Uber CEO: Work Hard or We’ll ‘Push You Out’
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told the "Diary of a CEO" podcast that employees must answer emails even on weekends and that failure to meet this expectation will result in termination. He framed constant availability as the most important skill and credited such hard‑work ethic for Uber’s financial turnaround over the past decade. The remarks echo Uber’s 2025 three‑day‑a‑week return‑to‑office mandate, which previously provoked strong staff backlash. Analysts warn that this command‑and‑control stance could hinder talent attraction across the tech sector.
ADP, Workday Top Best Companies for Women List
Comparably’s 2025 Best Companies for Women list placed ADP at the top and Workday at third, reflecting strong employee approval. ADP earned nearly 2,000 reviews with 91% positive, while Workday garnered about 900 reviews and a 94% positive rating. Both...
The Benefit 95% of Workers Are Craving
The 2026 Workplace Benefit Report from Empathy, based on more than 4,000 employees in North America and the U.K., reveals that 95% of respondents place a high value on bereavement benefits. Nearly half of the workforce wants employers to support...
Blue Cross Blue Shield Carriers Face New Provider Antitrust Suit
The Healthcare Justice Coalition, representing the liquidation trusts of two bankrupt physician‑staffing firms, has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and its 33 carriers, alleging coordinated actions that inflate provider costs. The complaint seeks an...
The TPA’s Role in Avoiding Unnecessary ERISA Litigation
Third‑party administrators (TPAs) must ensure that a self‑funded health plan’s formal document and its Summary Plan Description (SPD) are perfectly aligned. Gaps or missing clauses—especially around subrogation—can expose both the TPA and plan sponsor to ERISA class‑action lawsuits costing tens...
Cost Management Is the Primary Business Priority for Benefit Leaders
Employers are feeling heightened pressure from medical inflation, specialty‑drug spend and regulatory complexity, prompting a shift toward cost control as the top benefits priority, according to MetLife’s 2026 U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study. Controlling benefit costs has become the number‑one...
‘Think of Your Hospital as a Start-Up’: Mark Cuban’s Plan to Fix Inpatient Care
Mark Cuban suggests treating hospitals like lean start‑ups, mirroring his Cost Plus Drugs model. He would enforce fixed, transparent margins, pay physicians above market rates, and strip away non‑essential infrastructure. Cuban also argues that AI‑driven contract automation could slash administrative...
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...
Crypto Payroll’s New Era: Moving From Liability to Strategic Asset
The Genius Act, effective July 2025, reclassifies stable‑coin payroll such as USDC as a standard wire transfer, ending offshore‑wallet tax evasion. The IRS now requires reporting via the new 1099‑DA form, creating an automatic data trail that triggers matching reviews....
Build, Buy, Borrow or Bot? Making Faster, Smarter Workforce Decisions
HR leaders face accelerating capability gaps as growth initiatives outpace traditional planning cycles. The article proposes a four‑lever model—build, buy, borrow, or bot—guided by a three‑step sense‑surface‑select framework to bring speed and consistency to workforce decisions. It outlines how to...
The Fix for Compliance: Culture, Tech and Accountability
LRN’s new report finds only 34% of U.S. organizations use data analytics to assess compliance effectiveness, despite rising AI investments. Most compliance programs still focus on basic activity metrics like training completion, offering limited insight into underlying risk or cultural...
When Will AI Take Your Job? This Tool Thinks It Knows
A free calculator, TheGreatDisplacement.ai, predicts the exact year AI will replace an individual’s job using data from Goldman Sachs, Gartner and the World Economic Forum. Forecasts indicate up to 300 million jobs could be displaced globally, with 20 % of organizations expected...
New 2027 ACA Draft Rules Are Out. 8 Predictions About the Impact
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released draft ACA rules for 2027 that could make individual major‑medical coverage cheaper and more attractive. Key changes include broader availability of catastrophic plans, higher annual out‑of‑pocket caps, and the option for monthly...
The Fallacy of Treating AI Agents as Fellow Employees
The article contends that AI agents should not be treated as employees but as advanced tools akin to computers. It explains that while agents like ChatGPT simplify tasks, they lack autonomy and require human supervision and prompt‑engineering. Using a marketing...
5 Bold Workplace Predictions for the Rest of 2026
HR leaders face a wave of change in 2026 as AI, immigration policy, and employee benefits reshape the workplace. Companies will demand AI‑native talent and implement formal AI governance, while AI tools will overhaul recruiting, emphasizing quality over quantity. Tightening...
Think RTO Is Harmless? Top Talent Disagrees
Top talent is pushing back against strict return‑to‑office (RTO) mandates, as highlighted by JPMorgan Chase employees fearing career repercussions for opposing the policy. Research from Gartner shows high‑performers, women and millennials are most likely to leave firms with rigid RTO,...
The Murky Waters of Healthcare Cost Transparency: What Plan Sponsors Can Control
The 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act introduced mandatory broker compensation disclosures and broader pricing data for health plans, pushing plan sponsors to adopt fiduciary rigor similar to retirement plans. Yet, translating transparency into cost control remains difficult as procedure prices can...
The $2 Trillion Blind Spot in Modern Rewards
Most organizations still tie rewards to individual output despite vocal support for collaboration. Gallup reports U.S. employee engagement at a 10‑year low of 31% in 2024, translating to roughly $2 trillion in lost productivity. Studies show high‑quality recognition can reduce turnover...
Half of Americans Believe only the Rich Can Afford GLP-1s without Insurance
A ValuePenguin study finds that a median‑income American household would need to allocate about 7.3% of earnings to afford a two‑milligram monthly supply of Ozempic, the flagship GLP‑1 weight‑loss drug. In the poorest states, the cost can approach one‑tenth of...
Kraft Heinz Just Scrapped Its Breakup. Here’s What HR Leaders Should Take Away
Kraft Heinz announced in September 2025 a split into two publicly traded companies to address a decade of declining sales and brand write‑downs. Six weeks after appointing CEO Steve Cahillane, the company reversed the plan, pausing the separation and redirecting...
Voya Raised Employer Stop-Loss Rates an Average of 24%
Voya announced an average 24% increase in stop‑loss premiums for employers renewing on Jan. 1, citing strong demand and limited supply. The company’s loss ratio improved to 96% from 115.4% a year earlier, though it still exceeds its 77‑80% target. Stop‑loss...
Mastercard’s Former CPO: Succession Is a Discipline, Not an Event
Mastercard treats executive succession as an ongoing discipline rather than a one‑off event, exemplified by the recent handoff from its former chief people officer to Susan Muigai. The transition leveraged the Mastercard Fellows Program, allowing the outgoing CPO to contribute...
The Hidden Risks of AI-Driven Layoffs
January 2024 saw the steepest layoff wave in 17 years, with roughly 108,000 jobs cut, driven in part by AI‑enabled workforce planning at firms like Amazon and Pinterest. Companies are deploying algorithms to model redundancies, forecast financial impact, and interpret...
Legal and Compliance Readiness Plunges Amid Growing Regulatory and Cyber Threats
The 2026 Litigation Trends Survey from Norton Rose Fulbright shows a steep decline in litigation preparedness, with confidence among U.S. general counsel dropping from 46% in 2024 to 29% in 2025. The dip aligns with regulatory uncertainty following the shift...
$15K to Land a Job? What HR Can Make of ‘Reverse Recruiting’
Job seekers are increasingly paying reverse‑recruiting firms anywhere from a few hundred dollars to over $15,000 to have professionals apply, optimize resumes and network on their behalf. Executive‑level packages cost $10,000‑$15,000 for candidates targeting $200K‑$400K salaries, while mid‑tier services charge...
How HR Leaders Can Turn Pharmacy Transparency Into Real Leverage
The article explains why pharmacy‑benefit transparency has become a critical governance issue for HR leaders and outlines the hidden levers employers can use to improve cost control and participant outcomes. It highlights the complexity of PBM contracts, geographic fragmentation, and...
The HR–IT Debate in the Age of AI: Cooperation or Consolidation?
AI is reshaping the relationship between HR and IT, prompting record collaboration and even the creation of a new C‑suite title, chief productivity officer, that combines people and technology oversight. Leaders argue that merging the functions can speed decisions and...
EBSA Enforcement Efforts Yield $1.4 Billion in Recoveries
The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) recovered $1.4 billion for retirement, health and welfare plans in fiscal year 2025, a modest increase over the prior year but below the 2023 peak. EBSA closed 878 civil and 253 criminal...
The Bionic Storyteller: How AI Can Amplify HR’s Human Voice
HR leaders in 2026 face mounting pressure from layoffs, cost cuts and rapid AI deployment, yet the core challenge remains preserving trust and connection. The article proposes the “Bionic Storyteller” framework, positioning AI as a memory scaffold that captures, aligns,...
DOL Poised to Move Faster than Congress on Retirement Reform
The U.S. Department of Labor is poised to issue regulations expanding 401(k) access to alternative investments, meeting a February 3 deadline set by a Trump‑era executive order. A final rule could be adopted by year‑end with implementation slated for 2027,...
