DEI

Marcello Bevilacqua

When military veterans and their spouses transition to the public sector, many often face hurdles finding jobs and assimilating to new work environments.

Amazon, in an attempt to address these challenges, takes a holistic approach to hiring and inclusion for military families, with initiatives ranging from public-private partnerships to an employee leadership group and manager training, Ian McDuffie, manager of global military affairs, recently told HR Brew.

The result, he said, is a welcoming workplace for military veterans and their families, with clear pathways for growth that ultimately make Amazon stronger. The company’s eight-person global military affairs enablement team sits within the people experience and technology (aka, HR) team, and is led by army veteran and military spouse Charlotte La Belle.

“We have a lot of creative veterans, military spouses on our team to think about policies that we can write that can support our community pilots, that can launch new partnerships to create military hiring opportunities,” McDuffie said, adding that Amazon also focuses on ongoing engagement. “As soon as we bring those folks aboard at Amazon, we want to make sure they’re growing, thriving, connecting.”

For more on how Amazon recruits and retains military veterans and their spouses, keep reading here.—KP

      

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RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc, Photo: Dashini Jeyathurai

Welcome to another installment of Tips from the Top, a series featuring HR leaders’ career advice for people professionals with big aspirations. Have insights you want to share? Get in touch here.

Don’t be afraid to leave your lane. Doing just that got Dashini Jeyathurai, Gusto’s head of employee engagement, into HR.

Jeyathurai, who had been interested in the people profession, dipped her toes early in her career by participating in an onboarding and development program as she worked in a non-HR role. That eventually led to her taking on her first HR role, and pursuing a career in the profession.

“My first foray into HR was actually while I was sitting within the business, which I think gave me a really interesting vantage point, knowing what people needed to deliver, and then thinking about how do we build programs that support the needs of the employees of this very particular organization,” Jeyathurai told HR Brew.

Practitioners “growing up” in the HR function should make sure they’re branching out and learning other parts of the business, too. Jeyathurai recommends earlier-career people practitioners take any opportunity available to expose themselves to the rest of the business—whether that’s attending all-hands meetings or reading over company strategy docs—so that they understand the needs of the company and build programs that actually address them.

For more on how to build programs workers actually need, keep reading here.—PM

      

Sponsored By LHH

Cloudy with a chance of layoffs. Nearly 7 in 10 organizations expect layoffs in the next 12 months, according to LHH’s 2027 Severance and Separation Benchmark report—which means separation budgets have to stretch further. One shift stands out: 79% now offer outplacement to nonexempt employees, up from 58% in 2024. See what else has changed.

work perks

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: 1.7 million. That’s the number of skilled-trades job openings expected each year for the next decade. (Monster)

Quote: “That’s the tough thing about the corporate world: Whenever you’re dealing with a big layoff or any other big, companywide decision, at the end of the day, you’re putting humans in a spreadsheet, which doesn’t feel great.”—Bobby Powers, a leadership coach, reflecting on his experience conducting layoffs while working in HR (Business Insider)

Read: Wondering who might lead Nvidia should its co-founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, step aside amid an investigation into his relationship with a suspected spy for the Chinese government? So is the tech giant’s board of directors. (the Wall Street Journal)

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A proposed OMB rule could require every federal grant recipient to run E-Verify on all employees and contractors under an award. HR Brew and Equifax cover how to prepare and what belongs on your action list.