💼 The $1.15 trillion warning HR shouldn’t be ignoring

Hey HR Pros!

Mental health is often framed as a culture conversation, but the numbers tell a far more urgent story for HR leaders.

New survey data estimates that workers struggling without taking leave lose an average of $10,968 in income, contributing to a staggering $1.15 trillion in national losses.

Behind those figures are delayed care, underperformance, fear of retaliation, and widespread confusion about protected leave policies.

Upcoming In This Issue:

• 💼 The $1.15 trillion warning HR shouldn’t be ignoring

• 🤝 Indeed reports 74% of instant interview candidates rated positively by employers

• ⚖️ Women speak 9% more in recorded meetings, but legal risk is rising

• 🗣️ In-room participants speak 5x more than remote colleagues in hybrid meetings

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💼 The $1.15 trillion warning HR shouldn’t be ignoring

The data from a 3,000-worker survey reframes “pushing through” as an economic event, not just a wellbeing concern. High-income states show the steepest per-person losses, while large-population states drive enormous total economic impact.

Awareness gaps, fear of retaliation, and cultural stigma appear to be extending recovery timelines and compounding underperformance.

For HR professionals, this isn’t just about policy design, but rather about whether employees trust those policies enough to use them.

Key Insights

• 💰 $10,968 per worker adds up fast: Average income loss per affected employee reaches $10,968, totaling $1.15 trillion nationally across industries and states.

• 🗺️ Geography shapes financial fallout: Massachusetts hits $14,050 per worker, while California’s total losses exceed $154 billion due to sheer workforce size.

• 📉 Awareness gap drives underperformance: Fewer than half of workers know mental health leave is legally protected, delaying care and extending costly productivity decline.

• 🤐 Fear overrides formal policy: Over half admit lying about leave reasons, citing job loss and income fears despite existing protections.

Read the full 1,600-word article here

🤝 Indeed reports 74% of instant interview candidates rated positively by employers

Indeed is advancing a strategy that doesn’t reject AI, but reallocates it. Instead of automating deeper into the funnel, the company is pushing human interaction earlier through its Interview on Demand feature.

The approach pairs AI-driven screening with instant live video conversations, allowing qualified candidates to connect with recruiters within minutes of applying.

Key Insights

• ⚙️ Task reallocation, not AI retreat: Indeed continues investing in AI screening and scheduling while repositioning humans at the earliest evaluative stage.

• 🎥 Instant interviews as differentiation: Employers can connect with qualified applicants in under four minutes, compressing time-to-engagement dramatically.

• 📊 74% positive employer ratings: Beta data suggests candidates opting into live interviews are highly motivated and well-aligned with role criteria.

• ⏱️ Reducing funnel friction: With interviews launching roughly 28 minutes after sessions open, the strategy targets responsiveness as a competitive hiring advantage.

Read more: https://www.hr-brew.com/stories/2026/02/13/amid-ai-transformation-indeed-bets-on-more-human-connection-in-hiring

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⚖️ Women speak 9% more in recorded meetings, but legal risk is rising

AI notetakers are reshaping the meeting room, often without clear guardrails in place. In hybrid calls, employees log off while digital assistants continue recording, capturing unfiltered comments that later circulate as transcripts.

The technology can shift participation dynamics, recorded meetings prompt individual contributors to speak nearly as much as managers, and women participate 9% more than men.

But the same tools are surfacing governance blind spots around consent, data storage, and transcript distribution.

Key insights

• ⚖️ Governance gaps create exposure: AI notetakers can capture post-meeting remarks, generating discoverable records that raise compliance and employment-law risks.

• 📂 Automatic transcript distribution amplifies fallout: Verbatim notes emailed to entire teams increase reputational damage and internal conflict.

• 🛑 Control mechanisms are emerging: Some organizations are implementing recording consent rules, storage restrictions, summaries instead of transcripts, and meeting “kill switches.”

• 🎓 Education is critical: Employees must understand recorded meetings function like written documentation, not private conversation, altering behavioral expectations.

Read more: https://fortune.com/2026/02/09/ai-notetakers-are-creating-hr-nightmares/

🗣️ In-room participants speak 5x more than remote colleagues in hybrid meetings

Based on analysis of 159,870 virtual and hybrid meetings across 30 plus industries, this report shows that meetings are structured by measurable power patterns tied to status, gender, proximity, and cognitive style.

Hybrid settings introduce the sharpest imbalance, with physical presence heavily influencing who shapes decisions.

Key insights

• 📊 159,870 meetings analyzed: Cross industry data reveals managers speak only about 3% more than individual contributors when AI visibility is present.

• 👩 Women speak 9% more: Relative to representation, women contribute more airtime, yet enter ghost mode 19% more often than men.

• 🏢 5x airtime gap in hybrid meetings: In room participants speak five times more, ask nearly twice as many questions, and use more non inclusive language.

• 📈 Ghost mode impacts growth: Teams with low ghost mode grow nearly three times faster than teams with high disengagement patterns.

Read more: https://www.read.ai/power-dynamics-in-meetings-report-2026