🌞 Slowing It Down During the Summer?

Hi there, HR pros!

As summer break kicks off, something else is quietly starting, too: a shift in how people show up to work. Nearly half of employees are intentionally slowing down - setting firmer boundaries, rethinking priorities, and quietly pulling back from packed calendars and nonstop meetings.

For younger workers especially, this is about reclaiming time and balance during a season that invites both. Let’s read on to find out more.

⬇️ Upcoming In This Issue

• 🌞 Slowing It Down During the Summer?

• 💼 Fair Chance Hiring: Hiring for Potential, Not Perfection

• 🧠 Beyond Buzzwords: What Real Recovery Support Looks Like

• 🧠 Tips from HR Pros | How One HR Exec Is Redefining Culture from the Inside Out

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🌞 Slowing It Down During the Summer?

During summer, it turns out nearly half of us are quietly stepping back at work—creating firmer boundaries and shifting priorities. Not to slack off, but to make space. For time, for family, for a breath from relentless meetings and mounting pressure.

Gen Z and Millennials are drawing clearer lines between life and labor, while older workers are doing so more cautiously.

Key Insights

• 🌴 Nearly half of U.S. workers “dial it back” in summer, with 64% of 21–25-year-olds leading the seasonal pullback trend.

• 🧠 Burnout is peaking, with Glassdoor reviews showing the highest mentions of the term in nearly a decade—often tied to chaotic work cultures.

• 📅 Too many meetings top summer complaints, driving calls to cancel any that don’t serve clear, purposeful functions.

• 🧳 1 in 10 workers plan a “micro-retirement”, especially Gen Z and Millennials, to travel, recharge, or pursue personal goals.

read the full 359-word article here

💼 Fair Chance Hiring: Hiring for Potential, Not Perfection

When credentials become a gatekeeper instead of a guide, companies risk missing out on extraordinary talent hiding in plain sight. More and more businesses are shifting toward skills-based hiring: a practical, inclusive approach that values what candidates can do over where they’ve been.

Fair chance hiring is at the heart of this movement, opening doors for people with non-traditional paths, limited education, or even criminal records.

Key Insights

• 🧠 Fair chance hiring prioritizes ability over background, helping candidates with criminal records or unconventional paths land roles based on real skills.

• 💡 Organizations using skills-based hiring report stronger employee retention, driven by increased motivation and better job fit from overlooked candidates.

• 📄 Revamped job descriptions remove degree requirements, favoring essential skills and inclusive language to draw in diverse, qualified applicants.

• 🤝 Partnering with nonprofits expands hiring reach, tapping into networks that support underrepresented groups ready for meaningful employment.

read the full 680-word article here

😄 Comic Relief (HR Edition)

 📰 Latest in HR News

• 82% of CEOs see positive ROI from wellbeing initiatives, finds Wellhub

• Microsoft set to cut sales jobs as AI costs soar

• Greenhouse unveils a new tool that makes the job search feel more like a dating app

• Meta Poaches the CEO of a $32 Billion AI Startup

🧠 Beyond Buzzwords: What Real Recovery Support Looks Like

When someone in the workplace opens up about struggling with addiction, the response they receive can be the beginning of healing, or another wound entirely. What’s often labeled as “support” is, in reality, silence, avoidance, or a rushed expectation of full-time productivity post-treatment.

A truly recovery-friendly workplace doesn’t isolate - it leans in with empathy, structural support, and real policies that match real-life needs.

Key Insights

• 🔍 1 in 5 employees is impacted by addiction, yet most recovery-friendly efforts ignore the post-treatment challenges that shape real recovery.

• 🩺 Comprehensive SUD care and non-punitive EAPs are essential, and must be clearly communicated to build trust and encourage early intervention.

• 🍸 Workplace drinking culture can unintentionally exclude, so offering mocktails and respecting sober choices fosters inclusion without removing fun.

• 💼 Employees in recovery save companies $8,500/year, take fewer days off than average, and are 12% less likely to leave their jobs.

read the full 865-word article here

🧠 Tips from HR Pros | How One HR Exec Is Redefining Culture from the Inside Out

In a field that often demands quick decisions and tough conversations, the ability to pause, listen, and understand people deeply is becoming a rare competitive advantage.

That’s why it’s no surprise that a background in mental health counseling is proving to be a powerful foundation for HR leadership, especially when culture and engagement are the goals.

One Fortune 500 leader has blended counseling, coaching, and organizational design into a unique approach that rethinks performance management, breaks old HR stereotypes, and brings emotional intelligence into every room she enters.

Key Insights

• 🎧 Active listening is a superpower, helping leaders build trust and better understand what direction their teams actually need to grow.

• 🔁 Insight replaced biannual reviews with "connection meetings", focusing on real-time development, not ratings or bell curves.

• 💡 AI is viewed as an accelerator, freeing up HR time and enhancing learning design through curated, strategic program delivery.

• 🫶 Culture isn’t just a department—it’s a deliverable, and HR’s job is to bring it to life through hunger, heart, and harmony.

read the full 728-word article here