Episode
HR News: As the Labor Market Heats Up, So Does RTO and AI Slop with July HR News: Jimmy Taylor
- Podcast
- Good Morning, HR
- Published
- Jul 30, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2843
- Processing state
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Summary
In episode 263, Coffey talks with Jimmy Taylor about the state of return-to-office, AI's real impact on workforce participation and HR practice, and why proactive networking and skills-based hiring matter more than ever. They discuss CBRE data showing peak office utilization reaching 80% and the factors driving successful return-to-office adoption; the hidden financial costs employees bear when returning to the office and how employers should account for that in compensation and goodwill; why early-career professionals stand to benefit most from in-person work through mentorship, visibility, and relationship-building; June jobs report softness, a 50-year-low labor participation rate, and competing explanations from immigration enforcement changes and AI displacement; AI as a net job creator over time, drawing parallels to fears about the internet eliminating insurance agents, real estate agents, and recruiters in the 1990s; the organizational opportunity and challenge of assessing AI skill gaps and reskilling loyal existing employees rather than replacing them with outside talent; Gen Z's surprising gaps in desktop computing and interpersonal skills despite their reputation for tech fluency; the case for replacing traditional resumes with tailored application processes and front-end skills assessments to filter out AI-generated candidate slop; professional association involvement as a proactive career resilience and network-building strategy before a job loss forces it; and Dallas HR's hands-on AI skills day designed to move HR professionals from AI curiosity to practical daily application. For listeners of Good Morning HR podcast, use 2026-CoffeyGMHR-100 promo code and take $100 off a HRSouthwest full conference registration at https://hrsouthwest.com . For HR teams w…