August 06, 2026

Presented By

Hey there, HR pros. Lucille Ball was born on this day in 1911. On the late comedian’s birthday, take a few minutes out of your day to watch “Job Switching” from I Love Lucy. The iconic candy factory scene should ring true to anyone who’s ever aced a job interview, only to find themselves totally lost when they actually showed up to do the work.

As Lucy put it, “I think we’re fighting a losing game!”

In today’s edition:

💪 Outplacement 2.0

⚖️ Legislative lowdown

💼 Now hiring

—Courtney Vinopal, Natasha Piñon

HR STRATEGY

Skilled out

Photo collage showing a person holding a box containing the contents of their desk on the left, with a geometric swerving line connecting them to a heads-down view of a person typing on a laptop with AI sparks (4-sided stars).

Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Adobe Stock

When companies let workers go, they might offer them severance pay, or continue their healthcare coverage for a certain period of time.

Historically, some employers have also partnered with outplacement services to help these workers land a new job. But such benefits are no longer sufficient in the AI age, one learning and development (L&D) executive recently told HR Brew.

With traditional outplacement services, “it’s not clear whether the person is getting the support they need on the other side, and even when they do offer some type of skilling, it’s very low-fidelity access,” Bijal Shah, CEO of L&D platform Guild, said.

Employers in Guild’s network are looking to reenvision support for laid-off workers with a type of support that Shah described as “outskilling.”

For more on outskilling, including what it entails and its ROI, keep reading here.—CV

Sponsored By Equifax

Stay audit-ready

When I-9 violations were redefined, the fines weren’t the only things affected: The traditional internal audit model was broken, too.

Under the new framework, the reclassified errors trigger immediate monetary penalties ranging from $288 to $2.8k per form. That completely removes the traditional correction window. HR can’t protect your organization by just auditing harder. You have to audit differently.

Join Equifax and I-9 expert John Fay for Beyond Penalties on Aug. 27 for a step-by-step blueprint for rapidly adapting your internal workflows to help mitigate risk—before an inspection notice arrives.

You’ll learn:

why traditional “find-and-fix-later” audit workflows are compliance liabilities
how to build a continuous monitoring model
how to evaluate electronic I-9 systems’ audit trails + remote verification procedures

Save your spot.

COMPLIANCE

Legislative lowdown

Francis Scialabba

A federal appeals court recently overturned a rule that requires employers to keep track of work-related mental illnesses.

The rule, which falls under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), was invoked in a lawsuit filed by Exxon Mobil last March. The company was cited by OSHA for failing to record an employee’s diagnosis with post-traumatic stress disorder, and Exxon Mobil subsequently challenged the citation.

In a July 21 opinion, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said that OSHA doesn’t have the statutory authority to require employers to record employees’ work-related mental illnesses. It threw out the citation and penalty issued against Exxon Mobil, as well as the rule itself.

For more on OSHA’s record-keeping requirements, and what this case means for HR, keep reading here.—CV

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

H2 hiring

Tetra Images/Getty Images

Now hiring? Just about everyone, apparently.

Two-thirds of US employers plan to increase hiring in the second half of 2026, according to a new report from talent solutions and business consulting firm Robert Half, which polled over 2,000 American hiring managers in April 2026.

The 66% of employers who plan to increase permanent hiring is a climb from the first half of the year, when 60% of employers said the same. It’s an even steeper climb from one year ago, when 57% of employers planned to do so. Outside of permanent hiring, 56% of employers said they planned to hire contract professionals.

For more on the challenges facing employers looking to hire in H2, keep reading on CFO Brew.—NP

Sponsored By Equifax

Don’t let errors cost you. Even the smallest mistakes in I-9 completion or retention can create big fines and audit headaches. In Equifax’s Form I-9 in No Time, John Fay breaks down the I-9 process, from tips for completing Section 1 through inspections + internal audits. Check it out.

work perks

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Remote work rates among employees in public administration dropped by six percentage points from 2024 to 2025. (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis)

Quote: “There are these future visions of a world without HR people, and it just feels like that’s almost impossible in reality…Employees want to know that there’s a trusted person that has expertise that they can go to and address issues, and they’re never going to feel fully confident in having a bot do it.”—JR Keller, an associate professor of human resource studies at Cornell University, on why he doesn’t believe AI will put HR out of a job (Bloomberg)

Read: Former Google employee Claire Stapleton has published a tell-all book about her time at the company, including efforts to mobilize more than 20,000 colleagues to walk off the job in 2018. She organized the walk-out to protest Google’s handling of sexual harassment allegations. (Wired)

Catch every story: Keep up with everything HR in Equifax’s Let’s Talk HR. Get the latest on HR’s hottest topics and trends delivered directly to your inbox. Subscribe here.*

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EVENT

Churn management

Julie Sexton spent her career keeping people from churning. As SVP and chief human resources officer at Land O’Lakes, she’ll join The Total Rewards Equation to break down what’s actually retaining talent right now and what’s just an expensive line item. Register now for NYC or the livestream.

Jobs

More focus, less fluff. CollabWORK filters out the noise and delivers jobs that actually match what HR Brew readers are looking for. Click here to see the full board of curated roles.

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Written by Courtney Vinopal and Natasha Piñon

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