Unlike Joan Jett, employers should give a damn ‘bout their reputation.

Corporate reputation was long dismissed as a soft metric, only to be considered in crises. But that perception is changing. Recent research finds that company reputation, including workplace reputation, can boost financial performance.

A recent analysis by PR and communications firm Burson of more than 60 publicly traded companies between October 2024 and October 2025 found that an organization’s reputation created, on average, an extra 4.78% in annual shareholder return value. The firm estimated that reputation drives an extra $7 trillion in value for publicly traded companies globally.

According to Corey duBrowa, Burson’s global CEO and a former communications executive at companies including Google, Salesforce, and Starbucks, the research proves reputation isn’t something companies can afford to just focus on when in trouble.

For more on the importance of workplace reputation, and the role HR stands to play in it, keep reading here.—PM

Everyone goes through hard times.

And people pros aren’t an exception. In some cases, they’re more likely to burn out: 54% of HR pros report “moderate or severe” burnout, compared to 48% of non-HR workers, according to research from nonprofit Mind Share Partners.

HR pros can become overwhelmed juggling their struggles with those of employees, according to Jessica Winder, chief people officer at Winder Law Firm. Winder shared how she’s led the people function while going through rough patches in her own life during a virtual event hosted by bereavement support platform Bereave on March 18.

“A quote that I love that says: ‘Just because I can carry it doesn’t mean it’s easy.’ So, just because I can carry this weight as HR, I can talk to you through what you’re going on in your life, doesn’t mean it’s not hard for me too,” Winder told Bereave’s CEO, Justin Clifford.

For more on Winder’s experience, and her advice for people pros navigating trying times, keep reading here.—MC

It’s a tale as old as time: A superstar IT pro has been running an entire company’s digital systems for years. She built the asset management, remote monitoring, and ticketing systems herself, and whenever anyone has a question, she’s the one to ask.

But what happens when she puts in her two weeks’ notice or announces her retirement? What if leadership requires that IT offload some of its day-to-day work to AI? How can all the human expertise be passed on to others, or partially automated?

As boomers retire en masse over the next few years and AI continues to integrate into IT workflows, situations like these will become a reality for many IT pros—for some, they already are. The solution is consistent documentation and, importantly, documenting workflows as a continuous, accessible, and centralized process.

For more on how to reduce the risk of organizational knowledge loss amid turnover, keep reading on IT Brew.—TC

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