Hybrid’s Hiring Advantage?

There are still more than 9 million open positions nationwide and organizations across nearly every industry are lamenting they can’t find enough workers. Firms offering hybrid schedules, however, are filling more roles than their peers not offering it, according to a new study. Korn Ferry looks at whether this hiring advantage is sustainable and whether this might signal an end to the recent push by firms to get people back to the office full time.

Plus, we look at some of the new AI apps popping up that aim to help you design better images, write better emails, and improve other staples of work life. 

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A Glimmer of Hope for Working Remote

In a surprise turn of events, companies in need of hiring are turning to at least slightly more flexible rules to lure candidates. Indeed, companies that allow at least one day of remote work each week increased staffing at nearly twice the rate of those with full-time office requirements, according to an analysis of more than 3,600 companies by Scoop Technologies, a software firm that tracks workplace policies, and People Data Labs, a data technology company. 

The analysis looked at data from May 2022 through May 2023 and found that the more flexible firms grew staff by 5% on average versus 2.6% for companies mandating positions be fully in-office. At the same time, however, the data shows more hiring for jobs that require people back in the office a majority of the time, but not every day.

Read the full article here.

What Happened to Big Deals?

When it comes to merger and acquisition activity so far this year, companies are still doing deals. They just aren’t doing big ones.

Deal activity in the US fell 41% by dollar amount through June 30, but was down only 5% in terms of the number of deals made. Those figures mirror the global M&A environment, in which dollar value fell 38% but deal volume only dropped 9%. With the exception of 2020, it’s the worst first-half-of-the-year M&A performance in a decade.

The decline in deals is forcing firms to explore other ways to grow.

Read the full article here.

5 Alternatives to ChatGPT

Hallucinations. Bias. Security and privacy concerns. Lawsuits.

As the uses of ChatGPT in the workplace expand, so do the risks it poses to firms. Experts say the next wave of generative AI is moving away from generalist platforms to targeted applications for specific functions or purposes. Firms can accelerate deployment, more effectively train employees, and realize productivity gains faster with more specialized AI tools tuned for different uses.

Here are five alternatives to ChatGPT our experts say are attracting attention among business users.

Read the full article here.

Other Must-Reads from Korn Ferry

• 5 ‘Soft’ Skills Workers Should Sharpen - Experts explain how mastering multiple emotional intelligence skills can bolster careers.
• Shorts in the Office: Dress Code Tipping Point? - As heatwaves roil everywhere, over half of US workers want to wear shorts on the job.
• Being Optimistic at the Office - Hope is not a strategy, but there are plenty of good reasons why leaders need hopeful employees, says best-selling author Dan Goleman.

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