Companies are at a pivotal moment with how they attract and retain talent.

Talent shortages have and will continue to make it difficult to hire, particularly for hard-to-fill roles, meaning organizations must also think about how existing talent can be trained or developed to meet these needs. To address these challenges, some companies have commissioned chief talent officer roles to oversee recruitment and talent acquisition, performance management, learning and development, and workforce and succession planning.

In April 2024, Walmart created its own chief talent officer position. The retail giant appointed Lorraine “Lo” Stomski, the executive then in charge of its learning and leadership initiatives to the new role.

“You start to see this in the industry, the emergence of chief talent officers really taking care of the end-to-end talent ecosystem. It became really clear for us, to become a talent academy, you really needed to have that,” Stomski told HR Brew.

For more on how Stomski is reshaping the world’s largest retailer’s approach to talent, keep reading here.—PM

Earned wage access (EWA) or on-demand pay programs have been framed as a “win-win” for employees and employers.

Allowing workers to access wages ahead of a scheduled payday holds the promise of helping them alleviate financial stress. At the same time, such a benefit may fuel positive outcomes for HR departments, such as improved retention rates, surveys have suggested.

But consumer advocates warn that EWA programs can be harmful if they carry hidden fees that lead employees to take on debt. Now, more states are moving to regulate the EWA industry, with Arkansas, California, and Utah recently enacting laws intended to protect workers who use these services. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun signed an EWA bill into law on May 6.

For more on the growing state regulation of earned wage access programs, keep reading here.—CV

More than 50 companies have altered or scrubbed their DEI programming since last summer, but most major beauty brands have stayed the course. At e.l.f. Beauty, DEI is core to its mission and helps recruit the best talent, the company’s chief people officer recently told HR Brew.

Supporting everyone. Established in 2004, e.l.f. Beauty proclaims that it stands with “every eye, lip, face, and fin.” While the company of roughly 650 doesn’t have a dedicated DEI team, CPO Scott Milsten said that it’s core to e.l.f. Beauty’s mission.

“Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is infinite,” e.l.f. Beauty’s public DEI policy reads. “We are committed to ensuring that diversity is represented across our entire team…We promote DEI at all levels of our workforce, and our senior leadership team takes full ownership of our DEI initiatives and programs.”

For more on why e.l.f. Beauty won’t change its approach amid the anti-DEI pushback, keep reading here.—KP