Pride is about much more than a month. It’s a celebration of liberation, embracing who you are, and increasing LGBTQ+ visibility.

Pride may be more important than ever this year, according to some advocates. Hundreds of bills across the country have restricted the rights of LGBTQ+ communities in various ways, including banning gender-affirming care for trans youth, prohibiting instruction on DE&I, and censoring school curricula.

Rainbow double down. Some companies have come under attack for publicly supporting Pride month, and 55% of LGBTQ+ employees say they have witnessed or been the target of antigay or anti-trans comments at work, according to a Glassdoor survey. Still, many workplaces are strengthening their efforts to support employees, and 57% of workers say their company recognizes Pride month, the Harris Poll recently reported.

The Harris Poll report also found that 81% of respondents feel their organization is “moving in the right direction” with LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts. German car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz recently touted its diversity training and year-round Pride events, and Comcast hosted its first Pride Summit this month for LGBTQ+ employees and allies.

Department-store chain Nordstrom partners with Pride festivals as part of its overall LGBTQ+ employee support efforts. The company rolled out a new toolkit to help managers support transgender and gender nonconforming employees, according to the company’s website. And this year, Burns & McDonnell, a Kansas-based engineering consulting firm, hosted an internal Pride celebration with a “loud and proud” theme, Inc reported.

Yearlong effort. Some companies have been accused of “rainbow-washing” during Pride, advertising celebrations that are more performative than inclusive and educational. Donnebra McClendon, global head of DE&I at Ceridian, an HR software company, told HR Brew that employers need to focus on year-round efforts.

Keep reading.—KP

To support your people through life’s pivotal moments—from having a baby to caring for a loved one to focusing on personal health—having the right leave management software is also pretty pivotal.

That’s why Cocoon’s leave management software uses first-of-its-kind tech to take the work out of employee leave. By automating the twists and turns of compliance, claims, and payroll, HR teams can shift their focus to caring for their peeps rather than wrangling logistics.

Eliminate hours of work, reduce legal risks—even as your team becomes more distributed across the US—and save an average of $10k per leave (!!!) with Cocoon.

Employees can privately plan their leave in minutes, easily file claims, and track their pay without hassle.

Request a demo before July 31 to get 50% off your implementation fee.

When James Cameron developed the idea for The Terminator, he probably wasn’t thinking about using sophisticated AI to scan résumés and fire people, but IRL, AI is less bloodlust-y and more administrative.

As conversations about generative AI and its eventual impact continue, a June ResumeBuilder survey probed how the technology will change the hiring process. While the results may seem alarming, one expert said the future is more about learning how to work with AI, instead of it replacing HR pros.

The data. ResumeBuilder surveyed 1,000 people involved in the hiring process, and found that AI is expected to have a larger role in hiring, with 43% of companies saying they’re already using AI to conduct interviews or plan to start by 2024.

Beyond the interview process, 15% of respondents said they’ll allow AI to make job candidate decisions without human input.

Risky proposition. While more than one-half of respondents feel that AI will eventually take over as hiring managers, Gerald Kane, professor of management information systems at the University of Georgia, told HR Brew, “for average hiring processes, I think it’s an extraordinarily bad idea.”

Keep reading.—KP

Here’s this week’s edition of our Coworking series in which we chat 1:1 with an HR Brew reader. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Charlie Kautz moved to HR after experiencing an aha moment while working in marketing. He wanted to apply the time and energy he spent making customers happy toward improving the working experience of his colleagues, so the marketing pro became an HR pro. Kautz believes companies need more people who care about making work meaningful and fulfilling for employees, who will then be ready and willing to take care of the customers.

At Live Oak Bank, Kautz has been leading the team of learning and organizational development since December 2021. Kautz said he worries the shift to digital development tools omits a valuable interpersonal component of learning that comes from the shared experience in a classroom setting. In-person trainings are “still really worthy of your time, energy, space to get together as a group to commit to learning and have a shared experience,” he told HR Brew.

What’s the best change you’ve made at a place you’ve worked?

Live Oak has been on a radical growth trajectory…Because of this, we were finding (and hearing) that it was getting harder to stay connected with colleagues at the bank, let alone know what our newer folks were doing, who they are, and what brought them here.

Last year, two months after I started, we introduced a peer networking program called “Branching Out.” Every two weeks, people who’ve opted into the program are randomly paired with another colleague for a get-to-know-you, informal 30-minute networking meeting. In less than a year, we’ve had almost 400 people sign up and participate in the program.

Keep reading.—AD

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: One-third of healthcare workers report struggling to cope with the stressors of their job over the last six months, while 42% report feeling “defeated.” (Morning Consult)

Quote: “In five years, we do expect eventually all Sweetgreen stores to be automated.”—Jonathan Neman, CEO of Sweetgreen, who is opening the first fully automated store at the salad chain (CNBC)

Read: Starbucks were forced to close 21 stores early on Friday and limit service at others due to staffing shortages caused by a worker strike protesting restrictions on Pride decor and pushing for a union contract. (the Wall Street Journal)

Employee leave, modernized: Automate compliance, claims, and payroll—and save an average of $10k per leave—with Cocoon’s seamless employee leave management software. Get a demo before July 31 for 50% off your implementation fee.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}