Oct 1, 2025 | The Summit - Tempe AZ E5 | Guest: Amy Kizer, Managing Partner, TalentLink Solutions
At The Summit 2025 in Tempe, Arizona, Chuck interviewed Amy Kizer, Managing Partner of TalentLink Solutions, about the human‑resources challenges facing firms moving into the registered investment advisor (RIA) space. Kizer emphasized that while technology and compliance dominate discussions, talent acquisition, culture, and HR infrastructure are equally vital for a successful transition. She outlined how TalentLink helps advisory firms design recruitment pipelines, onboarding programs, and performance frameworks tailored to regulated environments. The conversation underscored that neglecting HR can impede growth and increase operational risk.
KAST CEO Michael Neal Builds Teams and Careers
Michael Neal, CEO of KAST Construction, has transformed the firm from a $50 million revenue operation into a $1 billion enterprise. His leadership emphasizes a healthy culture, employee empowerment, and strong client relationships. Under his tenure, KAST delivered the tallest buildings in...
Succession Creates Vulnerability, Opportunity for C-Suites, Boards: The Conference Board
The Conference Board reports that CEO ages are climbing, with over 11% of S&P 500 CEOs now 65‑69, while board turnover has slowed to 8.6% new directors in 2025. Succession planning has risen to a top governance priority, as 61% of...
Compete HR Launches Human-in-the-Middle AI and Expands Integrations to Connect Workforce Data to Business Outcomes
Compete HR unveiled its Human-in-the-Middle AI capability, a conversational layer that asks follow‑up questions to deliver context‑aware workforce insights. At the same time the company broadened its integration portfolio beyond core HR systems to include payroll, CRM, ticketing and project‑management...
ICE at Work: For Fearful Employees, Anonymity and Resource Access Are Key to Safety
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions have sparked a workplace safety crisis, with a 2025 EMCI survey showing 37% of U.S. workers feeling less secure. In the first seven months of the second Trump administration, ICE conducted at least 40...
Burger King to Add 60,000 Jobs After Whopper Revamp Causes Sales to Surge
Burger King announced a hiring surge of up to 60,000 employees across its roughly 6,500 U.S. restaurants, driven by a 7% jump in customer visits after a decade‑long Whopper refresh. The new Whopper features a premium bun, upgraded mayo and...
Stop the Confusion: 4 Keys to Communicate with More Clarity
Managers often drown teams in information, leading to unclear instructions. A FlexOS study finds nearly one‑third of employees say unclear guidance hampers performance, especially in hybrid settings. Experts propose four keys—build substance, keep it simple, create structure, and pace yourself—to...
UPS, Teamsters Reach Nationwide Agreement on Driver Choice Program, Following Disputes
UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have reached a nationwide agreement on the company’s Driver Choice Program, a voluntary buyout offering $150,000 severance to eligible drivers. The deal caps the total number of severance packages at 7,500 and applies...
ExtensisHR Appoints Alan Missen as Chief Information Officer
ExtensisHR, a national PEO and HR outsourcing provider, announced the appointment of Alan Missen as its new Chief Information Officer. Missen brings more than 35 years of experience leading technology transformation, systems modernization, and enterprise integration across HR, financial services,...
Building a Niche Job Board: Lessons From Stacey Dunemke of NutritionJobs.com
Stacey Dunemke launched NutritionJobs.com in 2000 after discovering that mainstream job boards offered virtually no dietitian openings. She taught herself HTML, built the site herself, and filled a clear market gap for nutrition professionals. The venture demonstrates how a focused,...
AI Agents Now Have Their Own Job Board
Monday.com has launched Agentalent.ai, a managed marketplace where enterprises can post, evaluate, and hire AI agents as digital employees. The platform mirrors traditional recruitment, offering role definitions, candidate vetting, and onboarding within monday.com workflows. Built with AWS and Anthropic, agents...
5 Coaching Conversations Every New Manager Needs
The article outlines five essential coaching conversations that new managers should master to build high‑performing teams. It emphasizes early expectation‑setting, regular feedback, career development talks, structured performance reviews, and conflict resolution. Each conversation is presented with practical prompts and timing...
Changes to LMIA Focus on Youth Hiring, Job Postings
Effective April 1, 2026, Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program will require employers filing a Labour Market Impact Assessment for low‑wage roles to post the vacancy for at least eight consecutive weeks and to demonstrate concrete youth‑targeted recruitment. The government also maintains sector‑specific...
Survey: Construction Craft Professions Continue to Offer Strong Salaries
The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) released a survey detailing average annual salaries for nearly 40 construction craft professions. More than three‑quarters of the trades surveyed report base salaries exceeding $65,000, with several specialties topping $100,000. The...
Salary Survey: What Logistics and Supply Chain Jobs Pay in 2026
Logistics Management’s 2026 Salary and Compensation Study reveals a broad pay spectrum across the supply chain sector, with the average annual compensation reaching $126,400, a 5% rise from 2025. Executive‑level roles such as VP/General Manager command over $215,000, while warehouse...
UKG Case Study Frontline-Heavy Workforce
UKG announced that FJ Management, a privately held family‑owned holding company with over 17,000 employees across 28 states, has adopted the full UKG Pro suite and People Assist AI solution to streamline HR services. The platform handled nearly 78,000 employee...
Ontario Labour Board Refuses to Reopen Withdrawn Reprisal Case
The Ontario Labour Relations Board denied a former Triple M Metal worker’s request to reopen a withdrawn Section 50 occupational health and safety reprisal claim. The worker alleged a senior HR representative made threatening statements that prompted his June 2025 withdrawal, but the...
A Lawsuit over AI Notetakers Should Be on Every HR Leader’s Radar
A class‑action lawsuit against Otter.ai alleges the AI transcription service recorded meetings without securing consent from all participants and used the data to train its models. The case highlights a clash between federal one‑party consent wiretap rules and the roughly...
Leaders Create the Culture; AI Amplifies the Practice
Leadership development programs spark initial enthusiasm, but momentum often fades as leaders return to daily pressures. The article argues that the bottleneck is not program quality but the lack of sustained, low‑friction support after training ends. By pairing human leadership...
Montreal to Require White‑collar Staff in Office 3 Days a Week
Montreal will require white‑collar employees to work in the office at least three days a week, aiming to revive downtown activity after office attendance fell to 2.79 days per week and vacancy rose to 18.6%. The city estimates the current...
Hyatt Ties C-Suite Pay to Direct Bookings and Lifestyle Hotels Goals
Hyatt disclosed that it has tied portions of its C‑suite compensation to two strategic priorities: increasing the share of direct bookings and expanding its lifestyle hotel segment. Chief commercial officer Mark Vondrasek received a special share grant that would vest...
As Minimum Wages Rise in 21 States, McDonald’s and Burger King Offer a Cautionary Tale
California's $20 fast‑food minimum wage, effective April 2024, boosted hourly pay by roughly 25% for workers at large chains. Internal data from Burger King and McDonald’s franchises show daily labor hours fell 15‑20% and overtime disappeared, even as job applications...
How to Reap Compound Benefits From Generative AI
Generative AI has dramatically lowered the marginal cost of creating first drafts, but the true expense now lies in evaluating and learning from those outputs. Leading firms are moving from viewing AI as a simple throughput accelerator to a capability...
A New Partnership Is Making Homeownership an Employee Benefit
Foyer, a dedicated home‑ownership savings app, has teamed with Nayya’s AI‑driven benefits platform to launch a workplace perk that helps employees save for a first‑home down payment, improve credit, and navigate the buying process. The offering functions like a 401(k)...
DOL Recovers $95K for Employees Denied Overtime Pay
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recovered $95,095 in back wages for 33 nonexempt cooks at an IHOP franchise operating in North and South Carolina. The investigation found the franchise paid straight time for all hours, including...
Jobs Digest: Moves at Scopely, Google Play, CrazyLabs, Small Giant, Griffin and More
The mobile‑gaming job market is buzzing with senior hires and promotions across leading publishers. Scopely added ex‑Rovio product manager Anastasia Kuprina and former Gameloft manager Aravind Iyengar, while Google Play brought in former Netflix producer John Faciane and appointed Jamie...
Here's What India Inc. Is Projecting for Salary Increment, Promotions, Attrition Rates, Talent Development in 2026
Deloitte’s India Talent Outlook 2026 projects an average salary increase of 9.1% for 2026, a modest rise from the 9% paid in 2025. Financial services and manufacturing retain higher hikes, while tech firms cut increments by 0.6‑0.7 percentage points. Promotion...
Trump Moves to Restore Pay for Homeland Security Staff Amid Funding Standoff
President Donald Trump announced an emergency executive order to restore pay for roughly 30,000 civilian Department of Homeland Security employees who have gone unpaid for nearly seven weeks due to a congressional funding impasse. Uniformed personnel continued receiving salaries, creating...
Businesses Consistently Overlook Culture when Assessing M&A Value – Study
Organizations pursuing acquisitions continue to prioritize financial modelling and legal diligence while underinvesting in cultural integration, according to RGP’s new study. Although 81% of executives deem culture, talent and knowledge critical, only 18% feel their firms protect these assets effectively....
WALT Labs Launches People Companion to End “Management by Vibe” With AI-Driven Leadership Intelligence
WALT Labs has launched People Companion, an AI‑driven leadership enablement platform that replaces gut‑feel management with data‑backed coaching. Built on Google Cloud Vertex AI, the tool delivers real‑time sentiment analysis, early‑warning alerts and in‑context coaching for engineering and product leaders....
Acas: Mental Health Problems Among Top Three Reasons for Staff Absence
A YouGov survey commissioned by Acas finds that roughly one‑third of managers identify stress, anxiety, depression and other mental‑health issues as a top reason for employee sickness absence. Two‑thirds of absences are still attributed to minor illnesses, while about a...
Why Women Leaders Are Ditching the Old Workplace Rulebook—And Winning because of It
Women executives are abandoning the traditional command‑and‑control playbook that emphasizes hierarchy, constant availability, and emotional restraint. The old model, built for a predictable era, is now linked to high burnout—six in ten senior women report frequent exhaustion, outpacing men. By...
Google’s Employee Death Benefits Go Viral Amid Layoff Concerns in Tech Sector
Google’s death‑benefits policy has gone viral after a social‑media post highlighted its breadth. The plan guarantees a deceased employee’s spouse half of the employee’s salary for ten years and instantly vests any unvested stock. It also provides monthly payments for...
Finding the Missing Dots: Can Coaching Survive the System?
Corporate coaching is booming in India, yet organisations struggle to integrate post‑coaching change. Leaders highlighted a persistent expectations gap: individuals seek transformation while firms demand visible impact, often without clear metrics. The market faces an oversupply of coaches, many of...
The 4 Biggest HR Compliance Risks for SMBs — and How to Avoid Them
Small and midsize businesses are accelerating global expansion, but doing so exposes them to heightened HR compliance risks. The four most critical threats identified are worker misclassification, lagging behind rapid regulatory changes, inadequate data‑privacy safeguards, and non‑standardized employment documentation. Missteps...
I Evaluated the 6 Best Time and Attendance Software in 2026
The article reviews the six top time‑and‑attendance platforms for 2026—UKG Ready, Rippling, RUN Powered by ADP, Deel Payroll, Remote, and Connecteam—based on G2 Grid® scores, user sentiment, and feature depth. It highlights each tool’s niche, from enterprise compliance (UKG Ready)...
Gig Workers Want Real-Time Pay for Real-Time Work
The gig economy is forcing platforms to provide real‑time payouts as workers need immediate cash to cover on‑the‑spot costs such as fuel and vehicle maintenance. Galileo’s product leader Ankush Singhal explains that delayed payments can halt a worker’s ability to...
South West NHS Trust Embraces Digital Tools to Transform Hospital Staffing
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust has deployed three digital workforce tools from Patchwork Health—a fully integrated rostering platform, a digital staff bank, and an agency‑management system—to give clinicians greater schedule control, cut reliance on costly agency staff, and boost retention. The...
LPL Lands $160M Edward Jones Advisor; Bahnsen Expands Footprint with Former JPMorgan Recruit
LPL Financial announced that Trey Pope, who managed roughly $160 million in assets at Edward Jones, has joined its broker‑dealer and RIA platform in Huntsville, Alabama. Pope highlighted LPL’s technology suite and economies of scale as key reasons for the move....
Conversation with… Leanna Brennan of Wingstop UK
Leanna Brennan, Senior People Partner at Wingstop UK, discusses her journey from hospitality operations to strategic HR leadership. She highlights how hands‑on experience on the shop floor shaped her people‑first philosophy and guided decisions at one of the UK’s fastest‑growing...
CSC Expands Incentives for Top Civil Servants: What New Benefits Await ‘Gawad Lingkod Bayani’ Awardees?
The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has broadened the incentive package for its top honor, the Gawad Lingkod Bayani Awards. Awardees now receive free executive medical check‑ups through an expanded network of partner hospitals that spans Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The...
SEGULA Technologies Elevates Praveen Ambrose to CHRO
SEGULA Technologies announced the promotion of Praveen Ambrose to chief human resources officer, effective immediately. Ambrose has been with the global engineering firm for over six years, progressing from HR manager to head of HR operations and talent acquisition, and...
Fractional Leadership Is the Future. Here’s How to Make It Work
Fractional leadership, once a niche cost‑saving tactic for startups, has become a mainstream strategy for companies seeking senior expertise without full‑time overhead. Revelio Labs reports that fractional executive positions have more than tripled since 2018, with CFOs and CMOs leading...
Anthropic's Head of Growth Says the Company Culture Is so Open that People 'Just Argue with Dario' On Slack
Anthropic’s head of growth, Amol Avasare, revealed that the AI startup encourages employees to openly debate CEO Dario Amodei on public Slack channels. The company’s “notebook” Slack feeds act like shared Twitter streams where staff can challenge leadership in real...
Fairness Outweighs Compassion in Public Jobs: SC
The Supreme Court ruled that public‑employment recruitment must prioritize fairness over compassion, overturning earlier rulings that granted a police constable a second chance to take a missed physical test. The bench emphasized that advertised test schedules are final and cannot...
POV: Should DEI Strategies Be Standardised Globally or Tailored to Local Contexts?
Global firms are wrestling with whether diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies should be uniform or adapted to local realities. Leaders at Tata Motors, JEH Aerospace and Aditya Birla Capital argue for a hybrid model: a universal set of values and...
Growth Vectors Launches Initiative to Rethink Leadership Capacity in an Increasingly Unpredictable Business Environment
Growth Vectors, led by organisational strategist Mark Mullinix, has launched an initiative that reimagines leadership capacity for startups and SMEs facing volatile market conditions. The program combines fractional leadership, advisory partnerships and talent‑upskilling to deliver experienced expertise on demand, bypassing...
Crisis At Kult: Unpaid Employees, Missing Funds, And Blurred Chain Of Command
Kult, a beauty‑tech startup, announced a $20 million Series A in April 2025 led by M3M Family Office, promising to clear past liabilities and scale to a $540 million valuation. A year later, the company is mired in a cash crisis: roughly 100 employees...
Breaking Barriers: Inside Alicia Yip’s Approach to Culture, Leadership, and Organisational Development in the Automotive Industry
Alicia Yip, Head of Organisational Development & Culture at Proton, has built a holistic framework that ties performance management, leadership development, and cultural engagement into a single system. By listening across generations and cultures, she bridges hierarchical expectations and drives...
Bolt Cuts Third of Staff Amid New AI Focus
Bolt, the one‑click checkout startup founded by Ryan Breslow, announced it is letting go about one‑third of its employees. The decision, communicated through a Slack message, was framed as a move toward a “leaner, AI‑centric” organization after months of cash...