There’s a changing of the guard in HR at one of the country’s biggest professional-services firms.

PwC has just announced the appointment of Yolanda Seals-Coffield as its new chief people officer overseeing the US and Mexico. Seals-Coffield will succeed Mike Fenlon, who has served as CPO since 2016. She has been with the professional-services firm for almost 12 years, having served as the firm’s chief employment counsel, president of the charitable foundation, and, for the past year, deputy people leader.

Fenlon, who will transition to chief future of work officer, told HR Brew by email that he couldn’t think of anyone “more capable, deserving, and inspiring” to serve as the next CPO.

“She’s a fearless leader, who brings empathy, curiosity, and innovation to everything she does,” Fenlon said. “I can’t wait to watch Yolanda continue to build on our culture of care and belonging, propelling choice and personalization to the center of our people’s experience here at PwC.”

When Seals-Coffield was second-in-command, PwC became one of the biggest professional-services firms to allow indefinite full-time remote work from anywhere. And this spring, she helped unveil the firm’s $2.4 billion investment in My+: an expanded suite of employee benefits, including 12 weeks of parental leave and two weeks of company-wide closures for employees to recharge.

Ahead of her first day steering the ship, she told HR Brew about flexible work at PwC and why she thinks it’s here to stay. Keep reading here.—SV

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @SusannaVogel1 on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Susanna for her number on Signal.

Student-loan borrowers were saved by the proverbial bell last month when President Biden channeled his inner A.C. Slater and announced some relief for those with student-loan debt.

Borrowers earning less than $125,000 a year or $250,000 per household will be eligible to receive $10,000 in student-loan forgiveness, while Pell Grant recipients who meet the same income requirements will receive $20,000. The administration also extended the pandemic-era student-loan repayment pause until December 31, 2022.

While, according to the White House, the program is expected to wipe out debt for 20 million Americans, it likely won’t negate the need for student-loan assistance benefits like those offered by employers including Google, the Estée Lauder Companies, and PwC. Experts told HR Brew that such benefits will continue to be in high demand for the estimated 27 million former students who will still carry some or all of their debt and for the next generation of borrowers—and offering them could give companies a competitive edge.

Report card. When average student-loan debt hovers around $29,000 (and over $44,000 for those over 45) according to Credit Karma, HR shouldn’t underestimate the draw of financial-wellness benefits. College debt is one of the biggest barriers to financial wellness and ability to save for retirement, according to a 2021 Betterment survey of US workers. What's more, 24% of respondents said student-loan assistance would “entice” them to leave their current job. Keep reading here.—KP

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.

A mark or yen or dollar for every bead of sweat—you don’t need Liza Minelli to tell you that money makes the world go ’round. Job seekers want to see compensation in job postings right alongside responsibilities and qualifications. Yet many employers still withhold this information.

And it’s not just job seekers who are insisting on visibility: As many as 14 states and New York City have passed legislation that prohibit employers asking about past salary or that requires some level of salary transparency, while employers such as Microsoft have begun sharing pay bands internally and externally. Pay-equity advocates say these steps can be vital to reducing pay gaps in the workplace and leveling the playing field.

HR Brew recently asked readers if their companies advertise salary ranges for open positions. The majority (64%) of respondents said they do not. But as Zoe Cullen, assistant professor of economics at Harvard University, told CNN in February, transparency can benefit employers, too. “Firms that firmly set a price for a particular job have a high degree of bargaining power in the sense that they are announcing to potential job candidates that, ‘If you try to negotiate anything higher than this price, it is going to effect everybody else because I will have to publicly adjust the going rate for this job.’”

Keeping salary bands a mystery could also hurt recruitment efforts: 11% of surveyed job seekers wouldn’t apply for a position without knowing the salary, according to people analytics company Visier’s 2022 pay-transparency report.

“That clicking, clanking sound” may help recruitment rebound.—KP

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: 71% of global employers have no plans to offer on-demand pay, despite its popularity among workers. (Ceridian)

Quote: “Many recruiters are desperate now.”—Matt Turnbull, co-founder of headhunting firm Turnbull Agency, on how recruiters have been affected by the hiring slowdown in tech (the New York Times)

Read: The latest and greatest in employee benefits? Divorce support. (WorkLife)

Learn: Accelerate your talent strategy by understanding the roles everyone in your business plays. The Brew’s Business Essentials Accelerator helps you see the bigger picture in just 8 weeks. Apply to our September cohort today and save $150 with code BTS150.

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