Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

Congratulations to Challenger Senior Vice President of Executive Coaching Maureen Tarantello for being named one of the Best Executive Coaches in Dallas 2026 by Digital Reference Digital Reference. Maureen’s ability to combine enterprise-scale operational leadership with deep expertise in change management, succession planning, and organizational design is exactly what today’s executives need as they navigate transformation and talent challenges. Leading organizations of 15,000 people and managing $4B professional services businesses is more than experience — it’s perspective earned through real-world complexity. As organizations continue to evolve, experienced coaches who understand both people and performance will play an increasingly critical role in shaping resilient, high-performing cultures. See the complete list of honorees: Best Executive Coaches in Dallas 2026: https://hubs.li/Q04j1JwX0 #TeamChallenger #Leadership #ExecutiveCoaching #LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalDevelopment

Last summer saw the worst hiring season for teens on record, according to our analysis of non-seasonally adjusted BLS data. Given the current environment, which includes inflation, labor cost pressures, high oil prices, and teens with competing priorities, we predict this summer will be even worse. Via The Wall Street Journal

Job loss impacts much more than a person’s career. It can shake confidence and create real grief. Support during these transitions needs to reflect that reality. Practical tools are important, so is guidance that helps individuals rebuild confidence and move forward with clarity. The most effective outplacement approaches bring both together, supporting the full experience with strategic direction and steadfast encouragement.

2025 was the weakest summer for teen hiring on record. And Challenger predicts this summer will be even weaker. Challenger predicts U.S. employers will add just 790,000 teen jobs in May, June, and July 2026, down from last summer's 801,000 and marking the lowest summer teen hiring total since the BLS began tracking the data in 1948. The drivers: 🔹 Inflation and oil prices are squeezing the hirers. Businesses that traditionally hire teen workers like restaurants, retailers, amusement parks, and summer camps are watching margins tighten and waiting on demand before adding shifts. 🔹 Entertainment and Leisure hiring plans have collapsed 70%. Just 8,261 announced plans through April vs. 28,000 at this point last year. Theme parks, resorts, and event operators are signaling a lean summer. 🔹 The on-ramps are being automated. Order-taking, basic customer service, inventory checks, scheduling is increasingly handled by automation or AI. 🔹 This isn't the teen workforce of the 1980s. Teen labor force participation has fallen from 50%+ in the late '70s and '80s to 29.5% this April. AP coursework, year-round club sports, paid internships, content creation, and family caretaking are all competing with the summer shift. For employers: Where labor is tight, teens are a real solution and a long pipeline investment. For parents and teens: June is the busiest hiring month, but the slots fill before school lets out. Start now, tap your network, and look beyond retail. 🔗 Read the full report: https://hubs.li/Q04hlDvd0 #LaborMarket #TeenEmployment #HR #FutureOfWork #ChallengerReport

HR has been on the front line of every major shift in how work gets done. AI will be no different, but the timeline is shorter than any we've faced before. In April, more than 1 in 4 announced job cuts cited AI as the reason. It was the top cited reason for the second straight month. And yet, in our latest HR Trends Survey, only a fraction of companies reported they were actually using AI in their own HR operations. For decades, HR has been the function that translates technological change into people decisions, through restructurings, mergers, globalization, and the shift to hybrid work. AI is asking HR to translate yet another technological shift, but faster, and while HR itself is being transformed by the same technology The HR leaders I talk to are wrestling with three questions in parallel: 🔹 How is AI reshaping the roles inside our company? Which jobs are being augmented, which are being redesigned, and which are quietly disappearing? 🔹 How is AI reshaping HR itself? Recruiting, performance, learning, and workforce planning are all being rebuilt around tools that didn't exist 24 months ago. 🔹 How are we preparing our people for a workplace none of us has seen before? Baseline literacy is necessary, but it isn't sufficient. Workers need judgment, critical thinking, and hands-on practice with the tools they'll actually use. Companies that treat AI purely as a cost-reduction lever will get short-term gains and long-term credibility problems. The companies that come out ahead will be the ones whose HR leaders take a seat at the table early and build the workforce strategy around the technology, not in reaction to it. How are you preparing your workforce for this transformation? Have you considered this course to train teams? Have you built something of your own to get your people fluent in large language models? And what role is HR playing in shaping this shift, rather than absorbing it?

Poor succession planning costs public companies an estimated $1 trillion in market value each year, the Harvard Business Review reports. By contrast, organizations with strong plans in place tend to see materially higher investor returns. Leadership transitions can stall strategy and raise investor concerns if they aren’t handled deliberately. The companies that navigate transitions best treat succession planning as an ongoing discipline. They align HR and board priorities early, evaluate internal talent consistently, and build executive readiness before change becomes urgent. Explore our full article (link in comments) for practical guidance and tools to strengthen your CEO succession-planning process.

We took the Department of Labor's "Make America AI-Ready" course in full. Here's what HR leaders should know. ✅ It works as a baseline. Seven days. Ten minutes a day. Delivered by text so workers without reliable internet aren't left behind. ✅ It teaches the right instincts. Prompting, verification, and keeping a human in the loop. ⚠️ It stops short of fluency. The course doesn't address sycophancy, can't be queried like a real AI, and assumes learners already have strong critical thinking skills. AI is reshaping the labor market. In April 2026, 21,490 job cuts cited AI as the reason — more than 1 in 4, and the top reason for the second straight month. If you're rolling this out to your workforce, treat it as Lesson 1. Pair it with role-specific training, hands-on practice, and the judgment-building work the federal course leaves out. Our full review: https://hubs.li/Q04h0X390

Every dollar spent on executive coaching returns an average of 5.7x its investment. Because when leaders operate with clearer judgment and stronger alignment to business priorities, teams move with more focus and decisions carry through more effectively. In complex workforce environments, that impact becomes even more pronounced. Challenges like shifting expectations and evolving team dynamics don’t resolve cleanly. Coaching creates the space to work through those nuances in a way that strengthens both individual leadership and organizational performance. That kind of impact depends on how coaching is designed. Programs that are tailored to business goals and structured around clear outcomes are the ones that deliver measurable results. Explore how executive coaching can align with your performance and retention goals at the link in our comments.

Tech is a top job cutter, according to Challenger tracking, while hiring for software engineers is exploding. Our April 2026 Challenger Report: 🔹 85,411 Technology job cuts YTD, a 33% increase from this point in 2025 🔹 33,361 of those cuts came in April alone, the most of any sector 🔹 AI was cited in 21,490 cuts last month, more than 1 in 4, and the top reason for the second month in a row. At the same time, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects software developer employment to grow 17.9% through 2033, faster than nearly any other occupation. Lightcast data shows postings for AI-skilled engineers climbing sharply. TrueUp's tracker has demand for software engineers booming, not collapsing. Are these layoffs a way to push out long-standing staff? The VPs, directors, principals, long-tenured ICs whose comp reflects a decade of equity refreshes? So that companies can allocate that budget toward AI infrastructure and a different shape of engineering team? This is nothing new in corporate downsizing and it remains harmful. Long tenured and older workers are the people who know how your systems actually work. The architects who remember why that decision was made in 2018. The engineering leaders who've shepherded three platform migrations. The judgment that doesn't show up in a job description. For companies and people leaders, three things to watch: ✔️ Is your "AI restructuring" a strategy, or a cost-cutting label? The market is rewarding the word, but workforce decisions made on optics tend to age badly. ✔️ Are you supporting departing senior talent? Outplacement built for a 30-year veteran looks different than outplacement built for a coding bootcamp grad. Both deserve a real next chapter. ✔️ Don't mistake tenure for excess. Experienced workers carry the institutional knowledge, leadership, and judgment AI can't replicate. Companies cutting senior staff to chase AI headlines are often cutting the very people who would have made the AI transition succeed. Read the full April Challenger Report ➡️ https://lnkd.in/epnZ5pqC #WorkforceTrends #AI #TechLayoffs #FutureOfWork #HRLeadership #Outplacement #SoftwareEngineering