Priya Rathod was drawn to work at Indeed in 2016 because of the benefits and flexibility the company was offering. But after working there for a few years, the mom of two young kids, at the time, felt something was missing.

In 2020, while commiserating with a colleague about the trials of being a working parent, she wondered why Indeed’s nine inclusion business resource groups (IBRGs), which included those for members of the LGBTQ community and Black and Asian employees, didn’t include one for parents or caregivers.

Once Indeed created the new parent and caregiver IBRG in late 2020, Rathod said she joined as a member, later taking the helm as co-lead in 2022, a position she’s held since.

“Our job at the parents and caregivers IBRG is not only to normalize being a parent and create safe spaces where people can talk about what it’s like to be a parent, but also to create opportunities and advocate for policy at the company,” she told HR Brew.

For more on Indeed’s parents and caregivers IBRG, and the role it plays in recruitment and retention, keep reading here.—MC

Several federal agencies recently proposed a rule to create a new category of benefits for certain types of fertility treatments. The proposal, part of the Trump administration’s push to boost in-vitro fertilization (IVF) access, is intended to encourage more employers to add such treatments to their benefits offerings.

“President Trump is committed to expanding access to fertility benefits so that more American families can have children, building on his longstanding efforts to support family formation and stability,” Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said in a May 10 statement.

The proposed rule, which was issued by the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury, would support a pathway for employers to cover fertility as a “limited excepted benefit.” Such benefits are exempted from requirements under laws like the Affordable Care Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and thus considered less onerous from a compliance standpoint.

For more on how fertility benefits could be offered under this rule, keep reading here.—CV

At Abby Kelley Foster Charter School in Worcester, Massachusetts, even the candidates for IT jobs have to take a test.

Gabriel Beltran, the school’s IT director, was looking for a data manager. Following interview calls, he gave candidates two files: one with names and email addresses, another with grades and homeroom assignments. Then he presented them with a merged report that he wanted them to recreate. Beltran looked on as they went to work.

“I decided to include the test, because I don’t want to hire somebody and then find out a month or two months later that they didn’t really have the skill,” Beltran told IT Brew, adding that he let interviewees use whatever tools they prefer to create that merged document.

That kind of in-person assessment is especially important as AI offers ways for candidates to polish a résumé, ace a take-home test, or quickly gain answers via chatbot.

For more on talent assessments for IT pros, keep reading on IT Brew.—BH

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