Babies! They’re cute, they’re cuddly, and — until recently — a historically low percentage of Americans were having them. The U.S. birth rate declined almost every year between 2008 and 2020, according to the Census Bureau, especially during the initial COVID outbreak.

That trend is finally reversing. Our national baby-making jumped over 6% in 2021 and remains elevated. Why? The uptick is partly thanks to remote work, concludes a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. “Fertility gains were concentrated in groups such as college-educated women who … were able to work from home,” the researchers write, especially for those having their first child.

With fewer daycare expenses and less time spent commuting, workers might feel more prepared to start families. Either that, or aging millennials’ parents are really putting on the pressure for grandkids lately.

Robo recruiters: Are they missing your best candidates?

Psychologist: How to recognize a bad decision in advance.

Fairy tale ending: She quit her job for an enchanted life.

It seems like every business has a “We’re Hiring” sign in the front door lately. The unemployment rate was only 3.5% in September, tied for the lowest level in half a century. There are nearly two job openings for any candidate available.

That’s great if you’re a job applicant — but if you’re a business owner, it means you need to offer employees more perks than the next shop over. The so-called “Great Resignation” is a battle of the bennies! Experts caution, however, that one-off splurges like spa days, gift cards, and tropical company retreats are less effective than steady quality-of-life improvements.

Here’s an idea: add DIRECTV for BUSINESS to your breakroom, or your waiting room, or throughout your establishment. With 155+ channels including sports, entertainment, and more, there’s always something on to keep your staff and customers happy:

• 80% of business subscribers that play DIRECTV Music Channels say it provides a more enjoyable work environment for employees.
• 87% of medical business subscribers say it keeps employees connected to breaking news and current events.
• 87% of bar and restaurant subscribers rate DIRECTV good, very good or excellent for offering programming that their customers and employees want to see.

Happy employees are hardworking employees. Let DIRECTV for BUSINESS do the work for you. 

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Artificial intelligence is making our lives easier in many ways. In fact, getting through a single day without Alexa or Google Assistant seems unfathomable now — and let’s not get started on our Roomba vacuum. However, for hiring managers who need to find the best candidates (not just the best at gaming “robo recruiters”), it’s not so simple.

There’s no question that robo recruiting reduces the time and cost of analyzing CVs. No human could sort through an endless torrent of applications from all over the country with the explosion of remote positions in the past couple years. Virtually every leading job platform, including LinkedIn and Indeed, uses AI to some degree.

The downside is that current-generation AI has known problems.

The issue of bias

If an algorithm is looking for candidates who are exactly like the people already at the company, it’s unfair to others who deserve a chance. These tools can not only reportedly discriminate against women, but also against graduates of less-renowned colleges who are perfectly qualified for the job.

Strengthening algorithms and eliminating biases will expand your talent pool.

Key hires or just keywords?

Anyone whose resume or CV lacks specific phrases will find themselves filtered out, even if they’d be an ideal fit. Worse, unqualified applicants who do use the right keywords may go to the front of the line.

Similarly, many companies are replacing initial interviews with chatbots, which are quick, easy, and can ask and answer basic questions — but more complex inquiries are beyond them. Without proper programming, chatbots can respond irrelevantly, causing good candidates to become frustrated.

The human factor

In a two-year international study, Harvard Business School researchers found that companies solely reliant on robo recruiters were 36% more likely to suffer from talent and skill shortages. While AI can help reduce the pile of applications, it can’t yet determine who complements the rest of your team or has a strong work ethic.

For now, the human element in HR must still play a primary role.

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Dr. Steven Rogelbergis Chancellor’s Professor at UNC Charlotte and former president of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Not all ideas will lead to great results, but a recent study in the Academy of Management Journal found that nearly 75% of ideas failed to yield the expected return. This is a jarring statistic. What can leaders do to prevent their teams (and themselves) from pursuing fruitless impulses?

There are a few strategies:

• Separate idea creation from idea evaluation. After brainstorming, take a break. Come back later and evaluate with a fresh perspective.
• Bring in outside perspectives. Think about the relationship between novelists and editors. Without novelists, there wouldn’t be stories — but without editors, there wouldn’t be many readable stories. Somebody else needs to serve as quality control.
• Evaluators shouldn’t know who generated ideas. This leads to a review unbiased by personal feelings toward specific coworkers.

I encourage evaluators to implement “reverse brainstorming”: Tear ideas apart! With permission to be critical, it’s easier to identify meaningful flaws and pitfalls. No idea should escape these evaluation processes unscathed — and those that survive will be much improved.

With that said, don’t let perfection be the enemy of trying new things. The goal is making thoughtful innovation bets.

Samantha Myers (pictured left above) had worked on Wall Street for two decades at Samlyn Capital and Credit Suisse. “I had been through 9/11, 2008, and countless ups and downs, restructurings, layoffs, wonderful — and horrible — bosses and everything in between,” she says.

Myers was ready for a change. She happened to bring her daughter to Let’s Dress Up!, a unique space on the Upper East Side where kids use their imaginations during tea parties with real china and linen napkins.

“I knew [the founder] was onto something special and had a great reputation,” Myers says. “I also saw the ways that I could help her innovate and streamline to make the product better with the ultimate goal of expansion. She was a one-woman show with a totally different skill set than mine and we struck up an amazing partnership.”

Together, they’re creating quiet, magical experiences in the middle of a bustling city. Myers recommends that such a major career change requires a lot of thought, especially regarding your transferable skills, finances, and risk tolerance.

“It can be a radical change and still be well planned out and thoughtful,” she says. “When I did it, I just knew in my gut — and my spreadsheets — it was time and that this was the right situation for me.”

With autumn here, we’re highlighting LiveWire Crystal Shiso Mojito, Los Angeles-based mixologist Yael Stormborn’s offbeat take on the classic drink. In this version, Casa Magdalena rum and coconut play with shiso (a minty herb from Japan) and Indian lime, taking the traditionally Cuban cocktail on an international trip.

Written by Jane Meggitt, Brian Hill, and Aaron Goldfarb. Comic by John McNamee.