Job seekers who do not reveal salary history to prospective employers have more success negotiating pay than peers do, according to a study circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Several states and cities have banned employers from asking applicants for salary history.

Seven strategies can improve an approach to recruiting talent, starting with considering whether hires would support long-term organizational goals. "Never stop thinking about your employees' potential and talent," write Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic of ManpowerGroup and Jonathan Kirschner, CEO of AIIR Consulting.

Employers such as IBM use artificial intelligence to recommend pay increases based on the labor market and an employee's skills, but such processes should be monitored for possible bias, HR consultants and attorneys say. "It gives employees an incentive to keep their skills competitive," says IBM HR executive Joanna Daly.

Employers are starting to ease the requirement for a bachelor's, or other advanced degree, for certain jobs in this low-unemployment environment. "We're definitely seeing employers back up from some of the credentials that they would require in the past and looking at workers in a different way," says Meg Shope Koppel of Philadelphia Works.

Setbacks can become opportunities to pause, examine where you are and learn to be patient, among other benefits, writes Michael Pietrzak, who suffered through a business failure. "Patience is simply the mindset of saying 'no thanks' to anxiety," he writes.