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Skill intelligence for evidence-based decisions
Field notes on designing fair, predictive assessments and turning candidate evidence into decisions you can defend.
Latest articles
How to detect AI-generated answers: the honest answer is that you cannot
The request arrives in every assessment conversation now: can you tell us whether this was written by a model.
Assessment integrity · October 10, 2026 · 9 min read
How to verify candidate identity remotely without building a biometric database
Checking that the person taking an assessment is the person who applied is a reasonable thing to want.
Assessment integrity · October 9, 2026 · 9 min read
How to structure an interview: the architecture, not the conversation
Most advice about interviews is about what happens in the room.
Evaluation · October 8, 2026 · 9 min read
Analytical skills interview questions — and the thing they cannot show you
Most “analytical thinking” interview questions are too broad to answer badly, which is why almost nobody does.
Skill-based hiring · October 7, 2026 · 9 min read
Test timing and cognitive load: what a timer actually measures
Most time limits are chosen in the last ten minutes before an assessment goes live, by someone estimating how long a task “should” take.
Assessment quality · October 6, 2026 · 8 min read
Understanding adverse impact: what the four-fifths rule does and does not tell you
Adverse impact is one of the few topics in hiring where a widely quoted number — 80% — does most of the talking and almost none of the work.
Assessment quality · October 5, 2026 · 8 min read
Why test analytical skills instead of inferring them
“Strong analytical thinker” is one of the most common phrases in hiring and one of the least checkable.
Assessment quality · October 3, 2026 · 8 min read
Diversity and inclusion in hiring: what assessment can and cannot do
Structured assessment is often introduced as a fairness measure, then quietly asked to carry the whole inclusion agenda.
Skill-based hiring · October 2, 2026 · 7 min read
Behavioural assessments for hiring: what they measure, and what they don't
“Behavioural assessment” is one label stretched across instruments that do very different work.
Assessment quality · October 1, 2026 · 8 min read
How to choose an assessment platform: the questions to ask every vendor
Assessment platforms demo well.
Decision evidence · September 30, 2026 · 9 min read
What online candidate assessment actually buys you
Moving assessment online is usually sold as speed and scale.
Assessment quality · September 29, 2026 · 7 min read
Psychometric properties explained: reliability, validity, and the difference that matters
Reliability and validity get used as though they were two words for 'good', and they are not.
Assessment quality · September 28, 2026 · 8 min read
Proficient vs fluent: what language levels on a CV actually mean
Every hiring team has read a CV that says "English: fluent" and had no idea what it meant.
Skill-based hiring · September 26, 2026 · 6 min read
How to conduct an interview that produces comparable evidence
Most interviews fail before anyone sits down, in the ten minutes when the interviewer skims a CV and improvises questions from it.
Evaluation · September 25, 2026 · 7 min read
Cheating detection in skills assessments: how to read a signal
Detection is the easy half — any assessment tool can produce a list of flags, and a long list feels like diligence.
Assessment integrity · September 24, 2026 · 8 min read
Are job assessments a waste of time? Often yes — here is what the exceptions do differently
The complaint is usually right.
Skill-based hiring · September 23, 2026 · 8 min read
What is active sourcing, and when is it worth the effort?
Active sourcing is the part of hiring that looks most like effort: lists built, messages written, replies chased.
Decision evidence · September 22, 2026 · 8 min read
What is talent acquisition, and how is it different from recruiting?
Job titles use talent acquisition and recruiting interchangeably, and most of the time nobody is harmed by that.
Skill-based hiring · September 21, 2026 · 8 min read
Warning signs of a bad hire — and what each one says about your selection process
Most teams notice a hire is not working long before anyone says so out loud.
Skill-based hiring · September 19, 2026 · 8 min read
What makes an assessment centre effective
An assessment centre is one of the most expensive things a hiring team can run: several exercises, several assessors, a full day of everyone's time.
Assessment quality · September 18, 2026 · 8 min read
AI transparency in hiring: what a candidate is entitled to know
Most hiring processes that use AI now say so somewhere.
Decision evidence · September 17, 2026 · 7 min read
Weighting competencies: it makes your scores defensible, not more accurate
Every scoring model eventually faces the same question: when a role needs six different things and a candidate is strong at four of them, what is their score?
Decision evidence · July 31, 2026 · 8 min read
Item quality signals: the questions quietly weakening your assessment
Every question in your assessment is a small measuring instrument, and like any instrument some are precise, some are miscalibrated, and a few measure nothing at all.
Assessment quality · July 30, 2026 · 7 min read
Integrity, layer by layer: how SkillCort protects what a score means
A score is only worth what its evidence is worth.
Assessment integrity · July 26, 2026 · 9 min read
Blueprint, competency, skill: three words that aren't the same thing
Hiring teams use these three words almost interchangeably: blueprint, competency, skill.
Decision evidence · July 23, 2026 · 7 min read
How AI interviews work — and how to keep them fair
"AI interview" now covers two very different things.
Evaluation · July 14, 2026 · 8 min read
Skills-based hiring: the complete guide
Skills-based hiring is moving from a talking point to a discipline: teams are learning to judge candidates on what they can do rather than on what a résumé claims.
Skill-based hiring · July 9, 2026 · 14 min read
Evidence over assumption: building hiring decisions you can defend
Most hiring decisions are defended with a feeling: someone interviewed well, someone else scored an 82.
Decision evidence · June 18, 2026 · 8 min read
Designing work-sample tasks that predict on-the-job performance
The best predictor of how someone will do the job is watching them do a slice of it.
Work-sample design · June 12, 2026 · 7 min read
Calibrating evaluators: how to make rubric scores agree
A rubric is only as consistent as the people applying it.
Evaluator calibration · May 30, 2026 · 6 min read
Proportional integrity: security that respects candidates
Every assessment platform can detect a tab switch.
Assessment integrity · May 21, 2026 · 5 min read
Real skill over claimed skill: rethinking the resume screen
Most hiring funnels begin with the weakest evidence they will ever collect: a self-reported document, skimmed in seconds, standing in for skill.
Skill-based hiring · May 9, 2026 · 6 min read
From score to story: reading a candidate evidence wallet
A role-fit score is a summary, not a decision.
Decision evidence · April 28, 2026 · 7 min read
AI as decision support, not decision maker
Every hiring decision made on SkillCort is made by a named person.
Evaluation · April 15, 2026 · 5 min read
Put these ideas to work
See how a SkillCort assessment turns real work into evidence your team can act on.