August 25, 2026

Presented By

Hey, hey! The agenda for The Total Rewards Equation just went live: Walmart’s healthcare playbook, Molly Moon’s $1,000-a-month childcare benefit, and a CFO-and-Chief-People-Officer benefits fight laid out in public. Sept. 17, New York or livestream.

In today’s edition:

👀 Supply < demand

🤝 Meet me halfway

🥜 Bringing home the ~~bacon~~ peanut butter

—Mikaela Cohen, Kristen Parisi, Natasha Piñon

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

Candidate and role mismatch

two people with mismatched puzzle pieces

Getty Images

Thinking about the labor market might be making some HR pros a little dizzy…

Many companies downsized their workforces in the last year. But, the latter half of this year may look different as the majority of hiring managers (66%) expect to increase hiring, up nine percentage points from last year, according to a recent survey from staffing firm Robert Half.

“We’re living at a time when things are changing so constantly, and so regularly, and much of that is influenced by external factors,” Robert Hosking, an executive director at Robert Half, said. “But, at the same time I think what we found, and we saw, [is] that increase in permanent hiring or the expectation of increase for permanent hiring in the second half of 2026…and I think that was a positive sign.”

For more on the state of the labor market, and how HR pros can contend with the mismatch between candidates and job openings, keep reading here.—MC

Sponsored By PwC

So…how does it work again?

Most organizations can explain what their AI does, but far fewer can explain what their people do differently because of it.

It’s no big surprise, then, that as organizations race to adopt AI, many are still searching for meaningful business value. The technology is moving quickly, and the challenge is figuring out how work itself changes alongside it.

PwC shares that AI may bring transformation, but it’s people who define the breadth of it. Rethinking talent, development, and subsequent evolution will help teams reinvent workflows, make better decisions, and stay accountable for the rest.

We asked PwC Principal Shebani Patel what she’s seeing organizations struggle with, what investing in people actually looks like in practice, and why many AI initiatives struggle to move beyond productivity gains.

Read all about it.

DEI

Let’s compromise

Charter Communications, Cox Communications

Charter Communications and Cox Communications are one step closer to merging and becoming the country’s largest cable company by customer base.

On Aug. 13, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a statement that the companies agreed to a series of equity measures, including providing affordable broadband options and five years of free internet for community institutions like libraries and community centers, and investing in workforce development through programs like VetConnect.

The expanded company will operate in 454 states. California, the final state to sign off on the merger, also required the company to share workforce diversity data, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Advocacy groups, including Just Solutions and LatinoJustice PRLDEF, had mixed reactions to the agreement.

For more on the merger and associated equity commitments, keep reading here.—KP

Sponsored By Betterment at Work

Outsourced doesn’t mean off the hook. You can delegate recordkeeping, payroll, and advisory work, but you can’t delegate accountability. Growth can quietly outpace 401(k) plans that don’t get reassessed, and more vendors mean more gaps where fiduciary responsibility can slip and slide. Betterment at Work’s new guide answers your questions. Download the guide today.

TOTAL REWARDS

Peanut butter pay

Kreinick/Getty Images

Bringing home the bacon is going to be harder without peanut butter pay. (Forgive us the food references—we’re hungry.)

Only 32% of US companies are planning across-the-board, or “peanut butter,” pay increases next year, a dip from the 36% that said they did this year, according to a recent survey from compensation data company Payscale.

In 2026, merit-based increases are the name of the game: Nine in 10 US companies said that’s the form of pay increase they’re giving to employees.

“We are seeing organizations realize that they need to deploy pay strategically,” Ruth Thomas, Payscale’s chief compensation strategist, told CBS News. “They need to think about business transformation, and part of driving that is allocating pay budgets differently.”

A quarter of respondents felt they were losing talent this year “due to insufficient pay increases,” which might drive the shift away from so-called “peanut butter” pay: “Peanut butter pay can be demotivating to employees as everyone receives the same increase regardless of performance,” the report noted.

For more on employers’ compensation expectations for 2027, keep reading on CFO Brew.—NP

Sponsored By Persona

Protect the hiring process. Talent leaders are being asked to do more with less. And as AI makes fraud more complicated, they must strengthen security without driving away qualified candidates. Persona’s identity verification helps you protect the hiring process while focusing on real candidates. Check it out.

work perks

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: $699—that’s how much Harvard is charging for an eight-week entrepreneurship course taught by AI clones of its real-life professors. (the New York Times)

Quote: “It’s almost impossible to identify the signal from the noise.”—Anthony Cheung, chief content and culture officer of AmplifyME, a firm that conducts assessments of candidates for companies, on more employers approaching them due to AI making résumés indistinguishable (Bloomberg)

Read: The job market is the real star of today’s top TV shows, as hit series like Adults and I Love LA all depict young adults navigating their respective early careers. (the Wall Street Journal)

People are foundational: We asked PwC Principal Shebani Patel what she’s seeing organizations struggle with, what investing in people actually looks like in practice, and why many AI initiatives struggle to move beyond productivity gains.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

Jobs

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Written by Mikaela Cohen, Kristen Parisi, Natasha Piñon, and Paige McGlauflin

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