🤳 Gen Z Trends | Reddit, TikTok, and the Death of the Traditional Career Path

Hey HR Pros!

Welcome to the new workplace reality, where social media sets the tone and Gen Z isn’t shy about acting their wage. In this week’s feature, we unpack the trends behind Gen Z’s shifting expectations — and what HR needs to do to keep up.

Upcoming In This Issue:

• 🤳 Gen Z Trends | Reddit, TikTok, and the Death of the Traditional Career Path

• 🤖 HR Lessons | Why This Deloitte Mistake Is a Wake-Up Call for HR

• 🔁 Walmart’s Skills-First Shift Could Change How America Hires

• 🎙️ Featured Podcast: Mastering Office Politics with Michael Wenderoth

Trying to figure out HR software can suck the soul out of even the most patient HR pro. Endless sales demos, “custom” pricing, and features that all sound the same.

That’s why I always recommend SSR’s free HR software matching service. They’ll ask what you need, sort through the clutter, and hand you a shortlist that helps you make a confident decision.

The best part? Rated 4.5/5 by 15,000+ HR professionals!

 📰 Latest in HR News

• Federal shutdown leaves HR teams without critical labor market insights

• Duolingo CEO: No layoffs since 'AI-first' announcement

• Google Introduces New Restrictions to Its Popular ‘Work From Anywhere’ Perk

• California AI Regulations Rewrite the Rules on Using AI in Hiring

🤳 Gen Z Trends | Reddit, TikTok, and the Death of the Traditional Career Path

You won’t find Gen Z thumbing through HR manuals or waiting patiently for their annual review. They’re swiping through TikTok, scrolling Reddit, and scanning YouTube — and that’s where they’re deciding when to quit, how to set boundaries, and what kind of boss they’ll tolerate.

Key Insights for HR Leaders

• 📱 63% of Gen Z takes direct career advice from social media, and 22% have quit jobs because of it — a seismic shift in influence.

• 🧠 Reddit is the top "career mentor", used by 57%, followed by YouTube (44%) and TikTok (37%) — advice includes setting hard boundaries and refusing unpaid extra effort.

• 📊 62% expect a promotion within one year, and 45% expect raises in six months or less — timelines are especially compressed in tech, marketing, and food service.

• 🏠 65% of Gen Z demands boundary-respecting managers, while 66% in finance and 64% in tech say remote work is a non-negotiable — loyalty to employers is fading fast.

read the full 688-word article here

🤖 HR Lessons | Why This Deloitte Mistake Is a Wake-Up Call for HR

It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of AI tools transforming work — until one wrong report sparks a credibility crisis. When AI-generated content includes fake research and quotes from people who never said them, the fallout is big.

What Happened and What HR Can Learn From It:

• ⚠️ Deloitte’s AI report cited fake academic papers and false quotes, leading to a partial refund to the Australian government and reputational damage.

• 🧠 Despite the blunder, Deloitte is rolling out AI tools to 500,000 staff, including a Claude chatbot and certification program for 15,000 employees.

• 🏛️ The incident highlights accountability gaps — when AI produces errors but humans approve them, who’s held responsible?

• 📚 AI literacy is now essential for HR and L&D, not optional — unchecked AI use can erode internal trust and client confidence fast.

read the full 816-word article here

HR LOLs

🔁 Walmart’s Skills-First Shift Could Change How America Hires

While degrees still dominate many hiring filters, they say little about what frontline workers actually bring to the table — or what they need to move forward.

That’s where skills-based hiring has the potential to bridge the gap, creating new pathways for mobility, advancement, and equity across industries. Let’s read about how Walmart navigated this challenge.

Key Insights

• 📊 Walmart helped develop a skills taxonomy spanning 30 frontline roles — impacting 35M workers — to standardize hiring across industries.

• 🔁 Skills are treated like transferable currency, enabling workers to move from one employer or sector to another without losing career momentum.

• 🤝 The Skills-First Workforce Initiative offers tools like a playbook and skills-proficiency standards to help HR implement this model at scale.

• 🌍 Frontline talent strategy is now an economic imperative, as AI disruption pushes HR toward more human-centric, future-ready models.

read the full 823-word article here

🎙️ Featured Podcast: Mastering Office Politics with Michael Wenderoth