Hey HR Pros!

Hey HR Pros!

Flexibility has become the new currency of competitive advantage.

With nearly half of employers holding staffing levels steady, the smartest organizations aren’t hiring more—they’re redesigning how work gets done.

We’ll also look at how Coca-Cola’s HR leader mixes HR and Business strategy together.

Upcoming In This Issue:

• 📈 The Rise of the Flexible Workforce

• 🤖 The Hidden Costs of AI “Workslop” in Your Workplace 

• ⭐ Expert Insight | Bottling a People Strategy That Actually Works 

• 🚀 HR Prediction | Why Human Agents Aren’t Going Anywhere

2025 HRIS Pricing Report | Free eBook by SSR

 📰 Latest in HR News

• DHS plans to reinstate wage-based criteria for H-1B visa selection through new regulation

• Spirit Airlines furloughs flight attendants after filing for secondary bankruptcy

• Global Report: Finance Workforce in Flux, Education Hiring Eases

• Funding to HR Tech Startups Rises Amid Surge in M&A Activity

📈 The Rise of the Flexible Workforce

HR leaders are rewriting the playbook—not by hiring more, but by hiring smarter.

This article outlines how flexible talent strategies are no longer just a pandemic-era trend but a long-term competitive differentiator.

Key Insights

• 🔍 Temporary workers now execute 24% of specialized tasks, while permanent staff only handle 39%—flexible talent is closing the gap fast.

• 🧠 41% of employers say attracting qualified candidates is their top hiring challenge, but 19% fewer jobs were posted in August.

• 💡 27% of companies are hiring specifically to keep up with tech change, showing that innovation is driving selective hiring practices.

• 📊 "Workforce planning, not workforce hoping," is the new mantra—flexible strategies let companies adapt fast without destabilizing core teams.

read the full 740-word article here

🤖 The Hidden Costs of AI “Workslop” in Your Workplace 

AI was supposed to free teams from grunt work, but in many organizations, it’s doing the opposite.

For HR professionals, this trend carries massive implications, from wasted millions to weakened team trust.

This isn’t just a tech problem. It’s an HR problem.

Key Insights

• 💸 Workslop carries a hefty price tag: A 10,000-person company may lose $9 million annually just fixing AI-generated junk work.

• 🤯 Quality dilution undermines teams: Employees spend 2 hours per incident redoing AI content, creating frustration and eroding workplace trust.

• 👥 HR is on the front line: Guardrails and training must come from HR, not IT, to prevent lazy AI misuse across teams.

🚀 Smart AI use still has upside: Properly trained employees can turn AI into a tool for innovation, not a crutch for sloppy work.

⭐ Expert Insight | Bottling a People Strategy That Actually Works 

HR leaders know the balancing act: business demands on one side, employee well-being on the other, with constant pressure to deliver both.

What stood out to me in this article was how Sue Lam, VP of People Insights at The Coca-Cola Company, reframes this challenge.

Instead of viewing people strategy as a support function, she embeds it into the very core of business strategy.

Key Takeaways

• Model the change 🍎 — Lam actively shares her own learning journey with her team, showing that growth mindsets must be visible to spread.

• Pilot with discipline 🧪 — A program stuck in pilot mode isn’t a program; clear measures and data must guide scaling across the organization.

• Treat behaviors as data 📊 — Observing how teams collaborate, decide, and adapt is as valuable as formal metrics in shaping people strategy.

• Think like the business 💼 — HR can’t influence strategy without understanding revenue drivers; cross-department partnerships unlock real organizational alignment.

read the full 1,264-word article here

🚀 HR Prediction | Why Human Agents Aren’t Going Anywhere

For HR leaders watching the rapid rise of AI, one question looms: Will human roles in customer service soon vanish?

The short answer, according to new analysis, is no — at least not for Fortune 500 companies in the near future.

Key Takeaways

• No agentless future 🤖: Gartner predicts Fortune 500 firms won’t eliminate human agents by 2028 despite rising AI adoption.

• Customers still choose people 🧑‍💼: 80% of customers prefer human support over AI, even when wait times are identical.

• AI costs can exceed people 💸: For certain issues, scaling AI resolution may be more expensive than relying on human agents.

• Redefining the role 🔄: Future agents will focus on complex problem-solving and relationship building — not routine tasks.

read the full 365-word article here