CHROs Lose The Training Ground
The routine work that once trained new employees is being automated, consolidated or left unfilled. Kroger will remove 3,000 corporate jobs, five Federal Reserve districts report firms filling fewer roles after investing in AI, and 86% of large-company CEOs are rethinking career paths.
Hiring plans at large companies are evenly split. In the Conference Board's survey released Thursday, 33% of CEOs plan to expand their workforce and 31% plan to cut it, while 41% expect business conditions to worsen over the next six months, up from 19%.
Some large employers are already smaller. Wells Fargo reported Tuesday that it employs 8% fewer people than a year ago while its severance costs fell, and it credits efficiency initiatives for the reduction.
Normally, they would get into these routine, repetitive jobs and then grow up the ranks.
Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, October 2026
If routine work keeps disappearing, the question is where new employees will learn the job.
- Work: The routine tasks that taught new hires the business are the first to go.
- Hiring: Fewer junior hires now means fewer people ready to step up later.
- Development: Savings are booked before anyone counts what the work taught.
Kroger will cut about 3,000 of its 8,200 corporate jobs over three years, saying it has more layers, handoffs and overhead than it needs. It plans to use technology to cut duplicated work.
CEO Greg Foran announced the cuts in a memo and a companywide call on October 12. Kroger has not said which functions will be affected, and employees will hear about specific roles over the coming months. Kroger employs about 409,000 people in more than 2,700 stores, and this cut is confined to its corporate staff. Foran wrote that the company must reduce duplicated work and "take advantage of technology," and Kroger outlined its AI strategy in September. The savings are meant to fund store-level customer service and lower shelf prices. "Every dollar we take out is a dollar we can reinvest in areas customers will see," Foran said. "We have to be relentless on cost," he told investors.
↗ Supermarket News — Kroger plans 3,000 corporate staff cutsFive of the Federal Reserve's 12 districts report firms shrinking through attrition or delaying hires after investing in AI. In Dallas, large accounting firms are holding back entry-level hiring.
The Beige Book, released October 14, collects what business contacts in each district reported through October 5. Overall employment was little changed. In Dallas, an accounting contact said large firms were delaying new contracts because they may need fewer entry-level employees than expected, partly because of AI. A Chicago business-services firm said AI productivity let it reduce staff through attrition. In New York, some larger organizations had begun cutting selected jobs or holding off on hiring as they built AI into their operations, and IT staffing contacts in Minneapolis said AI was slowing the creation of new jobs. These are jobs that never get posted, and a layoff count does not record them.
↗ Federal Reserve — Beige Book: Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions, October 2026KPMG's 400 U.S. CEOs expect to grow: 89% plan to add staff over three years. Yet 86% are redesigning roles, career paths and team structures around AI, and 53% plan workforce cuts in some areas.
KPMG surveyed chief executives of U.S. companies with more than $500 million in revenue and released the results October 15. Fortune reported that the share redesigning roles rose from 65% a year earlier. The growth most expect is small: 60% plan headcount increases of less than 5%, and 26% expect 6% to 10%. The redesign and the cuts are plans for the next two to five years. Of the 400, 75% say AI has made them rethink the skills entry-level roles require, and 60% name a workforce skills gap among their main challenges. KPMG's own chief executive, Tim Walsh, told Fortune to "discount the percentages" while agreeing with their direction, and said developing his people's skills is his own responsibility.
↗ KPMG — KPMG Survey: CEOs Confident in Their AI Progress and U.S. Economic Growth, but Cyber and Geopolitical Risks IntensifyKroger, Fed contacts and KPMG's CEOs describe one change this week. The routine work that taught new employees the business is being removed, and its savings are counted apart from what it taught.
Kroger is cutting 3,000 corporate jobs and layers it no longer needs. Five Fed districts report firms leaving jobs unfilled after investing in AI, including accounting firms that need fewer entry-level hires. And 86% of large-company CEOs are rethinking career paths themselves.
Training was a byproduct. It came free with junior work done under supervision, so it never appeared in a budget. Remove the work and the training goes too, unseen until a manager is needed who was never developed. Companies are redesigning how work gets done faster than they are redesigning how people learn to do it.
The Decision Signal’s posture for the week of October 19, 2026 is Commit.
All five postures are live. Click on any zone to read this week’s signals from there, and what standing in it would cost.
◇ COMMIT: Before the 2027 workforce plan is approved, list every junior role being cut, left unfilled or automated, name what each one taught, and fund a replacement for each. Require the CHRO to sign off on both.
The cuts are announced and the 2027 plans are still open. HR can attach a development cost to each role before the savings are booked.
The savings arrive next year and the shortage of ready managers arrives years later, when it is hard to fix. What is lost is succession depth: people inside who know the business well enough to step up.
Workforce plans count roles and costs and leave out what each role teaches. Closing the gap means naming the experience each cut role provided and who provides it now. Which 2027 cuts remove the work through which the next managers would have learned?
This is a demanding season for anyone responsible for people. Leaders are bringing plans to do the same work with fewer people, finance is waiting to book the savings, and nearly every plan assumes the next generation of managers will be ready when needed.
This week's evidence points to a cost those plans do not show. For decades, new employees learned the business by doing its routine work under supervision: drafting a first version, checking the numbers and having their mistakes caught by someone more experienced. It served companies well, and because it came free with the work, it never appeared in a budget or a workforce plan.
Much of that routine work is now being automated, consolidated or left unfilled, and some of it should be. However, a task done by a machine teaches no one, and nothing in the plan records the loss. It will surface years later, when a senior role opens and no one inside the company is ready to fill it.
The practical next step is to ask two questions of every role reduced in the 2027 plan: What did that role teach, and where will that learning come from now? Where the answer matters, the replacement should be funded in the same plan and approved alongside the saving it offsets. Some savings will be smaller, and the company will still have its own people ready to promote.
Respectfully,
PJ Bickett
After reading this briefing, what is your immediate posture?