September 02, 2026

Presented By

Hello, HR pro! Chelsea Kaden, chief people officer at Warby Parker, is joining The Total Rewards Equation lineup—bringing a company that’s distributed more than 20 million pairs of glasses to people in need to a conversation about balancing cost, care, and culture. Tune in on Sept. 17, New York or livestream.

In today’s edition:

💻 Procurement 2.0

📉 That’s weak

👋 New kid on the block

—Adam DeRose, Paige McGlauflin, Brianna Monsanto

TECH

New equation

A robotic hand and a human hand clinking coffee mugs together.

Morning Brew Inc.

As many organizations move beyond experimenting with and piloting AI, discussions about purchasing software are quickly expanding to include broader questions about workforce strategy, technology systems, and even how companies define talent.

Rather than evaluating one AI tool or application against another, many organizations are trying to determine how their AI capabilities work across functions like HR, finance, IT, and operations, and how to design an enterprise operating model that fits these new needs. It’s a whole new way to think about the tech procurement process.

Many leading organizations are moving away from individual AI use cases and toward interconnected cross-functional AI systems that share data and infrastructure. For their HR leaders, procurement conversations are more dynamic and increasingly require HR’s involvement in workforce planning and the design of work, rather than simply software needs, experts told HR Brew.

HR leaders have emerged as valuable stakeholders in conversations about organizational technology infrastructure, and—depending on the level of AI maturity in an org or HR team— they’re making calls and offering considerations new to the function amid the ongoing AI transformation.

For more on how AI is changing the way HR thinks about and procures technology, keep reading here.—AD

Sponsored By Betterment at Work

Help them hang up their hat

Thinking about a 401(k) for your employees? We get it—it’s a big decision that could cost a pretty penny. But what if the government was actually footing a chunk of the bill?

SECURE 2.0 puts some serious tax-credit money on the table for new plans. The problem? Only 6 out of every 100 eligible employers are actually claiming it.ᐩ

You could save up to $15,000 just by setting up a plan. See what that number could look like for your biz with Betterment at Work’s 401(k) Tax Credit Calculator.

Starting a plan is way cheaper than you think. Calculate your potential savings.

^{ᐩPaid non-client. Views may not be representative. See G2 reviews. Learn more.}

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

Slowing job turnover

Photo collage showing an open empty briefcase with flies all over it.

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Adobe Stock

The dog days of summer hit the job market hard in July.

While job openings, signaling employers’ intent to hire, picked up in July, actual hires fell last month, according to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as employers have pulled back on hiring amid economic uncertainty. At the same time, both quits and layoffs and discharges declined in July. For workers, the labor market’s current “low-hire, low-fire” conditions signal that it might be better to stay put.

Diving into the data. Employers reported 7.3 million job openings at the end of July, a slight increase from June, the number for which was downwardly revised by 177,000 to 7.2 million. Hires, meanwhile, fell to 5.1 million in July, down from 5.3 million in June. The hires rate declined to 3.2%, its lowest since February 2026 and April 2020 (the latter marking the end of the Covid-19 recession) when the hires rate was 3.1%. A hiring rate this low is atypical, economists said, because it’s usually associated with an unemployment rate as high as 9%. The unemployment rate for July was 4.1%, according to last month’s jobs report.

Zoom out. The labor market saw a brief resurgence earlier this year, when 425,000 cumulative job gains were reported in March, April, and May. That’s since fizzled out: Preliminary employment data for July found the economy lost 23,000 jobs that month.

For more on what HR needs to know about the latest JOLTS data, keep reading here.—PM

Sponsored By Quantum Health

Beyond the cost curve. If healthcare costs keep rising, where should employers look next? Quantum Health joins HR Brew to discuss why some employers are looking beyond the cost curve and focusing on the decisions that drive it. If you’re an HR, benefits, or total rewards leader, check it out.

work perks

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: EY staffers who have demonstrated their prowess in the very human skills of adaptability, innovation, and judgment, as well as a willingness to use new tools like AI, are set to receive $100,000,000 in bonuses. (the Wall Street Journal)

Quote: “Forward-deployed engineer sounds to many people a lot better than customer-based engineer.”—Nick Bloom, a Stanford economist who studies AI, on AI job titles borrowing language from the military that “sounds cool” in order to attract candidates (the New York Times)

Read: Some companies are defying New York City’s pay transparency law, posting open roles without salary expectations. (Business Insider)

Easy HR win: Give your employees a 401(k) and earn your biz some tax credits thanks to SECURE 2.0. Use Betterment at Work’s 401(k) Tax Credit Calculator to run the numbers.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

Business of Benefits: Haven

Photo collage showing a hand pouring pills from a prescription bottle into their hand, two women talking, and a woman looking at paperwork with a pharmacist.

Brittany Holloway-Brown, Photos: Getty Images

In HR Brew’s recurring Business of Benefits series, Haven’s CEO explains why the childcare and fitness company shuts down company-wide twice a year—and why she considers it nonnegotiable for retention.

Check it out

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Written by Adam DeRose, Paige McGlauflin, and Brianna Monsanto

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☕ Procurement perspective