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TOTAL REWARDS

An Owlet baby sleep device is pictured on a manikin.

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

Could a $300 baby sleep device be key to retaining working parents?

The maker of one such product, Owlet, certainly hopes so. The Owlet Dream Sock monitors babies’ pulse rates and oxygen levels while they sleep, and sends parents notifications if these levels are out of range. It’s a much-coveted item on baby registries, and it’s pricey, retailing at $299.99.

Now, the Lehi, Utah-based company is pitching its products to employers at a discount if they cover part of the cost for their employees.

Sleep deprivation can persist for years after parents have children, and in turn affect work productivity and performance, research suggests.

For more on how Owlet hopes offering its product as an employee benefit will help drive retention, keep reading here.—CV

Sponsored By Culture Amp

Confidence is key

A study by Culture Amp found that employee confidence is slipping globally, and the cost is higher than you think.

Culture Amp’s latest research reveals that company confidence is one of the strongest predictors of success. It’s a reflection of how convincing your business strategy is to the employees executing it. Here’s the problem, though: employee belief declined for a fourth consecutive year.

When confidence dips, other metrics—like retention rates, distribution of performance ratings, and company reviews—often take a hit. To reverse this trend, companies can take the time to connect leadership, execution, and motivation to drive their teams forward.

Rebuilding that belief looks like:

ensuring decisions reflect clear, consistent goals
giving employees a “why” that inspires extra effort
highlighting leaders your team can get behind

Start building the belief that can drive your bottom line.

DEI

Just checking in…

Two headshots next to each other: Kristen Parisi, a woman with medium-length auburn hear wearing a grey hoodie smiling widely and sitting in a wheelchair, and Latesha Byrd, a woman with long straight dark brown hair wearing a red shirt and pants smiling gently at the camera.

Kristen Parisi, Latesha Byrd

Pick a word, any word, to describe the state of DEI in corporate America.

Attacked? Certainly. Abandoned? In some cases. But its status is far more complex.

“It’s evolving. And I don’t think that folks should necessarily view that as a negative. It’s always been evolving, from the affirmative action days,” Kristen Parisi, a senior reporter at HR Brew covering DEI, said during a recent episode of HR Brew’s People Person podcast, later adding, “Companies are still doing the work. They may call it something else, they may cut out the fluff…but they’re keeping the core of it.”

Her reporting suggests as much. So does a recent HR Brew survey about the state of DEI in corporate America, which found that 57% of organizations did not change their approach to DEI in 2025 as compared to previous years.

Parisi and Latesha Byrd, founder and CEO of culture consultancy Perfeqta, sat down with Kate Noel, SVP and head of people operations at Morning Brew, to talk about DEI, where it stands today, and what employers can do to make progress in the future.

TECH

Emotional monitoring

Morning Brew Design

Emotion AI—a category of tools that claim to read people’s feelings by measuring their tone and expressions—is slowly creeping into workplaces, according to a new report from the Atlantic. Your boss might not have to inform you they’re using it, which means you could be secretly judged by an AI for your concentrating-too-hard face.

What happened? The list of emotion AI tools on the market is rapidly growing: There’s an app called MorphCast that analyzes meeting participants’ emotions in real time—Zoom extension included. Slack now has an integration called Aware that monitors employee chats for “sentiment and toxicity.” One AI startup says its tools can analyze the emotional states of job interview candidates. The global market for emotion AI could triple to $9 billion by 2030, according to the Atlantic.

How we got here. Emotion monitoring on the clock isn’t new (see: the entire service industry).

For more on workplace surveillance’s emotional upgrade, keep reading on Tech Brew.—WK

Sponsored By Marsh McLennan Agency

Lend a helping hand. Healthcare and pharmacy costs are on the rise. To meet the moment, employers are reshaping their benefits strategies. Marsh McLennan Agency surveyed 600+ organizations to learn how employers are investing in employees’ health and well-being—and where they’re pulling back. Learn more.

WORK PERKS

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Employee relations software HR Acuity found complaints of discrimination and harassment at work rose to 14.7 per 1,000 employees in 2024, up from 6.4 in 2021, compelling more large employers to consider financial payouts to avoid legal or reputation risk. (the Wall Street Journal)

Quote: “We’ve all entered the workforce during times of change. So, don’t let that get in your head.”—Judy Marks, CEO of elevator and escalator company Otis, on the challenges new generations of employees take on when entering the workforce, as younger workers struggle to land work amid the AI transformation (Business Insider)

Read: Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is all in on AI, including when it comes to managing performance, tracking employees’ computer use to train its AI models, and cutting human roles to pay for AI spend. The moves have made employees anxious and angry. (the New York Times)

The global confidence gap: Employee belief in company success declined for the fourth year straight, according to Culture Amp. To learn more about what could be causing this, check out the full breakdown on company confidence here.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

Layoff season

A cartoon of a large hand separating employees with boxes from an office desk.

Sesame/Getty Images

If last year's news cycle felt like a non-stop barrage of corporate
layoff announcement, that's because it was. Learn more about this recent increase in the labor market.

Check it out

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Written by Courtney Vinopal, Vicky Valet, Whizy Kim, and Adam DeRose

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