Today's Human Resources Pulse
Lateral Associates Now Dominate Biglaw Hiring
In 2025, lateral‑hired attorneys accounted for roughly 48% of associate hires, overtaking new law‑school graduates for the first time. The shift reflects firms’ growing appetite for experienced talent amid heightened client demand and billing pressures, tightening the market for recent graduates.
IPA Names DEI Champions on iList 2026 Shortlist
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has released the iList 2026 shortlist, highlighting agencies that have demonstrated outstanding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The shortlist features a select group of agencies that will be interviewed by a panel of judges ahead of the IPA Talent & Diversity Conference in April. Winners will be announced at the conference, providing public recognition for DEI leadership within the advertising sector. The move underscores the industry’s growing commitment to measurable inclusion practices.
The UK’s Global Leadership in Lawtech Is at Risk if Women Are Left Behind
Professor Mimi Zou warns that the United Kingdom’s rapid lawtech expansion could stall if women remain under‑represented. The sector has grown more than 90% since 2020, driven by AI tools like ChatGPT and large‑language‑model platforms such as Harvey. Yet only...
EHR Strategy Becomes a Recruitment Lever for Health Systems
Chief medical information officers are reframing EHR and AI investments from pure operational upgrades to strategic tools for clinician recruitment, retention, and burnout mitigation. Leaders at Sentara Health report over 75% adoption of AI‑generated discharge summaries, citing significant time savings...
NYC’s Amended ESSTA: Expanded Employee Time Off Rights Businesses Need to Know
On February 22, 2026 New York City amended its Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) and the Temporary Schedule Change Act. The changes add 32 hours of unpaid protected leave, expand qualifying reasons for leave, and grant 20 hours of paid prenatal leave, while scaling...
Report: Agentic AI to Reduce Entry-Level Hiring Needs
Gartner’s 2025‑2026 survey of 509 global supply‑chain leaders finds that 55% expect agentic AI to shrink entry‑level hiring, while 51% anticipate broader workforce reductions. The majority (86%) agree AI adoption will force new talent‑pipeline processes, especially among high‑performing firms that...
Leadership's Future: Deeper Human Connection Over Automation
In this episode, Dov Baron and I discuss why the future of leadership isn’t more automation — it’s deeper connection. “If you use AI, you cannot exclude human connection.” If you lead teams — especially across generations — this one is essential. 🎧...
How to Encourage Employee Feedback in Exit Interviews
HR leaders at Gruns and Morning Brew stress that exit interviews should be the culmination of an ongoing relationship, not a one‑off conversation. Building trust ensures departing employees share candid insights that can still be acted upon. They recommend aggregating...
D&I Action Hits Record High, but Discrimination Remains Widespread
The Diversity Council of Australia’s Inclusion@Work Index surveyed about 3,000 workers for 2024‑2025, finding that 76 % now support organisational D&I action, up from 74 % a year earlier. Opposition fell to a record low of 5 %, while 62 % say their employer...
Nexstar Lays Off Local TV Journalists Including KTLA's Glen Walker and Lu Parker
Nexstar Media Group announced layoffs of longtime KTLA anchors Glen Walker and Lu Parker, along with veteran meteorologist Mark Kriski, as part of a company‑wide cost‑reduction drive. The cuts extend to other major‑market stations such as Chicago’s WGN and New York’s WPIX, reflecting...
Drive Strategic Growth with Smarter Workforce Planning
U.S. hospitals are pairing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with AI‑powered human capital management (HCM) platforms to tighten workforce planning as clinical services expand. Leaders at Johns Hopkins, Henry Ford and Rush describe multi‑year integrations that promise real‑time staffing visibility,...
The AI Skills Gap Is Turning Gen Z Into Workplace Mentors
Reverse mentorship is reshaping workplaces as Gen Z employees teach senior staff AI fundamentals. According to International Workplace Group research, 62% of Gen Z are actively upskilling older colleagues, and 72% report higher team productivity from these interactions. Directors echo the trend,...
Clearing the Haze: What Employers Should Expect as Proposed Loosening of Federal Marijuana Regulation Moves Forward (US)
President Trump signed an executive order on Dec. 18, 2025 directing the DOJ to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, acknowledging its medical use. The rulemaking process is still pending, so federal drug‑testing obligations remain unchanged for now....
President Trump Claims ‘We Ended DEI,’ but That’s Not Quite True
President Trump asserted that DEI has been eliminated in America, yet a Conference Board survey shows the opposite. In 2025, 77% of U.S. employees still consider diverse viewpoints essential, though only half perceive DEI as positively affecting their work. While...
Instant Answers Shift Leadership Bottleneck to Judgment
We’re entering a world where answers are cheap. That doesn’t make leadership easier. It makes it harder. When answers arrive instantly, the bottleneck shifts upstream… to judgment. Judgment is a leadership skill. More insight, less noise → decision.substack.com #DecisionIntelligence #AILeadership...
Minimum Wage for Certain Federal Contractors Will Increase May 11, 2026
On February 9 2026 the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the minimum wage for federal contractors covered by Executive Order 13658 will rise to $13.65 per hour effective May 11 2026, up from $13.30. EO 13658, issued in 2014, applies to contracts made, renewed or...
Indeavor Backfill Automates Fair, Fast Shift Coverage
Indeavor launched Backfill, an automated shift‑vacancy module that integrates with its Operate platform. The solution instantly calls qualified workers, logs responses, and creates compliant assignments, eliminating manual outreach. By applying pre‑configured rules, it speeds coverage, improves fairness, and reduces overtime...
AI + Work: Understanding AI's Impact on the Labor Market
Leading research institutions—Yale's Budget Lab, Brookings' Hamilton Project, and the Peterson Institute for International Economics—are convening a virtual event to dissect AI's influence on employment. The discussion will spotlight the most informative data sources, from real‑time job postings to wage...
Cangrade Launches Free Job Description Decoder
Cangrade has launched a free AI‑powered Job Description Decoder that analyzes any posting to surface the soft skills most predictive of success. The tool delivers a report highlighting five prioritized competencies and ten tailored behavioral interview questions. By moving beyond...
Payscale 2026 Report Flags Shift in Pay Strategies
Payscale’s 17th annual Compensation Best Practices Report declares 2026 the “Year of Strategic Alignment,” as executives push compensation to the core of talent strategy. The study highlights a widening AI pay gap, with 55% of firms offering no premium for...
HR Teams Struggle with Decision-Making Due to Data Limitations
A new HiBob HR & Finance Report finds benefit leaders are transitioning from operational stewards to strategic decision‑makers, yet 82% say they lack timely, unified HR‑finance data. The study reveals that 68% cannot make fair pay decisions without integrated data,...
Empathy’s Workplace Benefits Report Reveals Most Urgent Life-Event Benefit
Empathy’s 2026 Workplace Benefits Report finds current benefit programs fall short during major life events, with bereavement support emerging as the most urgent gap. While 80% of employers plan modest budget increases, 84% intend to expand bereavement offerings and 95%...
Demand for On-Site Gyms Surge as Staff Wellbeing Takes Centre Stage
New research from gym equipment maker BLK BOX shows a sharp rise in demand for office‑based gyms across the UK. Google searches for “offices with gyms” jumped 2,366% and corporate gym build requests grew nearly 60% year‑on‑year. Employees increasingly value...
Money Box Life: Working for Longer
The Moneybox Life episode explores the growing trend of people working beyond state pension age, featuring insights from ACAS’s Julie Dennis, Independent Age’s Morgan Vine, and Pensions UK’s Zoe Alexander, alongside real‑life stories from listeners. They discuss why older workers...
4 Essential HR Software Features Every Large Organisation Should Prioritise
As enterprises scale, HR departments need software that can handle growing employee data, complex contracts, and diverse work patterns. The article outlines four essential features—centralised data management, intelligent workflows, employee development tools, and self‑service portals—that enable large organisations to maintain...
This Is What the Next Generation Craves From a Leader
Gen Z will comprise roughly 30% of the U.S. workforce by 2030, and they prioritize authenticity in leadership above all else. The article outlines five actionable habits for leaders: admitting uncertainty, showing empathy, owning mistakes, acting on feedback, and increasing...
Trends That Will Reshape Learning in 2026 with Lori Niles-Hofmann
Senior learning strategist Lori Niles‑Hofmann predicts that 2026 will see a sharp decline in generic, one‑size‑fits‑all training programs, replaced by AI‑driven tutors and performance‑support tools that deliver personalized, contextual learning experiences. She cautions against over‑hyping generative AI, emphasizing the need...
AI Erodes Trust in Hiring as 40% of UK Employers Extend Probation Periods
Deel’s survey of 500 UK HR leaders shows AI‑generated applications are eroding trust in traditional hiring. Forty percent of employers have already extended probation periods, and 77 % say assessing authenticity before hire is harder. CVs and cover letters are now...
Rewiring Leadership for the New Age
In the digital era, leadership is moving from command‑and‑control to orchestrating a trustworthy ecosystem of people, machines, and processes. The article outlines an "agentic" model that distributes decision rights, adopts policy‑first delegation, and embeds transparency and ethical guardrails. Structural changes...
Elly Debuts AI-Native Hiring Platform and Raises $8M
Elly launched an AI-native hiring platform and closed an $8 million funding round led by Sorenson Capital, with Atomic and Next Wave Capital participating. The platform consolidates sourcing, interviewing, and applicant tracking into a single AI-driven system, automatically capturing interview insights...
When You Have to Cut Your Standups Do This
Daily standups often balloon to 25‑30 minutes, costing teams up to 100 hours of deep work per quarter for a five‑person group. The article proposes a blocker‑first format, a visible 90‑second timer, and pre‑meeting async updates to shrink meetings to...
Bullhorn GRID Report: Staffing Firms Using AI See Stronger Growth, Faster Placements
Bullhorn’s 16th annual GRID report, based on a survey of nearly 2,300 recruitment professionals worldwide, finds that staffing firms that adopt artificial intelligence experience markedly stronger revenue growth and faster candidate placements. Top‑performing agencies are four times more likely to...
Being Pleasant Beats Talent for Career Opportunities
One of the most overlooked career skills: Being pleasant to work with. Many people assume success comes from being the most talented person in the room. In practice, opportunities go to people others trust, respect, and enjoy collaborating with. “Pleasant to work...
Middle Managers Bridge Strategy and Execution Through Clear Communication
#TimTalk - Middle managers are the bridge between senior strategy and frontline execution, how can the manager maintain communication? with Gary Cookson https://t.co/aeHGNcfHqc via @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Sales #SalesLeader #Leadership #Culture #Success #Management #HumanResources #HR
AI’s Big Payoff Is Coordination, Not Automation
AI’s most powerful economic effect is lowering the cost of translating disparate data and workflows, not merely automating prediction or creation. By extracting structure from unstructured sources, AI creates a shared, real‑time view that lets teams coordinate without agreeing on...
Stop Dominating Sales Interviews: Ask Better, Verify Candidates
Sales Management Interviewing Mistakes: You do the majority of talking. You are the only one interviewing potential sales candidates. You don’t check resumes and backgrounds before making a job offer. You don’t ask challenging enough questions during your interviews. #frippvt
Marriott's Tyler Weeks on People Analytics Evolution
Directionally Correct Episode #159 - Tyler Weeks - People Analytics & HR Tech at Marriott https://t.co/xthRKuIoCb #HCM #HRM #HumanResources #HRTech #CHRO #CPO #Hiring #Recruitment #PeopleManagement #Culture #Change #FutureofHR #HRCurator
Why Leave Management Faces Growing Compliance Risk
Regulators worldwide are tightening oversight of employee leave, and companies that stumble risk fines and reputational harm. A recent Pulpstream study shows only one‑fifth of organizations feel very confident in their leave‑management compliance, while roughly 70 % rate audit readiness at...
Why Leave Management Faces Growing Compliance Risk
New research from Pulpstream reveals that only one‑fifth of organizations feel very confident in their leave‑management compliance, while roughly 70% rate audit readiness at three out of five or lower. HR leaders face rising leave volumes driven by expanding state...
One in Five Employers Say They Have No Clear Objectives for Their Employee Benefits
CIPD’s 2026 Reward Survey reveals that 22% of UK employers offer employee benefits without any defined objectives, hampering their ability to gauge impact. While 77% link benefits to at least one goal—most often retention (44%) and engagement (37%)—only 31% connect...
Proven Ways UKG Pro WFM Can Improve Healthcare Scheduling
UKG Pro Workforce Management (WFM) offers a structured, data‑driven approach to healthcare scheduling, tackling the sector’s chronic staffing volatility. By enabling early offers of open shifts through advanced scheduling, organizations can pre‑empt gaps, lower overtime, and align skill sets with patient...
Combatting Cynicism in Your Organization
In this HBR IdeaCast episode, psychologist Jamil Zaki explains how cynicism—viewing others as selfish and untrustworthy—differs from healthy skepticism and why it spreads in organizations, harming individual well‑being, relationships, and efficiency. He outlines the personal costs (stress, depression, higher mortality)...
On the Move: Alpine Group Snags Trump Aide LaJoie
Alpine Group announced the hiring of former White House special assistant Taylor LaJoie as vice president, bringing deep legislative liaison experience to its client advisory team. The Aleo Network Foundation appointed Kyle Zink, a veteran marketer from Google and Square, as chief...
Your Recruitment Business Model Is Dying
The podcast episode argues that the traditional contingent, multi‑listed permanent recruitment model is collapsing under AI pressure. AI shortlisting tools only achieve a 14% overlap, exposing resume inflation and inefficiencies. Retained and executive search models, which sell decision‑making rather than...
UK AI Experiment Shows Early Job Losses
Britain’s #AI Experiment: Down in Jobs So Far @Korn_Ferry https://t.co/6B4p8m9Bgc #HCM #HRM #HumanResources #HRTech #CHRO #CPO #Hiring #Recruitment #PeopleManagement #Culture #Change #FutureofHR #HRCurator
Are Your Job Ads Invisible? Here's Why the Best Candidates Aren't Applying
Recruiters are increasingly treating hiring as a performance‑marketing channel, where visual appeal and brand perception dictate candidate interest. Traditional text‑only job ads are losing to platform‑driven, image‑rich campaigns, creating a visibility gap for top talent. Chatly’s AI image generator and...
Blend Experience and Fresh Talent for S/4HANA Success
A complete team needs diverse skills. Avoid only having SAP gurus or ops experts. Mix seasoned pros with fresh perspectives for a successful S/4HANA transformation. #TeamBuilding #SAP #DigitalTransformation https://t.co/hlYw6dVy3X
Application Quality Triples to 60% Through Better Talent Matching
“Application quality” has improved from 20% to 60% good match. Explanation is either better talent attraction or better customisation from the candidates.
Close Your Workforce’s AI Skills Gap by Designing an Adaptive Organization - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM SLALOM
The 2026 Slalom AI Research Report shows a paradox: 68 % of leaders feel they can keep pace with AI, yet 93 % cite underdeveloped skills and inadequate training as major barriers. Deploying AI tools alone isn’t delivering results; the capability gap...
Where Exceptional Talent Meets Ultimate Careers
Jivaro, an 18‑year‑old executive recruitment firm, focuses exclusively on retail and consumer goods, serving 227 corporate clients across Australia and Europe. Its vertical sourcing model assigns functional specialists to each role, leveraging a 150,000‑plus candidate database and AI‑driven tools. In...
AI Agents to Enhance Candidate Experience in Oracle Recruiting Cloud
Oracle Recruiting Cloud is integrating AI‑driven agents to streamline the hiring journey. The agents automate tasks such as interview scheduling, resume parsing, and real‑time candidate communication. By delivering faster, personalized interactions, the platform aims to improve candidate engagement and brand...