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- How Microsoft and McKinsey Are Redefining Workplace
How Microsoft and McKinsey Are Redefining Workplace
Inside: Recalibrating Benefits - Doing More with Less in 2025
The HR Takeaways
June 20, 2025
Hello, HR Pros
Happy Friday!
AI isn’t just rewriting tasks—it’s redrawing job descriptions. At McKinsey, it’s building decks instead of burning out analysts. Meanwhile, Microsoft reveals a creeping crisis: the workday that never ends.
Whether you're battling burnout or planning your next headcount, we’ve packed this issue with sharp signals and actionable foresight ✨
📰 Upcoming in This Issue
🧠 McKinsey Is Using AI to Create PowerPoints and Take Over Junior Employee
💡 Recalibrating Benefits: Doing More with Less in 2025
🎡 Breaking Down the ‘Infinite Workday’ by Microsoft
☀️ Summer Surge: Why Smart Recruiters Strike When It's Hot
📣 Trending HR News
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Simplify your processes, empower your teams, and reclaim your time—these tools handle the heavy lifting, making your HR operations look effortless.
McKinsey's AI assistant, Lilli, is rewriting the script for entry-level work.
Over 75% of the consulting giant's 43,000 employees now rely on Lilli to whip up PowerPoints, draft proposals, and tap the firm’s vast IP library—cutting research and synthesis time by 30%.
But despite the automation surge, McKinsey insists junior hires still have a role... just not as PowerPoint machines.
Key Takeaways:
📊 Lilli Takes the Click Work: McKinsey’s AI tool automates slide decks, drafts, and research, saving consultants hours weekly
👩💻 75% Adoption Rate: More than 3 in 4 employees use Lilli every month—17 times per week on average
🚫 Not a Headcount Killer: McKinsey says junior analysts won’t be cut—but they’ll focus on higher-value client tasks
🏛️ AI Built on Legacy: Lilli was trained on 100K+ internal docs, tapping nearly 100 years of McKinsey insights
Read the full 554-word article here
Employee benefits are getting a reality check.
As the economy tightens, WTW’s 2025 Benefits Trends Survey shows HR leaders aren’t cutting back—they’re optimizing. Employers are becoming sharper, more precise, and bolder in redesigning benefits not as perks, but as strategic levers for retention, engagement, and purpose.
The new playbook isn’t about more—it’s about smarter.
Key Takeaways:
📉 Budgets Are Shrinking, But Intentions Aren’t: 2/3 of employers cite cost pressures as their top concern—but they’re doubling down on smart spend, not pullbacks.
🧠 Mental Health Tops the List: More than half of organizations are prioritizing mental health in their benefits strategy to curb burnout and boost resilience.
📊 Data is the New Benefits Currency: 60% of companies plan to adopt predictive analytics and scenario modeling for sharper benefit planning within 3 years.
🎯 Personalization is Surging: The percentage of employers offering flexible, customizable benefits is set to jump from 38% to 76% by 2028.
Read the full 1,673-word article here
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AI might be revolutionizing the workplace, but it’s not saving us from chaos—yet.
This eye-opening article from Microsoft reveals how digital workdays now start before sunrise and stretch into weekends, fracturing attention and eroding boundaries. Their research—powered by trillions of Microsoft 365 data signals—makes a compelling case: AI isn’t enough unless we also rethink how we work.
Key Takeaways:
📨 Email at Dawn: By 6 am, 40% of workers are already triaging email; most read 117 emails a day in under 60 seconds.
📅 Focus Gets Hijacked: 50% of meetings land during peak productivity hours, crushing time for deep work and boosting burnout.
🌃 The Triple Peak is Real: Messages after 8 pm are up 16% YoY; 29% of users re-enter inboxes by 10 pm for “catch-up.”
🌀 Noise, Not Nuance: Workers get interrupted every 2 minutes—mid-task chaos that leads nearly half to call their workday “chaotic.”
Read the full 1,417-word article here
Turns out, summer isn’t the “dead zone” we all thought it was.
According to Dr. John Sullivan, summer—especially August, July, and June—saw the largest jobseeker pools over the last 12 months.
Forget the old wisdom about recruiting going dark during vacation season. If you’re looking to outmaneuver bigger names and budget cuts, now’s the time to scoop up talent while others are snoozing on a beach.
When everyone else slows down, smart recruiters speed up.
Key Takeaways:
📈 August is Prime Time: August had the highest jobseeker volume all year—yes, even higher than January or September.
😴 Corporate Complacency Helps You: Many hiring teams go quiet over summer due to budget cuts and vacations—less noise means more attention on you.
🎓 Grads Flood the Market: Summer sees a surge of post-grad talent and early-career candidates actively searching after a short break.
🏖️ Summer Slump = Job Hunt: People use their summer PTO or downtime to explore new roles, especially amid layoffs and relocation trends.
Read the full 835-word article here
The bottomline
The workplace is bending—sometimes breaking—but also rebuilding in smarter ways.
Use these insights to shift from reactive to strategic: automate where it matters, personalize what counts, and time your moves to where others aren’t looking.
Next month’s disruption? Already on our radar. Stay ahead ✨
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