DEI

Anna Kim

The “go woke, go broke” mantra adopted by the anti-DEI movement seems to have fallen flat, as companies that have maintained their DEI programs and language have not seen their financial performance negatively affected, according to new research from the University of California Berkeley.

Catch up. As DEI efforts surged after the 2020 murder of George Floyd, an anti-DEI coalition formed. After President Trump took office in January 2025 and signed Executive Order 14173, dozens of companies, from Amazon to Walmart changed their DEI language and publicly distanced themselves from commitments. Still, DEI has persisted.

The findings. UC Berkeley analyzed the financial performance of S&P 500 companies before and after President Trump signed Executive Order 14173: Employers like Apple, Costco, and Delta Airlines, which kept their DEI programs, didn’t fare any worse than companies like Target, Walmart, and IBM, which backed away.

What’s HR to do? Experts have advised employers to take a wait-and-see approach to changing DEI efforts, in part due to other reports indicating that consumers and companies still support DEI, even if the language they use to describe them has shifted.

For more on the findings, and how HR should move forward, keep reading here.—KP

      

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BeOne Medicines, a global oncology leader, received 95,000 applications in the past year alone. Rather than hiding from their large applicant pool, they had as many as 100 new hires join in a single week.

That sounds like nothing short of a miracle, but really it’s just thanks to deploying smart technology. HiredScore’s AI-powered screening helped the team save 10.4 days (a 46% reduction) in candidate screening time.

HiredScore reduced manual recruiter reviews by nearly 70%, giving BeOne’s HR team time back for higher-value work. It can surface and prioritize candidates while hiring managers and recruiters still make the final call.

All this resulted in less work for recruiters, faster hiring processes for applicants, and more jobs filled. For more on how they achieved such a feat, read the full case study.

COMPLIANCE

Morning Brew

Japan, a country known for its culture of overwork and a dwindling labor pool , recently changed its enforcement of overtime regulations, the AFP reported.

The Labor Standards Inspection Office will no longer ask employers to limit overtime to 45 hours per month, news outlet the Asahi Shimbun reported. About 40% of employers in Japan were encouraged to limit overtime to this degree, although they were legally allowed up to 100 hours.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made the policy change after hearing from business groups that the government was limiting corporate activity. One in five small and mid-size employers said the limit was “restricting,” according to a survey from the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Channel News Asia reported.

However, worker advocates are concerned about the adverse impacts of the change.

For more on the regulation, and the labor shortage it’s meant to address, keep reading here.—KP

      

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RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Unsplash, Adobe Stock

It was Thanksgiving week in 2022—a time when most employees are hard to find, let alone critical pieces of data center power infrastructure. And Kurt Bogle needed a transformer.

Bogle, then a senior regional director of critical facilities operations at NTT Global Data Centers, oversaw seven operational buildings around Chicago and Virginia and a staff of about 150 people. After a transformer failed a test, Bogle had to find a replacement and coordinate a swap with the onsite managers—all without disrupting service.

Thankfully, Bogle found a spare, but his experience illustrates the importance of systems thinkers at data centers who know how to acquire the resources necessary to maintain data centers’ high uptime expectations. Given supply-chain limitations and a steady buildout of data centers, such expertise is more crucial than ever—and there are signs a labor shortage is underway, threatening Big Tech’s AI ambitions and the reliable operation of mission-critical facilities.

“It’s going to get stretched,” Bogle said. “There is a need to continue to develop, build, mentor these leaders so that they can take on the roles of today and tomorrow.”

For more on the labor shortage facing data centers, and how they’re looking to fill the gaps, keep reading on IT Brew.—BH, DR

      

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work perks

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: More than half (52%) of workers report that AI tools have increased the number of tasks expected in their roles, not reduced them for “higher level productivity.” (the Wall Street Journal)

Quote: “I cried with so many other employees…I fielded so many messages of absolute terror from other employees that I’ve never met.”—Jama McCloud, a registered nurse and Cigna Group employee, who was one of many US employees stunned by their employer’s decision to drop coverage of popular GLP-1 medicines (Bloomberg)

Read: The NLRB eliminated a Biden-era test that made it more difficult for employers to discipline employees over profane job-related speech amid a workplace dispute. (Reuters)

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