The global gender gap, a measure of gender inequality published annually by the World Economic Forum (WEF), narrowed slightly in 2024 to 68.5%, just 0.1 percentage-point higher than the previous year.

The score is an aggregate measure of how opportunities for women fare against those afforded to men in four different categories. Economic and political participation stand out as two categories with the most room for improvement.

One area where progress for women has stalled is senior leadership, the report found. The share of women globally being hired into senior roles has fallen steadily since 2022, according to LinkedIn data cited by the WEF. Some 36.4% of people hired into senior leadership roles were women this year, down from 37.5% in 2022. And while women represent 42% of the global workforce overall, the share working at the senior levels of their organizations has budged just over 1% since 2016, from 30.4% to 31.7%.

These findings come as female representation in US C-suites is faltering, too. To elevate more women to senior roles, companies can consider deepening their investments in upskilling, skills-based hiring, and caregiving resources, one expert told HR Brew.

Keep reading here.—CV

What makes for a great conversation, especially within the recruiting experience? The right context. This is where generative AI can help transform a solid conversation into a stellar one.

Paradox digs into how generative AI can help add pivotal context within a candidate’s experience, resulting in great conversations. Tune in for their insights.

Canaries were once used in coal mines to detect and alert workers to the presence of carbon monoxide in the air. While they’ve since retired from the mines, canaries may still have relevance in the workplace.

Ludmila Praslova, a professor of industrial organizational psychology at Vanguard University, draws a parallel between these vibrant yellow birds and neurodivergent workers in her book, The Canary Code: A Guide to Neurodiversity, Dignity, and Intersectional Belonging at Work. Published in May, the book serves as a guide to creating better workplaces for all employees.

Praslova shared insights from her book with HR Brew.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Where does the name of your book come from?

In the UK, [before] the 1980s, every coal mine was required to employ two canaries, who were taken down and used as carbon monoxide detectors, because birds naturally have more intense air metabolism…When we’re talking about neurodivergent people, and multiple marginalized people, they tend to be more sensitive to whatever in the organization that is not really good for any human. For example, if it’s very rigid…there’s no flexibility in the place of work, people who are neurodivergent, disabled, caretakers, are more likely to be first impacted by those things.

Keep reading here.—MC

Companies are still shoveling gobs of cash into building out the data centers and other infrastructure for an AI revolution. But a chorus of voices on Wall Street and elsewhere are once again asking: Is that revolution ever actually coming?

A trio of recent research notes and expert missives have questioned whether the billions of dollars being poured into AI will ultimately pay off. The upshot of these notes seems intended to pour some cold water on runaway hype around data center investment, with warnings that generative AI tech still faces a long road ahead strewn with question marks about its ultimate value.

In a report titled “Gen AI: Too Much Spend, Too Little Benefit?” Goldman Sachs analysts entertained arguments that AI isn’t up to the complex problems it’s been tasked with solving and wondered about its still-TBD “killer application.”

Another colorfully titled research note from Barclays—“Cloud AI Capex: FOMO or Field-Of-Dreams?”—asked whether data center investment is creating a bubble that could end like the telecom crash that followed the 1990s dot-com era. Spoiler alert: “We are leaning FOMO,” the bank’s analysts wrote.

Keep reading on Tech Brew.—PK

AI has heart. Get this: 62% of candidates believe AI will make the recruitment process more human. The people believe in AI, and Aptitude Research has the deets. They surveyed 350+ HR and talent leaders on the impact of AI on the candidate experience, and the results are huge. Take a look.