Hello HR Pros,

This season’s headlines show just how much weight HR is carrying right now.

From balancing AI adoption with employee burnout, to protecting teams inside shaky cultures, to even rethinking holiday hiring—HR leaders are working in every direction at once.

The bright spot? The most effective teams are proving that strategy, not survival mode, is what keeps people engaged and businesses moving forward.

📰 Upcoming in This Issue

• 🧯 How to Lead When Culture Turns Toxic

• 🤖 HR's Tug-of-War: Performance vs. Purpose

• 🔄 How to Hardwire Change into Your People

• 🎯 Seasonal Hiring: Your Secret Weapon

✨ Helpful Links

• 🎁 Exclusive HR tools & offers curated for The HR Takeaways community

• 🌍 Must read: comparison of best global payroll services in 2025

📣 Trending HR News

• Older job seekers’ complaints about ageism have skyrocketed (Glassdoor)

• Health benefit cost increases expected to hit 15-year high (Mercer)

• Microsoft Layoffs Announced for the Fifth Month in a Row (Yahoo)

• Klarna 'course-correct' after aggressive AI adoption (HRD America)

🧯 How to Lead When Culture Turns Toxic

When dysfunction runs deep, most leaders either disengage or defect.

But what if the best move is to build a pocket of excellence—right in the middle of the mess?

This HBR piece arms managers with seven sharp tactics to shield their team from organizational toxicity, without sugarcoating reality. The magic lies in setting your own norms, being radically honest, and giving people a reason to stay.

It’s not about escaping the chaos. It’s about insulating your people from it—before they walk out the door.

Key Takeaways:

• 🔐 Culture Starts With You: Build your own team standards and rituals—don’t passively adopt toxic norms that don’t serve your people.

• ⚡ Be the Shock Absorber: Filter cross-org dysfunction before it hits your team—don’t dump top-down stress onto their desks.

• 💬 Stay Interviews > Exit Regrets: Regularly ask why your team stays, what’s working, and where they're struggling—then act on it.

• 🌱 Meaning Is the Antidote: Link daily work to tangible impact—like patient stories or team wins—to offset the lack of top-down validation.

I read the full 1,175-word article from Harvard Business Review here

🤖 HR's Tug-of-War: Performance vs. Purpose

If 2025 was about staying afloat, 2026 is about rewiring the ship while still sailing it.

HR teams are riding a high-stakes balancing act between performance, polarization, and pay transparency—all while keeping one eye on AI and the other on burnout.

This year’s report reveals a stark truth: HR isn't just about engagement anymore—it's about proving ROI in real-time. But the twist? The most successful teams aren’t slashing and surviving. They’re experimenting, doubling down on DEIB, and using AI as a co-pilot, not a competitor.

Welcome to HR’s era of “do more with tech, not just less.”

Key Takeaways:

• ⚙️ DEIB Drives High Performance: High-performing HR teams prioritize DEIB 5x more than low performers—and outperform them across every metric.

• 🤖 AI Adoption is Accelerating Fast: 42% of white-collar HR teams now use or test agentic AI; only 6% of low performers do the same.

• 🧠 Burnout is Still Boiling: Nearly 1 in 3 HR pros considered leaving this year—citing emotional toll, lack of support, and undervaluation.

• 💸 Pay Transparency ≠ Pay Equity: Only 18% prioritize compensation, despite dry promotions and pushback from underpaid, overworked employees.

I read the full 3,502-word article from Lattice

🔄 How to Hardwire Change into Your People

Change isn’t just coming—it’s already here, all the time.

This Gartner report suggests a bold shift: stop inspiring people to embrace change and start training them to reflexively act on it.

The key is “change reflexes”—core skills like emotional regulation and time management that, when practiced routinely, become as natural as breathing. The best leaders aren’t waiting for a big transformation moment; they’re weaving skill-building into daily workflows.

It’s not about coping with change anymore. It’s about embedding it into muscle memory.

Key Takeaways:

• 🧠 Reflexes Beat Resilience: Employees with practiced change reflexes are 3.5x more likely to adopt change successfully and 2.2x more likely to stay mentally well.

• 🛠️ Six Skills Lead the Pack: Time management, emotional regulation, and tech fluency are among the six most predictive skills of successful change adoption.

• 🔁 Micro-Reps Drive Mastery: The most effective leaders use everyday work to build reflexes—think lunch & learns, debriefs, and review sessions.

• 🚨 Anticipation Is Empowering: Jack Henry’s HR team teaches staff to spot external triggers and self-initiate readiness conversations—boosting empowerment and adaptability.

I read the full 2,010-word article from Gartner

📌 HR Projects Quietly Getting Out of Control? Quickbase Can Help

HR teams manage countless projects simultaneously—onboarding, compliance, training—and keeping everything on track isn't always easy.

Quickbase provides a customizable, no-code solution that helps HR teams automate workflows, centralize communication, and gain clear visibility into project statuses.

👉 Discover how Quickbase streamlines HR project management→

🎯 Seasonal Hiring: Your Secret Weapon

The holiday rush can be chaos—or a golden opportunity.

This Inc. guide goes deep into how to win the seasonal hiring game by starting early, training with intention, and turning part-timers into pipeline talent.

Forget scrambling in November. The smartest businesses are already building their winter workforces in September.

And the kicker? Seasonal workers aren’t just temps—they’re test runs for your next great hire. It’s not just about filling gaps. It’s about building muscle before the madness hits.

Key Takeaways:

• ⏰ Start in September: Companies that begin hiring in fall gain the best talent and stay ahead of demand spikes.

• 💪 Train Like It’s Full-Time: Product and service training for seasonal staff is a customer-experience gamechanger, especially in specialty retail.

• 📈 Use the Role as a Trial: Treat seasonal work like a months-long interview—you’ll spot your next full-timer through real-world performance.

• ⚖️ Play It by the Book: Misclassifying part-time workers can cost millions—set proper payroll and compliance from day one.

I read the full 1,406-word article from Inc

The bottomline

If there’s one theme that connects all these stories, it’s that the right people practices set the tone for everything else.

The leaders who invest in resilience, clarity, and culture aren’t just holding on to their people—they’re giving them reasons to thrive.

And in a climate where change is constant, that edge makes all the difference.