February 13, 2025

Greetings! It’s the final countdown. One week until HR pros assemble to crack the code on hiring, retention, and workplace trends. Join us on Feb. 20—no ’80s ballads required. Just smart insights, and maybe some HR venting.

Under pressure

Prioritize it

Then and now

—Theresa Agovino, Paige McGlauflin, Mikaela Cohen

TOTAL REWARDS

Financially unwell

Nuthawut Somsuk/Getty Images

Four years ago, as the pandemic raged, Chipotle Mexican Grill leaders heard employees discuss their money woes and offered a financial counseling benefit to help them cope. This year, it expanded its financial wellness offerings to include student debt repayment, pay-on-demand, and a special debit card that helps users build a credit profile.

Daniel Banks, Chipotle’s director of global benefits, said that more than 73% of its roughly 125,000 global employees are members of Gen Z who are racking up credit card debt quickly and aren’t confident in their money-management skills.

“We knew folks in Gen Z are really experiencing significant financial challenges..… We were listening to our employees and hearing about all these concerns and on top of all the concerns that the pandemic was bringing about,” Banks said. “We knew we had to expand our offering again, to really focus on that holistic well-being and so offering up those financial well-being [benefits] was the right thing to do.”

Gen Z, single parents, and caregivers are in especially financially precarious positions, according to a report by The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. Yet, overall workers are not happy with their financial situations.

Keep reading here.—TA

Presented By Hibob

Caught in the cycle?

Leaders on lean teams often share a similar struggle: They’re so caught up in everyday demands, they don’t have time to work on long-term, strategic goals.

For HR leaders, that makes it a *lot* harder to demonstrate the function’s business impact and align initiatives with leadership’s priorities. So, how can you break the cycle?

Hibob’s workbook has the deets on how to:

Shift from constantly putting out fires to proactively shaping HR’s role in the business’s success.
Ensure HR programs contribute directly to key business objectives like growth, retention, and innovation.
Communicate HR’s value effectively using data-driven insights and structured frameworks.
Prioritize high-impact programs that deliver the greatest value (read: no more getting bogged down by low-priority tasks).

HR leaders, proactivity benefits you, your team, and your company as a whole. Grab your workbook and get into it.

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

HR’s AI oversight

Illustration: Anna Kim, Photo: Adobe Stock

There’s no “all for one” approach to AI adoption, but many HR leaders seem to be trying to take one.

Just 7% of the 80 CHROs surveyed by The Conference Board last autumn said they’re implementing reskilling strategies for roles that are expected to be most impacted by AI. The top AI priority for HR leaders, according to 62% of the CHROs surveyed, is experimenting with pilots and use cases for the tech to assist in human capital management. While this is a small sample size for a survey, the findings may represent the priorities of employers in the US at large, as respondents came from a wide range of industries—including technology, healthcare and agriculture.

“We were actually surprised that CHROs were not as focused on the upskilling, reskilling aspects of [AI],” Diana Scott, center leader of the US Human Capital Center at The Conference Board, told HR Brew, noting prior research found reskilling to be critical in successfully engaging employees in AI usage and bridging AI literacy gaps. “It becomes sort of an ‘us versus them’ [mentality], and it creates a lack of equity in terms of adoption.”

It seems HR leaders are trying to understand what changes the novel technology will bring to their workplace before taking firm-wide action, Scott noted. But failing to address these other key priorities could ultimately backfire for CHROs.

Keep reading here.—PM

HR STRATEGY

It’s all about the people

HR Brew Then And Now series featuring Krystal Cooper

Credit: Krystal Cooper

We chat 1:1 with HR pros about their career journeys. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to share your story with us.

A lot of HR pros learn people lessons in unlikely places.

Krystal Cooper, VP of people operations at logistics and supply chain company Vizion, held various roles at Thrift Drug in Allendale, New Jersey when she was 15–21 years old. After starting as a cashier, she ran the store’s photo lab, and later became a pharmacy technician. In these roles, she learned lessons she’d take into the people profession.

“You really learn how to read emotions, how to de-escalate situations really quickly, and how to just listen without talking,” Cooper told HR Brew. “All of those skills are actually things that you need now to be successful in people operations at any level.”

Cooper spoke with HR Brew about her journey to HR at corporations like Liz Claiborne, Duane Reade, and Tommy Hilfiger.

Keep reading here.—MC

Together With Express Employment Professionals

Turn the page on turnover. Employees are a company’s most valuable asset. How can you keep them from leaving? Express Employment has a new guide—equipped with a true cost of turnover calculator—that’ll show you how to proactively lay the foundation for a thriving workplace. See for yourself.

WORK PERKS

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Just over one in 10 adults (11%) say their manager has the most positive influence on their daily lives, second to family members (57%). (Gallup)

Quote: “Many Gen Z workers aren’t comfortable connecting with their managers IRL to have difficult conversations and may find it easier to pose questions to AI.”—Erica Keswin, an author and workplace strategist, on the different ways members of Gen Z use AI (Business Insider)

Read: Installing dishwashers and self-ordering kiosks are among the strategies Dave’s Hot Chicken embraced to counter fast-rising labor costs. (the Wall Street Journal)

Reactivity is out: Proactivity is in. Instead of constantly responding to issues in the moment, start proactively shaping HR’s role in business success. The steps are all laid out in this workbook by Hibob. Grab your copy.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

JOBS

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