisition team is crucial for any organization aiming for success. It relies on diverse roles like recruiters and branding specialists who work together to align strategies with business goals. Continuous training in sourcing and candidate engagement improves efficiency. Furthermore, a strong employer value proposition and a focus on the candidate experience can greatly impact turnover rates. Comprehending these components can transform your approach to talent acquisition and set your organization apart in a competitive market. Key Takeaways An effective talent acquisition team aligns recruitment strategies with organizational goals, ensuring a cohesive approach to attracting top talent. Diverse roles within the team, including recruiters and branding specialists, enhance efficiency and candidate engagement throughout the hiring process. Continuous training in sourcing techniques and technology is essential for maintaining high recruitment standards and adapting to industry changes. Data-driven analytics track key performance metrics, enabling the team to refine processes and improve candidate experiences systematically. Strong employer branding and a positive candidate experience foster robust talent pipelines and reduce turnover rates. The Role of Talent Acquisition in Organizational Success Talent acquisition plays a pivotal role in driving organizational success, as it focuses on attracting and retaining top talent that aligns with the company’s goals and culture. A strong talent acquisition team directly impacts your organization by ensuring you maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace. Research shows that organizations with effective HR talent acquisition functions experience lower employee turnover rates, which translates to reduced hiring costs and higher productivity. By aligning recruitment strategies with business objectives, your talent acquisition services improve employee engagement and satisfaction, nurturing a positive workplace culture. Utilizing data-driven approaches, like tracking time to hire and candidate experience ratings, enables your talent acquisition team to refine hiring processes continuously. Organizations that prioritize building a world-class talent acquisition team often enjoy improved employer branding, leading to faster fill rates for vacancies and a more robust pipeline of qualified candidates. This ultimately drives long-term organizational success. Key Components of an Effective Talent Acquisition Team An effective talent acquisition team consists of various roles that work together to streamline the hiring process and improve collaboration. A well-defined recruiting team structure includes recruiters, coordinators, branding specialists, and analysts, each covering fundamental aspects of recruitment. This teamwork aligns recruitment strategies with business goals, ensuring that efforts reflect the organization’s culture and long-term objectives. Continuous training in sourcing, candidate engagement, and technology is vital for maintaining high standards in human resources talent acquisition. By utilizing data analytics, the team can track key performance metrics, like time to hire and candidate experience ratings, allowing for process refinement. Furthermore, incorporating an employer value proposition (EVP) into recruitment messaging helps attract top talent, clearly defining why your talent acquisition company is an appealing place to work. These elements collectively improve the effectiveness of your talent acquisition team, leading to better hiring outcomes. Candidate-Facing Teams: The Frontline of Recruitment In today’s competitive job market, candidate-facing teams serve as the frontline of recruitment, crucial for building and nurturing a robust talent pipeline. As a member of a talent acquisition agency or talent sourcing company, you’ll recognize the importance of these teams in optimizing the candidate experience. They maintain a steady flow of qualified candidates through strategic sourcing. Technology-driven coordination improves communication and streamlines logistics. Roles include sourcing specialists, recruitment coordinators, and employer branding professionals. Human oversight guarantees high recruitment standards during automating repetitive tasks. Business-Facing Teams: Aligning Recruitment With Business Goals As candidate-facing teams play a pivotal role in attracting talent, business-facing teams focus on aligning recruitment efforts with the broader objectives of the organization. These teams act as internal consultants, working closely with hiring managers to develop customized strategies that reflect specific business goals and organizational culture. Their comprehension of business nuances drives successful hiring outcomes, eventually supporting overall company initiatives. By integrating recruitment strategies with the organization’s culture, business-facing teams improve retention rates and employee engagement. They likewise engage in broader talent management practices, such as internal mobility, ensuring a holistic approach to workforce planning. Key Functions Impact on Recruitment Align with business goals Supports company initiatives Collaborate with hiring managers Customizes recruitment strategies Improve employee engagement Boosts retention rates Manage internal mobility Optimizes workforce planning This integration with candidate-facing and centralized functions optimizes the effectiveness of talent acquisition efforts. Centralized Functions: The Backbone of Talent Acquisition Centralized functions serve as the backbone of talent acquisition, streamlining various operations to improve recruitment efficiency across the organization. By managing technology, standardizing processes, and producing analytics, these functions elevate recruitment efforts considerably. Here are a few key aspects: Consistent Employer Brand: They maintain a uniform brand identity, ensuring messaging aligns with your organization’s values. Tailored Strategies: Centralized teams focus on early-in-career recruiting, crafting distinct marketing and assessment strategies to attract new talent. Strategic Executive Recruiting: They employ high-touch engagement tactics for in-house executive recruitment, crucial for attracting top-level candidates. Support for Teams: By assisting both candidate-facing and business-facing teams, centralized functions boost overall recruitment efficiency. Ultimately, these centralized functions are fundamental for creating a world-class talent acquisition organization, ensuring a cohesive approach to attracting and hiring the right talent. Understanding Employer Value Proposition (EVP) Comprehending your Employer Value Proposition (EVP) is vital for attracting and retaining top talent, as it defines what makes your organization unique in the competitive job market. An effective EVP highlights your unique benefits, including career pathways, compensation transparency, and organizational culture. Gathering feedback from employee surveys or focus groups is important for crafting an EVP that resonates with both current and prospective talent. By incorporating your EVP into recruitment campaigns, you improve the quality of applicants, as candidates are drawn to organizations that clearly articulate their offerings. Organizations with a strong EVP often experience lower turnover rates and higher employee engagement, nurturing a sense of belonging. Key Elements Benefits to Candidates Impact on Organization Career Pathways Growth opportunities Increased retention Compensation Transparency Trust and clarity Improved reputation Organizational Culture Strong community Higher engagement Importance of Data-Driven Recruitment Strategies Data-driven recruitment strategies are crucial for optimizing your hiring process. By tracking metrics like time to hire and cost per hire, you can make informed decisions that lead to better outcomes. Utilizing predictive analytics not just identifies bottlenecks but likewise helps you focus on the most effective recruitment channels, enhancing the quality of your hires considerably. Metrics for Success Even though many organizations rely on intuition and experience in their hiring processes, embracing metrics for success can greatly improve recruitment outcomes. By utilizing data-driven strategies, you can improve your hiring efficiency and make informed decisions. Here are some key metrics to evaluate: Time-to-hire: Organizations leveraging analytics can reduce this by 20%. Cost per hire: Tracking this helps identify budget inefficiencies. Candidate experience ratings: Surveys can improve satisfaction by up to 30%. Retention rates: Analyzing these can lead to a 50% reduction in turnover. Focusing on these metrics enables you to refine your strategies, resulting in more targeted recruitment efforts and higher quality hires over time. Embracing data is vital for long-term success in talent acquisition. Predictive Analytics Utilization How can organizations better anticipate their hiring needs and streamline their recruitment processes? By utilizing predictive analytics, companies can analyze historical data and trends to forecast hiring needs and identify potential talent shortages. This approach can boost time-to-fill rates by up to 30% by proactively sourcing candidates aligned with anticipated demand. Furthermore, data-driven strategies can improve candidate quality by 25%, allowing for precise targeting based on skills and past performance. Implementing predictive analytics tools can also reduce hiring costs by as much as 20%, focusing resources on high-potential candidates. In addition, these metrics enhance the candidate experience, providing insights into behaviors that lead to more personalized engagement throughout the recruitment process. Building a Positive Candidate Experience Creating a positive candidate experience is essential for attracting top talent and ensuring that candidates feel valued throughout the hiring process. Here are key elements to reflect on: Timely communication and feedback can reduce candidate drop-off rates by up to 40%. Streamlining the application process with user-friendly technology can decrease application time by 50%. Personalizing communication by addressing candidates by name improves their satisfaction and perception of your brand. Regular pulse surveys provide insights into candidate experiences, allowing for actionable improvements. Emphasizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives Emphasizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in your talent acquisition strategy is crucial for creating a competitive advantage in today’s diverse marketplace. Implementing DEI can increase your likelihood of outperforming industry peers by 35%. Furthermore, organizations with diverse teams are 70% more likely to capture new markets. Here’s a quick overview of key DEI strategies: Strategy Impact Inclusive job postings Reduces bias in candidate selection Diverse hiring panels Promotes fairer evaluation processes Regular DEI audits Identifies and corrects biased practices Focus on retention Reduces employee turnover by 20% Creates employee loyalty Improves job satisfaction and commitment Leveraging Technology and Innovation in Talent Acquisition As organizations aim to improve their talent acquisition processes, leveraging technology and innovation has become essential for staying competitive in the job market. Here are some key ways to improve your approach: AI-driven tools: Automate repetitive tasks, allowing you to focus on relationship building and strategic decision-making. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): Utilize advanced resume parsing to streamline recruitment, reducing manual evaluations and saving time. Candidate Relationship Management: Nurture talent pipelines to engage potential candidates, maintaining interest even before positions open. Data Analytics: Track metrics like time to hire and candidate experience ratings, providing insights that drive ongoing improvement. Incorporating these technologies not only boosts efficiency but also improves the candidate experience, positioning your organization as an attractive employer. Continuous Improvement and Adaptation in Talent Acquisition Processes To improve your talent acquisition processes, you’re going to want to embrace data-driven decisions and cultivate agile methodologies. Regularly analyzing metrics like time to hire and candidate experience can pinpoint areas for improvement, as you adapt to labor market changes guarantees you attract a diverse pool of candidates. Embrace Data-Driven Decisions Incorporating data-driven decisions into your talent acquisition strategy can greatly improve recruitment outcomes. By tracking key metrics, you can enhance your processes and align them with organizational needs. Consider these points: Monitor time to hire and cost per hire for efficiency. Analyze candidate experience ratings to boost satisfaction. Use analytics to optimize job descriptions with effective keywords. Align recruitment campaigns with DEIB initiatives to promote diversity. Establishing dashboards with tools like Tableau or Energy BI can provide real-time insights, allowing for informed decision-making. Regular analysis of recruitment data helps identify trends and bottlenecks, enabling you to adjust sourcing strategies and improve targeting. Embracing data-driven decisions guarantees continuous improvement and adaptation in your talent acquisition efforts. Foster Agile Methodologies Nurturing agile methodologies in your talent acquisition processes means prioritizing continuous improvement and adaptability. By regularly collecting and analyzing recruitment metrics, you can adjust strategies based on real-time data. Implementing iterative cycles, or sprints, allows you to test and refine sourcing techniques efficiently. Agile Practices Benefits Regular Feedback Improves candidate and hiring manager satisfaction Cross-Functional Teams Cultivates collaboration and responsiveness Iterative Processes Enables quick adaptation to market changes Embracing these agile frameworks helps you stay ahead of shifting labor market dynamics, ensuring you proactively address challenges in sourcing diverse talent. In the end, this approach leads to a more effective, integrated talent acquisition strategy. Frequently Asked Questions What Are the 5 C’s of Recruitment? The 5 C’s of recruitment are vital for effective hiring. First, you need the right Candidate with the necessary qualifications and experience. Next, evaluate Competency to guarantee candidates can perform required tasks. Compatibility is critical; candidates should align with your organization’s values and culture for better retention. Then, assess Capacity to see if they can grow within the company. Finally, consider Cost to maintain budget efficiency during the recruitment process. What Are the 3 C’s of Talent Management? The 3 C’s of Talent Management are Competence, Commitment, and Culture. Competence involves ensuring employees have the necessary skills through training and development. Commitment reflects how engaged and motivated employees feel, which can be improved by nurturing a strong employer brand and a positive workplace. Culture comprises the shared values and beliefs that shape employee interactions. Integrating these elements creates a cohesive strategy that improves performance, reduces turnover, and supports organizational goals. What Are the 3 P’s of Recruitment? The 3 P’s of recruitment are People, Process, and Performance. People refers to the team members, like recruiters and coordinators, who attract and select candidates. Process involves the systematic steps taken in recruitment, ensuring efficiency and consistency from job postings to onboarding. Performance measures the effectiveness of recruitment efforts through metrics, such as time-to-fill and candidate experience ratings. Effectively aligning these elements is essential for hiring top talent and improving overall organizational success. What Are the 5 Core Functions of Talent Management? The five core functions of talent management are workforce planning, recruitment, performance management, employee development, and succession planning. You start by analyzing current talent and forecasting future needs in workforce planning. Recruitment aims to attract candidates who fit your company culture. Performance management sets clear expectations and provides feedback. Employee development focuses on training to improve skills, whereas succession planning prepares for future leadership roles, ensuring your organization remains competitive and effective. Conclusion In summary, an effective talent acquisition team plays an essential role in organizational success by blending diverse roles and aligning recruitment strategies with business goals. By nurturing a positive candidate experience, emphasizing diversity and inclusion, and leveraging technology, these teams improve their efficiency and attract top talent. Continuous training and data analytics further support their adaptability and performance tracking. Finally, a well-structured talent acquisition team leads to lower turnover rates and contributes greatly to an organization’s overall success. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "What Makes an Effective Talent Acquisition Team?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

If you use Google Chrome, you should install the latest update ASAP. Google has issued a patch for a high-severity flaw that has been actively exploited in the wild—the first Chrome zero-day in 2026. What the Google Chrome patch fixesThe latest flaw, catalogued as CVE-2026-2441, is a use-after-free vulnerability in CSSFontFeatureValuesMap, Chrome's CSS font feature implementation. A use-after-free vulnerability is a flaw in which an application attempts to use memory after it has been released back to the system. This type of bug allows attackers to execute code, escalate privileges, cause app or system crashes, and leak sensitive data. CVE-2026-2441 would allow "a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code inside a sandbox via a crafted HTML page." Essentially, this means malicious HTML content could run code inside a Chrome tab, extension, or plugin. As Malwarebytes explains, this is dangerous because attackers can see or modify whatever the isolated browser tab (sandbox) can access, allowing actions like credential harvesting and traffic rerouting—even if it cannot escape to impact the whole operating system. Google said that this vulnerability has been exploited in the wild but hasn't provided any specific details as to how. The discovery has been attributed to Shaheen Fazim. What Chrome users need to doGoogle released a Stable channel update on Feb. 13 with a patch for this flaw. The latest versions of Chrome are 145.0.7632.75/76 for Windows and macOS and 144.0.7559.75 for Linux, so you'll want to ensure you are up to date. Go to the Chrome menu and select About Google Chrome to check which version you're on. Chrome updates automatically when you close and reopen the browser, but if you don't do that regularly, keep an eye out for pending updates in the top-right corner of your browser window. Apply these updates immediately by tapping the three dots and selecting the first menu item. Chrome will need to restart to complete the update. View the full article

Teachers’ unions say regulators should look at private equity giant’s apparent ‘lack of candour’ View the full article

SuiteConnect 2026 in New York was packed with announcements, but one theme kept coming up in every hallway conversation: small businesses want AI that saves real time without sacrificing accuracy. In this interview, I sat down with Evan Goldberg—Founder and Executive Vice President of Oracle NetSuite—to unpack what NetSuite’s newest AI features are designed to do in the day-to-day reality of running finance, sales, and operations. Evan walked through how NetSuite is using AI to monitor trends and variances, catch anomalies early, and move businesses closer to a “continuous close” where your numbers are reliable every single day—not weeks after month-end. We also covered AI-powered bank transaction matching, narrative reporting that turns dense dashboards into plain-language insights, Customer 360 summaries for faster context in sales and support, advanced pricing tools to protect margins across segments, and the SuiteCloud Developer Assistant aimed at making customization and script maintenance easier for lean teams. Here is a transcript of the above interview: Leland McFarland All right, I’m here at Suite Connect 2026 in New York with Evan Goldberg, the founder and executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite. Thank you for coming on. All right, so I’m to start off with some questions about AI innovation and efficiency. So the release mentioned monitoring trends and variance. Evan Goldberg Thanks for having me. Leland McFarland and showing net income impact. How does that help an owner catch problems early like expense creep, margin compression, or even revenue? Evan Goldberg Yeah, well, I real time information about your business is critical in, you know, for companies that are moving really fast and things are changing in their environment really fast. And so one of the things that we’re really focused on is using AI to help catch anomalies quickly, to help you reconcile your accounts really quickly, just getting you that sort of continuous close. So you don’t just have best information about your business just at that one time, actually when it’s already outdated, know several days or weeks after the close, but really every single day you can rely on you run an income statement and it’s correct and it’s giving you that. Having accurate information every day is certainly the first element of being able to spot trends. Leland McFarland Yeah, definitely. What does detailed drill down into transaction data look like in practice? How quickly can a controller trace an anomaly from summary transaction to root? Evan Goldberg Yeah. Well, you know, it’s all happening right within NetSuite. It’s not an extraction of the data that it’s doing the analysis on. It’s that real-time data. So anything that it finds is linked directly to the actual transaction. And if you make a change, choose the recommended change, that’s updating your financials in real time. it’s kind of immediately you can see the impact. of changes that you make. again, it’s again about this sort of all one real time system, a single source of truth that you’re operating on and doing it in real time. Leland McFarland That sounds great. So many SMBs lose hours each week matching deposit fees and payouts. Where do you expect the biggest time savings are going to be coming from? Evan Goldberg I mean, you know, what we hear from our customers is they definitely spend a lot of time dealing with the bank and getting reconciliations correct and being able to know exactly what their cash position is. And that drives a lot of different things, like when you can make certain investments, when you’re going to be paying certain payables that you have, all that is driven by your cash position. So I think, you know, the manual sort of labor in maintaining your bank accounts is something that we’re really, really focused on. Leland McFarland So what are the most common bank reconciliation pain points you designed? this AI powered bank transaction matching for And how does a AI handle? Evan Goldberg Yeah. Well, again, there’s not sometimes not an exact obvious match between the transactions from the bank and the transactions in that suite. And so that’s where the AI can come in and figure out if multiple transactions were grouped together or other ways that there might be discrepancies. Again, the fewer that you sort of have to manually look at and try to understand the more the more time you’re going to save. And I think in the past, a rules-based approach could only do so much. AI isn’t always right, it is quickly able to find at least the potential answers, the potential matches, so you don’t have to dig through reports. And that’s a big time. Leland McFarland Yeah, and I can imagine not having to set up those rules, really nice, AI just does it, and it could get you 90 % of the way there, and then potentially also learn where it went wrong. Evan Goldberg mean definitely adaptability. These are learning systems. They should be learning every time you say this is the actual match. You should learn from that and the next time it will be. Leland McFarland Definitely. What controls are built in so small businesses can trust auto matching without increasing risk? Evan Goldberg Well, I mean the number one thing that’s built in is you know, have 43,000 customers So who are trying it on so many customers that we’re getting you know Massive experience to make sure it is doing the right thing. Just as we talked about We allow you to look you know, if there’s if there’s any question, you know We kind of let you look at it and and make sure you You sort of agree. So I think the human in the loop doing that at the right time, because obviously you don’t want a human in the loop all the time, that sort of erodes the benefit of AI. But having a human in the loop at the right time when there is some ambiguity or question is striking that right balance between automation and correctness. certainly we deeply understand how much our customers rely on NetSuite for accuracy. And that’s a guiding principle for us in everything we do. Leland McFarland All right, moving on to AI generated reports narratives. SMB owners often don’t have time to interpret dashboards. What kinds of reports will benefit most from AI narratives? Evan Goldberg Yeah, well, I mean, I think it’s the reports that are most connected to your business success. So certainly your sales reports are critical. Those are some of the first ones that we’re really been focused on improving and making more flexible and giving you this great sort of AI driven insight. And then on the flip side is your profitability. So is revenue the sales reports, is profitability with your income statement? That’s a critical one to understand. Your aging reports, again, that can be a lot of numbers. You have a lot of customers with a lot of invoices or you have a lot of vendors with a of bills that you’re paying. Being able to understand where your receivables are causing a problem. If you have a day sales outstanding that you don’t… ⁓ think is really where you want it to be or it’s above sort of the industry standard, you know, we can pinpoint that for you, but then also by analyzing these reports like the aging reports, we can help you identify where you may have opportunities to lower that DSL. Leland McFarland How do you ensure the narrative is grounded in numbers and not overconfident? What’s the best practice for reviewing approvals in a small team? Evan Goldberg Right. Well, narratives and approvals are sort of two different areas for us. mean, the narratives, again, we’re on this journey with our customers. We’re continually improving. are, again, running it with thousands of customers, getting their feedback. That’s how they’re going to get better and better. We think they’re already there starting pretty good. ⁓ And then on approvals, it’s a similar process to otherwise where we’re tuning the system to understand, certainly a simple thing is larger approvals need more scrutiny, may need more human in the loop. so there’s a tension here, again, between automation and trust and accuracy. And by testing these, ⁓ improvements carefully with a representative set of customers. That’s how we think we’re going to get that balance right. Leland McFarland Are there guardrails to combat like hallucinations or anything like that when it comes to the AI data and can we come up with these narrative reports? Evan Goldberg Mm-hmm. Yeah, that’s a great question. Again, we are not releasing these features without a substantial amount of testing to show that they’re working for customers. AI is a different type of technology that we’re all sort of getting familiar with in real time on the fly about how, first of all, to make sure that it is as accurate as possible to be able to ⁓ identify places where it’s not accurate. It’s just like having a human analyst. I’m sure all of us have experience where you ask someone for a report and they bring you the report and it’s not quite the report you expected or the numbers weren’t calculated the way you were going to expect them. They’re not perfect either. so we’re just trying to, but if we can greatly improve on the accuracy that you’re getting right now when you’re analysts to do this or an accountant to do this or whatever, then that’s gonna be a big plus and you’ll get the information faster and it often will be more comprehensive. Leland McFarland For small support and sales teams, what’s the simplest way to use role-based summaries to reduce handling time and avoid dropouts? Evan Goldberg Yeah. Well, I mean, these sales orders, for example, can be extremely complex. They have lots of items on them. Those items have lots of options on them. And, you know, if it’s for, you know, a lot of times it’s for a critical customer. So having AI be able to see, you know, the entire sales order, for example, and all the elements of it, and basically just give you checks. Have you done, you know, have you had a list? This item seems to be delayed. What are you going to do about it? And do that proactively. So for an individual salesperson managing a lot of different orders, AI can be sort of that helpful coworker that’s looking at all of them, looking at how they’re proceeding and making sure they’re proceeding the way that you want them to. And again, you can continually sort of tune your helpful coworker and say, this is what I think is most important. This is what to look out for. And it’s going to be doing that 24 seven when you sleep. Leland McFarland I do love that aspect about it. It never sleeps. Evan Goldberg Hahaha. Leland McFarland All right, what does the new NetSuite Customer 360 add that a small business would actually notice day to day? Evan Goldberg Well, I think we’re just bringing more and more information from all different parts of the suite. mean, what excites me and I think our customers that have used it about Customer 360 is that NetSuite is a comprehensive system that deals with so many different aspects of your customer interactions from the moment they sort of come and ask to see your product or service and you give them a quote and then eventually you get the order, but then they’re You know, you have to fulfill the order you may have to support that customer. You obviously have to collect the cash. mean, being able to see that everywhere. And so what we’re doing with customer 360 is continuously bringing more and more of that information right at your fingertips and using AI. The more the information there is, the harder it is to sort of page through everything. So that’s where AI summaries can be so critical because they can hone in on What are the key things that maybe are different about this customer or that are worthy of your attention? So you don’t have to scroll through every single screen because there is a lot of data there. Leland McFarland All right, so moving on to AI assisted advanced pricing. Small businesses struggle to maintain margin consistency across channels and segments. How does AI assisted advanced pricing help ensure the right price shows up on every single quote? Evan Goldberg Well, we were really excited to show that vision today. Advanced pricing just gives you fine grain control. NetSuite’s always had sophisticated pricing where you can price by customer segment. But now we’ve added the ability to do cost plus pricing, which really maintains that price over the long term to maintain your margin. AI can help you to design your pricing strategies. We’ve been showing where AI can monitor competitive pricing and alert you and then help you develop promotional pricing over particular dates that might help you with competitors. You’re right that pricing is a strategic asset to not only help you be as profitable as you can be, but also grow your revenue and get new customers in the door as effectively as possible. Leland McFarland All right, the release mentioned pricing by date range, assortment, and customer segment. What’s a practical SMB use case for this kind of feature? Evan Goldberg Well, everybody wants to make a price that’s right for that customer based on their profile and ultimately sort of, a lot of different attributes for different customers. So customer specific pricing on the other hand is, can be complex to maintain. The more fine grained you make it, you could have a price list for every single customer and have every single one be different. That’s a lot to maintain. AI can just help you. ⁓ be more fine-grained about pricing and yet not have to do a lot of manual pricing. And that’s just gonna, again, help increase your sales, but also help maintain great profits. Leland McFarland All right, moving on to sweet cloud developer assistant. Many SMBs have one admin or rely on partners. How does developer assistance reduce the cost and time of customization and integration without increasing risk? Evan Goldberg No, that’s a great point. We try to make it as easy to customize NetSuite as possible, but a lot of small companies have big ambitions to really make the system be very powerful, tailored specifically for them and their needs. so yeah, in the past, sometimes you can see that admin’s list of to-dos got very, very large. So it’s not like you’re going to replace that admin, but you are going to make that admin way more effective. go from idea of customization to execution in turbo speed, way, way faster than they ever could before. And that’s just going to help them be able to work down that list of enhancements that you want to make to your NetSuite instance and also help maintain them. Because again, AI will always be able to look at the things that it did months or years ago and help you fix them as you know. You have turnover in your IT department sometimes, have turnover in partners, but there’s sort of no turnover in AI, for lack of a better word. Leland McFarland And I know I’ve done the tech side of things and it can be daunting with the list of tasks and AI has been a big huge help. Evan Goldberg Yeah, and mean, it’s just that’s what it’s really about. mean, people spend an enormous amount of time working on urgent issues, but they have this big important list that they never seem to get to. And it’s again, it’s not about replacing those people, but having those people be able to spend more time on those important long term tasks that they never seem Leland McFarland Exactly. All right. Now on NetSuite EPM planning agent, SMBs want faster planning without hiring FP and A staff. What kind of questions can an owner ask in a natural language that produces immediate value? Evan Goldberg Right. mean, we, um, that’s a pretty, there’s a pretty deep examples there. mean, EPM is a very sophisticated product, uh, built for enterprises scale down to where it work for NetSuite. And one of the most exciting things about it now is even scale down. It’s, can be a daunting process, a product to adopt for NetSuite users. And so the more AI we’re building in, the easier it is to adopt the tool to set it up. have now a great, for example, account reconciliation. a setup assistant for EPM to just make it much easier to set up account reconciliation. I think one of the things we talked a lot about in AI is the ability to give you great answers or automate things, but there’s an equal capability to just help you implement and help relatively non-technical people take these sophisticated products and make them work within their business. So that’s sort of where we’re focused on. And it’s just going to be easier to get EPM up and running. in your company when you need that level of sophistication. Leland McFarland What’s a safe starter use you would recommend? Writing scripts, generating documents, when it comes to the sweet cloud developer system. Evan Goldberg That’s a great question. I think… I think it’s great for writing scripts, there’s no doubt about it. I should say that one of the issues that some customers have is they have a lot of sweet script already. It’s been written by multiple people. Maybe some of it was written by a partner, some written by people in your company, those people may have left, et cetera. mentioned that. The ability for the developer assistant to just go through everything you have and better document it, better comment it, everybody knows. who writes code that, know, commenting is often minimal, let’s say, but AI can understand the code deeply and the maintenance of that code is just, you know, that headache again, is gonna just free up more time to do new things. And then, yet when it comes to writing your next script, Suite Cloud Developer Assistant is gonna not only make it faster, but it’s gonna automatically write unit tests for you. So the code is gonna come out sort of much more ready. for prime time and maybe in the past. Leland McFarland So last year at Sweet World 2025, it was announced that a company co-founded by Tom Holland Bureau is using NetSuite. Now here you released something that said, you did a release that said that a company co-founded by Robert Downey Jr. is using NetSuite. Happy, are you kind of going for like an epic Marvel collection? Is Chris Hemsworth? Evan Goldberg Maybe, but that would probably not be a great business strategy. It’d be good for our events. yeah, requiring our customers to have a celebrity co-founder is probably just too high a bar. Leland McFarland Perfect. All right, well, that’s what I got for you. Thank you for dealing with all the barrage questions that had. Evan Goldberg Appreciate it. Well, thanks for having me. I really enjoyed it. What stood out most in this conversation is that NetSuite’s AI direction isn’t about flashy demos—it’s about compressing the time between “something changed” and “you know what to do about it.” From real-time anomaly detection and faster reconciliations to narratives grounded in financial reports and role-based summaries that act like a tireless coworker, the goal is clear: fewer hours lost to manual work and more confidence in the numbers driving decisions. Evan also emphasized the balance small businesses care about most—automation with trust. Human-in-the-loop review where it matters, testing at scale across thousands of customers, and AI that learns from corrections are all positioned as guardrails to keep accuracy front and center. And for companies with big ambitions but small teams, tools like advanced pricing and the SuiteCloud Developer Assistant may be the difference between “we want to do this” and “we actually shipped it.” Thanks again to Evan Goldberg for joining me at SuiteConnect 2026—and if you’re a small business owner trying to move faster with fewer resources, this is an interview worth digging into. This article, "Interview with Evan Goldberg – Founder & EVP of Oracle NetSuite" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

SuiteConnect 2026 in New York was packed with announcements, but one theme kept coming up in every hallway conversation: small businesses want AI that saves real time without sacrificing accuracy. In this interview, I sat down with Evan Goldberg—Founder and Executive Vice President of Oracle NetSuite—to unpack what NetSuite’s newest AI features are designed to do in the day-to-day reality of running finance, sales, and operations. Evan walked through how NetSuite is using AI to monitor trends and variances, catch anomalies early, and move businesses closer to a “continuous close” where your numbers are reliable every single day—not weeks after month-end. We also covered AI-powered bank transaction matching, narrative reporting that turns dense dashboards into plain-language insights, Customer 360 summaries for faster context in sales and support, advanced pricing tools to protect margins across segments, and the SuiteCloud Developer Assistant aimed at making customization and script maintenance easier for lean teams. Here is a transcript of the above interview: Leland McFarland All right, I’m here at Suite Connect 2026 in New York with Evan Goldberg, the founder and executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite. Thank you for coming on. All right, so I’m to start off with some questions about AI innovation and efficiency. So the release mentioned monitoring trends and variance. Evan Goldberg Thanks for having me. Leland McFarland and showing net income impact. How does that help an owner catch problems early like expense creep, margin compression, or even revenue? Evan Goldberg Yeah, well, I real time information about your business is critical in, you know, for companies that are moving really fast and things are changing in their environment really fast. And so one of the things that we’re really focused on is using AI to help catch anomalies quickly, to help you reconcile your accounts really quickly, just getting you that sort of continuous close. So you don’t just have best information about your business just at that one time, actually when it’s already outdated, know several days or weeks after the close, but really every single day you can rely on you run an income statement and it’s correct and it’s giving you that. Having accurate information every day is certainly the first element of being able to spot trends. Leland McFarland Yeah, definitely. What does detailed drill down into transaction data look like in practice? How quickly can a controller trace an anomaly from summary transaction to root? Evan Goldberg Yeah. Well, you know, it’s all happening right within NetSuite. It’s not an extraction of the data that it’s doing the analysis on. It’s that real-time data. So anything that it finds is linked directly to the actual transaction. And if you make a change, choose the recommended change, that’s updating your financials in real time. it’s kind of immediately you can see the impact. of changes that you make. again, it’s again about this sort of all one real time system, a single source of truth that you’re operating on and doing it in real time. Leland McFarland That sounds great. So many SMBs lose hours each week matching deposit fees and payouts. Where do you expect the biggest time savings are going to be coming from? Evan Goldberg I mean, you know, what we hear from our customers is they definitely spend a lot of time dealing with the bank and getting reconciliations correct and being able to know exactly what their cash position is. And that drives a lot of different things, like when you can make certain investments, when you’re going to be paying certain payables that you have, all that is driven by your cash position. So I think, you know, the manual sort of labor in maintaining your bank accounts is something that we’re really, really focused on. Leland McFarland So what are the most common bank reconciliation pain points you designed? this AI powered bank transaction matching for And how does a AI handle? Evan Goldberg Yeah. Well, again, there’s not sometimes not an exact obvious match between the transactions from the bank and the transactions in that suite. And so that’s where the AI can come in and figure out if multiple transactions were grouped together or other ways that there might be discrepancies. Again, the fewer that you sort of have to manually look at and try to understand the more the more time you’re going to save. And I think in the past, a rules-based approach could only do so much. AI isn’t always right, it is quickly able to find at least the potential answers, the potential matches, so you don’t have to dig through reports. And that’s a big time. Leland McFarland Yeah, and I can imagine not having to set up those rules, really nice, AI just does it, and it could get you 90 % of the way there, and then potentially also learn where it went wrong. Evan Goldberg mean definitely adaptability. These are learning systems. They should be learning every time you say this is the actual match. You should learn from that and the next time it will be. Leland McFarland Definitely. What controls are built in so small businesses can trust auto matching without increasing risk? Evan Goldberg Well, I mean the number one thing that’s built in is you know, have 43,000 customers So who are trying it on so many customers that we’re getting you know Massive experience to make sure it is doing the right thing. Just as we talked about We allow you to look you know, if there’s if there’s any question, you know We kind of let you look at it and and make sure you You sort of agree. So I think the human in the loop doing that at the right time, because obviously you don’t want a human in the loop all the time, that sort of erodes the benefit of AI. But having a human in the loop at the right time when there is some ambiguity or question is striking that right balance between automation and correctness. certainly we deeply understand how much our customers rely on NetSuite for accuracy. And that’s a guiding principle for us in everything we do. Leland McFarland All right, moving on to AI generated reports narratives. SMB owners often don’t have time to interpret dashboards. What kinds of reports will benefit most from AI narratives? Evan Goldberg Yeah, well, I mean, I think it’s the reports that are most connected to your business success. So certainly your sales reports are critical. Those are some of the first ones that we’re really been focused on improving and making more flexible and giving you this great sort of AI driven insight. And then on the flip side is your profitability. So is revenue the sales reports, is profitability with your income statement? That’s a critical one to understand. Your aging reports, again, that can be a lot of numbers. You have a lot of customers with a lot of invoices or you have a lot of vendors with a of bills that you’re paying. Being able to understand where your receivables are causing a problem. If you have a day sales outstanding that you don’t… ⁓ think is really where you want it to be or it’s above sort of the industry standard, you know, we can pinpoint that for you, but then also by analyzing these reports like the aging reports, we can help you identify where you may have opportunities to lower that DSL. Leland McFarland How do you ensure the narrative is grounded in numbers and not overconfident? What’s the best practice for reviewing approvals in a small team? Evan Goldberg Right. Well, narratives and approvals are sort of two different areas for us. mean, the narratives, again, we’re on this journey with our customers. We’re continually improving. are, again, running it with thousands of customers, getting their feedback. That’s how they’re going to get better and better. We think they’re already there starting pretty good. ⁓ And then on approvals, it’s a similar process to otherwise where we’re tuning the system to understand, certainly a simple thing is larger approvals need more scrutiny, may need more human in the loop. so there’s a tension here, again, between automation and trust and accuracy. And by testing these, ⁓ improvements carefully with a representative set of customers. That’s how we think we’re going to get that balance right. Leland McFarland Are there guardrails to combat like hallucinations or anything like that when it comes to the AI data and can we come up with these narrative reports? Evan Goldberg Mm-hmm. Yeah, that’s a great question. Again, we are not releasing these features without a substantial amount of testing to show that they’re working for customers. AI is a different type of technology that we’re all sort of getting familiar with in real time on the fly about how, first of all, to make sure that it is as accurate as possible to be able to ⁓ identify places where it’s not accurate. It’s just like having a human analyst. I’m sure all of us have experience where you ask someone for a report and they bring you the report and it’s not quite the report you expected or the numbers weren’t calculated the way you were going to expect them. They’re not perfect either. so we’re just trying to, but if we can greatly improve on the accuracy that you’re getting right now when you’re analysts to do this or an accountant to do this or whatever, then that’s gonna be a big plus and you’ll get the information faster and it often will be more comprehensive. Leland McFarland For small support and sales teams, what’s the simplest way to use role-based summaries to reduce handling time and avoid dropouts? Evan Goldberg Yeah. Well, I mean, these sales orders, for example, can be extremely complex. They have lots of items on them. Those items have lots of options on them. And, you know, if it’s for, you know, a lot of times it’s for a critical customer. So having AI be able to see, you know, the entire sales order, for example, and all the elements of it, and basically just give you checks. Have you done, you know, have you had a list? This item seems to be delayed. What are you going to do about it? And do that proactively. So for an individual salesperson managing a lot of different orders, AI can be sort of that helpful coworker that’s looking at all of them, looking at how they’re proceeding and making sure they’re proceeding the way that you want them to. And again, you can continually sort of tune your helpful coworker and say, this is what I think is most important. This is what to look out for. And it’s going to be doing that 24 seven when you sleep. Leland McFarland I do love that aspect about it. It never sleeps. Evan Goldberg Hahaha. Leland McFarland All right, what does the new NetSuite Customer 360 add that a small business would actually notice day to day? Evan Goldberg Well, I think we’re just bringing more and more information from all different parts of the suite. mean, what excites me and I think our customers that have used it about Customer 360 is that NetSuite is a comprehensive system that deals with so many different aspects of your customer interactions from the moment they sort of come and ask to see your product or service and you give them a quote and then eventually you get the order, but then they’re You know, you have to fulfill the order you may have to support that customer. You obviously have to collect the cash. mean, being able to see that everywhere. And so what we’re doing with customer 360 is continuously bringing more and more of that information right at your fingertips and using AI. The more the information there is, the harder it is to sort of page through everything. So that’s where AI summaries can be so critical because they can hone in on What are the key things that maybe are different about this customer or that are worthy of your attention? So you don’t have to scroll through every single screen because there is a lot of data there. Leland McFarland All right, so moving on to AI assisted advanced pricing. Small businesses struggle to maintain margin consistency across channels and segments. How does AI assisted advanced pricing help ensure the right price shows up on every single quote? Evan Goldberg Well, we were really excited to show that vision today. Advanced pricing just gives you fine grain control. NetSuite’s always had sophisticated pricing where you can price by customer segment. But now we’ve added the ability to do cost plus pricing, which really maintains that price over the long term to maintain your margin. AI can help you to design your pricing strategies. We’ve been showing where AI can monitor competitive pricing and alert you and then help you develop promotional pricing over particular dates that might help you with competitors. You’re right that pricing is a strategic asset to not only help you be as profitable as you can be, but also grow your revenue and get new customers in the door as effectively as possible. Leland McFarland All right, the release mentioned pricing by date range, assortment, and customer segment. What’s a practical SMB use case for this kind of feature? Evan Goldberg Well, everybody wants to make a price that’s right for that customer based on their profile and ultimately sort of, a lot of different attributes for different customers. So customer specific pricing on the other hand is, can be complex to maintain. The more fine grained you make it, you could have a price list for every single customer and have every single one be different. That’s a lot to maintain. AI can just help you. ⁓ be more fine-grained about pricing and yet not have to do a lot of manual pricing. And that’s just gonna, again, help increase your sales, but also help maintain great profits. Leland McFarland All right, moving on to sweet cloud developer assistant. Many SMBs have one admin or rely on partners. How does developer assistance reduce the cost and time of customization and integration without increasing risk? Evan Goldberg No, that’s a great point. We try to make it as easy to customize NetSuite as possible, but a lot of small companies have big ambitions to really make the system be very powerful, tailored specifically for them and their needs. so yeah, in the past, sometimes you can see that admin’s list of to-dos got very, very large. So it’s not like you’re going to replace that admin, but you are going to make that admin way more effective. go from idea of customization to execution in turbo speed, way, way faster than they ever could before. And that’s just going to help them be able to work down that list of enhancements that you want to make to your NetSuite instance and also help maintain them. Because again, AI will always be able to look at the things that it did months or years ago and help you fix them as you know. You have turnover in your IT department sometimes, have turnover in partners, but there’s sort of no turnover in AI, for lack of a better word. Leland McFarland And I know I’ve done the tech side of things and it can be daunting with the list of tasks and AI has been a big huge help. Evan Goldberg Yeah, and mean, it’s just that’s what it’s really about. mean, people spend an enormous amount of time working on urgent issues, but they have this big important list that they never seem to get to. And it’s again, it’s not about replacing those people, but having those people be able to spend more time on those important long term tasks that they never seem Leland McFarland Exactly. All right. Now on NetSuite EPM planning agent, SMBs want faster planning without hiring FP and A staff. What kind of questions can an owner ask in a natural language that produces immediate value? Evan Goldberg Right. mean, we, um, that’s a pretty, there’s a pretty deep examples there. mean, EPM is a very sophisticated product, uh, built for enterprises scale down to where it work for NetSuite. And one of the most exciting things about it now is even scale down. It’s, can be a daunting process, a product to adopt for NetSuite users. And so the more AI we’re building in, the easier it is to adopt the tool to set it up. have now a great, for example, account reconciliation. a setup assistant for EPM to just make it much easier to set up account reconciliation. I think one of the things we talked a lot about in AI is the ability to give you great answers or automate things, but there’s an equal capability to just help you implement and help relatively non-technical people take these sophisticated products and make them work within their business. So that’s sort of where we’re focused on. And it’s just going to be easier to get EPM up and running. in your company when you need that level of sophistication. Leland McFarland What’s a safe starter use you would recommend? Writing scripts, generating documents, when it comes to the sweet cloud developer system. Evan Goldberg That’s a great question. I think… I think it’s great for writing scripts, there’s no doubt about it. I should say that one of the issues that some customers have is they have a lot of sweet script already. It’s been written by multiple people. Maybe some of it was written by a partner, some written by people in your company, those people may have left, et cetera. mentioned that. The ability for the developer assistant to just go through everything you have and better document it, better comment it, everybody knows. who writes code that, know, commenting is often minimal, let’s say, but AI can understand the code deeply and the maintenance of that code is just, you know, that headache again, is gonna just free up more time to do new things. And then, yet when it comes to writing your next script, Suite Cloud Developer Assistant is gonna not only make it faster, but it’s gonna automatically write unit tests for you. So the code is gonna come out sort of much more ready. for prime time and maybe in the past. Leland McFarland So last year at Sweet World 2025, it was announced that a company co-founded by Tom Holland Bureau is using NetSuite. Now here you released something that said, you did a release that said that a company co-founded by Robert Downey Jr. is using NetSuite. Happy, are you kind of going for like an epic Marvel collection? Is Chris Hemsworth? Evan Goldberg Maybe, but that would probably not be a great business strategy. It’d be good for our events. yeah, requiring our customers to have a celebrity co-founder is probably just too high a bar. Leland McFarland Perfect. All right, well, that’s what I got for you. Thank you for dealing with all the barrage questions that had. Evan Goldberg Appreciate it. Well, thanks for having me. I really enjoyed it. What stood out most in this conversation is that NetSuite’s AI direction isn’t about flashy demos—it’s about compressing the time between “something changed” and “you know what to do about it.” From real-time anomaly detection and faster reconciliations to narratives grounded in financial reports and role-based summaries that act like a tireless coworker, the goal is clear: fewer hours lost to manual work and more confidence in the numbers driving decisions. Evan also emphasized the balance small businesses care about most—automation with trust. Human-in-the-loop review where it matters, testing at scale across thousands of customers, and AI that learns from corrections are all positioned as guardrails to keep accuracy front and center. And for companies with big ambitions but small teams, tools like advanced pricing and the SuiteCloud Developer Assistant may be the difference between “we want to do this” and “we actually shipped it.” Thanks again to Evan Goldberg for joining me at SuiteConnect 2026—and if you’re a small business owner trying to move faster with fewer resources, this is an interview worth digging into. This article, "Interview with Evan Goldberg – Founder & EVP of Oracle NetSuite" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Google is rolling out new more visibile links within AI Overviews and AI Mode. These new link cards appear in a pop-up window when you hover over them on desktop. They also show more prominent details about the website. Google was testing these earlier and now this new style is live. What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of these new link pop up menus on hover: What Google said. Google’s Robby Stein posted on X saying: “New on Search: In AI Overviews and AI Mode, groups of links will automatically appear in a pop-up as you hover over them on desktop, so you can jump right into a website to learn more. And we’ll show more descriptive and prominent link icons within the response across both desktop and mobile.” “Our testing shows this new UI is more engaging, making it easier to get to great content across the web.” Why we care. This new style does appear to encourage more clicks to websites and I do hope that we will see more traffic from Google’s AI experiences from these changes. Of course, we still have no way to measure this in Search Console. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Last-minute Presidents’ Day sales are the perfect time to stock up on gaming monitors that normally have a much higher price tag, and right now, an award-winning model from Alienware (dubbed “one of the best curved gaming monitors on the market” by PCMag) is $200 off. The Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor is 28% off at $499.99 (originally $699.99), marking its lowest price ever as the holiday discounts wind down. Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor $499.99 at Amazon $699.99 Save $200.00 Get Deal Get Deal $499.99 at Amazon $699.99 Save $200.00 This Alienware monitor, which earned a PCMag Editor’s Choice Award, sits on a sturdy V-shaped stand and has a curved 34-inch monitor with a 3440 by 1440 resolution and a 21:9 aspect ratio. Its curve isn’t as pronounced as some gaming monitors, such as the Corsair Xeneon Flex’s 800R curve; this one is 1800R, which reduces glare while deepening blacks and is ideal for those who don’t want overly dramatic curvature. It also features Alienvision, which lets you switch between four visual modes to tweak settings and maximize gameplay. Brightness is rated up to 1000 nits, and with a 165Hz refresh rate (10Hz less than its predecessor, but still excellent) and a competitive input lag of 1.4ms, it’s a popular choice for gamers seeking an immersive experience. Compared to its predecessor, this model swaps Nvidia G-Sync for AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro. QD-OLED picture quality is this monitor’s main draw, giving users impressive contrast, true blacks, and dazzling colors for HDR gaming and strong performance in darker rooms. That said, it doesn’t have an HDMI 2.1 port. For anyone seeking a sleek OLED monitor that’s not excessively curved, with top-tier picture quality in both SDR and HDR, vibrant colors, and low input lag, the Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor remains one of the best ultrawide gaming and media monitors on the market. And at almost 30% off in a last-minute President’s Day deal, this Amazon deal might not last long. Our Best Editor-Vetted Presidents' Day Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $139.99 (List Price $179.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $329.00 (List Price $349.00) Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band) — $369.00 (List Price $399.00) Bose QuietComfort Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones — $229.00 (List Price $349.00) Dell 16 DC16255 (AMD Ryzen 7 250, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, 2K Display) — $549.99 (List Price $869.99) HP Omen 35L (Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, RTX 5080, 2TB SSD, 64GB RAM) — (List Price $2,939.99 With Code "PRESDAYPC100") Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

In a speech Tuesday, Federal Reserve Gov. Michael Barr said it was possible that artificial intelligence will boost productivity in an undisruptive way. But he said policymakers should also be wary of a financial crash if those gains are not realized or a rapid adoption that could lead to labor displacement. View the full article

A dispute between AI company Anthropic and the Pentagon over how the military can use the company’s technology has now gone public. Amid tense negotiations, Anthropic has reportedly called for limits on two key applications: mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. The Defense Department, which The President renamed the Department of War last year, wants the freedom to use the technology without those restrictions. Caught in the middle is Palantir. The defense contractor provides the secure cloud infrastructure that allows the military to use Anthropic’s Claude model, but it has stayed quiet as tensions escalate. That’s even as the Pentagon, per Axios, threatens to designate Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” a move that could force Palantir to cut ties with one of its most important AI partners. The threat may be a negotiating tactic. But if carried out, it would have sweeping consequences, potentially barring not just Anthropic but its customers from government work. “That would just mean that the vast majority of companies that now use [Claude] in order to make themselves more effective would all of a sudden be ineligible for working for the government,” says Alex Bores, a former Palantir employee who is now running for Congress in New York’s 12th district. “It would be horribly hamstringing our government’s ability to get things done.” (Palantir did not respond to a request for comment.) Alex Bores Anthropic and the Pentagon’s war of words Anthropic has, until now, maintained close ties with the military. Claude was the first frontier AI model deployed on classified Pentagon networks. Last summer, the Defense Department awarded Anthropic a $200 million contract, and the company’s technology was even used in the recent U.S. operation to capture Nicolas Maduro, the Wall Street Journal reported this week. But the company’s commitment to certain AI safety principles has irked some people in President Donald The President’s orbit. (Katie Miller, Stephen Miller’s wife, has publicly accused the company of liberal bias and criticized its commitment to democratic values.) Unlike rivals xAI and OpenAI, both of which also also have Defense Department contracts, Anthropic is now locked in a fight with the Pentagon that playing out in public. “Anthropic is committed to using frontier AI in support of US national security. That’s why we were the first frontier AI company to put our models on classified networks and the first to provide customized models for national security customers,” a company spokesperson tells Fast Company. “Claude is used for a wide variety of intelligence-related use cases across the government, including the DoW, in line with our Usage Policy. We are having productive conversations, in good faith, with DoW on how to continue that work and get these complex issues right.” The Pentagon has taken a more confrontational tone. Agency officials are reviewing their relationship with Anthropic and have suggested that other contractors may also be required to stop working with the company. “The Department of War’s relationship with Anthropic is being reviewed,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell tells Fast Company. “Our nation requires that our partners be willing to help our warfighters win in any fight.” (Parnell did not respond to a request for clarification regarding specific concerns about autonomous weapons or surveillance.) Palantir, the middleman Palantir occupies a critical position in this ecosystem. A longtime government software provider, it has met a bevy of requirements allowing it to offer cloud services to support classified work. And, as is typical in the dizzying world of government technology contracting, Palantir also has key partnerships with Anthropic. Two years ago, the companies partnered to bring Anthropic’s technology to the government, a move that made Claude available to defense and intelligence services through Amazon Web Services. Last April, Anthropic joined Palantir’s FedStart program, which expanded the availability of its technology to government customers through Google Cloud. Government tech contracting is a wonky business, but companies that want to sell software to the government typically need to work with a certified cloud provider like Palantir, or obtain certification themselves. “If you’ve never operated in a classified environment before, you essentially need a vehicle,” explains Varoon Mathur, who worked on AI in the Biden administration. “Palantir is a defense contractor with deep operational integration. Anthropic is an AI model provider trying to access that ecosystem.” Growing tensions over how the Defense Department might use Claude also raise questions about how much visibility companies like Palantir and Anthropic have into the government’s use of their tools. “Anthropic and OpenAI offer Zero Data Retention usage, where they don’t store the asks made of their AI,” notes Steven Adler, a former OpenAI employee and AI safety expert tells Fast Company. “Naturally this makes it harder to enforce possible violations of their terms.” A person familiar with the matter said Anthropic does have insight into how its technology is used, regardless of whether it’s in a classified environment, and that the company is confident its partners and users have been deploying the tech in line with its policies. In its reporting, the Wall Street Journal cited people familiar with the matter who said an Anthropic employee did reach out to Palantir to ask about Claude’s use in the Maduro operation, though Anthropic denied to that outlet that it had spoken with Palantir beyond technical discussions. The Anthropic spokesperson tells Fast Company that the company cannot comment on its technology’s use in specific military operations, but said it “work[s] closely with our partners to ensure compliance.” More broadly, the standoff risks chilling relationships between Silicon Valley and Washington at a moment when the government is pushing to adopt AI more aggressively. “To state basically that it’s our way or the highway, and if you try to put any restrictions, we will not just not sign a contract, but go after your business, is a massive red flag for any company to even think about wanting to engage in government contracting,” says Bores. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Resistance bands and dumbbells are both great for strength training at home, since they don’t require much storage space and tend to be a lot cheaper than a full setup with a barbell and plates. But they each have pros and cons, so let’s talk about how to choose. Resistance bands can offer more total weightIf you buy beefy enough resistance bands, they offer a lot of resistance. A pair of “strong” bands from EliteFTS will pull on a barbell with the same force as 122 to 275 pounds of weights, depending on how far you stretch them. During the time gyms were closed because of COVID, coach Greg Nuckols told us that a set of bands would be his pick for training as heavy as possible without traditional gym equipment. EliteFTS Pro resistance band pair $28.99 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $28.99 at Amazon Dumbbells are more versatileIf you truly love resistance bands, you can probably figure out how to do almost anything with them. But for most of us, dumbbells are a little more intuitive and it’s easier to find exercises that work appropriate muscles. If you use a resistance band, for many exercises you’ll need to find a place to anchor it. Sometimes you step on the band, so it’s pulling on your feet (not always comfortable if you work out barefoot). Other times you’ll need an appropriate anchor at floor level, or overhead, or straight in front of you. Depending on where you work out, there may not be anything strong enough to do the job with the right placement. This means it's easier to put together a routine with dumbbells: you just pick them up. Plenty of staple gym exercises use dumbbells, and you probably already know some: bicep curls, shoulder presses, bench presses, lunges, and so on. Just hold the weights and do the exercise, no planning needed. CAP Barbell 20 LB Pair Coated Hex Dumbbell Weight $46.97 at Amazon Get Deal Get Deal $46.97 at Amazon Resistance bands wear out over timeIron is forever, but rubber degrades over time. Check the manufacturer’s directions, but most will tell you to replace your bands after a year, or for thinner bands, sometimes just a few months. The way you use the bands can affect their lifespan. If the band rubs against its anchor point, for example, that can wear it out more quickly. (Follow manufacturers’ instructions for properly anchoring the band or attaching it to accessories.) When a band snaps, it may end up hitting you, which is why some trainers advise against moves like face pulls in which you’re pulling a band toward yourself. The tension on bands depends on their lengthThis, I think, is the most important difference between bands and dumbbells. When you pick up something from the floor, you have to support its entire weight as soon as it leaves the ground. But if you’re getting the resistance from a band, the resistance will feel very light when you’re closer to the floor, and get progressively harder as you stand up with it. This means you may be working harder than you want at the top of the lift, but not being challenged at all at the bottom. You can still work all your muscles if you choose and combine exercises appropriately, but you have to carefully choose exercises to make sure you're working every part of the range of movement. This factor means that bands aren’t a drop-in replacement for dumbbell or barbell work. You’ll outgrow fixed dumbbellsPeople often start with a pair of dumbbells that come stamped with a number on one end (a five-pound pair, for example), but if you actually train with dumbbells consistently, pretty soon you’ll need more. You’ll also notice that different exercises require different weights: Something that’s challenging to curl will probably still be too light to press overhead. A way around this is to buy adjustable dumbbells. You slide plates on and off, or with the fancy (expensive) brands you place them back on their rack and select the next weight. I have some picks for good adjustable dumbbells here. You can still outgrow adjustable dumbbells. The affordable ones that come in 40-pound sets might seem huge to you at first, but 20 pounds per hand is not that much if you’re strong. “I can always buy more of the little plates,” you’ll say to yourself, forgetting to check how much room the dumbbell handle has for little plates. Often, not much. The bottom line is that dumbbells and resistance bands each have their pros and cons. It’s cheaper to buy several sizes of resistance bands than to buy a full lineup of dumbbells, but the bands won’t necessarily give you the same workout. This is another case where the ideal answer is probably: Why not both? View the full article

From breathtaking jumps to mesmerizing spins, figure skating is one of the most popular sports at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. In a survey, 56% of 1,000 Americans who planned on watching the winter Olympics said they would be tuning in to watch figure skating, according to market research from Reviews.com. And all eyes are on the American trio of female skaters known as the ‘Blade Angels,’ on Tuesday with the start of the women’s short program. Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, and Isabeau Levito are hoping to take home the gold in individual women’s figure skating, something the U.S. women’s team has not done since 2006. Only the top 24 women skaters in the women’s short program will advance to the compete in the free skate final on Thursday. Here’s what to know. Who are the ‘Blade Angels’? The “Blade Angels” as they call themselves, are three U.S. women’s single figure skaters representing Team USA in this year’s winter Olympics: Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, and Isabeau Levito. They have captivated the nation not only with their skating, but their friendship, and lively, non-conformist, authentic personalities. Glenn is the first openly LGBTQ+ woman to compete in women’s figure skating at the Winter Olympics. Their bravery and impressive skills have also garnered attention from celebrities like Madonna—who sent Glenn a video saying “Go get that gold”—and Taylor Swift, who introduced them in an Olympic video. The three have an impressive amount of wins among them: Liu is the 2025 World Figure Skating Champion, Glenn a three-time skating champion, and Levito is the 2024 world silver medalist. “I haven’t seen a U.S. women’s team this strong in 20 years,” Olympic gold medalist and commentator Tara Lipinski told NBC Olympics. What’s the history of Olympic figure skating? Figure skating was first introduced in the 1908 Summer Olympics, but didn’t become part of the winter games until 1924. From early on, it was one of the first Olympic sports with a female category, and actually the only winter Olympic sport for women until 1936. In the years since the 1950s, the U.S. women’s team has dominated the sport, taking home the gold again and again—from Tenley Albright, who was the first woman to win at the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Games, to more recently, Michelle Kwan and Kristi Yamaguchi. View the full article

The two organizations announced the Certified Home Equity Advisor credential, which will help financial professionals integrate home equity in retirement plans. View the full article

Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model doesn’t begin in 2003, when America’s Next Top Model premiered and took television by storm. It doesn’t begin in the 1990s, when eventual host Tyra Banks rose to superstardom in the modeling industry. Instead, it begins in 2020, when the pandemic led a new generation to binge early-aughts reality TV, this time watching with a modern lens—and, naturally, tearing it to shreds on TikTok. From there, Netflix’s newest docuseries rewinds to tell the full story of America’s Next Top Model, from its pre-production through its 24 scandalous cycles and into its modern-day legacy, featuring interviews with contestants, producers, and judges, including Banks herself. Reality Check leans into the same trend that inspired its creation: reexamining years-old media, like a cult classic reality TV show, with a critical eye. What viewers casually did on TikTok in 2020, Reality Check does with finesse. It dissects the surface-level controversies fans already know about, from body shaming to the show’s infamous race-swapping photoshoot (and its oft-forgotten sequel four years later). Shandi Sullivan It also brings new revelations that cast the series in an even darker light, like Cycle 2 contestant Shandi Sullivan alleging that she was sexually assaulted on camera, with production doing nothing to step in or help her. Instead, the docuseries details Top Model portraying the incident as Sullivan cheating on her boyfriend, even filming her tearful call home to break the news to him. Through it all, Banks dodges accountability, even teasing that the show could come back for a 25th cycle. Reality Check is the latest entry in a trend of exposé documentaries around TV that many young adults watched in their childhoods, cashing in on nostalgia by peddling its opposite. In 2024, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV dove into the controversies surrounding Nickelodeon series, particularly those created under Dan Schneider’s tenure as a producer and showrunner. (That series built on the fervor generated by Jennette McCurdy’s best-selling 2022 memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died, which included stories from her time starring in iCarly and Sam & Cat.) Also in 2024, VICE released Dark Side of Reality TV, a 10-part docuseries with each episode focusing on the behind-the-scenes truth of a different reality TV show, including Toddlers & Tiaras, Hell’s Kitchen, Survivor, and—yes—America’s Next Top Model. Even as the aesthetics of 2000s pop culture are celebrated and embraced, their actual pop culture artifacts are subject to renewed criticism. Everyone loves to binge-watch. Everyone loves to hate-watch. Documentaries like Reality Check provide the perfect crossover. View the full article

AI-related changes to Notepad—yes, that Notepad—allowed attackers to execute arbitrary code on your computer. The vulnerability was related to Markdown support, which was added last year. Markdown is a simple way to add formatting, including links, to plaintext documents—and links were the source of the vulnerability. "An attacker could trick a user into clicking a malicious link inside a Markdown file opened in Notepad, causing the application to launch unverified protocols that load and execute remote files," according to the security response notice. Markdown has long been popular in certain parts of the internet—anyone who occasionally comments on Reddit or chats using Discord is likely at least a little familiar with it. But the markup language has become even more important in the age of AI—most documents are converted to plain text Markdown files to train models. Microsoft is patching more bugs than ever in Windows 11Markdown support was added around the same time Copilot was integrated into Notepad, as part of a broader push to add AI to every corner of the operating system. And there's an argument to be made that all these AI additions are adding up to new vulnerabilities. Microsoft patched 1,129 bugs in 2025 according to Krebs on Security, a prominent cybersecurity blog. That's an 11.9% increase over the previous year, which was already unusually high. Microsoft itself admits that AI agents will open up new vulnerabilities, even as the company adds them to Windows. This is all to say that installing security updates is likely more important now than ever. Sure, you could disable all AI features in Windows, but that's unlikely to protect you from all the new vulnerabilities—installing Linux might, though. How to patch this Notepad vulnerability Credit: Justin Pot Luckily for Windows users, this vulnerability was fixed in Microsoft's February 2026 security update. To find out if you've installed it, open the Settings app, head to "Windows Update," then check if an update labeled "2026-02 Security Update" is waiting to be installed. If so, click the "Restart Now" button to install the update. View the full article

Traffic from AI chatbots converts at a higher rate than traffic from Google, according to Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. He shared this tidbit on the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call: “And what we see is that traffic that comes from chatbots convert at a higher rate than traffic that comes from Google,” Chesky said on Feb. 12. Yes, but. He didn’t share specific conversion rates, and the company didn’t quantify chatbot traffic volume. But for Airbnb, early data suggests visitors arriving via AI chatbots may be further along in the booking process than those coming from traditional Google searches. Airbnb also didn’t specify which chatbots are driving traffic. Chesky referenced OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and others in broader remarks about model availability. Why we care. AI assistants are emerging as a top-of-funnel discovery layer. The quality of that traffic may outperform clicks from traditional search and align with past claims by Google and Microsoft that AI will drive more qualified traffic at lower volume. AI search ambitions. Chesky described chatbots as “very similar to search” and positioned them as top-of-funnel discovery engines. “I think these chatbot platforms are gonna be very similar to search. Gonna be really good top-of-funnel discoveries,” he said. Rather than viewing them as disintermediators, Airbnb sees them as acquisition partners. “We think they are gonna be positive for Airbnb,” Chesky added. Chesky described the long-term goal as building an “AI-native experience” where the app “does not just search for you. It knows you.”: “So AI search is live to a very small percent of traffic right now. We are doing a lot of experimentation. The way we do things with AI is much more rapid iteration, not big launches. And over time, we are gonna be experimenting with making AI search more conversational, integrating it into more than trip, and, eventually, we will be looking at sponsor listings as result of that. But we want to first nail AI search.” AI inside Airbnb. Airbnb isn’t just benefiting from external AI platforms. It’s embedding AI into its operations. Its in-house AI customer service agent now resolves nearly one-third of North American support tickets without a human, according to Chesky. The tool is English-only for now but is slated for global, multilingual rollout, including voice support. Chesky said the goal is for AI to handle “significantly more than 30%” of tickets within a year. Airbnb is also testing AI-powered conversational search in its app. The feature is live for a small percentage of users and is being iterated quickly rather than launched as a major product release. Sponsored listings on hold for now. Airbnb has long faced questions about launching sponsored listings. On the call, Chesky said traditional ad units may not translate directly into conversational AI environments. The company is prioritizing AI search before designing sponsored placements in that format. Airbnb’s search shift. Airbnb began moving its budget to brand marketing just before the rise of generative AI and AI-powered search. Airbnb bet on broader marketing initiatives, slashing its search marketing spending. View the full article

Discover how a modern publishing engine can eliminate the issues of legacy CMS and drive sustainable growth for media companies. The post 4 Pillars To Turn Your “Sticky-Taped” Tech Stack Into a Modern Publishing Engine appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Discover how a modern publishing engine can eliminate the issues of legacy CMS and drive sustainable growth for media companies. The post 4 Pillars To Turn Your “Sticky-Taped” Tech Stack Into a Modern Publishing Engine appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Snap is hoping to snap up another revenue stream in its quest to reduce its dependency on advertising. The social media company announced on Tuesday that it will begin offering subscriptions to select creators so they can earn income from their most engaged fans. In a move that supports both creators and its bottom line, Snap will begin testing “Creator Subscriptions” next week with a group of 15 Snapchat creators that includes Jeremiah Brown, Harry Jowsey, and Skai Jackson. Combined, these three creators have more than 3 million followers on Snap, and the company is betting that some portion of those followers will convert to paid subscribers to receive exclusive content, priority replies, and an ad-free experience. Creators will have the ability to set the monthly pricing for their subscriptions within Snap-recommended tiers that range from $4.99 to $19.99 per month, according to reporting by CNBC, and creators will receive approximately 60% of subscription revenue. Starting next Monday, Snapchatters will be able to subscribe to participating subscribers so long as they have Apple devices; the company hasn’t said when the feature will be available for Android users. “This launch builds on our continued investment in a creator-first monetization ecosystem–one designed to help creators strengthen relationships with their communities and build sustainable, scalable businesses on Snapchat,” the company said in a statement. MOVING BEYOND ADVERTISING By embracing the creator-to-consumer subscription model, Snapchat is hoping to build on the success of longer-running monetization offerings like the “Unified Monetization Program” and the “Snap Star Collab Studio,” both designed for creators. Snap is focused on “revenue diversification,” as CEO Evan Spiegel has repeatedly emphasized in recent quarters. That’s seen the Santa Monica, California-based company test the waters to gauge what (and how much) Snapchatters are willing to pay for social media content. The company launched Snapchat+ in 2022 for $3.99 per month, which unclocks some exclusive features, and about four months ago, it announced it would begin charging for storage plans for Memories on the platform. Both Snapchat+ and the Memories Storage Plans have proven successful, even if there’s been some grumbling among users. Thanks to those subscription offerings, and others, Snap ended 2025 with 24 million subscribers, a 71% increase from the same period in 2024, according to the company’s fourth-quarter results released earlier this month. CAN SUBSCRIPTIONS REVIVE THE STOCK? By looping in creators with the newest monetization features, Snapchat wants to give them the freedom to experiment while fostering connections on the platform. “We want the next step in our long-term creator monetization journey to be one that’s really rooted in real relationships,” Jim Shepherd, Snap’s head of content partnerships, said in an interview with CNBC. But the social media platform arrives late to what’s already become a crowded market for subscriptions—and at a time when subscription creep is becoming a more vexing issue. What’s more, a recent survey found that Gen Z, a core demographic for Snap, is feeling the subscription fatigue with respect to streaming services—a sentiment that might extend elsewhere. And investors remain skeptical about Snap’s recent efforts to diversify its revenue stream. The stock fell nearly 2% in mid-day trading on Tuesday, extending a year-to-date selloff of more than 41%. View the full article

Software development teams rarely struggle because of a lack of ideas. More often, confusion creeps in when priorities shift, delivery plans become blurry, releases pile up and everyone interprets “next” differently. That’s where roadmap planning becomes essential. Done right, it brings clarity to moving parts, aligns expectations and keeps software development and digital product management projects pointed in a deliberate direction. What Is Roadmap Planning In Software Development? Roadmap planning in software development is the structured process of deciding what a product or system will deliver, in what sequence and over what timeline. It connects business goals, customer needs and technical effort into a visible plan that teams can rally around. Rather than listing tasks, it highlights outcomes, major initiatives and release targets so developers, product managers and stakeholders understand where the product is headed and why. ProjectManager is an award-winning project portfolio management software that offers advanced planning, scheduling and tracking tools for software development, digital product management and IT teams, allowing them to create visual roadmaps for their delivery plans, allocate resources, track costs and manage waterfall and agile workflows. Additionally, ProjectManager integrates with Jira, Azure Devops and features an open API that facilitates integration with other software development tools. Get started for free today. /wp-content/uploads/2024/02/light-mode-CTA-1600x918.jpgLearn more What Is the Purpose of Roadmap Planning In Software Development? Across software development and digital product management teams, roadmap planning acts as a practical way to coordinate priorities and communicate direction. It’s used in a variety of scenarios such as, for example, when launching new products, scaling platforms, modernizing legacy systems or aligning multiple teams under shared goals. Types of Roadmap Planning In Software Development The definition of roadmap planning can be further divided into specific categories within the software development field. Agile Roadmap Planning Agile roadmap planning is the process of creating a flexible, high-level iterative project plan that outlines product goals, themes and anticipated releases while allowing for iterative adjustments. Instead of fixed long-term commitments, it emphasizes outcomes, evolving priorities and continuous feedback, aligning product strategy with sprint-based development cycles and incremental delivery. Software development teams typically use this approach when: Launching a new SaaS product and releasing an MVP in phases while validating assumptions with early adopters. Running short sprint cycles to experiment with feature improvements and measure user engagement. Building a startup product where priorities shift quickly based on customer or investor feedback. Operating in a continuous delivery environment with frequent releases and evolving scope. Responding to competitive pressure that requires rapid reprioritization of features and timelines. Product Roadmap Planning Product roadmap planning is the structured approach to defining and sequencing product features, enhancements and releases over time. It aligns customer needs, business objectives and technical capacity into a visual timeline that communicates strategic direction to stakeholders while guiding development teams toward measurable product outcomes. Product management teams rely on this type of roadmap planning in situations such as: Planning a major product expansion that introduces new modules or service tiers. Setting annual product strategy themes and organizing feature delivery across quarters. Coordinating multiple development teams working toward shared revenue or growth goals. Preparing for a market launch that requires tight alignment between product, marketing and sales. Balancing customer-requested enhancements against longer-term strategic initiatives. Technology Roadmap Planning Technology roadmap planning is the process of mapping the evolution of systems, platforms and technical capabilities to support long-term business strategy through IT projects. It identifies infrastructure upgrades, architecture changes and innovation initiatives over time, ensuring technology investments align with organizational goals, scalability requirements and emerging industry trends. This roadmap planning style is common in projects like: Migrating from on-premise systems to cloud infrastructure over multiple rollout phases. Modernizing legacy platforms by transitioning to microservices or container-based architectures. Scaling backend systems to support projected increases in users or transaction volume. Introducing new technical capabilities such as AI-driven features or advanced analytics engines. Standardizing infrastructure and tooling after a merger or acquisition. /wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IT-roadmap-template-featured-image.jpg Get your free IT Roadmap Template Use this free IT Roadmap Template to manage your projects better. Get the template Technical Roadmap Planning Technical roadmap planning is the process of defining and sequencing engineering initiatives such as system improvements, refactoring efforts, integrations and architectural upgrades. It focuses on internal technical priorities rather than customer-facing features, ensuring platform stability, scalability and performance evolve in alignment with long-term product strategy. In practice, software development teams apply this type of roadmap planning in scenarios such as: Reducing accumulated technical debt that is slowing delivery and increasing production defects. Executing a large-scale refactoring initiative to improve code quality and maintainability. Integrating enterprise systems or third-party APIs that require backend restructuring. Hardening security controls to meet new compliance or regulatory standards. Improving system reliability through performance optimization and infrastructure tuning. Benefits of Roadmap Planning In Software Development Now let’s zoom into 10 specific benefits software organizations can get from roadmap planning. Creates clear direction by outlining major initiatives and release targets so teams understand what they are building and why it matters. Improves prioritization by forcing trade-off discussions between features, technical improvements and capacity constraints before work begins. Aligns stakeholders by providing a shared visual plan that executives, product managers and engineers can reference during planning conversations. Reduces scope creep by defining planned outcomes and sequencing, making it easier to evaluate whether new requests should be included. Strengthens release predictability by connecting planned initiatives to realistic timelines and team capacity assumptions. Supports cross-team coordination by highlighting dependencies between features, systems and shared resources. Increases transparency by giving leadership visibility into progress, risks and upcoming delivery milestones. Enhances customer communication by offering a structured way to share upcoming improvements and expected release windows. Encourages long-term thinking by balancing immediate sprint work with broader product and platform goals. Improves resource allocation by helping managers match workload, staffing and budget decisions to strategic roadmap priorities. What Should a Software Development Roadmap Include? A strong software roadmap does more than display dates on a timeline. It connects strategy to execution by showing what the team is working toward, how work is grouped and when meaningful progress is expected. The elements below represent the core components that make a roadmap actionable and clear. Strategic themes: High-level focus areas that reflect business priorities and guide how initiatives support long-term product and company objectives. Initiatives: Broad bodies of work that deliver measurable outcomes, often spanning multiple teams and tying directly to strategic themes. Epics or feature groups: Large units of development work that break initiatives into manageable deliverables organized around functional capabilities. Release windows: Time frames during which planned features or improvements are expected to be delivered to customers. Milestones: Significant checkpoints that mark meaningful progress, such as major releases, beta launches or compliance approvals. Dependencies: Relationships between initiatives or systems that determine sequencing and influence when work can realistically begin or finish. Assumptions: Documented expectations about scope, capacity, market conditions or technical feasibility that influence roadmap decisions. How to Create a Roadmap in Software Development Building a roadmap requires more than listing features on a timeline. It’s a structured process that connects strategy, customer needs and delivery capacity into a realistic plan. The steps below outline how software teams move from high-level goals to a sequenced roadmap that supports predictable releases and measurable outcomes. 1. Define product vision and strategic objectives Start by clarifying what the product is meant to achieve and how it supports business goals. Product managers work with leadership to define measurable objectives, target outcomes and success criteria. Without a clear vision, roadmap decisions become reactive. This step anchors future prioritization in strategy rather than short-term pressure. 2. Gather and prioritize initiatives Next, collect potential initiatives from customer feedback, internal stakeholders, technical teams and market research. Evaluate each idea based on impact, effort and alignment with strategic objectives. Prioritization discussions should focus on value and feasibility, ensuring the roadmap reflects meaningful outcomes rather than a simple list of feature requests. 3. Identify dependencies and constraints Before assigning dates, teams review technical dependencies, integration requirements and resource constraints. Some initiatives may rely on platform upgrades or external vendors. Recognizing these factors early prevents unrealistic commitments. This step helps sequence work logically and reduces the risk of delays caused by overlooked technical limitations. 4. Estimate capacity and timelines With priorities clarified, engineering leaders assess team capacity, historical velocity and upcoming workload. Rough timeline estimates are developed based on available resources and known complexity. The goal is not perfect precision but realistic forecasting. Aligning planned work with actual capacity improves delivery predictability and protects against overcommitment. 5. Sequence initiatives into releases Finally, initiatives are grouped into release targets or time-based increments. Teams consider dependencies, capacity and business milestones when determining order. The roadmap should communicate clear phases without locking into rigid detail. Once sequenced, the roadmap becomes a living plan that guides execution while allowing thoughtful adjustments over time. 6. Validate with stakeholders Before finalizing the roadmap, product managers review it with engineering leaders, executives and key stakeholders. These conversations test assumptions, confirm strategic alignment and surface overlooked risks. Validation ensures priorities reflect real business needs and delivery realities. It also builds shared ownership, reducing friction when trade-offs inevitably arise. 7. Publish and communicate the roadmap Once validated, the roadmap should be shared in a clear, accessible format. Product leaders walk teams and stakeholders through goals, sequencing and expected release windows. Effective communication focuses on intent and outcomes, not just dates. Transparency builds trust and sets realistic expectations about what will be delivered and when. 8. Review and update regularly Roadmaps are not static documents. Market shifts, customer feedback and technical discoveries require adjustments over time. Teams revisit the roadmap on a regular cadence to reassess priorities, capacity and timelines. Updating it thoughtfully ensures plans stay relevant while maintaining strategic direction and delivery discipline. Who Is Responsible for Roadmap Planning In Software Development? Inside most software companies, the product manager carries ultimate accountability for roadmap planning and for how accurate, realistic and strategically aligned the roadmap is. Although planning is collaborative, this role owns prioritization decisions, reconciles competing inputs, validates assumptions and ensures the roadmap reflects customer needs, business goals and actual delivery capacity. Product Manager: Defines product direction, gathers stakeholder input, prioritizes initiatives based on business value and customer impact and ultimately decides what makes it onto the roadmap and what gets deferred. Engineering Manager: Evaluates technical feasibility, estimates complexity, identifies architectural constraints and confirms whether proposed initiatives align with team capacity and long-term technical strategy. Project or Delivery Manager: Converts roadmap themes into realistic timelines, manages cross-team dependencies, monitors sequencing risks and ensures execution plans support the intended release schedule. UX or Product Design Lead: Brings user research insights into planning discussions, validates problem definitions and ensures upcoming initiatives meaningfully improve usability and overall product experience. Executive Sponsor (VP of Product or CTO): Reviews roadmap direction, challenges assumptions and confirms alignment with company strategy, growth targets and organizational priorities. Roadmap Planning Tools for Software Development Teams Software development teams rely on specialized tools to plan, visualize and share roadmaps that connect work to delivery timelines and strategic goals. Jira Jira is a widely used roadmap planning tool because it combines backlog management with planning views that span teams and projects. Using Jira Plans (Advanced Roadmaps), teams can schedule work over time, map dependencies and explore different scenarios while keeping the roadmap tied to real Jira work items. This keeps roadmap planning closely linked to execution. Plans (Advanced Roadmaps): Build a single roadmap that spans multiple projects and teams using a shared planning view. Scheduling and timeline planning: Place epics and higher-level work on a timeline to communicate target windows and sequencing. Dependency mapping: Visualize dependencies between work items to spot sequencing conflicts and blockers. Capacity allocation: Allocate team capacity in the plan so timelines reflect delivery constraints, not just wishful dates. Scenario modeling: Compare plan scenarios to understand tradeoffs when scope, dates or staffing changes. Jira Product Discovery connection: Use product discovery ideas as a field in plans, link ideas to delivery work and group roadmap items by ideas. Microsoft Azure DevOps Microsoft Azure DevOps supports roadmap planning through Delivery Plans in Azure Boards. Delivery Plans provides a calendar-style view that pulls work items from multiple team backlogs, making it easier to coordinate delivery schedules, review upcoming work and keep stakeholders aligned within the DevOps ecosystem. Calendar view across teams: Visualize work items scheduled over time from multiple team backlogs in one plan. Multi-team aggregation: Include up to 20 team backlogs in a single delivery plan to coordinate cross-team work. Work items spanning iterations: Show backlog items across several iterations to understand timing across sprint boundaries. Drag-and-drop date changes: Reset start and target dates directly in the plan to reflect updated delivery timelines. Edit items from the plan: Add or edit backlog items directly from the delivery plan view. Rollup progress: View rollup progress for Features and Epics to get a high-level status view. Dependency visibility: View dependencies between work items to highlight sequencing and potential blockers. Stakeholder viewing: Share delivery plans so stakeholders can review roadmap timing without changing the plan. ProjectManager ProjectManager approaches roadmap planning for software development teams through a full project portfolio management (PPM) lens. Instead of limiting teams to backlog sequencing, it allows software organizations to build portfolio-level roadmaps, monitor project performance in real time and manage resources, budgets and timelines together. This broader visibility helps software development and digital product management teams align delivery plans with capacity, financial constraints and strategic priorities across multiple initiatives. /wp-content/uploads/2026/01/pm-azure-devops-integration-600x352.png /wp-content/uploads/2023/12/pm-jira-integration-600x352.png Additionally, ProjectManager integrates with over 1000 business and project management apps including Jira and Azure Devops and features an open API that facilitates integration with other software development tools. Portfolio roadmap view: ProjectManager lets teams visualize multiple projects on a single portfolio roadmap, showing timelines, milestones and dependencies so leaders can see how initiatives align with broader strategic objectives. Project and portfolio dashboards: Real-time dashboards provide instant visibility into progress, schedule health, workload distribution and budget performance at both the individual project and portfolio level. Resource management and workload charts: Built-in workload management tools allow managers to balance assignments across teams, prevent overallocation and adjust staffing plans directly based on roadmap priorities. Cost tracking and budget monitoring: As hours are logged and tasks progress, actual costs are tracked against planned budgets, giving roadmap planning financial visibility that development-only tools typically lack. Integrated timesheets: Team members submit timesheets that feed into performance dashboards and reports, ensuring roadmap decisions are grounded in real effort data rather than estimates alone. Multiple execution views: Teams can switch between Gantt charts, kanban boards, task lists and calendars, allowing roadmap plans to connect seamlessly with day-to-day execution workflows. Advanced PPM reporting: Portfolio-level reporting and analytics help executives evaluate roadmap performance, forecast resource capacity and identify risks across all active software initiatives. Watch the video below to learn more! Free Related Software Development Templates We’ve created over 100 free project management templates for teams across industries. Here are some ProjectManager templates that can help with roadmap planning in software development. Agile Sprint Plan Template This agile sprint plan template helps software teams plan and manage sprint work by moving prioritized user stories from the product backlog into active development stages using a kanban-style board. Teams can assign owners, set due dates, define priorities, break stories into subtasks and track sprint progress in real time while keeping work aligned with iteration goals. Product Roadmap Template This product roadmap template helps software teams visualize upcoming features, releases and strategic initiatives on a timeline. It allows teams to map dependencies, define milestones, identify sequencing risks and track high-level progress so stakeholders can see how product strategy connects to engineering execution and planned delivery windows. The post Roadmap Planning In Software Development: Ultimate Guide appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

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A background check before an offer is a vital part of the hiring process. It helps you verify a candidate’s information and assess any potential risks that could affect your organization. This step usually takes place after a conditional job offer and requires the candidate’s written consent. Comprehending what these checks can reveal and how they are conducted is important for making informed hiring decisions. So, what specific types of records do these checks typically include? Key Takeaways A background check before an offer verifies candidate information for accuracy and reliability to inform hiring decisions. It typically occurs after a conditional job offer is made and requires the candidate’s written consent. Common checks include criminal history, employment verification, education validation, and identity confirmation. Third-party providers often conduct checks to ensure legal compliance and minimize hiring risks. This process helps protect businesses from negligent hiring lawsuits and promotes a safer work environment. The Significance of Background Checks in the Hiring Process When you consider hiring a new employee, background checks are vital to the process, as they help guarantee that the information candidates provide is accurate and reliable. A background check before an offer can verify a candidate’s identity, qualifications, and credentials, ensuring that you make informed hiring decisions. This step is important in minimizing risks associated with employee theft, fraud, and workplace violence, especially in sensitive industries. Furthermore, conducting thorough checks helps protect your business from negligent hiring lawsuits by ensuring compliance with regulations like the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines. Typically, background checks can take anywhere from two days to several weeks, depending on the depth of the screening required. Comprehending what’s a background check from an offer letter can greatly influence your hiring strategy, promoting a safer and more reliable workplace for everyone involved. Types of Background Checks Conducted Before an Offer Background checks before an offer encompass several types of evaluations that play a significant role in the hiring process. One of the primary checks involves evaluating criminal history to identify any past felonies or misdemeanors that could impact your job suitability. Employers often verify your employment history to confirm job titles, dates of employment, and eligibility for rehire, ensuring the accuracy of your claims. Education verification is also essential; it validates the degrees and institutions you’ve listed, especially for positions requiring specific qualifications. For roles with financial responsibilities, credit checks may be conducted to gauge your financial stability and potential risks. Finally, drug testing is commonly included in industries where safety and compliance are important, ensuring a drug-free workplace. Each of these checks aims to provide employers with a thorough view of your background, helping them make informed hiring decisions. The Importance of Candidate Consent Before conducting any background checks, it’s essential for you to understand that obtaining candidate consent is a legal requirement under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This not just protects your privacy but additionally guarantees transparency in the hiring process, as employers must inform you about the checks being performed. Without your explicit written permission, employers could face serious legal consequences, including lawsuits, highlighting the importance of consent in maintaining trust and compliance. Legal Requirements for Consent Obtaining consent from candidates for background checks isn’t just a best practice; it’s a legal requirement under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Employers must secure written consent before conducting most checks, ensuring the process is clear and specific about what’ll be investigated. This consent can be gathered during the job application or interview stages. Candidates likewise have the right to know the nature and scope of the background check prior to giving their consent. If an employer takes adverse action based on the background check results, they must provide the candidate with a copy of the report and a notice outlining their rights. Failing to obtain proper consent can lead to serious legal repercussions for employers. Importance of Transparency Transparency in the background check process plays a crucial role in establishing trust between employers and candidates. When you’re aware of what information will be reviewed and how it will be used, it alleviates concerns and promotes a positive experience. Employers must obtain your written consent before conducting most background checks, as required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Clear communication about the types of checks being performed helps you understand your rights, including the right to dispute inaccuracies and receive copies of the reports. This transparency not only improves compliance with legal standards but also helps prevent potential discrimination claims related to background information. Overall, being open about the process is fundamental for building a respectful employer-candidate relationship. Common Records Included in Background Checks When conducting a background check, you’ll typically encounter several key records that help assess a candidate’s suitability. Identity verification methods confirm an applicant’s identity, whereas employment history verification guarantees their job claims are accurate. Furthermore, criminal record assessments provide insights into any past issues that could impact their role within your organization. Identity Verification Methods Before making a final hiring decision, employers often rely on various identity verification methods to confirm they’ve accurate information about candidates. These methods include checking government-issued identification, Social Security numbers, and even biometric data to verify a candidate’s true identity. Common records reviewed in background checks encompass identity records, which provide the foundation for validation. Furthermore, educational history checks verify degrees and certifications, often requiring direct communication with institutions to ascertain authenticity. Employers may likewise investigate digital breadcrumbs, such as online profiles and social media activities, to gain insights into a candidate’s professional image. Together, these verification methods help maintain the integrity of the hiring process and guarantee that employers make informed decisions. Employment History Verification Employers often need to verify a candidate’s employment history to guarantee the accuracy of the information provided during the hiring process. This verification typically involves confirming details like job titles, employment dates, and eligibility for rehire, often using payroll records and Social Security numbers. Employers usually contact human resources representatives from previous employers to validate the claims made by candidates. While privacy policies may prevent disclosure of specific performance details or reasons for leaving, vital insights about a candidate’s work history can still be gathered. Inconsistencies in employment history can raise red flags, potentially leading to a reconsideration of your application. As a result, accurate employment history verification is fundamental for evaluating your qualifications for the position. Criminal Record Assessment Criminal record assessments are a crucial part of background checks, as they provide insights into any previous felonies, misdemeanors, or arrest records that could affect your job suitability. These assessments typically include checks for serious criminal behavior, ensuring employers have a complete comprehension of your history. They may additionally involve searches against sex offender registries and federal crime databases, offering a thorough view of your criminal background. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) provides guidelines for employers on using these records in hiring decisions to prevent discrimination. Since criminal records are usually available indefinitely, employers can access relevant historical data, particularly for positions of trust in finance, education, and healthcare, where employee behavior noticeably impacts others’ safety. Limitations of Standard Background Checks Although standard background checks are vital tools for evaluating potential employees, they’ve notable limitations that can impact the hiring process. For instance, military records typically require specific requests and are often not included in standard checks. Moreover, expunged convictions and minor infractions usually get omitted from reports, which means you might miss relevant information. In addition, sealed and juvenile records typically remain undisclosed, restricting your ability to evaluate a candidate’s full history accurately. Employers must tread carefully when considering criminal records to avoid discrimination and guarantee that any information is relevant to job suitability. Finally, the effectiveness of these checks can vary based on state-specific laws regarding disclosure and lookback periods for criminal records. This variability can lead to inconsistencies in the information available, making it important for you to understand these limitations when evaluating candidates. The Background Check Process Explained Before extending a job offer, many organizations conduct background checks to verify the information provided by candidates and assess any potential risks associated with hiring them. This process typically follows a conditional job offer and requires written consent from you, as mandated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Here’s what to expect during the background check process: Employment History Verification: Employers confirm your past job titles, dates of employment, and reasons for leaving. Educational Qualifications Check: They verify your degrees, certifications, and institutions attended. Criminal Records Review: Employers assess any criminal history that may impact your suitability. Additional Checks: Some may include credit history or drug testing, depending on the role. The duration can vary considerably, from two days to several weeks, depending on the complexity of the checks. Employers must likewise comply with federal, state, and local laws throughout this process. Compliance With Legal Regulations Compliance with legal regulations is essential for employers conducting background checks, ensuring that the process is fair and transparent. Employers must adhere to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which requires notifying candidates and obtaining their written consent before proceeding. Furthermore, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) emphasizes applying background checks consistently to prevent discrimination. Here’s a quick overview of key compliance requirements: Requirement Description FCRA Notification Inform candidates and obtain consent before checks. EEOC Guidelines Apply checks consistently to all candidates. Adverse Action Notices Provide candidates with pre-adverse action notices. State-Specific Laws Follow extra regulations based on state laws. Employers must also furnish candidates with a copy of their background check report if employment is denied based on its findings, ensuring transparency throughout the hiring process. The Role of Third-Party Background Check Providers When you consider background checks, third-party providers play an essential role in ensuring accuracy and compliance. They bring expertise in maneuvering legal requirements, which helps streamline the screening process and minimize risks. Furthermore, many of these firms offer customizable solutions designed for your industry’s unique needs, making the hiring process more efficient and effective. Expertise in Compliance Maneuvering the intricate terrain of employment regulations demands a sharp comprehension of compliance, and third-party background check providers play a crucial role in this process. They help guarantee adherence to laws like the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines. By engaging these experts, you can benefit from: Detailed background reports, including criminal history and employment verification. Customizable screening options designed to specific industry needs. Reduced risk of employer liability through accurate reporting. Improved hiring efficiency, often completing checks within a week. Utilizing third-party services not just streamlines the process but also mitigates the challenges of legal compliance, allowing you to focus on finding the right candidate for your team. Streamlined Screening Process The screening process for potential hires can often be overwhelming, but third-party background check providers simplify this task considerably. They leverage their expertise to conduct thorough checks quickly and in compliance with legal standards like the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines. Typically, these providers deliver background reports within a week, allowing you to make timely hiring decisions without unnecessary delays. By engaging third-party firms, you minimize the risk of legal complications, ensuring adherence to federal, state, and local regulations to protect against potential discrimination claims. Many providers additionally offer automated solutions that integrate seamlessly with your existing applicant tracking systems, enhancing workflow efficiency as you focus on your core business operations. Customized Background Checks Customized background checks are essential for guaranteeing that the hiring process aligns with the specific needs of your organization. By utilizing third-party providers, you can benefit from their expertise and streamlined processes. Here are four key advantages: Specialization: They conduct thorough checks, including identity verification, criminal history, and employment history. Speed: Most checks are completed within a week, markedly faster than in-house efforts. Legal Compliance: These providers help you navigate complex laws, reducing risks of discrimination and negligent hiring claims. Customization: Background checks can be adapted to your industry, focusing on relevant aspects like financial checks for finance roles or extensive criminal checks for positions with vulnerable populations. This approach improves your hiring efficiency and guarantees a safer workplace. How Long Does a Background Check Take? How long does a background check actually take? The duration usually ranges from 2 days to several weeks, depending on the type and depth of the check. For example, identity verification can be completed in as little as 90 seconds. Conversely, educational and employment verifications typically take only a few days. Nonetheless, criminal background checks and military inquiries are often more complex, leading to delays owing to factors like court backlogs. When third-party screening firms conduct checks, most are completed within a week, thanks to their streamlined processes. It’s essential to recognize that delays can arise from incomplete or inaccurate screening request forms submitted by employers. To avoid unnecessary waiting, verify all required information is correct and submitted without delay. By grasping these timelines, you can better manage expectations during the hiring process and prepare for potential delays. Ongoing Background Checks for Current Employees Ongoing background checks for current employees play a vital role in maintaining workplace safety and compliance with legal standards, especially as circumstances can change over time. These checks help organizations stay informed about their workforce and mitigate potential risks. Here are four key reasons why ongoing background checks are critical: Regulatory Compliance: Employers must follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and obtain written permission from employees before conducting checks. Risk Identification: Regular updates can reveal any criminal activity or changes in an employee’s eligibility. Industry-Specific Necessity: Fields like healthcare and finance require ongoing checks to protect public safety and trust. Workplace Integrity: These checks guarantee employees consistently meet required qualifications and standards, nurturing a positive work environment. Protecting Your Company From Risks Associated With Negligent Hiring Employers face considerable challenges in guaranteeing they hire the right candidates, particularly in relation to avoiding the risks associated with negligent hiring. Conducting background checks before making job offers is essential to verify candidate credentials and minimize the risk of hiring unqualified individuals. Negligent hiring lawsuits can lead to severe legal and financial repercussions, especially when candidates with violent histories slip through the cracks. Research shows that organizations implementing background screening processes can meaningfully reduce employee theft, fraud, and workplace violence, particularly in sensitive sectors like finance and healthcare. To protect your company, guarantee compliance with federal guidelines such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) standards during the background check process. These measures help mitigate legal risks. Background checks as well reveal discrepancies in candidates’ employment histories, allowing you to make informed hiring decisions and avoid potential liabilities linked to negligent hiring practices. Frequently Asked Questions Do Companies Run Background Checks Before They Make You Offer? Many companies don’t typically run background checks before making you an offer. Instead, they usually conduct these checks after extending a conditional offer to confirm your qualifications. Nonetheless, some industries, like finance or healthcare, might initiate preliminary checks to gauge your seriousness. Although most employers prefer to complete checks post-offer, expedited processes can occur to streamline hiring and onboarding, depending on the company’s urgency and policy. What Would Cause a Red Flag on a Background Check? Red flags on a background check can arise from several issues. Criminal convictions, especially felonies, may signal concerns about your suitability. Inconsistencies in your employment history, like mismatched job titles or unexplained gaps, can suggest dishonesty. Poor credit scores, particularly for roles with financial responsibilities, indicate potential instability. Furthermore, failed drug tests can disqualify you, raising questions about substance use. All these factors can greatly affect your chances of securing a position. What Is the Hardest Background Check to Pass? The hardest background check to pass often involves a thorough criminal history review, especially for roles requiring high trust, like finance or childcare. A significant criminal record can disqualify you. Furthermore, credit checks can be challenging; poor credit histories may hinder your chances in financially responsible positions. Failing drug tests, whether pre-employment or random, is another common barrier. Finally, discrepancies in employment history can undermine your credibility, making job offers elusive. At What Point in the Hiring Process Is a Background Check Done? A background check typically occurs after you’ve completed interviews and received a conditional job offer. This timing allows employers to verify your qualifications, work history, and any potential red flags before finalizing their decision. Some companies may conduct checks earlier in the process to speed up hiring, whereas others might allow you to start working before the check is complete, depending on their policies and the urgency of the position. Conclusion In summary, conducting a background check before extending a job offer is vital for informed hiring decisions. By verifying a candidate’s history and qualifications, you can mitigate risks and improve workplace safety. Obtaining consent from candidates is important, as is comprehending the limitations of standard checks. Utilizing third-party providers can streamline the process, ensuring thoroughness. In the end, these checks protect your company from potential legal issues and help maintain a trustworthy work environment. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Is a Background Check Before an Offer?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article