Venture capitalists have the ability to place bets on the titans of tomorrow, and as they have done for companies most often associated with Big Tech—think social networks and e-commerce giants—they’re reaching into their pockets to fund startups that hope to reinvent HR for the future of work.

Historically, the technology used by the HR industry hasn’t seen the sky-high levels of financial investment lavished on industries like biotech.

The technical nuts and bolts of HR—payroll, compliance, onboarding—have not really been associated with great innovation, Jason Corsello, the founder and CEO of Acadian Ventures, an early-stage venture-capital fund focused on companies attempting to help workplace tech evolve, told HR Brew.

“HR tends to be not necessarily on the bleeding edge of leveraging emerging tech,” he said. That may be changing, however, as VCs, like Corsello, pour money into companies that are attempting to revolutionize HR tech—a trend that began prior to the pandemic, but accelerated as remote work became normalized and companies scrambled to continue business under radically new circumstances, George LaRocque, the founder and principal analyst of WorkTech, which analyzes investment trends across the industry, told HR Brew.

LaRocque said HR’s heightened emphasis on DE&I initiatives and the growing demands of hybrid work have “increased the amount of money looking for a home” around HR tech.

The influx is also indicative of a changing tide in the HR profession, Corsello said, one that he likened to the rise of software as a service (SaaS) 15 years ago. Except now, he said, “in the last three to five years, a lot of these tools have gotten way smarter,” referencing machine learning.

LaRocque hinted at “another wave” of startups that could be a glimpse of HR tech’s future, coming from the “Web3, metaverse, blockchain world…I think that’s the next explosion.” But he and other experts warned that the development of these tools is still nascent.

How much VC money are we really talking about? Step right this way to fill your eyes with dollar signs.—SB

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Proponents of virtual reality are bringing immersive anti-sexual harassment training to a metaverse near you. Real-world humans who have experienced the metaverse—and those who say they have been subjected to sexual harassment in the metaverse, in one case, within a minute of logging on—might give this idea some serious side-eye.

VR’s virtues: VR company Vantage Point has been developing immersive sexual-harassment training for clients since its founding in 2017. The company’s CEO, Morgan Mercer, told Fast Company in 2019 that traditional methods hadn’t delivered “engagement with the material [or] the ability to apply learning to real-life environments and situations.” Indeed, advocates point to research suggesting employees retain more information through VR training than traditional modules.

Full immersion: Vantage Point and Sisu, two VR training platforms, ask employees to play first-person decision games where they find themselves directly in the middle of a workplace harassment event.

In Sisu’s version, employees complete the immersive games in 15-minute blocks over the span of roughly two hours, Protocol reports, where they roleplay as victims, offenders, or observers. Sisu’s marketing materials describe the training as “real cases” designed to help employees “learn to handle realistic situations” where participants will analyze how their “actions may affect [their] circumstances—for better or worse!”

On Vantage Point’s platform, which uses photorealistic characters “to heighten the emotional stakes” of the experience, Mercer told Protocol, “Much like in the real world, the things that you do influence the outcome you have, and so if you speak up sooner, things get better.”

But how real is too real? According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 81% of women and 43% of men reported experiencing sexual harassment or assault in their lifetime.

Claire Schmidt, CEO and founder of AllVoices, a platform that allows employees to anonymously report sexual harassment, discrimination, and bias to management, surveyed employees and found that 50% had been harassed and reported it to “a manager, to HR, or to an ombudsperson or third party. ” But still, many do not: 20.9% of female respondents and 14.8% of male respondents said they experienced harassment but didn’t report it.

Schmidt worries that using immersive, realistic tech to simulate harassment could unintentionally do harm. Keep reading here.—SV

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There is discord at Disney, and it’s not the kind that’s easily resolved by breaking into a haunted castle and befriending an anthropomorphic candle and teapot. The entertainment giant is facing internal and external furor sparked by its tepid response to a new Florida state law that places restrictions on discussion of certain aspects of gender and sexuality in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms.

Legal challenges have been filed against the law, which was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in late March. It has caused a stir since the legislation was introduced, with LGBTQ+ advocates, politicians, celebrities, and other critics branding it the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Disney initially declined to take a position on the legislation, prompting outrage from some employees, who last month staged a walkout at Disney’s headquarters in Burbank, California, in protest. Disney CEO Bob Chapek responded with an apology, writing in a statement addressed to Disney employees that he had “missed the mark.”

What’s in the law? The “Parental Rights in Education” law bans “a school district from encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grades,” and that “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” The law also includes prohibitions on both “classroom discussion” and “classroom instruction” of sexual orientation and gender identity according to an analysis by New York Times reporter Amelia Nierenberg.

Workers in Burbank weren’t the only ones in the Disney universe to protest. Last month, employees at ESPN, which is owned by Disney, also staged a walkout. Some workers at Disney built a website—whereischapek.com—which provides resources, including best practices for walkouts, and lists various “demands” for Disney leadership, including to “immediately and indefinitely cease all campaign donations” to lawmakers “involved in the creation or passage” of the law.

The defiant mood spread online, with the hashtag #disneysaygay proliferating on Twitter.

About face. As pressure mounted, Chapek apologized for the company’s initial silence in an internal company memo obtained by Variety, writing: “I and the entire leadership team unequivocally stand in support of our LGBTQ+ employees, their families, and their communities.”

Disney has now reversed course and says it opposes the law. “Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that,” the company said in a statement after the bill was signed into law.—SB

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Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: In March, consumer prices rose 8.5% from the year prior, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s the highest rate of inflation seen since 1981. (SHRM)

Quote: “There are so many parts of the work week that are just a waste of time”—Banks Benitez, CEO of Denver-based Uncharted, which has operated with a four-day work week since 2020 (CNBC)

Read: Workers who incurred high costs as a result of setting up home offices are now suing their employers for reimbursement for things like heating and internet bills, in more than a dozen class-action lawsuits. (Los Angeles Times)

Catch up on the top HR Brew stories from the recent past:

• Admiral Rachel Levine on transitioning mid-career and the importance of supportive colleagues
• Employees are bringing their comfy pants to the office
• New LinkedIn change aims to reduce stigma of dyslexia in the workplace