Corporate America loves happy hour. And those who found themselves at the bar at Penalty Box in Alexandria, Virginia, for a post-work drink in the 1990s might’ve been served by Greg Hill.

Hill wasn’t the typical bartender—yes, he was earning a paycheck, but he was there to balance the grind of his nine-to-five as an area director of HR at Hyatt Hotels.

Social connectedness can help combat stress, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Bartending also taught Hill fundamental people skills that he has used throughout his HR career, which has found him in roles including SVP of HR at Frontier Communications, CHRO at Equinox, and now CPO at corporate wellness company Exos.

“[Bartending] allowed me to have [more] authentic behaviors all day long, not that I went out and jumped on bars and chandeliers, but I wasn’t looked at as an HR guy and that had a lot of value to me at the time,” Hill told HR Brew.

Keep reading here.—MC

…especially when it comes to benefits. With a culturally diverse, multigenerational workforce, your employees’ needs will vary. Learn how to meet them where they are.

Strong benefits make employees feel valued by their employer, which boosts morale and retention. And figuring out which benefits matter most comes down to understanding where they are in life. MetLife’s 2023 U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study found that employees’ needs and benefits priorities vary by generation.

First-time millennial parents may be eager to learn about childcare or fertility benefits. And Gen X employees stepping into caretaker roles for aging parents may be more interested in eldercare. Exceptions exist, but these findings are a great place to start.

Learn more about creating a custom benefits strategy with MetLife.

Since SCOTUS issued its decision banning race-based affirmative action in education, multiple lawsuits have been filed against companies because of their DE&I programs.

PwC, an accounting firm with 46,000 US employees, was one of the companies targeted by anti-DE&I activist group America First Legal in 2023 following the affirmative action decision. The group, led by Stephen Miller, said that PwC’s Start internship and scholarship programs, which only accepted applicants from underrepresented groups, could be illegal, the Financial Times reported.

Now, the professional services firm has changed who can apply for its Start internships.

What’s happening? PwC Chief People Officer Yolanda Seals-Coffield confirmed to HR Brew that the company is removing the diversity requirement from its Start internship program as a direct result of the SCOTUS decision. She said that the communications, human capital, diversity, and legal teams collaborated on the decision to make the change.

Keep reading here.—KP

New rules intended to protect workers from wildfire smoke took effect in Washington State on Jan. 15. The legislation comes on the heels of one of the worst wildfire seasons in the state’s history, with 1,884 fire-starts recorded—the second-highest annual level in Washington’s history.

The permanent wildfire smoke rules build on emergency measures that were adopted in June 2022 by Washington State’s Department of Labor and Industries (L&I). Certain workplaces are exempted from the regulations, including “enclosed buildings or structures” where openings such as windows and doors are kept closed most of the time, as well as “enclosed vehicles” with proper air filtration.

Washington State employers covered by the rules must monitor air quality in their workplaces by tracking “PM2.5” levels, which measure the concentration of “fine particulate matter” in the air. In addition to tracking air quality, they’re required to do the following, per the L&I department.

Keep reading here.—CV

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Average office occupancy across 10 US cities rose to 53% last week, a post-pandemic record high. (Kastle)

Quote: “There’s going to be a healthy competition where companies look around at their peer organizations and see how their Scope 3 emissions stack up relative to them.”—Trevor Langdon, co-founder and CEO of Green Standards, on how California’s climate disclosure rule will challenge workplaces to take a hard look at their carbon footprint (WorkLife)

Read: White-collar professions such as financial services, business and legal services, and graphic design are among those most likely to be affected by generative AI. (SHRM)

Benefits 101: Employees crave strong benefits, but they can’t use what they don’t know they have. MetLife’s data shows that 45% of employees don’t fully understand their benefits package. Here’s what employers can do.*

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