The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week

Bruce M. Anderson

Content Marketer / Editor / Writer

September 1, 2023

Woman with coffee cup sitting at a table, moving her mouse, looking at a monitor

The cat’s out of the bag. The genie’s out of the bottle. The workforce’s out of the office.

And, like the cat and the genie, the workforce is not going back (at least, not full time), according to an article in The Guardian that tops our list below of must-reads for talent professionals.

“[T]he workplace has been redefined by the pandemic,” says The Guardian, citing a recent paper by Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom. “Nearly half of all employees in the U.S. are working from home for at least some of the workweek. . . . [F]or the most part, everyone who can work from home is doing so at least some of the time.” The article applauds hybrid work policies, calling them a “‘win-win’ situation for employer and employee” and noting that Bloom’s research shows that the flexibility to work from home has a value similar to an 8% pay raise for workers.

Hybrid also draws a line between the kinds of work done in the office and the kinds done at home. “[The office is] about meetings, trainings, presentations, lunches, events, and connecting,” Bloom tells The Guardian. “The office is for socializing. At home is for one-on-one Zooms and analyzing and thinking.” And as technology gets better, Bloom says, with more sophisticated laptop cameras and software, work from home will keep growing.

Elsewhere in this week’s list, find out how virtual reality is upending workplace training; why Walmart’s chief people officer always asks the same interview question to senior leaders; and why you should aim for something better than bigger.