Picture it now—the “future” (read: early 2000s) as speculated in the 1950s: You’d take your flying car to work, scarf down some freeze-dried food, and return to your fully automated smart home, which absolutely had to include a robotic dog, for some reason.

It’s the future that wasn’t. And that same brand of overeager speculation could apply to a much less flashy event: The end of quarterly reporting, which almost certainly wouldn’t involve jetpacks or robot dogs.

But when the Wall Street Journal first broke news in March of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plans to draft a proposal eliminating public companies’ longstanding quarterly reporting requirement and offering a semiannual reporting option, you’d be forgiven for assuming a seismic shift was afoot in corporate America, given the attendant hoopla. Was the sky falling?

Now that the dust has settled, a more interesting future is emerging: Experts have argued the SEC’s potential proposal may not actually disrupt business as usual as much as first anticipated. But CFOs may nevertheless have to make a case for one reporting cadence over the other, and that could lead to deeper questions.

Keep reading.—NP

Hold on to your wallets: A recent report raised concerns that the human aspect of mergers and acquisitions is being left by the wayside.

M&A offers opportunities to rapidly grow revenue, but in a March research report, professional services firm RGP found what it called “The Human Value Gap in M&A.”

The report was based on a survey of 120 CFOs across technology, consumer products and retail, financial services, private equity, and healthcare, most at companies with more than $500 million in annual revenue. The research also included in-depth interviews with 15 CHROs from global enterprises.

A key finding: Intangible assets like culture, talent, and knowledge were noted as critical to a deal’s success by a large majority—81%—of the CFO respondents, but only 18% said they felt their organization protected these things effectively.

Keep reading.—DL

Big Tech led the way in astonishing employee perks: ping-pong tables, beer taps, and on-site dry cleaning and laundry services. Then, these same tech companies led the way in a wider rollback of employee benefits as execs began to reorganize amid a changing economy and wider AI transformation.

Consulting appears to be the next domino.

Even the largest professional services firms are recalibrating their people strategies in today’s economy and labor market. Deloitte plans to roll back some benefits for a segment of its US workers, according to reporting from Business Insider.

“Deloitte US is modernizing its talent architecture to provide a more tailored experience reflective of our professionals’ broad range of skills and the work they do serving our clients,” a Deloitte spokesperson told Business Insider. “Benefits are regularly updated and will be tailored for a small subset of professionals to better align with the marketplace.”

Keep reading on HR Brew.—AD