Hey HR Pros,

Today’s edition tackles the hidden forces reshaping hiring—from bad hires that quietly cost millions, to AI tools that redefine fairness without asking.

Whether it’s a talent gap threatening national security or an algorithm narrowing your pipeline, the throughline is clear: what we ignore in HR now becomes tomorrow’s risk. Let’s unpack what’s really driving success, failure, and fairness in the new hiring landscape.

📰 Upcoming in This Issue

• 🔍 Hiring Failures: What Your Metrics Aren’t Telling You

• 🧠 America’s Talent Crisis Is Now a National Security Threat

• 🤖 AI Fairness in Hiring: Who’s Really Calling the Shots?

✨ Helpful HR Resource

• 🌎 Best EOR & Global Payroll shortlist for smarter hiring in 2026

📣 Trending HR News

• UKG agrees to acquire Inova payroll (Yahoo Finance)

• US Veterans Affairs agency plans to cut 35,000 health-care job (CNBC)

• US employers plan to keep 2026 salary increases same as 2025 (Yahoo)

• Only 17% of employers reducing headcount amid AI gains (HRD America)

🔍 Hiring Failures: What Your Metrics Aren’t Telling You

Nearly half of new hires fail, and we’re just…okay with that?

If a core business process failed 50% of the time, there’d be chaos and accountability. But in recruiting? Crickets. This article makes a strong, data-backed case for treating hiring failures like any other costly business error—with root cause analysis and serious follow-up.

Even more surprising? Fewer than 15% of recruiting teams have a formal process for tracking or learning from these failures. That leaves most companies blind to patterns and bleeding money—often three times the failed hire’s salary. If you're unsure what defines a hiring failure, this article offers a no-nonsense checklist that spans ghosting, poor performance, and team disruption.

Key Takeaways:

• 🚨 46% of recent hires are considered failures: Managers admit they wouldn't rehire nearly half of the people they've brought on.

• 💸 Bad hires can cost 3x their salary: Include lost productivity, damaged customer relationships, and the ripple effects across the team.

• 📉 Only 15% of recruiting teams analyze failures: Despite having early data on who quits or underperforms within the first few months.

• 🔍 Hiring failure signs can emerge before day one: From no-shows to deception, early red flags are often visible—and ignored.

👉 Read the full 1,222-word article here

🔍 Employee Monitoring: Turn Workforce Signals Into Strategic Intelligence

In today’s hybrid work era, knowing what’s happening isn’t enough — you need to understand why it’s happening and what to do next.

Teramind’s employee monitoring software goes beyond basic employee monitoring by transforming workforce activity into actionable intelligence that helps organizations reduce risk, protect sensitive data, and improve performance with confidence.

Whether teams are remote, in-office, or hybrid, Teramind delivers real-time visibility, advanced analytics, and intelligent alerts — enabling smarter decisions without creating a culture of surveillance.

Why teams choose Teramind:

• 🔐 Proactive risk prevention: Identify abnormal behavior, insider threats, and potential data loss before issues escalate

• 📈 Behavior-driven insights: Turn activity data into meaningful trends that reveal productivity gaps and improvement opportunities

• 🧠 Intelligent alerts: Focus attention on what matters most instead of digging through endless logs

• 👥 Flexible monitoring controls: Customize visibility to align with company policies, legal requirements, and employee trust

👉 See Teramind Employee Monitoring in Action and drive productivity and safeguard your team with confidence.

🧠 America’s Talent Crisis Is Now a National Security Threat: JP Morgan

What if I told you the biggest threat to America’s global position isn't tanks or tech, but talent?

This powerhouse report from JPMorgan Chase frames the U.S. workforce shortage not as a labor-market hiccup—but as a geopolitical liability. From semiconductors to cybersecurity, we’re running billion-dollar strategies on empty pipelines. One jaw-dropper: the U.S. is producing fewer engineers than China by the millions—and that gap is growing.

The message is clear—without workers, there is no winning. And fixing it means treating workforce like critical infrastructure, not charity work.

Key Takeaways:

• 🛠️ 46% cite labor shortages: Defense leaders rank talent gaps as the top threat to execution.

• 📉 0.3% in apprenticeships: U.S. apprenticeship participation ranks last among major economies.

• 🔢 3.8M new hires needed: Semiconductor sector faces massive workforce demand by 2033.

• 🏙️ $1B reshoring initiative launched: JPMC-backed Chicago project targets 8,000+ new tech jobs.

👉 Read the full 15-page report by JPMorgan Chase

🤖 AI Fairness in Hiring: Who’s Really Calling the Shots?

AI was supposed to fix hiring bias. Instead, it’s rewriting what counts as fair—and not always for the better.

In a three-year study of a global company, an algorithm meant to level the playing field ended up narrowing candidate pools and sidelining frontline managers. The kicker? Nearly 90% of companies now use AI in hiring, yet most never revisit the systems once they’re deployed.

Fairness isn’t in the code—it’s in the conversations we forget to have.

Key Takeaways:

• 🧠 72% cutoff hard-coded: Candidates scoring below were auto-rejected, even when managers saw potential.

• ⚖️ One fairness wins out: AI locked in HR’s version, sidelining local manager input and context.

• 🗣️ Debate replaced by framing: Vendors pushed “ethical” AI to reduce scrutiny, making challenge seem anti-progress.

• 🔄 Fairness drift is real: Without regular reviews, systems quietly edge out alternate perspectives over time.

👉 Read the full 1,588-word article by Harvard Business Review

The bottomline

From crumbling pipelines to creeping automation bias, the message is clear: hiring isn’t just about filling roles anymore—it’s about defending your organization’s future. This edition was a reminder that every tool, every process, and every assumption we make about "talent" deserves a second look.

Because fairness, it turns out, doesn’t come pre-installed.

And before you go, don’t forget to check our best global payroll shortlist ✨