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.
Microsoft Expands Partnership with NABTU to Deliver AI Training for Skilled Trades Workforce
Microsoft and North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) have broadened their collaboration to deliver free AI literacy courses and an industry‑recognized credential to skilled‑trade workers across the United States and Canada. Building on a prior effort that trained 1,500 instructors, the program will roll out through NABTU’s apprenticeship network and Microsoft’s LinkedIn Learning platform, reaching millions of electricians, ironworkers, pipefitters and other craft professionals. The initiative also partners with the TradesFutures nonprofit, which enrolls over 7,700 apprentices annually in 34 states, to expand awareness of AI‑enhanced construction careers. The effort aligns with Microsoft’s Community‑First AI Infrastructure, aiming to ensure the trades workforce shares in the AI‑driven economy.
Trump Administration Tosses Degree Requirements for Federal IT Managers
The Office of Personnel Management announced that the federal 2210 IT management job series will no longer require a bachelor’s degree, shifting hiring to competency‑based assessments. The change is the first phase of OPM’s Federal Workforce Competency Initiative, which aims...
Ninth Circuit Upholds NLRB Ruling Against Union Buster
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a National Labor Relations Board order that found an employer engaged in illegal union‑busting conduct. The appellate court upheld the NLRB’s remedial measures, requiring the company to cease the unlawful...
Zara Workers Urge Fashion Chain to Stop Plan Cutting Local Wages
Inditex workers in A Coruña have asked Zara’s parent to stop the ARTE labour agreement that would standardise pay across Spain. The draft could slash new‑hire salaries by €5,000 ($5,875) a year and strip local bonuses and transport support. Employees argue...
Hire Proven Marketers, Not Generic Buzzword Speakers
ICYMI: Fresh new article dropped: If a candidate talks fluently about Marketing but never connects it to what you said five minutes ago, or specific things they’ve 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦 (not “seen”), they’re performing. ChatGPT can do that too. You’re not hiring “generic VP Marketing.”...
Gen Z’s Ambition Awaits: Rethink Motivation Strategies
Most leaders think Gen Z lacks ambition. They don’t. It just hasn’t been awakened yet. In this episode of Generations at Work, Dr. Tim Elmore and Susan Davis unpack why traditional motivation strategies are falling flat—and what actually works. https://www.maxwellleadership.com/generationsatwork/
Redefining Jobs for the Intelligent Age
A Kyndryl 2025 Readiness Report finds 87% of business leaders expect AI to reshape jobs within a year, yet only 29% feel their workforce is prepared. To bridge this gap, Kyndryl has partnered with Wayne State University to launch the...
Lawsuit Says Unilever Fired Forklift Worker After Workplace ER Visit
Unilever Manufacturing is being sued after it terminated forklift operator Zachariah Salazar three days after he left a night shift for emergency‑room treatment of a foot injury. The complaint alleges disability discrimination under the ADA, failure to accommodate his Type‑1...
Barista Accuses Compass Group's Canteen of Gender Bias, Retaliatory Layoff
Jessica Wallace, a Chicago-area barista at Compass Group USA’s Canteen, filed a Title VII lawsuit alleging gender‑biased remarks and a hostile work environment that culminated in her layoff. She says her supervisor told her the company “should have hired a man”...
Amazon to Shut Homestead Warehouse, Lay Off 616 Workers in Florida
Amazon announced it will close its Homestead, Florida, fulfillment center and lay off about 616 employees, offering relocation bonuses to those who transfer. The move is framed as a safety‑driven renovation and a broader effort to trim costs amid AI‑focused...
CBIZ Deepens AI Tie‑up with Microsoft to Transform Talent Management
CBIZ announced an expanded AI partnership with Microsoft, adding Microsoft Foundry, 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio to its talent‑attraction and workforce‑development toolkit. The move aims to embed AI agents across the firm’s 9,500‑plus staff, boosting recruiting, employee engagement and analytics...
Act Targets Bullying in the Workplace
Taiwan's Ministry of Labor announced a new workplace‑bullying chapter to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, slated for promulgation in July. The amendment defines bullying as verbal abuse, undue intervention, social isolation or excessive criticism that causes physical or psychological...
Former PlayStation Studios Head Shuhei Yoshida Says He Was Fired Over Disagreements with Jim Ryan
Former PlayStation Studios president Shuhei Yoshida told an ALT:GAMES audience he was fired in 2019 because he refused Jim Ryan’s “ridiculous” demands. The revelation exposes a power struggle that may affect Sony’s first‑party roadmap and indie strategy.
Global Survey Finds 19‑Point Gap Between Workers' Training Priorities and Employer Perception
A new Indeed Hiring Lab study of 39,700 employees in eight countries reveals that a majority view skills development as a personal priority, yet far fewer believe their employers share that focus. The United States shows the widest disconnect at...
How Christine Barone Creates ‘Magic’ at Dutch Bros
Christine Barone, Dutch Bros' CEO, was honored as the 2026 Restaurant Leader of the Year. Since taking the helm in 2023, she has driven quarterly same‑store sales growth and lifted 2025 net income by roughly 80%. The company's stock has...
GM’s Paying Out Big Money for Top Executives
General Motors disclosed its 2025 executive compensation, keeping CEO Mary Barra at the top of the Detroit Three with a total package of $29.9 million, a modest 1.4% rise. Jim Farley earned $27.5 million after an 11% increase, while Antonio Filosa’s pay fell...
Alex Cooper’s Media Company Unwell Is Under Scrutiny After Allegations of a Toxic Work Culture
Alex Cooper’s media umbrella Unwell, founded in 2023 with husband Matt Kaplan, now employs roughly 100 staff and spans podcasts, live events, a beverage line, and a creative agency. Bloomberg reports that co‑CEO Kaplan has a reputation for yelling at...
TAP Pilots Warn Lufthansa: Union‑hostile Culture Threatens Airline Peace
TAP Air Portugal pilots’ union just fired a warning shot at Lufthansa. In a letter to the government, SPAC accused the German group of union-hostile practices and said bringing that culture to TAP would destroy “social peace” at the airline. Down...
FedEx Settles Charge It Denied Telework Accommodations to Workers with Disabilities
FedEx has agreed to pay $280,000 to settle an EEOC lawsuit alleging the company denied telework accommodations to disabled dispatchers in New York. The settlement also obligates FedEx to provide annual ADA training, report all accommodation requests to the EEOC,...
California Contractor Ordered to Pay $468K in Wage Theft Case
A California contractor, SCA General Contracting, was ordered to pay $468,505 in back wages and damages to 137 construction workers after a Department of Labor investigation uncovered minimum‑wage and overtime violations from November 2024 through November 2025. The consent judgment...
KPMG: AI Isn’t Replacing Staff, It’s Redefining Them
KPMG’s latest talent survey reveals that artificial intelligence is reshaping, not eliminating, professional roles. Firms report a 30% year‑over‑year increase in salaries for AI‑related skills and a surge in reskilling initiatives, with 70% of respondents launching dedicated programs. The study...
AI Surveillance Prunes Fraud, Elevates True Perform
Studying of teams with AI is the trend of 2026 1. Study your workforce with apis, key loggers and screen recording 2. Find out who isn’t working (fraudsters) and fire them 3. Find out who is simply taking credit for...
Exceeds Expectations, Gets 1.3% Raise: Reality Check
When she finds out you got "exceeds expectations" on your performance review with a 1.3% merit increase
Virginia Governor’s Amended Collective Bargaining Bill Would Leave Workers’ Rights Optional and Large Public-Sector Pay Gap Unaddressed
Virginia’s General Assembly passed a landmark collective‑bargaining bill that would shift the state from a largely illegal framework to a required‑bargaining model, potentially narrowing the 26.7% public‑sector pay gap and easing shortages among teachers, first responders and health workers. Governor...
What Are the Advantages of a Senior Management Development Program?
Senior management development programs combine case studies, simulations, role‑plays and networking to fast‑track experienced professionals into executive roles. They sharpen leadership, strategic thinking, communication and decision‑making skills through immersive, peer‑driven learning. Participants also gain access to alumni and industry‑leader networks...
Staffing Shortage: How Districts Are Responding
The Intelligence Council released a decision playbook on staffing shortages in U.S. school districts. Research of 37 districts shows the issue is a structural mismatch, not merely a hiring problem. Persistent vacancies degrade operating models, forcing leaders into trade‑offs. The...
$90,000 Awarded for Constructive Dismissal of Restaurant Server
A British Columbia Supreme Court decision found that a high‑end Vancouver steakhouse constructively dismissed a server who had been approved for a six‑week vacation. The general manager pressured the employee to sign an exit form moments before his flight, violating...
We Almost Hired an AI Candidate. Here’s What Saved Us
CoHost nearly hired a candidate whose entire profile – résumé, references, and interview persona – was fabricated using AI deep‑fake tools. Over two months and seven interviews, the team noticed subtle red flags: overly polished technical answers, instant reference replies...
The DOL Is Rewriting the Rules of Independent Work
The U.S. Department of Labor has unveiled a proposed rule to overhaul how independent workers are classified, emphasizing the degree of employer control and a worker’s genuine profit‑or‑loss risk. After nearly two decades of litigation and policy swings, the rule...
Medium-Sized Nonprofits See Victory in Retreat(s)
Medium-sized nonprofits (50‑249 staff) rank among the best places to work, scoring 84% on employee fun—four points above the overall nonprofit average—while only 64% feel paid fairly, slightly below the sector norm. Leaders credit regular staff retreats and dedicated weeks...
U.K. Job Postings Hit 5-Year Low As Employers Turn Cautious
UK employers posted the fewest job vacancies in almost five years, with vacancies slipping to 711,000 in the March quarter. Unemployment unexpectedly fell to 4.9% as a surge in inactive students boosted the inactivity rate. Average weekly earnings growth eased...
HR Tech News From Cangrade, Curately
AI hiring platform Cangrade announced that its Jules Copilot now offers users a choice among three large language models—Anthropic, OpenAI and Google—with Anthropic set as the default to emphasize responsible AI. The move gives HR teams flexibility to select the...
Digital Health Jobs Thrive Beyond London: Regional Clusters Matter
Career opportunity in digital health isn’t confined to London. Hiring clusters exist across Manchester, Cardiff, Cambridge, Bristol and national bodies. Understanding where domains concentrate matters as much as what role you target.
Meta To Track Employee Keystrokes, Mouse Movements To Train AI Models
Meta is rolling out a new internal tool called Model Capability Initiative (MCI) that records U.S. employees' mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes on work‑related apps to train its AI models. The data will also include occasional screen snapshots for contextual...
Bolto Secures $12M to Launch AI‑native All‑in‑one HR Platform
Congrats to @boltohq on their $12M Series A! They're building the first AI-native HR platform that brings full-cycle recruiting, payroll, and HRIS into one place. Companies post a job, Bolto's recruiters compete to fill it, and new hires transfer seamlessly...
Meta Isn’t Laying Off 8,000 People. It’s Converting Them Into GPUs
Meta announced a cut of roughly 8,000 employees, about 10% of its workforce, framing the move as a conversion rather than a traditional layoff. The payroll savings—estimated at $2.26 billion annually—are earmarked for a massive GPU purchase, enough for roughly 70,000...
Google DeepMind Engineers Are Allowed to Use Claude for Coding While the Rest of Google Is Restricted to Gemini, Causing...
Google DeepMind engineers have been given permission to use Anthropic’s Claude AI for coding, while the broader Google engineering workforce must rely on the company’s own Gemini models. The disparity has sparked internal friction, especially as Google ties AI tool...
Transparency and Trust Foster Ownership and Performance
This went around a few years ago a lumber mill puts machine prices on the door to remind operators of responsibility. - I’ve never seen an employer lose by sharing information with their people. - But price alone doesn’t create ownership. Training purpose and...
Put Employees First to Truly Serve Customers
Does "Employees More First" Disparage Customers? - CX Journey™ https://t.co/xTpbca676G “… if you genuinely want to put customers first, you must put employees more first.” #peoplefirst #peoplecentric https://t.co/o5qSwOc8WH
Why Neurodiversity Is Driving a Compliance Crisis
Employers are confronting a surge in neurodiversity accommodations as more companies hire individuals on the autism spectrum, ADHD, dyslexia and related conditions. Recent amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act and EEOC guidance broaden the definition of reasonable accommodation, creating...
People Analytics Poised to Transform CHRO and Executive Search
#Podcast Is People Analytics Ready to be CHRO & Executive Search? https://t.co/FgFZFuByON #HCM #HRM #HumanResources #HRTech #CHRO #FutureofHR
Bill Seeks to Align Workforce Development with Employer Needs
A bill to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) aims to better align training programs with employer needs, but its prospects are dim. Lawmakers face a narrow House majority and scant bipartisan enthusiasm, making passage unlikely. The proposal,...
7 Tips For Employers On Calif. Decision-Making Tech Rules
California’s new Automated Decision‑Making Technology (ADMT) rules require employers to overhaul how they use AI‑driven hiring, promotion and performance tools. The Law360 piece outlines seven practical steps, from conducting impact assessments to maintaining detailed audit logs, to help companies meet...
Joseph Lynett Discusses PWFA Enforcement Three Years After Law Went Into Effect
Joseph Lynett, a partner at Jackson Lewis, examined how the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) is being enforced three years after its 2023 enactment. He highlighted that many employers still deny basic accommodations, citing "significant operational difficulty" without clear standards....
Motivational Speaker Rocky Romanella Unveils AIAI Framework Targeting AI‑Driven Business Culture
Rocky Romanella, bestselling author and top motivational speaker, announced the AIAI (Am I All In?) framework to reshape corporate culture in an AI‑driven world. The model emphasizes partnership, ownership mindset, and long‑term responsibility, positioning itself as a counterpoint to tech‑first...
Paylocity Unveils Elevate Solutions to Scale HR and Payroll Operations
Paylocity announced Elevate Solutions, a suite that pairs its unified HCM platform with dedicated payroll and HR experts to help clients manage growing complexity without adding staff. The offering is now live for the company’s roughly 42,000 payroll and HCM...
Building a Stable Physician Workforce: Insights From Healthcare Executives
Hospital and health system leaders convened at Becker’s 16th Annual Meeting to address physician shortages and workforce instability. Executives from Salem Health, Asante, Endeavor Health, and Corewell Health shared models that blend locum tenens, care‑team structures, and robust change‑management tactics....
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says Workers Will Lose Jobs to AI‑savvy Peers
At a Stanford Graduate School of Business panel, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang warned that most employees will lose their jobs to peers who leverage AI tools, not to the technology itself. He argued that AI augments productivity and creates higher‑pay...
Iron Galaxy Studios Cuts Up to 90 Jobs Amid Ongoing Gaming Industry Downturn
Iron Galaxy Studios disclosed a new wave of redundancies that could affect as many as 90 employees, adding to the 66 jobs cut in February. The studio cited permanent market shifts and a need to reshape its structure, underscoring the...
NY Fed Survey Shows Record Low Wage Satisfaction as Job‑Switch Intent Slips to 9.7%
The New York Federal Reserve’s March labor‑market survey found wage satisfaction at a historic low of 52.3% and the likelihood of workers seeking a new employer at just 9.7%, the lowest level since March 2021. The findings highlight growing pay...