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DEI

(Lack of) Support system

Anna Kim

Women in corporate America have always juggled a lot, often navigating bias and ageism at work, and the bulk of caregiver responsibilities at home. By August, more than 330,000 women had left the workforce, in part due to fewer flexible work opportunities, more caregiver responsibilities, and an uneven job market, according to data shared with the US House of Representatives’ Democratic Women’s Caucus.

Despite some progress made over the last few decades, women often lack the workplace support necessary for career advancement, with some employers having pulled back on such programs, according to a new report from LeanIn, an organization that advocates for workplace equality.

LeanIn surveyed 124 companies in the US and Canada and found that women are still underrepresented at every level of the workplace and still face a “broken rung.” Rachel Thomas, CEO and co-founder of LeanIn, told HR Brew that employers have the power to create more equal workplaces.

“There has absolutely been progress when it comes to advancing women,” Thomas told HR Brew. “The representation of women in the corporate pipeline has slowly gotten better, and those were really hard-earned gains. Those numbers did not move quickly, but over the last 10 years, we see more women, particularly in senior leadership…and that is super encouraging.”

For more on the barriers limiting women’s advancement in the workplace, keep reading here.—KP

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HR STRATEGY

Let’s review

Barbra Gago

Performance review season can be stressful, especially when there’s a lack of clarity around how, exactly, employees are being evaluated. At least, that’s what Barbra Gago has observed over the course of her career.

“No one ever really knew what they were supposed to be evaluated on, if they were even doing the right stuff half the time,” she said of performance management during her tenure at Greenhouse in a recent episode of HR Brew’s People Person podcast.

So then, it’s perhaps unsurprising that, in 2020, Gago founded career progression platform Pando. Since then, the CEO has raised $6.9 million from Craft Ventures, among others, to bring more transparency to the review process at employer clients including Notion and Oyster.

Gago discussed performance review missteps and missed opportunities with Kate Noel, SVP and head of people operations at Morning Brew.

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

H-1B headache

President Trump signs orders and hands a pen to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The H-1B, a visa designed for workers from overseas with specialized skills, continues to undergo additional scrutiny from the Trump administration, with a new policy that may heighten reviews for applicants who work in tech.

The US Department of State will now review the résumés or LinkedIn profiles of new and repeat H-1B applicants, as well as those of any family members traveling with them. These reviews will assess any involvement in “the suppression of protected expression,” Reuters reported. Applicants may be rejected if they are involved in activities such as “content moderation, fact-checking, online compliance and safety,” and more, according to Reuters. (NPR also confirmed this news.)

Cecilia Esterline, a senior immigration policy analyst at the Niskanen Center, a nonpartisan thinktank in Washington, DC, said the tech sector has been resilient in navigating immigration requirements, “but I think that there could be a breaking point where companies really have to decide if navigating this ever-changing and very unstable immigration environment is worth it, or if there are alternatives in other places.”

For more on how the new H-1B rule could add scrutiny for IT applicants, keep reading on IT Brew.—CN

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WORK PERKS

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: McKinsey leaders are considering laying off 10% of their non-client-facing staff over the next one and a half to two years, which would amount to several thousand roles being eliminated. (Bloomberg)

Quote: “At this stage in life, using my brain instead of brawn is a better fit for me.”—Victoria Miner, a USDA inspector, on why she, in her 40s, pursued higher education to bolster her career (the Wall Street Journal)

Listen: Huntsville, AL. is trying to strike a balance between growing as a city and employment hub, while maintaining lower costs of living. (NPR)

Stacks on stacks: The duct tape holding your HR tech stack together can’t support your team long term. Intuit QuickBooks Payroll helps leaders make decisions by connecting HR, payroll, + accounting data in one place. Solidify your stack.*

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Written by Kristen Parisi, Vicky Valet, Caroline Nihill, and Paige McGlauflin

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