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TECH

A new monster

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Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor is returning to the world of work, announcing the launch of a new AI-native talent marketplace that leverages AI technology to help connect the right applicants to open roles using vibrant “dossiers,” rather than outdated résumés and job descriptions.

Taylor’s new entry into the hiring tech landscape, Boomband, is set to launch in March and this month closed a $4 million seed financing round led by Boston Seed, with participation from Slater Technology Fund, Rogue Venture Partners, and Service Provider Capital.

Taylor said Boomband will look to address current headaches on both sides of the hiring process by using AI to rethink the way applicants and employers connect and talk about roles.

“The early AI examples [in TA] aren’t very good. They’re not helping. I think they’re actually hurting the problem,” he told HR Brew. “The reality still is that AI is not deployed in a way that’s deeply impactful, but I’m of the school that that’s coming.”

For more on how Taylor hopes to (again) address pain points in the hiring tech space, keep reading here.—AD

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DEI

Making progress

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Morning Brew

The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) last month established a DEI Council in an effort to build a fairer workplace as the region adopts more DEI practices, GCC News reported.

Where in the world? The announcement came more than a year after NBK pledged a commitment to DEI values and is the next step in the company’s journey toward inclusion as it grows internationally, according to the Kuwait Times.

The council has 11 members from across the NBK market, including Singapore, London, and Bahrain, to help ensure identity and expertise diversity as the group establishes more DEI policies. The group will develop strategies for training, cultural awareness campaigns, and “specialized working committees.”

Satellite view. Companies in Middle Eastern countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have increasingly adopted DEI policies in recent years. In 2025 Qatar held its first job fair for disabled people, and in 2024 the Gulf Cooperation Council began tracking gender representation at companies across the Middle East.

For more on DEI adoption in the Middle East, keep reading here.—KP

TOTAL REWARDS

PBM reform

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Illustration: Anna Kim, Photos: Adobe Stock

After years of failed attempts, Congress has passed the first significant set of reforms for PBMs.

The new rules were included in a government funding bill signed into law on Feb. 3, ending a partial government shutdown and funding most government agencies through September.

Starting in 2028, PBMs must meet new requirements including passing through 100% of the rebates they get from drugmakers on to insurers and sending biannual reports to insurers with data on a range of things from the net prices they pay for drugs to how much they reimburse pharmacies.

The reforms were “a long time coming,” according to Dima Qato, a senior fellow at the University of Southern California (USC) Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. “It’s a start to improve transparency, but I think we need to ensure that [they’re] enforced.”

For more on the new PBM reforms, keep reading on Healthcare Brew.—MA

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WORK PERKS

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Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Remote workers in France earn 12% more on average than those who work in an office full-time. (Fortune)

Quote: “We’re already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. And that’s accelerating rapidly.”—Jack Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Block, on his company’s tech-fueled layoffs of 4,000 workers (Business Insider)

Read: Earned wage access and on-demand pay are increasingly popular employee benefits, but consumer advocates warn they can be costly and risky for workers. (CNBC)

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Written by Adam DeRose, Kristen Parisi, and Maia Anderson

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