HR STRATEGY

Morning Brew

Prediction markets have taken center stage in recent years, with tens of billions of dollars in trading volumes taking place each month on Kalshi and Polymarket. Most popular with young men, they can be used to bet on everything, from what color Olivia Rodrigo will dye her hair, to when Mitch McConnell will resurface next. Unlike traditional gambling, prediction markets betting works more like a share system, where users bet “yes” or “no” on the likelihood of an outcome, and are paid for successful wagers.

As these platforms have gained popularity (Timothee Chalamet stars in a Kalshi TV ad), some employers have grown concerned that their employees’ use may put their business at risk. Employees at KPMG and Google, for example, allegedly used insider information to profit on these sites, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“I think prediction markets specifically pose really interesting and new risks for employers, and I think that’s really a very recent development that companies are only really coming to terms with in the last six months,” Noah Solowiejczyk, a partner at Fenwick and West and former federal prosecutor, told HR Brew. “This is a whole new type of insider trading risk.”

But people professionals can create prediction markets policies to safeguard their organizations, experts told HR Brew.

For more on how HR can help dodge risky bets as prediction markets gain popularity, keep reading here.—KP

      

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Someone on your team is about to transition out. Maybe it’s restructuring or automation. Or maybe it’s just time. Regardless of the reason, you don’t have an HR business partner on standby, and everyone’s watching how you handle it.

The “survivor effect” is real: Colleagues who stay often carry anxiety, guilt, and shaky trust in leadership after the goodbye emails. The managers delivering the hard news are usually winging it without much training or backup.

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TOTAL REWARDS

Brittany Holloway-Brown, Photos: Adobe Stock

Haven, a company that runs centers incorporating childcare, workspaces, and fitness, shuts down operations for one week twice a year. These bi-annual resets, which take place in July and December, have been in place since the company was founded in 2019.

Britt Riley, Haven’s CEO and founder, said she took a page from Patagonia when considering these benefits for her staff. When she was a marketing intern with the outdoor gear company, she was struck by the positive relationship corporate leadership appeared to have with its employees.

Riley told HR Brew about how this benefit came to be, and why she believes it’s vital to Haven’s business model.

For more on why Haven shuts down twice a year, keep reading here.—CV

      

HR STRATEGY

Illustration: Anna Kim, Photo: Getty Images

A reduction in force (RIF) is when a company terminates an employee or multiple employees as part of downsizing; also known as a layoff.

Why do employers conduct RIFs? RIFs are often seen as a last-resort option, stemming not from performance-based issues, but those related to an economic downturn, merger and acquisition (M&A), or reorganization.

How have RIFs evolved? In the first half of the 20th century, layoffs were seen as “a sign of corporate failure and a violation of acceptable business behavior,” wrote Louis Uchitelle in his 2006 book The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences. In the 1960s and 1970s, an increase in unionization and tighter regulations in industries like finance, transportation, and utilities also led to the creation of worker protections that made mass layoffs uncommon. This, however, would soon change.

For more on RIFs, how they’ve evolved and what they look like today, keep reading here.—MC

Sponsored By LHH

Think beyond the paycheck. It’s time to rethink your entire compensation strategy. Not sure where to start? You’re in luck: We teamed up with LHH to take a look at why total rewards pack such a big punch (aka why it’s so important to treat the full compensation package as one integrated system). Read more.

work perks

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Employers in Massachusetts were fined over $12 million in the past year for withholding wages and workplace violations. (WBUR)

Quote: “[It’s about] recognition, reward and respect—focusing on how we respect and treat our people, and making sure that we reward them and recognize them for doing hard work,”—JD Cummings, SVP of recruiting at Raising Cane’s, on how the fast food chain’s company culture helps it recruit employees (USA Today)

Read: Workplace discrimination has gotten harder to identify under the Trump administration. (the 19th)

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