The widespread adoption of remote work seems to have drawn an audible gasp from experts who have suggested remote employees’ careers will languish beneath the “Zoom ceiling” while their in-person colleagues rack up promotions, raises, and corner-office real estate.

Their theories aren’t unfounded: A study published last year by University of Pittsburgh business professor David Lebel, who surveyed 1,729 of the school’s remote employees three times in 2020, found that while remote work increased employees’ work-life balance, it could be an obstacle to career advancement, writing: “Interpersonal connections between managers and employees have a positive effect on promotion and career advancement—research shows that people not connected to those at work don’t get promoted as often.”

Proximity bias—the notion that managers are more likely to promote and favor in-person employees over their remote colleagues—can materialize at any hybrid organization, Rod Lacey, chief people officer at SaaS provider SimPro, told HR Brew. If two employees, one remote and one in-person, are vying for the same promotion and have historically performed at the same level, Lacey said, the in-person candidate will likely have an edge. “A leader might lean towards the more familiar,” he said. “I think that would be natural.”

But employers can clamp down on the threat of proximity bias by equipping remote employees with the resources they need to advance, both Lacey and Kristin Langdon, SVP of people at enterprise-SEO platform Botify, explained. Both HR leaders oversee hybrid workforces and suggested striking a balance between the quantitative and the qualitative: By setting clear performance goals and appointing managers with a knack for cultivating relationships, the Zoom ceiling may crumble, giving way to idyllic skies with “Promotion coming soon” written in the clouds. Keep reading here.—SB

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Recruiters who’ve spent recent months scouring the red-hot job market for promising talent are finding the need for their services might now be in jeopardy amid a wave of layoffs. Various tech giants have been among those companies to have reduced headcount this year, citing a looming slowdown that maybe, one day, soonish, will wreak havoc on the economy.

And recruiters haven’t been spared from the onslaught. The latest monolith to place them on the chopping block is Apple, which last week laid off 100 contract recruiters, Bloomberg reported, as part of a broader hiring slowdown at the Cupertino “spaceship.” CEO Tim Cook elaborated on Apple’s revised hiring plan during the company’s Q2 earnings call: “We’ll continue to hire people and invest in areas, but we are being more deliberate in doing so in recognition of the realities of the environment.”

Recruiter layoffs may seem to signal a gloomy stretch ahead, but broader employment indicators suggest this trend might be confined to the technology industry.

The first shoe to drop. Recruiters recently laid off from Carvana, Klarna, and Peloton told Insider last month that those in their position are typically the first in line to walk the layoff plank. “Companies view talent acquisition as a non-moneymaker,” former Carvana recruiter Sandra Delgado told the publication. “We fill positions, so those positions make money in other departments.”

As a wave of hiring slowdowns washes over tech, it makes sense that technical recruiters—who, in Silicon Valley, earn an average annual salary of $102,817—would be among the first to be hit.

Slowdown? Not everywhere. For tech companies at different stages of growth, the economic climate couldn’t be more different, Daniel Altman, chief economist at Instawork, told HR Brew via email. Keep reading here.—SB

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Give employees quicker access to their money, and they’re more likely to “stick around”—at least, that’s what Christine Wasdin, payroll director at Burger King’s parent company GPS Hospitality, told Retail Brew. Wasdin extolled the benefits of earned-wage access (EWA), often called “on-demand pay,” which lets employees withdraw funds as they accrue hours.

She said the perk, which Retail Brew reported is also provided by Walmart, Target, and McDonald’s, has become something of a table-stakes offering in retail.

“You cannot drive around a big city and see fast-food restaurants that don’t offer that right on their billboard…It really just is what the expectation in the market is now,” Wasdin said.

The details. Though biweekly pay is the most common compensation model in the US, EWA is typically popular when offered. At software retailer Compoto, chief talent officer Abby Ludens said about 40% of eligible hourly workers enrolled in EWA. Part of the reason for its popularity, Ludens said, is that it gives employees fast access to cash for fundamentals like “food, bills, and for transportation.”

Prior to EWA, some workers resorted to taking out payday loans—accepting credit before their checks came through, typically at high interest rates. 95% of DailyPay’s EWA users who had previously taken out payday loans said they stopped or reduced their reliance on them after enrolling in EWA, a 2021 Aite Novarica survey found.

Zoom out. Financial stress often weighs heavily on workers’ mental health and productivity. As a recession looms and hourly workers struggle to pay bills amidst record inflation, more employees are living paycheck to paycheck.

Companies that can ease financial stress with perks like EWA may have a leg up on recruitment and retention: The average tenure of retail workers increased 24% when using EWA, according to a study by Mercator Advisory Group and DailyPay. Keep reading here.—SV

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Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: 78% of US business owners say they’re more likely to engage freelancers to fill hiring gaps during times of economic certainty, according to a new survey by gig-work platform, Fiverr. (Fiverr)

Quote: “Pay matters, but you want meaning and a sense of belonging…Even if you’re paid well, if you have enough days in a row where you’re disrespected and set up to fail, you’re going to leave your job.”—Katie Bach, chief business officer at &pizza, on why higher wages aren’t enough to retain restaurant workers (Nation’s Restaurant News)

Read: Some remote employees are afraid they’ll be penalized for continuing to work from home while their colleagues return to the office. (NPR)

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