Hello HR Pros,

If there were ever a week that sums up the HR balancing act—it’s this one.

From recessions reshaping hiring to AI reinventing workflows, from managers redefining careers to visa policies redrawing talent maps—this edition spotlights how HR leaders are adapting faster than ever.

Because in uncertain times, HR doesn’t just absorb change—we architect what comes next. Let’s dive in✨

📰 Upcoming in This Issue

• 💸 The $100K H-1B Visa Fee: Implications for U.S. Businesses and Workforces

• 🧰 ChatGPT Use Cases for HR - A Guide by OpenAI

• 🌱 New Research on How the Best Managers Shape Employees’ Careers

• 🌀 Spin Cycle: How Recessions Reshape Talent Acquisition Strategies

✨ Helpful Resources

• 🎁 Best HR tools & offers curated for The HR Takeaways readers

• 🌍 The ultimate EOR guide for smarter hiring in 2025

📣 Trending HR News

• Federal job cuts add strain to weakening labor market in US (MSN)

• South Carolina staffing firm faces EEOC ire over male-only hiring (Yahoo)

• Google cuts more than 100 design-related roles in cloud unit (CNBC)

• SHRM: 15% of US jobs at heightened risk of automation (HR Dive)

💸 The $100K H-1B Visa Fee: Implications for U.S. Businesses and Workforces

The newly proposed hefty H-1B visa fee has sent ripples across HR and business circles.

While designed to reduce reliance on foreign talent, it risks stifling innovation and hurting small and mid-sized firms that rely on niche technical skills. Many employers are pivoting Employer of Record (EOR) services models to sustain access to global talent.

The larger danger? A shrinking U.S. talent pipeline that could erode competitiveness in STEM-heavy industries and slow innovation at a critical time for growth.

Key Takeaways:

• 🌐 Lean on global payroll solutions: When hiring talent abroad becomes a necessity, integrating a unified global payroll provider helps manage compliance, payments, and workforce visibility seamlessly.

• 🏢 Uneven business impact: Large enterprises may absorb the cost, but small and mid-sized firms face an innovation penalty as access to specialized talent tightens.

• ⚖️ Strategic HR playbook: Companies are adopting EOR models, L-visas, and internal transfers to maintain agility and continuity across borders.

• 🧭 Policy rethink needed: Experts urge a tiered fee structure and stronger investment in STEM education to balance domestic hiring with global competitiveness.

👉 Read the full 2,300-word article here

🧰 ChatGPT Use Cases for HR - A Guide by OpenAI

HR is the backbone of employee experience, and this resource turns ChatGPT into our first-draft engine for policies, FAQs, and communication.

It maps practical prompts across feedback analysis, compliance research, talent acquisition, and internal branding—helping teams standardize inputs, accelerate outputs, and leave judgment to humans.

My plan: pilot high-impact workflows like survey synthesis, exit-theme mining, and RTO FAQs, then scale what works with clear guardrails and templates for consistency.

Key Takeaways:

• 🗳️ Feedback workflows: Draft surveys, analyze exit themes, and identify attrition drivers to shape retention strategies. Try this prompt: “Summarize common themes from employee exit interviews to identify the top 3 preventable turnover causes.”

• ⚖️ Research & compliance: Generate compensation benchmarks, summarize new regulations, and brief leaders with concise, cited insights.

• 🎯 TA & engagement: Create behavioral interview questions, job descriptions, and engagement ideas tailored to hybrid teams.

• 📚 Programs & visuals: Draft onboarding schedules, well-being proposals, and DEI communications that blend clarity with empathy.

👉 Read the full resource by OpenAI here

⚡️ Payroll Decisions: How HR Teams Compare Paycor and Patriot Payroll

Payroll mistakes are more than an inconvenience—they erode employee trust and can trigger costly compliance issues. That’s why HR teams weigh their options carefully. Today, we will compare 2 payroll platforms: Paycor and Patriot Payroll.

• Paycor Payroll
  Built for larger or more complex organizations, Paycor offers automated payroll runs, integrated HR features, and strong compliance tools. It simplifies tax filing and reporting across states, while giving employees self-service access through a mobile app.

• Patriot Payroll
  Favored by smaller businesses, Patriot is affordable, easy to set up, and intuitive to use. It allows unlimited payroll runs, includes free direct deposit, and with the Full Service option, handles all federal, state, and local tax filings on your behalf.

Key Takeaways:

Both platforms address payroll pain points, but in different ways—Paycor for depth and scale, Patriot for simplicity and cost-effectiveness.

🌱 New Research on How the Best Managers Shape Employees’ Careers

The most effective managers aren’t just motivators—they’re talent matchmakers.

Drawing on 20 years of data from 200,000 employees and 30,000 managers, this HBR study shows that “high-flyer” managers—those promoted early—boost their team’s wages by 13%, increase internal mobility by 40%, and improve firm productivity by 5x the cost of their pay.

The real skill? They spend more time on one-on-ones, spot hidden strengths, and reassign people into roles where they thrive. The result: careers accelerate, engagement rises, and companies win without adding headcount.

Key Takeaways:

• 🎯 Match, don’t just manage: Great managers act like internal recruiters—matching employees to better-fitting roles than micromanaging output.

• 💬 Mentorship drives value: High-flyers spend 20% more time in one-on-ones, uncovering untapped potential through genuine career conversations.

• 🚀 Rotations build resilience: Structured manager rotations expose more workers to great leadership—creating long-term productivity gains that outlast tenure.

• 📈 Redefine performance: Reward managers for allocating talent well, not just hitting short-term KPIs—an approach linked to 5x ROI in productivity.

👉 Read the full 2,600-word article here

🌀 Spin Cycle: How Recessions Reshape Talent Acquisition Strategies

Recessions don’t just slow hiring—they rewrite the TA playbook, and this one’s a “richcession” hitting white-collar teams first.

Openings are cooling, tech and marketing postings are down ~40%, and recruiters are absorbing doubled req loads while budgets shrink—cue “efficiency theater” and tool sprawl.

As Head of HR, I’m using the lull to fund the critical 5% roles that drive 95% of outcomes, clean our data, and keep mobility warm—because teams that sustain talent planning see 28% faster revenue growth when the rebound hits.

Key Takeaways:

• 🧠 Richcession reality: White-collar contraction hides beneath low unemployment; job revisions reveal a stealth slowdown demanding strategic recalibration.

• 🎯 Protect the 5%: Identify and fund the 5% of roles driving 95% of outcomes; pause the nice-to-haves, not the mission-critical.

• 🧩 Consolidate your stack: With HR tech consolidation rising, streamline tools, clean data, and align TA forecasting with finance.

• 🛡️ Brand under pressure: Humane layoffs, internal mobility, and transparent communication build goodwill—and lead to 28% faster post-recovery growth.

👉 Read the full article by Matt Charney here

The bottomline

This week proved one thing: HR’s influence now extends far beyond the office.

We’re redesigning work—matching talent smarter, hiring strategically, embracing AI, and planning globally. Every policy tweak or hiring decision is shaping the next decade of growth.

So whether you’re optimizing teams or exploring your first employe of record solution, remember—agility is your real superpower.