One year ago, two monumental cultural phenomena were taking off: HR Brew and Squid Game. (Stay with me.) At first glance, their missions may seem worlds apart: One was dedicated to giving those in the people profession the news and analysis they need to make better decisions, the other to giving people on their couches a glimpse at the decisions they might make to become debt-free. But both revolved around people—understanding what makes them tick, and how to get the most out of them.

When we set out on this journey, the field of HR was at an inflection point. Employers of all sizes and sectors were contending with a seemingly endless series of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic (thank goodness that’s behind us…*sob*) and subsequent remote revolution, to the national racial reckoning and the intensifying global climate crisis. In guiding their organizations through the storm, HR went through its own evolution, one that would bring more HR leaders into the C-suite during this critical time.

We’ve written about the tech that HR leaders are using to identify burnout within the ranks of their organizations. We’ve reported on the ways in which ERG programs have evolved over the past four decades and what they need to thrive today. We’ve explored the ins and outs of effectively onboarding employees after an acquisition, the privacy concerns associated with working in the metaverse, and the complications that come with the ever-growing gig economy.

In doing so, we’ve scaled up, from two editions a week to three, and then, as of this week, to a daily newsletter. (We still take weekends off…for now.) Along the way, we’ve nearly tripled our editorial team to better serve our growing subscriber base of 132,000, and counting.

If we’ve learned anything, it’s that there are so many stories that have yet to be told. Keep reading here.—VV

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @VickyValet on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Vicky for her number on Signal.

We’ve all sat through at least one Thanksgiving when an uncle says something that is not okay, and everyone awkwardly tries to navigate around it. It might be a good idea to make sure job candidates don’t feel similarly during your interview process.

Nearly one-third of job seekers reported being asked discriminatory or potentially discriminatory questions during an interview, according to a new survey released by hiring technology firm Greenhouse.

“They’re discriminatory…not only [because] they’re illegal, but it makes the candidate feel like, ‘You’re not asking me things based on my merit or my contribution or my experience or my background. You’re truly trying to use deductive reasoning to find a way to exclude me from this process,’” said Greenhouse’s chief people officer, Donald Knight.

The onus is on HR pros to make sure a company’s hiring process is thoughtful and inclusive.

The no-nos. It’s illegal to ask applicants questions about disabilities or those that might reveal disabilities, according to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The agency also recommends you steer clear of questions related to race, religion, sex, and national origin, as those characteristics are protected by law. And don’t ask about age, unless it’s about “age-related legal requirements for the job.”

Family planning is also a no-go. Be sure interviews do not veer into territory related to whether a contender is pregnant or is looking to have children.

“They’re trying to determine where [candidates] fall on a socioeconomic perspective [by] trying to figure out what their family structure is like,” Knight said. “What ends up happening is we use these things to somewhat deduce where a person stands and what their value is.”

What’s HR to do? What’s missing in many interview processes is structure, Knight said. Keep reading here.—AD

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @adamderose on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Adam for his number on Signal.

On Tuesdays, we get into the weeds with the founders of HR tech startups. Want to tell us about your company? Get in touch here.

Anoop Gupta is the co-founder and CEO of SeekOut, an AI-powered recruiting platform. Founded in 2015, the company has amassed over $180 million in funding at a $1.2 billion valuation from investors including Tiger Global Management and Madrona Venture Group. Gupta told HR Brew about SeekOut’s tech and how he hopes it will solve employers’ recruiting and retention issues.

What product or service does your company offer? The best companies are people-first companies because people are what give companies a competitive advantage. To be a people-first company, we believe that companies need to have a clear understanding of the talent they have and the talent they need…SeekOut is a platform that gives the complete picture of all talent, both internal and external.

So, we are a company that is used for recruitment, retention, and growth. The retention and growth part is new in our journey [and was] launched this year. Our business has been built on the talent acquisition side.

How does it work? On the recruitment side, we build very comprehensive profiles that come from public sources—public LinkedIn, public GitHub, public StackOverflow, public papers and patents…job databases—so we have the richest database of people and then the richest possible search engine…and talent analytics and how to engage…If [a company] is looking for diverse candidates, if they’re trying to understand diversity of talent skills, and analytics, [or] if they’re looking for deep tech talent, [it’s] for all of those things.

What is the specific issue your company hopes to solve? Keep reading here.

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Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: 70%. That’s the share of Democrats and US adults who lean Democrat who say they support the #MeToo movement, compared to 22% of Republicans and “GOP leaners.” (Pew Research Center)

Quote: “If people that code for Google and Facebook were able to live wherever in the US they wanted and [work] for a year and a half without ever going to the office, it seems very, very likely that a lot of companies will be rethinking this longer-term and outsourcing those kinds of jobs that didn’t used to be outsourced.”—Anna Stansbury, assistant professor of work and organization studies at MIT Sloan School of Business, on the likelihood that “high-paying white collar jobs” could increasingly move overseas (Fortune)

Read: HR departments are trying to figure out how to manage workers in the “era of the employee nomad.” (WorkLife)

Penny for your thoughts: Actually, more like a $100 AmEx gift card, which you’ll be entered for a chance to win just by completing our anonymous brand survey. Should take 2 minutes max. Start here.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}