Hello HR Pros,

Happy Friday!

This week, we’re diving into the new realities HR can’t ignore.

Agentic AI is no longer theoretical—it’s already reshaping enterprise workflows and decision-making. Zapier is piloting AI-led recruiter screens to stay human at scale. And Glassdoor’s latest report reveals how trust is eroding, layoffs are quiet, and hybrid work isn’t the win we once thought.

If you're feeling like the future of work is showing up early—it is. Let’s dive in.

📰 Upcoming in This Issue

• 🧠 Why You Might Meet an AI Recruiter at Zapier

• 📉 Glassdoor’s Worklife Trends 2026

• 🤖 Agentic AI: Nine Essential Questions - MIT Solan

• ⚙️ A Smarter Way for HR to Centralize People Data, PTO, and Employee Experiences

✨ Helpful HR Resources

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

• 🌍 Must read: The ultimate Employer of Record (EOR) guide for HR

📣 Trending HR News

• Employers stall on hiring as candidate interest slows (Yahoo)

• HR is ‘often sidelined’ when it comes to workplace AI transformation (HR Dive)

• Trust is at all-time low for both job seekers and recruiters (Fortune)

• Notices of impending layoffs by US companies surged in October: Federal report (MSN)

🧠 Why You Might Meet an AI Recruiter at Zapier

What if your next recruiter screen isn’t with a person—but with an AI?

Zapier is piloting “agentic AI” recruiters to handle high-volume roles, promising more access for candidates and more bandwidth for humans.

The AI doesn’t decide—it just listens, probes, summarizes. The final call stays with a human. But as the hiring floodgates widen and deepfakes rise, this AI-human tag team might just be the new normal.

Key Takeaways:

• 🤖 AI does the first screen: Zapier uses AI-led interviews for high-volume roles, but humans always make the final decision.

• 📈 It’s solving real pain: One role drew thousands of applicants in 48 hours—AI made that humanly manageable.

• 🕵️ AI flags the fakes: Up to 30% of applications are fraudulent—AI helps filter deepfakes and unverifiable identities early.

• 🫱 Human-first, not algorithm-first: Candidates can opt out of AI screens—no penalty. Transparency and choice are built in.

👉 Read the full 1,285-word article here

📉 Glassdoor’s Worklife Trends 2026

Forget sweeping company memos or headline-making layoffs—2026 is all about subtle shifts that are changing work from the inside out.

Glassdoor’s latest trends report surfaces six quiet-but-critical signals: leadership trust is unraveling, layoffs are happening in slow-motion, and remote work isn’t the morale booster it once was. Employees are still showing up—but with less loyalty, less clarity, and lower expectations.

On the upside, early-career workers are finally seeing wage recovery. But if leaders think small talk and office snacks will fix deeper disconnects, they’re missing the plot entirely.

Key Takeaways:

• 📉 Trust is in freefall: Negative reviews mentioning “distrust” and “miscommunication” rose significantly in tech, media, and consulting in 2025.

• 🧯 Layoffs have gone stealth: “Forever layoffs”—rolling cuts that avoid headlines—now account for over 50% of layoff activity.

• 🛋️ RTO fatigue is deepening: Remote and hybrid workers report lower satisfaction with leadership and career growth vs. their in-office peers.

• 📊 Gen Z is catching up: Entry-level salaries are projected to exceed 2020 inflation-adjusted levels in 2026, especially in cities like Provo and Boise.

👉 Read the full 3,978-word article by Glassdoor here

🤖 Agentic AI: Nine Essential Questions - MIT Solan

Agentic AI isn’t science fiction—it’s quietly reshaping the future of work.

Unlike past tools, these AI systems act autonomously, adapt in real time, and even talk to other systems to get work done.

But with power comes risk. From data poisoning to shadow-AI agents, the complexity is real—and growing. This MIT Sloan article breaks down the 9 essential questions leaders need to answer before they scale agentic systems across business functions.

Because if HR isn’t already asking these questions—it’s probably already behind.

Key Takeaways:

• 🧠 Define the agents: Agentic AI doesn’t just assist—it acts, learns, and adapts across systems with minimal human input .

• 📈 ROI is measurable: High-performing firms are 4.5× more likely to use agentic AI architectures at scale .

• 🛡️ Risks go deep: 57% of orgs cite data poisoning as a top GenAI concern—especially when AI decisions span systems .

• 👥 Accountability is complex: Governance must define where human decision rights begin—and where AI autonomy should end .

👉 Read the full 2,058-word article by MIT here

⚙️ A Smarter Way for HR to Centralize People Data, PTO, and Employee Experiences

If juggling employee records, PTO tracking, onboarding tasks, and performance reviews across spreadsheets is slowing you down, there’s a better way to manage HR. BambooHR gives HR teams an all-in-one HR platform to organize people data, automate workflows, and create a seamless employee experience — without the administrative overwhelm.

HR professionals trust BambooHR to streamline essential processes, improve compliance, and give their employees a clear and modern self-service experience. It’s intuitive, quick to adopt, and powerful enough to support both growing teams and established HR departments.

Why HR teams love BambooHR:

• 🏖 Effortless PTO tracking with automated accruals, approvals, and employee self-service

• 📊 Performance management tools that support meaningful employee growth

• 🤖 Automated reminders & workflows to eliminate manual follow-ups and repetitive tasks

• 💵 Seamless payroll and benefits integrations to keep everything connected and compliant

Stop letting manual processes drain your focus. Free up time for the work that truly matters — building culture, retaining great talent, and supporting your people — while BambooHR handles the operational heavy lifting.

👉 See BambooHR in Action and Streamline Your HR

The bottomline

AI won’t replace HR—but it will pressure it to evolve fast.

This edition isn’t about what’s next. It’s about what’s already happening—and what happens if we don’t adapt. The question isn’t if we’ll use AI. It’s whether we’ll use it well. See you next week.