Trust, Transparency, and a 'Screw It, Let’s Do It' Fund

Good Morning! 🌞 

It’s becoming harder to ignore the silent shift happening at the bottom of the workforce ladder.

As Gen Z enters the job market, they’re finding the rungs to climb are vanishing—entry-level roles are disappearing, and AI is replacing the very tasks that once served as training grounds for new talent.

In this edition, we explore how AI is reshaping the early-career landscape and what it means for employers, HR leaders, and the future of hiring.

👉 While you're here, let us know what kind of content you'd love to see more of in future editions

⬇️ Upcoming In This Issue

• 🚀 Case Study | Trust, Transparency, and a 'Screw It, Let’s Do It' Fund: Virgin Group’s Benefits Overhaul

• 🎯 Stuck in the Middle: Advertising’s Job Market Paradox

• 🤖 Gen Z Meets the AI Wall: Why Entry-Level Jobs Are Vanishing

• 📊 Are Your People Ready? IBM Has a Plan

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 📰 Latest in HR News

• Amazon’s Jassy says AI will reduce company’s corporate ranks

• Facing economic anxiety, 64% of workers say they plan to get a second job or start a side hustle

• Workday discovery dispute is pivotal moment for AI bias lawsuits

• OpenAI accuses meta of poaching employees—is it ever a good strategy?

🚀 Case Study | Trust, Transparency, and a 'Screw It, Let’s Do It' Fund: Virgin Group’s Benefits Overhaul

Virgin Group tore up the rulebook and started from the inside out. Facing mixed employee feedback and low usage rates, leaders realized their package favored senior, long-tenured staff and overlooked the silent majority with caregiving responsibilities.

Instead of making changes behind closed doors, Virgin Group’s HR team opened the data vault and launched transparent focus groups, social polls, and even podcasts.

Key Insights

• 🧠 35% of staff were caregivers not supported by benefits
  Employee data revealed caregiving was widely unacknowledged—prompting a pivot away from parent-only perks to broader support systems.

• 💸 A personal “Screw It, Let’s Do It” fund created freedom
  Each employee received a no-strings pot to spend on anything—health, hobbies, or travel—without tracking, just pure trust.

• 📊 95% staff participation in redesigned benefits plan
  After five months, usage rates flipped—up 20% on top benefits, with record-high pension contributions across the company.

• 🎙️ Podcasts explained tough trade-offs transparently
  To build trust, leaders recorded internal podcasts explaining difficult benefits decisions directly to employees. Bold—and it worked.

Read the full 1,384-word article here

🎯 Stuck in the Middle: Advertising’s Job Market Paradox

Candidates are flooding openings with tailored resumes, only to be ghosted or screened out by AI that values keyword matching over human potential.

Meanwhile, agencies and brands are struggling to commit, squeezed by client budget cuts and risk-averse hiring strategies.

Recruiters admit the system is overwhelmed: too many applicants, not enough roles, and a growing preference for freelancers over full-time staff. What’s left is a strange limbo—where talent is plentiful, yet opportunity feels scarce, and everyone’s chasing “unicorns” that might not even exist.

Key Takeaways

• 🤖 AI screening is creating a dehumanizing “keyword race”
  Applicants are losing out because resumes don’t match job descriptions exactly—regardless of real experience or fit.

• 🎭 Creative roles are vanishing from hiring pipelines
  Recruiters report demand has shifted to project managers and business dev pros—while art directors go overlooked.

• 🔁 Mergers are shrinking full-time opportunities
  Holding company consolidations have led to layoffs, flooding the market with senior talent and few senior roles.

• 📉 Ad industry lost nearly 9,000 jobs in one year
  Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a year-over-year drop from 497,400 to 488,600 in advertising-related roles.

Read the full 1,035-word article here

😄 Comic Relief (HR Edition)

🤖 Gen Z Meets the AI Wall: Why Entry-Level Jobs Are Vanishing

Entry-level jobs, once seen as stepping stones, are being erased by AI, economic stagnation, and a workforce bottleneck where senior employees aren't leaving and mid-levels aren't getting promoted.

The very tasks fresh grads once relied on to learn drafting simple code, filing HR paperwork, data input are now automated. Companies prefer AI to green workers, and the “experience required” bar has crept so high, many roles are unreachable without prior access.

Key Insights

• 🧠 AI erased foundational tasks once used to train new grads
  From HR to tech, junior-level work is now handled by AI tools, removing the path to hands-on learning for entry-level staff.

• 📉 Companies stopped hiring, blocked by economic inertia
  A jammed pipeline of Millennials and Gen Xers staying put means no openings for new grads to step into.

• 📚 Degrees matter less—skills matter more
  Employers are dropping degree requirements, leaning into skill-based hiring. Gen Z must now prove real-world abilities, not GPAs.

• 🚀 Gen Z’s best bet: become AI-native, not AI-replaced
  Those who can teach AI, use it, or optimize it will be indispensable—regardless of industry or job title.

Read the full 1,163-word article here

📊 Are Your People Ready? IBM Has a Plan

More than half of CEOs are already hiring for jobs that didn’t exist last year, thanks to a surge in AI adoption. But simply buying new tools isn’t enough.

The companies ahead of the curve are rethinking entire workflows, embedding AI training into daily routines, and re-skilling teams to blend tech fluency with human judgment.

For HR leaders, this moment is about designing a future-ready workforce that can actually use AI, not just sit next to it.

Key Insights

• 📈 85% of CEOs expect ROI from AI by 2027
  Leaders are betting big on efficiency and growth—77% already see value from AI-powered business initiatives.

• 🧠 Nearly one-third of the workforce needs reskilling
  IBM predicts massive re-skilling by 2027, requiring training in AI literacy, data handling, and ethical decision-making.

• 👥 “Buy, build, bot, borrow” is the new talent strategy
  CEOs are combining hiring, AI tools, internal development, and external partnerships to fill widening skill gaps.

• 🎯 Role-specific AI training beats one-size-fits-all
  Generic AI courses won’t cut it—embedding contextual, daily-use training boosts both capability and employee confidence.

Read the full 805-word article here