Peter Cappelli
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Articles by Peter Cappelli
Internal mobility: Why insiders have the advantage
One of the more puzzling developments in modern business is the employer complaint that they can't find the right candidates to fill their positions. But when you look closely, the jobs they are trying to fill require skills and experience that candidates are likely to get only if they worked for that employer! So, why aren't they promoting from within to fill those jobs? Employees that see this come to believe they have no way to get ahead, so they leave.
At Least Two Cheers for the BLS, None for the AI Leaders
There is a joke in the world of forecasting that goes like this: “I’ll make any prediction you’d like as long as I don’t have to tell you when it will happen.” An aphorism, which is not a joke, is that you get attention with extreme forecasts, and there is little downside for being wrong because no one will bother to check. Well, someone checked this time on the AI predictions that were made when the era of AI was just getting started in the early 2010s.
Intersection of AI and remote work spotlights interpersonal skills
The news as I see it is this: The belief among the leaders of many of the big consulting firms is that AI tools are—or perhaps will be soon—able to take over the more straight-forward tasks of consulting. That might mean clients can do them without the help of consultants, although it turns out that the issue has been less about the client's own skills and more about not having staff to do them. More likely, the clients will not want to pay as much for the work.
AI and remote work put the spotlight on interpersonal skills
An interesting story from our contemporaries in London about skill deficits appeared recently. It is about the intersection between the two biggest workplace issues of the past few years: remote work and AI. The news, as I see it, is this: The belief among the leaders of many of the big consulting firms is that AI tools are—or perhaps will be soon—able to take over the more straightforward tasks of consulting.
AI and remote work put the spotlight on interpersonal skills
This post was originally published on this site. An interesting story from London discusses skill deficits related to remote work and AI, which have been major workplace issues recently. Leaders of many organizations have expressed concerns regarding these intersections. An interesting story from our contemporaries in London about skill deficits appeared recently. It is about the intersection between the two biggest workplace issues of the past few years: remote work and AI.
‘Cheating’ in hiring: It’s a messy, expensive AI world
“Talent acquisition” has become the most dominant task in human resources, as we have pivoted away from developing talent from within. Hiring is the focus not only within HR but also in the organization as a whole because it makes “talent management” so obvious. AI was supposed to help make better hiring decisions, but it might be fair to say that, so far, the biggest change has been that AI has expanded the opportunities for applicants to cheat.
‘Cheating’ in hiring: It’s a messy, expensive AI world
“Talent acquisition” has become the most dominant task in human resources, as we have pivoted away from developing talent from within. Hiring is the focus not only within HR but also in the organization as a whole because it makes “talent management” so obvious. AI was supposed to help make better hiring decisions, but it might be fair to say that, so far, the biggest change has been that AI has expanded the opportunities for applicants to cheat.
‘Cheating’ in hiring: It’s a messy, expensive AI world
“Talent acquisition” has become the most dominant task in human resources, as we have pivoted away from developing talent from within. Hiring is the focus not only within HR but also in the organization as a whole because it makes “talent management” so obvious. AI was supposed to help make better hiring decisions, but it might be fair to say that, so far, the biggest change has been that AI has expanded the opportunities for applicants to cheat.
Do you really have an HR strategy?
My co-author Ranya Nehmeh asks a deceptively simple question of people in HR: What is your organization’s people strategy? The reason it turns out to be a tricky and embarrassing question is because we all feel we should have one but we usually can’t articulate it. Why is that? The answer takes us back to the 1980s. Before then, all “personnel” departments were pretty much the same.
Opinion, not evidence, is driving RTO decisions
It is fair to say that the tide of opinion has shifted on the topic of remote work, and to be frank, opinion is more important than facts in driving decisions. True remote, where employees are not expected to be in the office, remains a trivial part of the U.S. scene, mainly confined to smaller tech companies and some individual contributor roles.
Opinion, not evidence, is driving RTO decisions
It is fair to say that the tide of opinion has shifted on the topic of remote work, and to be frank, opinion is more important than facts in driving decisions. True remote, where employees are not expected to be in the office, remains a trivial part of the U.S. scene, mainly confined to smaller tech companies and some individual contributor roles.
Why are there so many layoffs? Don’t buy the claims
In the back of our minds, we have an image of the decision to lay off employees and why it happens: The business must be in trouble. Of course, employers can shed workers in other ways. Employees could be fired because of poor performance, and especially, voluntary turnover would shrink headcount just by freezing replacements. Average voluntary turnover in the U.S. is about 33% per year—in a big company, maybe 10%. A year-long hiring freeze would cut a lot of people and jobs. Layoffs are different.
Incentives for AI use: A ‘spectacularly bad idea’
HR Executive published a story recently about the growing use of quotas and incentives of various kinds to make employees use AI tools. This is a spectacularly bad idea. There are many reasons why. To begin, if you make people do something, you will get what you are measuring, which is rarely the underlying change you want.
Something big is happening in AI, but panic is the wrong reaction Original
When the World’s Fair came to Queens, New York, in 1964, robots were shown taking over housework, coming soon to a home near you. When the Fair closed, the exhibits moved to Disney World and made the same claim for the next 30 years: the robots are coming, just around the corner. Except they didn’t. In the 1990s, the expansion of distributed computer power and the vast purchases of it led to new claims about massive increases in productivity that would soon be released. Except it didn’t.
Something big is happening in AI, but panic is the wrong reaction
1 day ago A new survey examined the AI habits of different age groups. The results were surprising. From changing the daily workflow to the way we order food at a kiosk, AI is showing up in just about everything we do. But according to a new report, the way people use AI differs based on generation. And some …
The fallacy of treating AI agents as fellow employees
Should we treat AI agents as fellow employees? No. How’s that for clarity? I do wonder how those who claim we should actually think about how human employees should be treated. It is easy to think of all the ways in which advice advocating for equal treatment of humans and agents is not right: Don’t expect the AI agent embedded in your marketing workflow to buy Girl Scout cookies. They aren’t going to care if you forget their birthday.
The fallacy of treating AI agents as fellow employees
Should we treat AI agents as fellow employees? No. How’s that for clarity? I do wonder how those who claim we should actually think about how human employees should be treated. It is easy to think of all the ways in which advice advocating for equal treatment of humans and agents is not right: Don’t expect the AI agent embedded in your marketing workflow to buy Girl Scout cookies. They aren’t going to care if you forget their birthday.
Need to improve manager performance? Train their subordinates
A depressing aspect of working in the field of human resources is seeing things happening that we know are wrong, when there is evidence that what we are doing doesn’t make sense. Perhaps the biggest example of this is with respect to training, which seems to get cut every year.
How small slights can become big HR headaches
Here’s a question you probably haven’t thought about a lot: What happens when you forget to give someone a birthday card? Or even if you get it to them late? My colleagues Michal Hodor, Liat Eldor and I decided to find out. Yes, we know this is quirky. Yes, you should know that no taxpayer or other funds supported this study. And yes, there is a serious point behind it. The underlying question is: How trivial do issues have to be and still affect employee behavior, and ultimately, HR?
Workplace insults, even minor ones, can create big HR problems
Here’s a question you probably haven’t thought about a lot: What happens when you forget to give someone a birthday card? Or even if you get it to them late? My colleagues Michal Hodor, Liat Eldor and I decided to find out. Yes, we know this is quirky. Yes, you should know that no taxpayer or other funds supported this study. And yes, there is a serious point behind it. The underlying question is: How trivial do issues have to be and still affect employee behavior, and ultimately, HR?
The Things We Lose With Remote Work—and How To Minimize the Damage | The Wall Street Journal - newspaper - Read this story on Magzter.com
Try GOLD - Free The Wall Street Journal | December 01, 2025 Offices have historically been where relationships are built and learning happens. The key is figuring out how to keep those things with hybrid work. REMOTE AND hybrid work have become defining features of the postpandemic economy. This story is from the December 01, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal. Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers. Already a subscriber?
What we lose with remote work-and how to minimize the damage
Global Summary Offices have historically been where relationships are built and learning happens. The key is figuring out how to keep those things with hybrid work. This is a Mint Premium article gifted to you. Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Remote and hybrid work have become defining features of the postpandemic economy.
What We Lose With Remote Work-and How to Minimize the Damage
Offices have historically been where relationships are built and learning happens. The key is figuring out how to keep those things with hybrid work.
4 surprising finds about how AI is—and isn't—actually working
Are you a little weary of hearing about all the things that AI will do? Not yet? How about all the claims that your job is going to be taken over by AI (along with everyone else’s on the planet)? How about the recent layoffs and the assertion that they are due to AI?
Cómo una empresa utilizó la IA para gestionar la avalancha de documentos
En la década de 1930, los ejecutivos del sistema Bell se dieron cuenta de que el creciente uso de los teléfonos pronto crearía desafíos de red tan complejos que sobrepasarían la capacidad de los interruptores mecánicos para mantenerse al día. Así que lanzaron una iniciativa para crear los transistores como una alternativa más rápida y mucho más barata.
The Lower Boundary of Workplace Mistreatment: Do Small Slights Matter?
Forthcoming in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. We have benefited from feedback provided by participants at the 8th Solomon Lew Conference on Behavioral Economics, the 2023 Academy of Management Meeting, the 2023 European Economics Association Congress, the 40th annual conference of the Israel Economic Association, the 2025 ASSA Annual Meeting, and the MEDS Seminar at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Business School.
Merging HR and IT? Why it’s a ‘senseless’ endeavor
A month or so ago, the buzz was about whether HR and IT functions could—and possibly should—merge. It sounds like a bad idea—because it is. Each of the two have so many separate tasks where there is no overlap. Trying to put them together would be senseless. The story was kicked off by something much more reasonable: a development at Moderna where the head of HR also became the head of IT (or, more likely, an IT leader also reported to the head of HR). It wasn’t a merger of the two functions.
HR and IT Shouldn’t Merge | Recruiting News Network
A month or so ago, the buzz was about whether HR and IT functions could—and possibly should—merge. It sounds like a bad idea—because it is. Each of the two have so many separate tasks where there is no overlap. Trying to put them together would be senseless. The story was kicked off by something much more reasonable: a development at Moderna where the head of HR also became the head of IT (or, more likely, an IT leader also reported to the head of HR). It wasn’t a merger of the two functions.
'We need pre-meetings to prepare for big meetings'
The following is an excerpt from In Praise of the Office: The Limits to Hybrid and Remote Work by Peter Cappelli and Ranya Nehmeh available now from Wharton School Press. Reprinted with permission from University of Pennsylvania Press. While there were many changes with remote work, the single most notable one was the shift to remote meetings.
The Limits to Hybrid and Remote Work
In their new book, In Praise of the Office: The Limits to Hybrid and Remote Work, Wharton professor Peter Cappelli and workplace strategist Ranya Nehmeh deliver a balanced, research-based approach to navigating the complex landscape of remote and hybrid work, providing a fresh perspective on why hybrid models often fail and what organizations must do differently to succeed in this new era.
Is your office dead? Put BOND on the case
Learn from the world’s biggest business thinkers. Excerpted from In Praise of the Office: The Limits to Hybrid and Remote Work by Peter Cappelli and Ranya Nehmeh available now from Wharton School Press. Reprinted with permission from University of Pennsylvania Press. It should not be surprising at this point in the history of management to hear that people are much more willing to accept and be engaged in changes where they participated in making them.
Homeoffice und hybrides Arbeiten schaden der Leistung und der Zusammenarbeit - klare Regeln helfen
Führungspool: Es ist unmöglich, Teams, die hybrid oder remote arbeiten, mit den Methoden zu managen, die in Präsenz funktionieren Foto: Jerome Gence / Panos Pictures / VISUM
Il lavoro ibrido continua a non funzionare
L’ANNO SCORSO, grandi e piccole organizzazioni hanno obbligato i dipendenti a tornare a lavorare in ufficio per tutta la settimana. Stanno reagendo alla sempre più conclamata evidenza del fatto che il lavoro da remoto e ibrido peggiora la performance individuale e collettiva.
Remote work vs. RTO: The surprising alliances and deep divisions of the office debate
My book with Ranya Nehmeh, In Praise of the Office, about the benefits of face-to-face interactions is being released this month. Along with the attention that generates, I am learning about who advocates for remote work and who advocates for returning to the office. For the record, we argue that it is possible to have the benefits of in-person working with a hybrid schedule, but it requires management to be much more purposeful with how it uses that in-person time than what we are seeing now.
What the strange bedfellows in the return-to-office debate say about the future of work
My book with Ranya Nehmeh, In Praise of the Office, about the benefits of face-to-face interactions is being released this month. Along with the attention that generates, I am learning about who advocates for remote work and who advocates for returning to the office.
How to successfully manage the mix of remote, hybrid, and in-person workers
It could well be that the most important development at work in the last 50 years will not be AI, despite the hype. It will be the acceptance of alternative locations where employees can do their work. Remote work was happening before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, but its influence was overstated partly because of how it was measured.
What can HR learn from watching trade negotiations?
Few topics have dominated the headlines recently as much as President Trump’s efforts to renegotiate trade relationships with other countries. There are good reasons for the attention they get: The outcomes affect the prices of so many of the goods that make up our economy—and, in turn, businesses, their employees and our retirement accounts. There is another reason for us to follow trade negotiations, though.
Why it’s important to understand the problems with hybrid work
My colleague Ranya Nehmeh and I have an article out now in the Harvard Business Review—“Hybrid Still Isn’t Working”—about problems with hybrid work arrangements and how leaders can fix them. (Editors pick headlines, by the way.) For employers that retained remote work after the pandemic, the idea that they could simply tell employees to work from home three days a week without doing anything different and that it would be problem-free seems like magical thinking.
¿Puede haber demasiada seguridad psicológica en el lugar de trabajo?
La noción de seguridad psicológica fue una idea desarrollada por primera vez en la década de 1950 que ha sido ampliada de manera importante y cuidadosa en años recientes. La esencia de la idea es que un contexto psicológicamente seguro es aquel en el que las personas sienten que no experimentarán daño interpersonal (ser ridiculizadas o atacadas personalmente de otra manera) si intentan expresar su opinión, cometer errores, tomar riesgos o pedir ayuda.
Hybrid Still Isn’t Working
SKIP TO CONTENT Over the past year, organizations large and small have been forcing their employees to return to the office for the entire workweek. They are responding to growing evidence that remote and hybrid arrangements result in lower worker performance.
What Could Danish HR Learn from the US?
Training has largely disappeared: the best evidence that a typical employee gets only the equivalent of one day of training per year, which includes safety training, learning how to use vendor equipment, and compliance rules. Promotion has dropped as well: ADP data suggests that only a little of 2% of employees are promoted each year, 29% of those who are promoted quit within one month, no doubt because budgets to pay employees promoted have fallen to 1% of payroll per year.
Hybrid Still Isn’t Working
SKIP TO CONTENT Over the past year, organizations large and small have been forcing their employees to return to the office for the entire workweek. They are responding to growing evidence that remote and hybrid arrangements result in lower worker performance.
AI derangement syndrome? Yes, it’s really happening in the C-suite
Perhaps because we can see and sometimes touch technology, we seem to be obsessed with imagining how it will transform our lives. Sometimes it does, but it takes a long time to happen. The number of those cases is very small—and many more times, that transformation just does not happen. Remember driverless trucks, which were supposed to take over the highways by 2019?
A 110-hour work week? What's behind another overwork scandal
You may have seen the story last week in the Wall Street Journal that described the horrific experience of junior bankers at the Baird investment bank working 110 hours or more per week. (In case you haven’t thought about it recently, there are only 168 hours in a week.) To work that much in a standard five-day work week would be 22 hours per day. Some of those junior bankers ended up being hospitalized, conjuring up the Japanese term “karoshi,” or death from overwork.
The Trump tariffs, a recession and the economy. What does HR do now?
Let’s say you are a responsible executive leading—or helping lead—an organization whose mission and employees you care about. That mission might include shareholder value; at a minimum, it includes concern about the organization’s survival. The Trump administration has headed down a path that will upend much of what has been familiar in your world, especially for businesses. As an HR leader, what do you do? And what do you tell your employees?
Why the DOGE approach to performance management won't work
The U.S. government is a big stage, and it’s not too surprising if what happens there plays out in the rest of the country, including the workplace. When Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981, the widespread belief was that the move empowered employers to get tough with their own unions. The Trump administration’s takedown of DEI in the federal government has had the same effect on the private sector.
The collapse of DEI: What went wrong?
It is difficult to think about the practice of human resources today without talking about the astonishing collapse of DEI practice and influence. I cannot think of any equivalent change in modern times—with the possible exception of the rapid rise of industrial unions after the UAWs sit-down strike in Flint, Mich., in 1936, almost a century ago now.
How One Company Used AI to Manage the Deluge of Documents
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How One Company Used AI to Manage the Deluge of Documents
Five lessons from an insurer’s journey towards a paperless office. January 07, 2025 Post Post Share Annotate Save Get PDF Buy Copies Print Since the 1960s, there has been a quest to find ways to address the tidal wave of paper deluging organizations. The latest technology that is being applied is AI.
Skills-based hiring: Where we stand heading into 2025
Much has been said in recent years about the push toward skills-based hiring. The idea that we should try to figure out whether candidates have the skills required to do the job seems so obvious, it may seem like we shouldn’t have to even think about it further. However, taking skills more seriously requires that we stop paying as much attention to other criteria. What might those be? In practice, skills-based hiring seems mostly to be about dropping academic degree requirements. Why?
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