Offices are undergoing a (let’s be honest) long overdue transformation. As office design decisions have become more closely linked to talent strategy, HR leaders have had to figure out how to reconfigure workspaces in a way that will bring employees back in the door.

“A lot of our clients are actually looking at using this as a time of experimentation and piloting and learning,” Janet Pogue McLaurin, global director of workplace research and a principal at workplace design firm Gensler, told HR Brew.

HR leaders looking to make improvements to their cubicle-farm layouts can start with adding spaces for creative group work and individual quiet work, according to recent Gensler research on the office amenities that are most attractive to employees and drive productivity.

What they want. Tech-free zones and innovation hubs were the amenities most closely  correlated with workplace experience and effectiveness, according to Gensler’s 2022 Workplace Performance Index, which surveyed over 2,000 US workers who have returned to the office at least part-time.

Survey respondents also outlined the different vibes they want from their workplaces. The ideal mix, they said, includes different spaces for the different types of work they do, from collaborative to individual.

“People are more willing to return for their ideal mix of experiences,” Pogue McLaurin said. “In fact, 42% said they would come back one more day a week and 24% said they would come back full-time if they had [their perfect] mix.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, some preferences varied by generation, with Baby Boomers ranking the “corporate,” “residential,” “library,” and “conference center” environments higher than Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z workers. But all kinds of spaces are under consideration for some businesses. Keep reading here.—AK

Demetris Cheatham’s path to HR was anything but typical—she worked in politics, finance, and at the National Bar Association along the way. Now senior director of diversity, inclusion, and belonging strategy at open-source programming platform GitHub, she spoke to HR Brew about how she came to HR and the ways in which the field needs to change.

How long have you been in HR and why did you choose this career path?

I [previously] ran the National Bar Association. While I wasn’t in HR, I had to manage the HR function. The chief human resources officer reported to me—same thing when I served as a chief of staff to a DC government official. But it was when I joined Red Hat…that I actually sat as part of the HR function…That’s when I got to learn more about how diversity and inclusion impacts the entire talent lifecycle from employee branding and recruitment, all the way through to succession planning and even exit interviews.

What are some of your biggest challenges as an HR professional? Which are the most rewarding?

The most challenging and rewarding [issue] is this whole concept around scale versus impact. We started a pilot [of an online program for underrepresented students in tech] with 30 students. I knew the students and their résumés by heart…We were able to get all of those students internship opportunities, and many of them got full-time offers. But we had to scale the program. This year, we are at over 300 students in the program. Next year, we’re going to 1,500 students, with a goal of reaching 5,000 students within a span of three years…but is [scaling] at the expense of making a meaningful difference in their lives and really making sure that we’re able to measure the impact that we’re having? Keep reading here.—SB

Employee engagement problems? You’ve come to the right place. As Meisha-ann Martin, Workhuman’s senior director of people analytics, told HR Brew last month, low engagement is not irreparable. For email authentication company Valimail, a unique collaboration between HR and finance did just the trick, CFO Brew’s Drew Adamek reports.

There’s no question that engaging with and retaining talent is a top priority for finance professionals. In survey after survey, CFOs cite talent retention as one of their top concerns. Addressing those issues can’t be done by finance or HR alone, according to Amy Spurling, a former CFO and founder and CEO of Compt, an HR benefits platform.

“It has to be collaborative; it can’t just be finance deciding the number and then HR has to figure out how to split it up because you’re going to have retention issues,” she said. “That’s going to be far more costly.”

[Valimail CFO Ryan] McQueeney had worked collaboratively before with HR at another company and understood the value of aligning finance and HR. To launch their collaboration, before creating budgets and weighing head count, [Valimail CPO Elaine] Mak and McQueeney wanted to understand the most effective way to work together. So, they drew up a partnership agreement.

Keep reading on CFO Brew.—DA

Recruiting talented employees can feel like a relentless game of keeping up, staying savvy, and constantly adapting. Duolingo talent expert Jocelyn Lai is here to show us how to remain agile in this dizzying landscape. Join HR Brew next week for this free virtual event sponsored by Fountain, on March 2 at 12pm EST. Sign up here.

*This editorial content is supported by Fountain.

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Over 61% of California tech companies are in compliance with the state’s pay transparency legislation that went into effect on January 1. (Comprehensive.io)

Quote: “The adults—who had recruited, hired, and supervised these children—tried to derail our efforts to investigate their employment practices.”—Michael Lazzeri, DOL Wage and Hour regional administrator, on employers allegedly attempting to cover up unlawful child labor practices that spanned eight states and 13 meat-processing factories (Food and Safety News)

Read: Jordan Barab, former deputy assistant secretary at OSHA, breaks down recent child labor law violations in the US, as well as legislation some states are considering that would make it easier to employ children in dangerous industries. (Confined Space)