TOTAL REWARDS

Dismounting the student loan saddle

Summer, a workplace student loan solution, announced $9 million in funding on April 8. The fundraising round was led by Rebalance Capital and SemperVirens, which both focus their investments in part on workforce tech companies. General Catalyst, QED, and Flourish Ventures were also among the VC firms participating.

The fundraising round comes on the heels of news that Summer will partner with ADP to offer student loan retirement matching to the human capital management firm’s 401(k) clients. Summer has recently seen more interest and demand from employers for its products due to a number of factors, including the resumption of student loan payments in October, as well as a new federal provision allowing companies to tie student loan payments to retirement savings, co-founder and CEO Will Sealy told HR Brew.

“It is a major financial stressor that resumed,” Sealy said of student loan payments, which were paused for over three years before they restarted last fall. “Student loans are now boiling up as a top-two financial concern. And we haven’t heard about this for years.”

Tackling the “excruciatingly high cost of college.” Sealy co-founded Summer in 2017 after spending two years working as a student loan policy expert for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. While there, Sealy realized the federal government has designed myriad solutions to help Americans manage their student loan debt, but hasn’t made them easily accessible.

Keep reading here.—CV

PRESENTED BY SLACK

Successful collabs start here

A business tool that simplifies team connection, communication, and capability is one that takes things up a notch.

We’re talkin’ about Slack, the AI-powered platform for growing your biz. That’s right: Slack’s got AI in the mix, which can help summarize threads, power your searches, and automate repetitive tasks.

Assisting these AI capabilities is Slack’s well-known (and well-loved) collection of tools, like starting calls at the flip of a switch with a handy huddle, automating your routine with Workflow Builder, organizing unread convos with Catch Up, and so much more.

What happens when you pick up (the) Slack? Your work can flow and your business can grow. Test it out for yourself.

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

Surprise!

Well, that was unexpected. The latest jobs data from the ​​Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) exceeded economists’ forecasts, highlighting the continuing resilience and strength of the US economy and the labor market.

What to know. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 303,000 in March, the BLS reported on April 5, beating the 200,000 additional jobs Brookings Institution economists had anticipated. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.8%, from 3.9% in February.

“What [the BLS report is] telling us is that even though everyone thought we were going toward recession, we’re really not,” Tracey Power, CPO at recruiting firm Vaco, told HR Brew. “The jobs numbers keep going up and employers continue to look to add skill sets and add the roles that they need to grow.”

Zoom out. The report underscores the fierce competition for talent, Power said. Employees have options. To get them in the door, she suggested HR streamline the hiring process, communicate more frequently, and leverage AI tools to identify candidates with the skills their organization needs to be successful.

Keep reading here.—AS

DE&I

The CROWN fits

France could become the first country to have a national ban on hair discrimination—that is, if the bill isn’t stopped before it reaches President Macron’s desk.

Where in the world? Lower parliamentary lawmakers took the first step towards banning hair discrimination last month, passing a bill 44–2 (the majority of the country’s 577 lawmakers were not present), the AP reported.

Olivier Serva, a member of parliament from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, proposed the bill, pointing to a US study on the discrimination Black women face in the workplace as a result of their hair, the BBC reported. The bill would update the current anti-discrimination laws to specifically prevent employers from discriminating against people based on the “texture, length, color, or style” of their hair.

Satellite view. In the US, the CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair), which bans hair discrimination in employment, housing, and the military, has been passed by 24 states since 2019. An additional 21 states have introduced the legislation, including West Virginia, where it was recently defeated, with detractors claiming it would lead to costly lawsuits, according to NBC News. On a national level, the act passed the House in 2022, but did not reach the Senate for a vote due to a Republican-led filibuster.

Keep reading here.—KP

TOGETHER WITH PAYLOCITY

Start planning for office life on Mars. Fine—maybe not quite yet. But your employees do deserve a future-forward and tech-enabled culture. Think of Paylocity’s latest e-book as your launch plans to modernize your employee experience tech, retain talent, and retrain your workforce for the future. Grab your copy.

WORK PERKS