The Hiring Standard

Proving Impact

What is Time to Hire? Definition, Formula & How to Reduce It

Time to hire measures the days between a candidate entering your pipeline and accepting your offer. Most organisations track it. Few understand what actually drives it. And cutting it without improving decisions can do more harm than good.

Systematic Hiring

You've been managing applications. Not making decisions.

An ATS moves candidates through your pipeline. Tracking candidates isn't the same as making better hiring decisions.

Proving Impact

What is Cost of Hire? Definition, Formula & How to Reduce It

Cost of hire is the total investment required to fill a role. Recruiter time, assessment tools, agency fees, and the cost of a bad hire. Most organisations track the visible costs. Very few account for the hidden ones. The hidden costs are almost always larger.

Life at Alva

Frida Ihreblom: from Amazon, Spotify and King to Alva

Frida Ihreblom spent a decade in Talent Acquisition at some of the world's fastest-growing companies. She's worked in TA teams of hundreds, hiring thousands of people per year, and seen firsthand what works at scale. Now she's on the other side, helping Alva's customers solve the problems she used to live with.

Life at Alva

Anna Brodin: From Psychologist to Building a Department at Alva

Anna Brodin is a licensed psychologist who joined Alva Labs as a Customer Success Manager. She goal was never to build a department, but when customers kept asking for something that didn't exist yet, she saw the gap, made the case, and created Professional Services from scratch. Here's how ownership, science, and a flat organisation made that possible.

Life at Alva

Sumit Bajracharya: Building the Interface of AI-Driven Hiring

Sumit Bajracharya is a Senior Frontend Engineer at Alva Labs. He moved from Nepal to Stockholm for the role. His thing: turning complex data into interfaces that feel intuitive. At Alva Labs, that means building the product layer where psychometric science, AI scores, and hiring decisions come together on screen.

Systematic Hiring

Sourcing vs Screening: Where to Focus Your Hiring Energy

Sourcing fills your pipeline. Screening fills your roles. Most teams over-invest in the first and under-invest in the second. That imbalance is where hiring quality breaks down.

Systematic Hiring

What is Structured Hiring? Definition, Research & How It Works

Structured hiring connects role definition, validated assessment, and evidence-based decisions into one framework. Research shows it can double the number of high performers.

Proving Impact

Why Hiring Decisions Fail (and What to Do About It)

Most organisations hire based on interviews, CVs, and instinct. Research shows these are poor predictors. Roughly half of all hires underperform or leave within 18 months.

Talent Acquisition

Alva x Legora: Lead the Shift – When TA Becomes a Business Engine

Why hiring still isn’t driving business impact – and what it takes to build a system that does. Insights from Alva Labs’ fireside chat with Legora.

Cognitive testing in the age of AI

Discover how Alva Labs adapts to maintain trust and accuracy in the recruitment process in the AI era.

Product Updates

See candidate results in a new light: clear, contextual, and job-aligned

Discover Alva's Candidate Results Pages: clearer insights with AI-powered summaries and a more intuitive candidate profile for better, faster, and evidence-based hiring decisions.

Systematic Hiring

Dr. Sackett’s research proves it: why structure beats scattered tools

Discover why structured hiring methods outperform scattered tools, based on Dr. Paul Sackett's latest research. Learn how to make better, fairer, and faster hiring decisions.

Product Updates

Alva Labs among the first in the world to be certified for responsible AI governance

Alva Labs becomes one of the first globally to earn ISO/IEC 42001 certification for responsible AI, setting a new standard in ethical recruitment tech.

Talent Acquisition

Half the team, double the results: VTD's hiring transformation

VTD cut hiring time by 68% and halved their recruitment team using Alva's data-driven assessments. See how they revolutionised blue-collar hiring.

Emerging Trends

Bridging theory and practice: How to close your Hiring Execution Gap

Discover how closing the Hiring Execution Gap can increase high performers from 31% to 60% without additional recruitment costs. Implement research-backed hiring systems.

Emerging Trends

Closing the Hiring Execution Gap: Insights from our Summit in Oslo

Discover insights from the Hiring Revolution Summit 2025 on closing the "Hiring Execution Gap" – improve your talent acquisition results with proven methods.

Schibsted HR leader joins Alva Labs board ahead of expansion

Alva Labs expands, appointing seasoned HR leader Antonia Brandberg Björk to its board to drive international growth and revolutionise the future of hiring.

Talent Acquisition

Knightec x Alva Labs: Data-driven recruitment shapes the future of tech

Knightec’s data-driven recruitment, using Alva Labs' assessment tools, has raised their NPS by over 40% and is driving the future of technology.

Product Updates

Product update: Structured interviews just got easier

It has never been easier to run a world-class interview process in Alva Labs with our new, improved Alva Interview features.

News

First in the world to receive global DNV certification for psychometric assessments

Alva Labs achieves global DNV certification for psychometric assessments, ensuring scientifically validated and fair hiring tools that promote diversity and efficiency in recruitment processes.

Big Five

Debunking common misconceptions about psychometric assessments in recruitment

Debunking misconceptions about psychometric assessments in recruitment: Learn how the five factor model enhance hiring decisions with scientific validity and fairness.

Candidate Experience

How to make candidates love your hiring process

Learn how to make candidates love your hiring process and provide an exceptional candidate experience.

Product Updates

Product updates in Alva: Data retention and improved user experience

These updates to our platform that are designed to improve your experience and make the app more user-friendly. 

Leadership

How to master hiring for leadership roles

Learn how to master hiring for leadership roles and avoid the common pitfalls that lead to failure.

Interviews

Recruitment with Speed & Structure: Noba's Success with Alva's Interview Templates

Noba's Precision Hiring Journey: Scaling Talent with Alva's Interview Templates

Candidate Experience

How Billogram boosted recruitment efficiency and enhanced candidate experience with Alva Labs

Transforming Billogram's recruitment with Alva Labs: Streamlined, efficient strategies for a competitive tech talent market

customer story

How Nobia mastered the art of volume hiring and candidate experience

Discover how Nobia elevated its talent acquisition with Alva Labs for volume hiring and a seamless, efficient, and enhanced candidate experience

Talent Acquisition

Accelerating Norway's Talent Race with NoA and Alva Labs

NoA accelerates recruitment in Norway's competitive market using Alva's efficient, data-driven candidate assessments.

Leadership

Confidently assess leadership candidates with Alva’s Leadership Report

Discover Alva's Leadership Report—designed to enhance leadership hiring & development with scientific rigour. Learn how to spot true leadership potential.

Talent Acquisition

Recruitment Automation Tech Stack: 4 Must-Haves for Modern TA

Master recruitment automation: Simplify tech selection & excel in hiring with our expert guide! 🚀 #HRtech #RecruitmentSolutions

Talent Acquisition

How to pick the right recruitment assessment tool for your hiring needs

Unlock top talent with recruitment assessment tools - rooted in history, proven by research. Better predictors than resumes. Learn more now!

Talent Acquisition

Are your hiring practices holding you back? Discover the power of evidence-based recruitment

Never make a bad hire again with this guide to evidence-based recruitment

Talent Acquisition

Why your last hire failed- and what you can do about it

A poor hiring decision is expensive. Why do so many companies get hiring wrong? And what can be done about it?

customer story

Solving High-Volume Recruitment: How Daniel Wellington Thrives with Alva

Discover how Daniel Wellington efficiently identifies top talent with Alva’s assessment platform.

Talent Acquisition

How to spot, hire and keep a high performer

In this guide, learn what it takes to spot, hire, and keep a high performer on your team for years to come.

Guides

Talent Acquisition-Hiring Manager alignment: A best-practice guide

Unlock the power of TA-Hiring Manager synergy with expert strategies on creating a best-in-class process for faster, smarter hiring.

Talent Acquisition

8 talent sourcing tactics to improve your candidate response rate

Master talent sourcing and overcome impersonal, rushed approaches. Get expert insights to attract top candidates and build a healthy talent pipeline.

Talent Acquisition

How to Write Better Job Ads: 10 tips from a tech recruiting expert

Learn to write effective job ads that attract top talent with our guide. Stop losing candidates to poorly written listings.

Candidate Experience

How to use AI in recruitment

Learn how to use AI in recruitment to reduce time to hire, increase productivity and improve candidate experience. Get practical tips in our guide.

Talent Acquisition

Master the art of interviewing: The ultimate guide to conducting great interviews

Looking to hire the best candidate? Learn how to conduct an interview that assesses candidates thoroughly, asks predictive questions, and wins them over.

Diversity and Inclusion

Driving Equal Opportunity in Early Careers: Step Recruitment x Alva Labs

In this customer story with Step Recruitment, find out how Alva helped drive equal opportunity in early careers.

Product Updates

Product launch: Transform your hiring process with Alva's new interview templates

Transform your hiring process with Alva's interview templates. Hiring people has never been easier.

Candidate Experience

How to create a candidate-friendly interview process

Five tactics for creating an exceptional interview process for candidates.

Candidate Experience

Are you doing these four things to recruit tech talent?

Implement these four tips to recruit tech talent successfully.

Candidate Experience

How to Create a Take-Home Coding Test that won't scare candidates

Creating a take-home coding test can be tricky. Here are some tips on how to make sure your assessment is both effective and enjoyable for candidates.

Candidate Experience

How to Attract and Hire Remote Talent

There's no doubt about it. Remote work is the future. How can TA teams attract and hire remote talent successfully?

Product Updates

Easily assess developer talent with Alva's Coding Tests

Quickly assess developer talent with Alva's candidate-friendly Coding Tests Tool.

Engineering roles

Hiring Engineers in Tough Times: Guide for Talent Acquisition Managers

The Essential Guide for Talent Acquisition Managers. Learn 4 steps TAs can take to navigate economic downturn & grow engineering teams

Talent Acquisition

How reducing your time to hire helps optimise your recruitment process

Quick and easy tips to reduce your time to hire, optimise your hiring process and secure the best candidates for the job.

Candidate Experience

Improving Mentimeter’s candidate experience with Alva’s coding tests

How Mentimeter improved its candidate experience and time to hire using Alva's coding tests.

Soft Skills

Why soft skills matter in sales talent assessment

As the sales landscape changes, so does the importance of testing a candidate's soft skills. What tools can be used to assess soft skills in sales talent?

Emerging Trends

UK recruitment expert offers three predictions on the future of recruitment

Uk's recruitment expert, Hung Lee, offers three predictions on the future of recruitment. How will the hiring landscape change and evolve?

Engineering roles

How to hire great software engineers

In this guide to hiring great software engineers, learn how to attract and evaluate high-caliber engineering candidates

Emerging Trends

Supporting employee mental health—a guide for managers

Workplaces with high levels of mental wellbeing perform better. In this guide, see how managers can support employee mental health.

Candidate Experience

How to refresh your employee onboarding

Step-by-step guide to improving your employee onboarding. Make your employees feel welcome from day one with a smooth onboarding process.

News

From DevSkills to joining Alva—a conversation with Anton Fenske on evaluating software engineers

Alva Labs sat down with Anton Fenske to talk about the brains behind DevSkills, Anton's journey to joining Alva, and how to evaluate engineering talent

News

We’ve acquired DevSkills + Christoffer Norman joins Alva as new Chief Operating Officer

Alva Labs has acquired DevSkills and Cristoffer Norman joins Alva as Chief Operating Officer

Employer branding

How to build a strong employer brand and attract candidates

Why a strong employer brand matters and how to build a powerful employer brand from scratch.

Should you cut CVs out of your recruitment process?

Is the CV still useful in the hiring process? Or is it time to cut CVs out of the recruitment process? We explore why the CV is an outdated tool.

Candidate Experience

What can employee advocacy on social media do for your brand?

Employee advocacy on social media is a powerful way for employees to promote your brand, and build your employer branding.

Product Updates

What's new in Alva – automate admin tasks

With this edition of product updates, we bring you Background forms and a new and improved Teamtailor–Alva integration.

Talent Acquisition

Hiring velocity: the talent acquisition metric that matters

Hiring velocity is not the same as time to hire. Understand how this key talent acquisition metric can supercharge your hiring process.

Candidate Experience

'Good candidates have so many options right now:' Alva Labs' Lisa Sindsjö Grahn on today's recruitment challenges

Lisa Sindsjö Grahn is a Talent Acquisition Manager at Alva Labs. We talked with her about the challenges recruiters are facing in today's market.

Candidate Experience

6 Employer Branding tips you can implement today

Having a strong employer brand makes a difference in a competitive candidate's market. We offer six tips for HR professionals to help stand out.

Psychometric Testing

Rejlers x TeamTailor x Alva: Collaborating to Increase Diversity

In this Customer Story, we explore how Alva and Teamtailor helped Rejlers update its Candidate Experience, increase diversity and hire for potential.

Psychometric Testing

Alva Guide to the Big Five: Emotional Stability Explained

Ever wondered how Emotional Stability impacts recruitment? Alva explains it all.

Psychometric Testing

Alva Guide to The Big Five: Agreeableness Explained

Ever wondered how Agreeableness impacts recruitment? Alva explains it all.

Psychometric Testing

Alva Guide to the Big Five: Extraversion Explained

Ever wondered how Extraversion impacts recruitment? Alva explains it all.

Psychometric Testing

Alva Guide to The Big Five: Conscientiousness Explained

Ever wondered how Conscientiousness impacts recruitment? Alva explains it all.

Psychometric Testing

Alva Guide to The Big Five: Openness Explained

Ever wondered how Openness impacts recruitment? Alva explains it all.

Psychometric Testing

Your Alva Guide to the Big Five Model of Personality

Why is the Big Five the soundest basis for psychometric testing? Learn more here.

Psychometric Testing

8 strategies you need to build diverse staff retention

Need tips to retain your diverse talent? Here are the best strategies you can action today.

Emerging Trends

Talent Sourcing: 31 tips to fill that vacancy

Struggling to find candidates? Here are 36 tips & 5 tech solutions to up your recruiting game.

Candidate Experience

11 steps to help Hiring Managers prioritise potential in hiring

Want a 10-step process to hire for potential? Here's everything you need.

Candidate Experience

Your Ultimate Guide to Interview Scorecards

Learning how to select and interview candidates doesn't have to be hard. See how you evaluate candidates fairly with our interview scorecards.

Psychometric Testing

How to engage a company wide shift to Hiring Manager Responsibility.

It’s easier to improve processes than retrain global staff. Here's how to engage Hiring Managers with bias-free recruiting.

Candidate Experience

How to keep every candidate engaged

Use these tips and email and SMS templates to keep your candidates warm and improve candidate engagement, at every stage of your funnel.

Psychometric Testing

FLIR x Alva: Collaborating to find potential

Here's how Alva helped FLIR tackle a talent shortage and find candidates who can grow to build their business.

Psychometric Testing

Chief Wellbeing Officers: why you need one (& what to do if you can't afford one)

CWOs

Psychometric Testing

Why your next candidate isn't looking for you (and why that doesn't matter)

70% of people in work are passive job hunters, interacting with brands as they scroll online. Here's how to find amazing candidates and screen without bias.

Candidate Experience

Why intuition is your best friend and your worst enemy

Ever wondered what we mean when we pull on our gut feeling to make a big decision? Are we using our insight, are we being blinded by lazy assumption?

Psychometric Testing

The 7 questions you need to ask your psychometric assessment vendor

Looking to start with psychometric assessments? Want a new vendor? Here are the 7 questions you need to ask, every time.

Emerging Trends

The 7 hiring tools every startup CEO needs

Startup CEOs have to take an active role in the hiring process. But what hiring tools should they be using. We recommend 7 must-haves.

Diversity and Inclusion

Where is Swedish Diversity & Inclusion heading in Swedish companies?

On 8 December, 2021, Alva Labs hosted its event focusing on Swedish Diversity & Inclusion. Here are the key takeaways from that discussion.

Emerging Trends

Why Psychological Capital is the insight you need to build 2022’s resilient team

Psychological capital can help you to build positive, focussed and resilient workforces. Learn how to start building psych capital today.

Emerging Trends

Sifted Summit: What HR Leaders need to know

We've brought together our HR insights from the first Sifted Summit. Learn from the UK's most exciting start-ups to build, grow and manage your teams.

Emerging Trends

Stop saying soft skills!

Is it time to retire the term "soft skills"? Kajsa Ashland argues why today's skills are about handling ever-changing environments with high uncertainty.

Leadership

Why Independent Contributors are key to your success

One-third of all promotions fail, meaning companies should reassess how they develop future leaders. Kajsa Asplund explains the soft skills that matter.

Leadership

How to assess leadership potential

Alva Labs' Linnea Bywall dives into the factors that matter when it comes to assessing an employee's leadership potential.

Candidate Experience

The Horn Effect – what is it and how can you prevent it from damaging your organisation

The Horn Effect is a cognitive bias where negative aspects overshadow the more positive. We detail how to prevent it from damaging your organisation.

Diversity and Inclusion

Your next promotion is going to fail unless you take action.

Women are 14% less likely to receive a promotion; what is the

Diversity and Inclusion

Why increasing your talent pool will help you find hidden talent - and beat your competition

Struggling to find great talent? Maybe you're not asking the right questions. Learn how to find the talent that no-one else is looking for here.

Candidate Experience

Streamline your processes, save time - and still discover untapped talent.

Hiring Managers! Tasked with hiring talent but feeling the pressure? Not sure how to get better results and find talented candidates? It's not magic - it's science. Read on!

Candidate Experience

Where is Your Talent Engagement Strategy Leaking? Plug the gaps before you lose your next great hire.

Leaks in your talent funnel are wasting your time and effort. There are many easy fixes you can make today to start saving time and retaining talent.

Candidate Experience

The 8 steps in the hiring process you should cheat on (and the 5 you can’t afford to miss)

Learn how you can cheat on some of the HR processes you've been told matter (and don't) - and free up time to check in on 5 processes you might be missing (at your peril)

Candidate Experience

7 quick tips to foster psychological safety in your teams - today

Looking to build out psychological safety in your workplace? Read these 7 quick tips and start building happier teams today.

Psychometric Testing

Want to build psychologically safe teams? Hire a great manager.

Psychological safety at work is often discussed, but how can we try to hire people who love to manage the complicated beings that we call people?

Emerging Trends

How you can get all you need from a Chief Transformation Officer (without hiring one)

Chief Transformation Officers are one of the most exciting positions in the C-Suite; but what if you'd love all those skills but you don't have the budget?

Psychometric Testing

Game-Based Assessments: The Future of Psychometrics or a New Shiny Thing?

Game-based assessments are being sold as a quick-fix to psychometric testing - but what is the evidence?

Psychometric Testing

Is your choice of psychometric test creating noise - and wasting your time?

There's a lot of talk about noise in data; why is it a problem in hiring, even when you use psychometric tests? And when can it help?

Diversity and Inclusion

DevOps 101: Who they are, what they do and how to hire them.

DevOps helps your tech to be reliable, resilient and on-top of emerging trends. Here's a quick guide to what they do - and what skills your next hire needs.

Candidate Experience

Talentech: HR ecosystem experts

Alva partners with leading tech companies to

Candidate Experience

8 questions to ask before you start your first job ad video (and the answers)

Want to make some job ad videos? Not sure where to start? Click here for everything you need to get started, from 'why' to what to write.

Candidate Experience

Why onboarding starts before your next hire.

ROI of onboarding can be hard to track; its benefits can seem intangible. Learn how to get managers as your secret weapon in onboarding, today.

Diversity and Inclusion

Optimise employee engagement with these seven tips

Employee engagement starts with recognising and supporting staff-from birthday cards to mental health support.

Psychometric Testing

Want engaged employees? Start by hiring them.

Employee engagement is a US$6BN industry; but what about hiring employees who are the most likely to be engaged from day 1?

Candidate Experience

Employer Branding 101 for Start-Ups & small teams

Employer branding is essential for organisations of any size who want to find - and retain - the best talent. But how can HR teams of 1 or 2 build a brand?

Diversity and Inclusion

Is your anti-bias training decreasing bias - or giving you a false sense of security?

Recruiters are the gate-keepers of which candidates make the cut; even with anti-bias training a rightful part of industry toolkits, how effective are they?

Candidate Experience

How recruitment bias harms your business

Learn how recruitment bias puts your company's bottom line at risk.

Emerging Trends

How hiring for soft skills builds your team's resilience & growth potential

Soft skills are vital for the future health and success of your team: but why? Read here to learn how to assess them and start hiring for success.

Psychometric Testing

Why one process is all you need to find your next hire.

At Alva, we are committed to the most effective ways of helping candidates and recruiters find the best, bias-free, matches. Click here to learn more.

Candidate Experience

How to streamline feedback in your recruitment - today

Providing feedback to a handful of candidates is becoming less acceptable - click here to learn more about why feedback is essential to every candidate.

Candidate Experience

11 Action points to help you to start a candidate-centred recruitment process

Not sure how to tweak your recruitment to a candidate-centred process? Click here for quick, actionable tips to transform your recruitment, today.

Product Updates

Alva Product Updates in under 10 minutes

Product updates aren't always sexy - click here to learn how we've updated our algorithms and test items to help recruiters find the best shortlist.

Diversity and Inclusion

Why judging candidates on years of experience could be increasing bias in your recruitment.

Still assessing candidates by how many year's experience they have? Why?! Click here to learn how you can dramatically change who you invite to interview.

Diversity and Inclusion

Why SEB chose Alva to join their path to increased diversity

Sam Joukhadar refers to the saying: Hire for talent, train for skills. To do that, he believes companies need to adopt a strategy or a diversity and inclusion policy. Read about how SEB changed their hiring process together with Alva

Candidate Experience

Why you don’t need a values test in recruitment

It has become increasingly common to use recruitment tests that try to determine candidate's cultural fit. How do values relate to personality? And are values test really the way to go to work with your culture?

Candidate Experience

Time to focus on the candidate experience

Recruitment tests can be irrelevant, too long, and unnecessarily complicated. The test industry needs to focus more on candidate experience - here's how

Candidate Experience

How To Pick The Perfect Hiring Test For Your Business

Using a personality test for recruitment can be a powerful way to evaluate a candidate's potential and likelihood of excelling in a role.

Psychometric Testing

Reducing turnover rates at call centers

Call centres typically have a turnover rate between 30 - 45% - which is 2 - 3 times higher than all other industries combined. But a solution is possible.

Emerging Trends

Should You Tell Talents They Are Talents?

There certainly are concerns that can make you hesitate about putting that crown on some heads and not others. For one, managers often worry that if you tell a high-potential person that he or she is a talent, the person will start resting on his or her laurels and stop trying - a phenomenon often referred to as the crown prince syndrome

Emerging Trends

How to maximise your recruitment ROI

How can you maximise your recruitment roi when hiring? In this guide to recruitment ROI, we walk you through everything you need to know.

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