Human Capital Intel - 10/29/2024
AI for recruiting | Tech backlash | 'Sidehustles' for skill building | Mentorship as an engagement strategy
Welcome to the latest edition of Human Capital Intelligence. As always, we would love to hear from you at ken@stibler.me with news ideas, feedback and anything else you find interesting.
Sent this by a friend? Sign up here to receive HCI in your inbox every week.
By Ken Stibler; Powered by Reyvism Analytics
What’s Working:
AI helps accelerate recruiting
Artificial intelligence is emerging as the critical driver of recruitment efficiency in 2024, with companies deploying sophisticated AI tools to dramatically compress hiring timelines while maintaining quality standards. The technology's ability to automate administrative tasks, screen candidates, and facilitate multilingual communication is reshaping traditional recruitment workflows.
Chipotle's strategic deployment of its AI recruiter "Ava Cado" exemplifies this acceleration, promising to slash hiring timelines by 75% across its operations. This aggressive adoption mirrors broader industry trends, with Employ's data showing AI implementations have already reduced average time-to-fill metrics by seven days year-over-year, delivering particularly strong efficiency gains in education and retail sectors.
The market is betting heavily on AI's transformative potential, with 89% of recruiters now regularly leveraging AI tools and nearly two-thirds of organizations planning to increase recruitment technology budgets. This investment surge reflects growing evidence that AI-powered recruitment delivers measurable returns through faster candidate processing and reduced administrative overhead.
However, the acceleration benefits of AI recruitment tools remain partially constrained by legacy evaluation frameworks, particularly the continued reliance on traditional resumes. This suggests that while AI can significantly compress hiring timelines, achieving maximum recruitment velocity may require more fundamental changes to candidate assessment methodologies.
Mentorship as an engagement strategy
Recent data from the Association for Talent Development reveals a significant shift in corporate mentorship strategies, with approximately half of organizations now operating formal mentorship programs, and 42% of the remainder planning implementation within the next few years. Notably, virtual mentoring has experienced a dramatic surge, jumping from 39% to 64% between 2017 and 2022, though traditional in-person mentoring remains predominant at 78% of surveyed organizations.
The financial implications of mentorship programs are particularly compelling in the current labor market, with research from WFH Research indicating that on-site employees spend approximately 40% more time engaged in mentorship activities compared to their remote counterparts. This productivity differential is driving organizations to strategically position mentorship as a key component of their return-to-office initiatives, with companies increasingly designating specific "anchor days" to maximize collaborative learning opportunities.
The investment case for mentorship programs is further strengthened by their impact on recruitment and retention metrics, with 82% of hiring managers reporting enhanced candidate attraction to companies offering formal mentorship programs. Express Employment International CEO Bill Stoller characterizes these programs as "shortcuts to success," noting their particular efficacy in addressing the urgent need to preserve institutional knowledge amid demographic shifts in the workforce. The trend appears especially crucial for the incoming Class of 2024, where 67% express optimism about career building opportunities but harbor significant concerns about workplace isolation and advancement prospects.
Quote of the Week:
"If there are people who just don't work well in that environment and don't want to, that's okay, there are other companies around."
— Amazon AWS CEO Matt Garman throwing fuel on the RTO fire in a company all-hands
Reading List:
GenZ turns to side hustles to gain the skills as they bemoan a lack of training
Generation Z is increasingly leveraging side hustles as a strategic avenue for skill development, according to recent findings from Quicken. The data reveals that while 18% of the general workforce uses side hustles for skill building, this figure soars to 44% among Gen Z participants, suggesting a pronounced response to perceived gaps in traditional corporate training pathways and widespread economic uncertainty.
This trend emerges against a backdrop of complex challenges facing Gen Z in the conventional workplace, with nearly one-third of hiring managers admitting to avoiding young candidates in favor of more seasoned workers. The shift toward entrepreneurial ventures appears to be yielding positive results, with 72% of side hustlers reporting enhanced financial security, and 67% experiencing reduced financial stress. However, the development raises questions about the adequacy of traditional corporate training structures, as the pandemic's impact on workplace integration continues to reverberate through this demographic's professional development.
Read more at HR Dive.
Companies ‘bleed the margin’ in a cooling economy
A sharp market correction is driving a fundamental shift in workforce management, with one-third of hiring managers now restricting recruitment amid tightening margins and cooling consumer demand. This strategic pivot, particularly evident in the manufacturing sector where revenues have contracted by up to 50%, represents a significant departure from the post-pandemic hiring surge that drove an 18.1% increase in private-sector wages since January 2021.
The trend signals a broader economic recalibration as companies aggressively pursue operational efficiencies through role consolidation rather than workforce expansion. While this approach temporarily preserves margins, it raises concerns about sustainable productivity as U.S. hiring reaches its lowest level since November 2016. The strategy appears most prevalent among small and medium-sized enterprises, where deteriorating sales metrics have reached levels not seen since 2020, suggesting a potential harbinger of wider market stress.
Read more at USA Today.
Manager develop tops human capital priorities for 2025
HR leaders are prioritizing manager development as their top strategic initiative for 2025, driven by Gartner's revelation that 75% of organizations' current leadership training programs are failing to deliver results despite increased investment. The urgency is underscored by widespread acknowledgment that existing managers lack the capabilities to drive organizational change, with traditional development methods such as seminars and lectures potentially hampering rather than helping leadership growth.
The 2025 focus represents a fundamental shift in human capital strategy, with organizations moving away from conventional training toward peer learning networks and behavior-based coaching models. This reprioritization comes as companies increase their leadership development budgets, though success appears contingent on broader organizational support for coaching capabilities. The stakes are particularly high as more than half of HR leaders report their managers currently struggle to implement desired cultural changes, positioning effective leadership development as critical to broader organizational transformation goals.
Read more at HR Dive.
Data Point:
a 7.6% raise
The financial value of hybrid work according to employees
In Other News:
No, Your Superstars Don’t Want To Manage Themselves. (Forbes)
Why Offsites Work — and How to Get the Most Out of Them. (Harvard Business Review)
What to consider when giving employees nicknames…don’t. (HR Brew)
Why Boeing’s 35% Wage Hike Is A Game-Changer For U.S. Labor Markets. (Forbes)
EY fired dozens of workers who took multiple online training classes at the same time. (Quartz)
Want employees to return to office? Give them a reason to do so. (HR Executive)
Once You Try a Four-Day Workweek, It’s Hard to Go Back. (Bloomberg)
Why a private equity executive wants more businesses to adopt employee stock ownership plans. (HR Brew)