Training and readiness programs aren’t exactly meeting the learning and development needs of employees or the business when it comes to AI. That’s the thesis, at least, for Howard Pyle, founder of XF, a think tank and tech developer focused on “responsible AI, both at the software layer and at the people layer.”

To help HR teams begin addressing this, Pyle’s XF released a new tool this week at HR Brew’s Talent 2030 event in New York City.

The new resource aims to help people take the reins of their AI use. It prompts users to explain their values and current AI-use using natural, non-technical language, translates those bespoke experiences into larger AI concepts to educate them on core AI abilities, and provides a “mini manifesto” they can equip their LLM with to help “learn us.”

“Most organizations are actually asking the wrong questions. I don’t think the question is: Have we deployed the right technology? Have we deployed the right technology training? And yes, you need both of those things. But what we really need to talk about is: How do we get our people to know themselves well enough to be able to use AI and to tell it exactly what they want it to do?” Pyle told more than 200 HR pros during the event. “We have a technology that’s supposed to learn us. We have to be able to tell it what we want it to do.”

Keep reading.—AD

One country has slowly been moving toward a four-day workweek, and according to reports, it’s thanks to women.

Where in the world? Workers in the Netherlands averaged 32 hours of work per week in 2024, Fortune reported. And while the country doesn’t officially have a four-day workweek, it’s largely the norm for working mothers, who are reportedly the main drivers of the shift, according to Four Day Week. As more women began entering the workforce in the 1980s, the Netherlands switched to a work model that allowed one parent to work full-time while the other worked part-time, aided by tax breaks. The model allowed all workers in the country more flexibility, and helped more women, who had traditionally been at home, enter the workplace for the first time.

Since then, unemployment shrank from 7.3% in 1991 to 3.7% in 2026. The country’s largest labor union, FNV, is also lobbying the Dutch government to officially switch to a 32-hour workweek.

Residents of the Netherlands work fewer hours than those in its closest neighbors, Austria, Germany, and Denmark, in part because employers cannot schedule workers for more than 60 hours a week, nor can they require work on Sundays, by law.

Positivity Branding, a Dutch marketing business co-founded by Gavin Arm and Bert de Wit, switched to a four-day workweek seven years ago, the BBC reported.

Keep reading.—KP

CFOs’ plans for hiring across their organizations get a lot of attention, but the difficulties finance chiefs encounter while hiring for their own department? Not so much.

To dig into the matter, Morning Brew, Inc. surveyed 352 finance and accounting executives about their hiring and staffing challenges, the quality of the finance talent in the market, and the impact of AI.

Six in 10 finance professionals Morning Brew surveyed (60%) said that hiring finance and accounting personnel was somewhat or much harder now than in previous years, while 24% indicated it was about the same.

Hiring can also take a long time. More than four in 10 respondents (41%) said it takes three to six months to fill a role on their teams, while 10% said it takes seven to 12 months.

And when Morning Brew asked about the ease of finding qualified candidates, 54% indicated it was harder compared with previous years (39% said it was about the same).

Read more of the insights from CFO Brew’s hiring and careers survey report.—CV, AZ

Ashley Bendell, founder of Funny People, and his cofounder, Peter Phelan, sat down with Kate Noel, SVP and head of people operations at Morning Brew. Here’s what you need to know about the role of humor in the world of HR.