HR STRATEGY

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photo: Jennie Rogerson

When Canva’s CEO and COO approached Jennie Rogerson to ask if she wanted to move into the chief people officer role after serving as leadership operations lead, she hesitated.

“I said something along the lines of, ‘I really don’t think that’s a great idea,’” Rogerson recalled. In the leadership operations job, which was similar to a chief of staff role, Rogerson oversaw a variety of projects to help the leadership team accomplish its goals. When Canva’s head of people departed the company, Rogerson was tasked with overseeing the people team while they recruited a new person for that role.

But Rogerson, who joined Canva in 2019, didn’t have previous HR experience. In a phone call with co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht, she suggested Canva look at more seasoned professionals for the role.

Obrecht countered that Canva could hire those professionals to its people operations leadership bench, and made the case for Rogerson to take over as chief people officer because she knew the ins and outs of the business so well. In November 2021, Rogerson officially took over as Canva’s chief people officer.

For more on Rogerson’s path from chief of staff to CPO, keep reading here.—CV

      

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COMPLIANCE

Francis Scialabba

The Trump administration is cracking down on employers that use the Permanent Labor Certification program (PERM) to grant permanent residency to foreign workers on certain visas, including H-1B.

White House officials said they were suspending a half-dozen companies from participating in the PERM program at an Oct. 8 press conference. Microsoft and Adobe are among the firms impacted by the decision.

Vice President J.D. Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling claimed that these companies have used the PERM program to hire immigrant workers at a lower cost, passing over qualified American workers who could fill similar roles. Vance argued that foreign-born workers replaced American employees who were laid off by Microsoft, though he didn’t offer evidence to support this claim, the Washington Post reported.

“Our message to Microsoft is, you’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers,” Vance said. “You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants.”

For more on what this means for employers with PERM workers, keep reading here.—CV

      

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

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Yes, this is another story about AI. But this one’s fun, because it’s not about robots replacing humans…at least not entirely.

A new global technology report from Bain & Co. said that “funding AI’s insatiable compute demand would require $6 trillion in annual revenue by 2031 and much of the value lies in innovation—beyond employee productivity.”

“AI infrastructure investment is racing ahead, but generating enough economic value to justify it will require trillions of dollars in new AI-driven revenue,” according to Bain’s 7th Annual Global Technology Report.

Deepali Vyas, global head of data and AI executive search at ZRG Partners, told CFO Brew the mass investment in AI over the next few years will include hiring talent, because there are still ultimately some things that can’t be automated.

For more on how employers can leverage talent to meet the AI moment, keep reading on CFO Brew.—DL

      

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work perks

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: The percentage of Sundays that employees spent sending work-related messages and chats nearly doubled between 2023 and 2025, from 6.6% to 12%. (the Wall Street Journal)

Quote: “Until people get their mind around how powerful this is and therefore what it’s going to be doing to these jobs, the idea that you need to reserve things for humans may sound bizarre, but in fact, you know, we will get there.”—Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on why he believes sectors like education and healthcare will need to safeguard jobs from AI in the future (CNN)

Read: The grocery chain Kroger plans to cut 3,000 corporate roles over the next three years as it seeks to “reduce duplicative work,” in the words of its CEO, with technology like AI. (the Associated Press)

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