Do you remember what it felt like to sit alone at lunch in school? (No? Just introverted me?) Well, the adult equivalent may be feeling a lack of belonging in the workplace.

Some 41% of workers believe their workplace is where they feel the greatest sense of belonging (outside of their home), but 56% feel uncomfortable bringing their full selves to work, and 75% have felt excluded, according to an EY survey of more than 5,000 employed adults in the US, UK, Germany, Singapore, and India.

HR teams can help workers feel like they belong, said Karyn Twaronite, global vice chair of diversity and inclusiveness at EY. And it’s a smart business move.

“[Belonging] sounds like a squishy word, but it’s actually been a tremendous business lever for us,” Twaronite told HR Brew. “It proves valuable for many business reasons, like innovation, employee engagement, productivity, and it improves physical and mental health and well-being, so that’s a real win-win for companies and employees.”

Keep reading here.—MC

Here’s a revolutionary idea: Pay for what you get. With CareerBuilder, you pay only when their recruiting solutions succeed. So you can find the candidates you’re looking for without breaking the bank.

CareerBuilder’s new plans are built with your budget in mind. No more paying for useless clicks—pay only when real, interested candidates take action in an application, or pay per resume and access more than 41m candidates in CareerBuilder’s database.

The best part? Their plans are flexible and risk free. Increase or decrease your budget at any time with no worries and no long-term commitment.

And now through Dec. 8, get a $50 gift card for booking and attending a meeting with one of CareerBuilder’s pros. Win-win.

Chat with the experts.

Employers are using every carrot and stick they can find to bring employees back to the office these days.

Amazon’s latest tactic is denying promotions to employees who don’t comply with its in-office attendance policy. HR leaders at companies inspired to take this approach may want to conduct a risk assessment and develop a good communications strategy, one expert cautioned.

Zoom in. Amazon employees who don’t work in-person at least three days a week may not be considered for promotions, Business Insider reported.

While in-office attendance might not be the only factor HR takes into account, employees need their manager to recommend them for promotion, and a VP to ultimately approve it.

Keep reading here.—KP

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

Ali Meersman got her first glimpse of a future in TA when interviewing for an internship at one of the Big Four accounting firms. Not only did she like the recruiter she was engaging with, but the work of recruiting itself piqued her interest. Meersman landed work in accounting, and it wasn’t until she moved from the auditing department to recruitment that she fully realized her passion.

“I do really love being a part of the journey from college to your first ‘real job’ or internship. There’s just so much energy and excitement with candidates at that level, and I think it can be a really strategic advantage for the business as well,” she said.

Meersman now works for Viasat, a satellite communications company in Southern California, and is taking its decentralized approach to early-career recruitment and turning it into one strategic program. Meersman pointed to differences specific to early-career recruiting, such as offering education and networking components or explaining to students how to apply their degree to the work. “Just because you choose a major in college, doesn’t mean you actually know how that translates to the real world,” she said.

“I always joke: Will I eventually age out of an early-career recruiting [when] the students won’t think I’m relevant anymore?” Meersman said. For now, she’s growing the company’s 400 annual intern and early-career recruits all across the globe.

Keep reading here.—AD

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: 28% of global workers are using generative AI at work, and 55% of those workers are doing so without getting their employer’s approval. (Salesforce)

Quote: “They might imagine that once they get the higher salary, then that’ll be enough…In reality, once they get there, they’ll probably want a little bit more.”—Matt Killingsworth, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, on people’s expectations around money and happiness (the Wall Street Journal)

Read: Company “stay or pay” policies have morphed from a tool to help recover the lost costs of hiring and training into mechanisms that pressure employees against quitting. (the New York Times)

Get real results: Build your dream team (+ stay on budget) with CareerBuilder. Browse risk-free, flexible plans where you pay only for results. Chat with a pro before Dec. 8 to get a $50 gift card.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}