There’s something about nature and fresh air that makes people feel happier and more relaxed…until a spider crawls up their leg. Then it’s game over and back to the great indoors.

Regardless of the occasional rogue arachnid, people generally like having a connection to nature, and some experts believe that experience should be brought into the office.

Get down with biophilia. If you’re not familiar, the term biophilia was coined in the 1960s and describes the desire to be close to nature, according to Merriam-Webster. Being surrounded by nature has a positive correlation with health, cognitive performance, and attention, according to a paper published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Greenery in the office can lower employees’ stress levels and improve their perception of their work environment. Even a window view of nature can positively impact employee well-being.

HR’s green thumb. Intuit’s new Mountain View, California offices, which opened in January, feature biophilic elements, Michael Merola, VP of places at Intuit, recently told HR Brew. He said that the company spent a lot of time developing the street-level landscaping and building terraces to create an inviting office.

Keep reading here.—KP

Even the most stable, steady-as-they-go orgs experience big changes. And it’s stressful! Balancing your workforce’s wants with business needs is the great balancing act. So what can employers do to find a happy medium?

Start with Dayforce’s 14th Annual Pulse of Talent report. It’s filled with insights from 8,700 workers around the world. For instance, today’s employers are making organizational changes that put employees under serious pressure—and even lead to burnout.

The changes go beyond the now-familiar remote vs. hybrid/in-office debate. In the last year, employees reported stress about:

• increased employee monitoring (25%)
• more aggressive performance targets (28%)
• reductions in force/layoffs (21%)

Here’s what employees want you to know.

Spring is a busy season for HR pros overseeing compensation and compliance, as both the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and a handful of states require employers to submit reports about their workforces around this time.

EEOC sets a deadline for EEO-1 reports. The EEOC recently said it will begin collecting data for Component 1 of EEO-1 reports on April 30. Employers will have until June 4 to submit demographic data on their employees for 2023.

Private employers with 100 or more workers, as well as federal contractors with 50 or more employees, are required to submit EEO-1 Component 1 reports on an annual basis. These confidential reports detail the number of workers businesses employ, broken down by job category, race, and ethnicity. The EEOC uses this data “to investigate charges of employment discrimination against employers in private industry and to publish periodic reports on workforce demographics.”

California updates pay reporting requirements. While the federal government doesn’t currently require employers to submit pay data, some states do. One such state is California, which since 2020 has required employers with 100 or more employees—those hired either directly or through labor contractors—to submit data detailing what their workers earn, along with demographic information including race, sex, and ethnicity. California employers will have until May 8 to submit information for the 2023 reporting year to the state’s Civil Rights Department (CRD), the agency announced on Feb. 1.

Keep reading here.—CV

We’ve launched a new series where we chat 1:1 with HR pros about their career journeys. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to share your story with us.

Ahead of Katie Strickland’s 15th birthday, her mom made her get a job. There weren’t many employment options in her small North Carolina town, so Strickland settled for a waitress gig at the local Sonic Drive-In, where she delivered food to customers in their cars on rollerskates.

Years later, and with two-decades of HR experience under her belt, Strickland founded her own consulting firm, StricklyHR, in Raleigh, North Carolina. She said the people lessons she learned in her first job—like how to develop and manage relationships—still stick with her today.

“I look back now, and I can see how much effort I put into making us a team, and not only worrying about my relationships with other people, but their relationships with each other,” Strickland told HR Brew. “I would say, I’ve always been in HR, because I’ve always been trying to facilitate and keep [teams] on the same page.”

Strickland spoke with HR Brew about how the experiences she had early in her career have informed her journey in HR.

Keep reading here.—MC

Time to bridge the perception gap. Discover where many companies are missing the mark and how employee listening can help create a more engaged and satisfied workforce. Explore five key findings from employee surveys around leadership and employee perception gaps—including trust, employee belongingness, sustainability practices, career development, and burnout. Download the e-book.