From recruiting and retention to company culture and the latest in HR tech, HR Brew delivers up-to-date industry news and tips to help HR pros stay nimble in today’s fast-changing business environment.

HR Brew

Courtney Vinopal

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Black and white men sitting on an unequal sign

How post-pandemic wage growth helped narrow the racial wage gap

Black workers saw higher wage growth than white workers from 2021 to 2023, and as a result the racial wage gap has narrowed to the smallest it’s ever been, according to Syndio.

The racial wage gap is narrowing, but occupational segregation may hinder further progress 

Mikaela Cohen

An interview with Kim Dabbs, author of ‘You Belong Here: The Power of Being Seen, Heard, and Valued on Your Own Terms’

“The workplace is one of the last places in the world that we don’t get to choose every single person that we’re surrounded by…so it’s also an opportunity to stretch and grow.”

Employee identity is important: Here’s how HR can honor it

Kristen Parisi

Unhappy women cradles head in hands in office

Employee happiness declining among disabled workers

Employee happiness and well-being increased overall, but disabled employees are experiencing large declines. 

Disabled workers are less happy and RTO policies are likely to blame, report finds

Different shapes next to each other as icons denoting DEI

One of the lessons you learn growing up is that sometimes you have to play the long game.

It seems some leaders may have forgotten this, at least when it comes to inclusivity in the workplace. When companies roll back inclusivity efforts for short-term gains, they risk sacrificing their long-term strategies, according to Ruchika T. Malhotra, author of 

Uncompete: Rejecting Competition to Unlock Success

HR Brew chatted with Malhotra about how workplace competition and exclusivity can be harmful and short sighted.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

There is a lot of opportunity when HR functions and when culture-building parts of the organization focus on creating a culture of collaboration. One where teams and the organization really feel like they have each other’s backs versus rivalry, and sparring, and competitions that are “winner take all”…Whether I talk about radical generosity, or inclusion, solidarity, creating an abundance mindset, those really, again, can be specifically related to HR functions.

Did anything change from when you started writing the book to publishing?

I pitched the book and started writing it at a time where…there was a lot of focus on creating equitable and inclusive organizations. A lot of HR professionals, specifically, would seek out my services in inclusion strategy, where there was a lot of, like, open conversation about, “Okay, here are some of the ways biases are impacting our workplace, or we do see a mismatch in how opportunities are being doled out in our organization”...There was a lot more open, I would say, conversation around how important DEI was in the workplace.

Even though outwardly there’d be a lot of like, “Yes, absolutely, this is super important. We’re really focused on this,” and then I would feel like the other shoe would drop when it would then be sort of book-ended with...“How do we manage this feeling of other people feeling like their rights are going to be impacted by this?”...There was a lot of zero-sum thinking. There was a lot of like, “winner takes all,” that one person’s progress comes really at the expense of the other, and I really wanted to push back against that narrative.

When I started conceptualizing and started writing the book, to where we are now, we see that zero-sum thinking, winner-takes-all-approach, that competition and hierarchy, in a much more profound, much more vocally shared right now. And, as a result, we are seeing rights being pulled back, and we are seeing some progress that we made over the last few years being eroded…Now, it’s undeniable that this is where we’re at, and my focus is we can’t continue down this path if we want to make true progress and change.

What advice do you have for HR pros amid DEI resistance?

So much of the book about uncompete and how we apply it in our lives and into our workplaces is around long-term thinking versus short-term thinking. So the short-term thinking is, “Okay, we should just kind of go with what’s in the cultural zeitgeist and just continue on that path.” But again, the long-term impact of that is probably, and we’re already starting to see women leave the workforce in record numbers. We’re starting to see all sorts of imbalances, especially in terms of racial [and] intersectionally, that more Black women are leaving the workforce or being pushed out in record numbers.

That’s really going to have long-term impacts, and if you’re building an organization that’s going to be innovative, and very growth-focused, and create impact, taking short-term thinking measures versus long-term thinking measures is going to have a long-term negative impact on your organization.

Two hands holding on opened book with text highlighted

An interview with Ruchika T. Malhotra, author of ‘Uncompete’

“There was a lot of like, ‘Winner takes all,’ that one person’s progress comes really at the expense of the other, and I really wanted to push back against that narrative.”

Rolling back DEI efforts could be a bad long-term strategy

It’s rare for people on opposite sides of the political aisle to agree on anything these days—even pizza toppings. But at SHRM Blueprint this week, they seemed to reach one consensus: Workplace disability inclusion efforts 

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed in 1990 as a bipartisan effort that, in part, gave disabled people protections at private employers. Since then, employers have been required by law to provide accommodations to applicants and workers, like any other protected class, and not discriminate on the basis of disability.

Before the ADA, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 required federal contractors to take affirmative action steps to hire more disabled workers.

Many employers have established measures that go beyond the ADA and Section 503, through efforts like employee resource groups and neurodiversity hiring programs. Microsoft, Wells Fargo, and Dell all boast initiatives that develop neurodivergent employees.

These programs have historically been seen as “safe” DEI programs, David Glasgow, co-founder of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at New York University School of Law, 

 in 2024. “I don’t think that there’s any significant risk for organizations continuing to do very progressive work on disability inclusion.”

 Several main stage speakers at SHRM Blueprint referenced disability inclusion as one aspect of DEI that can and should continue.

Victoria Lipnic, former assistant secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush expressed concern over the future of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act enforcement under the Trump administration, given that it has 

 other affirmative action programs for federal contractors.

However, Catherine Eschbach, the Trump administration-appointed head of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to Section 503 requirements during her remarks.

“You’re going to see them turn in earnest and start looking at as you’re looking at, what does affirmative action look like on behalf of veterans and persons with disability,” Eschbach said. “For OFCCP right now, it’s really focused on Section 503, and VEVRAA [Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act] functions and its day-to-day work, and that largely is taking complaints under those statutes, because that is something that is required as a statutory function.”

Conservative anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck acknowledged the need for the ADA during his conversation with CNN commentator Van Jones. “The ADA is obviously good legislation,” he remarked, before continuing to issue attacks on DEI at large.

For his part, Jones told an audience member during the Q&A portion that he has “blind spots” when it comes to disability inclusion, but that “there are many forms of difference and disadvantage that I appreciate.”

“It is top of mind…but all of us need to remember that it’s not just the visible disabilities,” SHRM CEO Johnny C. Taylor Jr. added. “We all feel a certain way when you see someone in a wheelchair or someone who we can tell someone who’s blind, we see these things. There are a lot of invisible disabilities that Americans are confronting, and we need to make sure that we are sensitive to that.”

 Despite the agreement, experts warn that disabled workers face an uncertain, uphill battle. This year’s unemployment rate for disabled workers has increased by 1.2 percentage points since 2023 to 8.6%, double the rate for non-disabled workers (4.3%).

Earlier this year, the Department of Labor said it will abandon plans to end the subminimum wage, which allows employers to pay some disabled workers pennies on the dollar, HR Brew 

While Eschbach hinted at support for disability hiring programs during her remarks, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer reportedly wants to end disabled worker hiring goals for federal contractors, according 

. The Centers for Disease Control, meanwhile, ended remote work options for disabled workers in September, which is a 

“The Trump administration is waging a war on disabled people and working to undo the hard-won rights our elders secured,” California congresswoman Lateefah Simon said in a statement in September. “They want to roll back protections, weaken enforcement, and make our communities invisible again.”

Disability Inclusion in the workplace image collage

Workplace experts agree on disability inclusion policy at SHRM

Even some DEI opponents seem to agree that disability hiring efforts should remain a priority.

At SHRM Blueprint, the right and left appeared to agree on one aspect of DEI: Disability inclusion

Most Americans (56%) believe that businesses should take a stance on DEI issues, but fewer believe they should promote DEI, according to a new 

Some 69% of Americans believe it’s at least somewhat important for businesses to promote DEI, a nine-point decrease since 2022 and a five-point decrease since 2024, the survey found. Meanwhile, just 35% believe that companies are doing a good job promoting their DEI efforts, a nine-point drop since 2024.

Cynthia Clark, a management professor at Bentley University, told HR Brew there are strong signs that most Americans still largely support DEI efforts.

“Companies are reframing their commitments. They’re not abandoning them,” she said. “Some prefer to talk about resilience. Some are preferring to talk about inclusion, but also some companies are, in effect, becoming more clear and precise about why it matters.”

Rebecca Perrault, global VP of culture, diversity, and sustainability at Magnit, an HR consultancy with roughly 3,000 employees, believes that DEI work doesn’t inherently have to include promotion or even the “DEI” acronym.

“I really think it’s the performative piece that there’s this reaction to,” she told HR Brew. She said over the last year and a half she’s seen “a fear towards the acronym itself…I might still use the words that are in the acronym, but it’s easy to have a backlash to letters…The ideas behind them are much more challenging to push back on.”

Despite the decline in support for DEI promotion, 56% of respondents believe businesses should take a public stance on DEI, up three percentage points from 2024. Most people in the US also want companies to speak out about free speech (58%), healthcare (55%), and climate change (58%), and 41% said the same about immigration policy, a 10-point increase from 2024.

Clark believes there’s an opportunity for businesses to set the record straight, pointing to anti-DEI campaigns’ insinuation that DEI isn’t about merit—a notion that many scholars have 

—as an example. “I think everybody would prefer to have merit-based hires, but those are not opposite diversity hires,” she said. “This is a great opportunity for companies to speak out on the fact that those are connected.”

Most businesses are largely sticking with their DEI initiatives, even if they’re calling them something else, HR Brew previously 

. Companies where DEI is a core value may have an 

 holding onto their programs. “I haven’t had that pushback [on DEI] within our organization,” Perrault said. “I’ve been very pragmatic about it, even from the beginning. We weren’t making big statements. What we were doing is integrating into our processes things that created more fairness, that were good for everyone.”

Employers should be consistent with their DEI policies, and changing tactics could impact a brand’s reputation, internally and externally, according to Clark.

“If you change your tact on this, you risk being perceived as lacking integrity anytime that you’re not consistent with your policies,” she said, noting that this is why companies like Coke and Costco have remained committed to DEI. “You potentially take a hit to your trustworthiness, transparency, integrity, etc., because those rely on consistency.”

Public support for DEI as a business priority falls; majority of Americans still support it

People in the US also want businesses to take a public stance on free speech, healthcare, and climate change, according to Bentley University and Gallup. 

Public support for DEI as a business priority falls, but the majority of Americans still support it, survey finds

Many companies recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the second Monday of October. And yet, the disparities faced by American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) people in the workplace aren’t always recognized.

 AIAN people in the US, according to the 2020 US Census, with many associated with one of the country’s 574 recognized tribal nations. While AIAN people have seen gains in household income and educational attainment, barriers to progress persist.

“Anyone who is of Indigenous descent, comes from a family history line of structural oppression and hardship,” Britnee Johnston, a member of the Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance at the University of Arizona, told HR Brew.

 and face higher disparities, like higher rates of unemployment and lower rates of home ownership, health insurance enrollment, and obtaining a bachelor’s degree compared with white Americans.

“They also tend to have the lowest median wages compared to other US workers. So if they are working, they're not making as much as they should be compared to others,” Johnston said.

“Indigenous individuals are not being given the opportunity to take on positions of higher power and pay,” Johnston said, noting a 2017 study that found 1 in 3 Indigenous adults say they have experienced discrimination in the promotion process. She says it’s not enough for companies to have mentorship programs because those often do not lead to promotion, which can compound pay disparities.

Johnston believes that employers can do more to combat implicit biases and discrimination. “Indigenous people are dealing with colleagues or supervisors who make assumptions about their culture and history, so they just don’t fully understand who they are and what their history is,” she said. “Native Americans are tribal nations. They’re not just a racial ethnic group. They are a political group. They have their own governments. They have their own constitutions, courts, workforce development departments, natural resources departments.”

 Johnston said employers can be more thoughtful in how they recruit Indigenous people. Some tactics, such as adopting skills-based hiring, may already be part of a company’s inclusion strategy. Johnston also recommended partnering with one of the country’s 35 Tribal Colleges and Universities, like Haskell University in Kansas, as well as tribal governments and urban Indian centers.

While most (87%) AIAN people live in urban areas, 13% live on reservations, so remote-work flexibility could also help companies reach this population of potential workers, according to Johnston.

While recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a holiday is also a step in the right direction, “You’re still not really learning what the history is, or the stereotypes,” Johnston said, adding, “They are modern day people. They work jobs. They provide for their families. They have job skills. They are educated. They’re living in houses. They live all across the country.”

Johnston encourages employers and employees not to make assumptions about prospective or current AIAN employees who may not “look” Indigenous. “There needs to be more cultural training for managers and employees that could be anti-discrimination training, as well just learning more about the history and showing visuals of what modern day Indigenous people look like that they bring to the workplace.”

Native Americans in the US face disparities in employment, but employers can help

One expert explains how employers can expand their outreach and inclusion efforts to recruit, retain, and support Native American workers.

Native Americans in the US face disparities in employment—but employers can help

Fluency can mean more than speaking a language well.

It can also mean cultural fluency, when business leaders become knowledgeable and immersed in the experiences of their employees and customers, according to Joycelyn David, owner and CEO of Canadian advertising agency AV Communications and author of 

The Multicultural Mindset: Driving Business Growth in a Borderless Era

David sat down with HR Brew to chat about her book and how her experience growing up in Canada led her to teach leaders globally to embrace multiculturalism.

You started writing the book in 2023, and published it earlier this year. Did the direction of the book change over the course of those years?

The more I looked around and the more I realized cultural fluency wasn’t necessarily something that was being talked about in boardrooms and executive circles in the same way that I had seen growing up here in Canada…What we’ve tried to do in the book is give people a practical framework in which to have these conversations, whether you’re an employer who hires people who hail from different parts of the world, or whether you’re a professional looking to grow and thrive in your career…The need hasn’t changed from 2023 to 2025, but the way that we talk about that need and the way that we talk about very sensitive topics today…is the challenging part.

Did any of your personal experiences shape the book?

Working and growing up in Canada, this was my normal, like growing up in a society that values 

 at a federal level. Growing up in a community where hyphenated identity and race-based data was always the norm. It was only when I started looking outside of Canada that I realized how much maybe the world could learn.

Cultural knowledge and information is only the surface level of building cultural fluency. What’s actually needed requires us as humans to slow down and immerse deeper than the surface level…Immersion means you can’t just learn about something by reading and absorbing content…I can learn about Turkey by reading about it and looking at it online, or I can go there and immerse myself in all of the senses…But of course, not everybody has access to travel, not everybody has that luxury. So, what are other ways that people can do that in your own neighborhood, in your own workplace?

It really starts with adopting a mindset that [is outside] your own cultural sphere…so it’s a conscious effort to seek and understand cultures that are not your own…Let’s say, I need to go seek out and then better understand what is it like to grow up and live in the deep south of the United States…I can read about it through headlines and news…or I can really take time to have a conversation with somebody who lives there, or to debate across the aisle, or to go and immerse myself, travel, visit, work in that community. Cultural fluency requires more than information.

Do you have advice for HR pros navigating the current 

Discussions about drawing lines in the sand and having all the debates that are happening in the world today are given by “us and them,” and my perspective is, “It’s both. There is no ‘us and them.’ It’s just we.” We are all multicultural, and we are all, in many ways, descendants of immigrants from somewhere…In workplaces where a multicultural mindset is front and center, you are reminded that your customers are multicultural, because many of them, especially in the US, may not speak English as a first language. So, you need to make sure that your frontline staff, and your recruiting, and your training is reflective of making sure that people understand how to deal with diverse people at the front line.

I always say that diversity is good for business, and that means all kinds of diversity, not just race-based diversity…If companies don’t pay attention to this, that diversity is good for business, they will lose touch with their customers, and they will lose touch with the communities that want to see themselves represented…If you don’t have that diversity representative of your customers who are the mainstream today, you’re going to quickly become irrelevant or out of touch.

An interview with Joycelyn David, author of ‘The Multicultural Mindset’

“If companies don’t pay attention to this, that diversity is good for business, they will lose touch with their customers, and they will lose touch with the communities that want to see themselves represented.”

Why cultural fluency is important for HR

Melinda French Gates is committed to spending as much money as possible on women’s advancement, and her organization’s latest partnership is yet another example of this work.

French Gates’ philanthropic consortium, Pivotal, has teamed up with global innovation nonprofit the Aspen Institute for the Workplace Innovation Now (WIN) Challenge, according to a Sept. 25 announcement.

 is a $60 million grant that challenges nonprofits and coalitions to develop solutions to the barriers that women face in the workplace. It will run over the course of the next year and will issue funds to up to eight grantees in three focus areas: culture and practices, AI, and narrative, or in other words, initiatives that challenge what it means for women to be successful in the workplace, to include solutions like “mitigating bias.”

The partnership is Pivotal’s latest venture aimed at creating a more equitable world for women. French Gates founded the organization in 2019, and pledged to spend at least $2 billion on women’s equity. In December 2024, the organization committed $150 million to “dismantle” the barriers to equality women face at work.

While women have seemingly made many gains in the workplace in recent decades, they still are 

 than men and frequently don’t have access to the same career opportunities. Working mothers, caregivers, and women of color have experienced declines over the last year, as job opportunities become more limited and companies reduce flexible work options.

“Women—especially mothers of young children—are leaving the workforce at an alarming rate, driven out by inflexible policies, rising childcare costs, bias, and harassment,” French Gates said in an announcement. “Now is the time to invest in better workplaces: ones that support balance, ensure safety for all workers, and recognize women as essential leaders. When we remove barriers for women, we unlock potential across the entire economy.”

A sign that says 'Close The Pay Gap' is held by Nancy Reichman, a member of Colorado's Pay Equity Commission, during a rally in downtown Denver, CO on April 28, 2009.

Aspen Institute teams up with Pivotal for women’s equality

The $60 million competition aims to find solutions for modern workplace barriers.

Japan will raise the disabled worker quota from 2.5% to 2.7% next summer, and it’s causing concern for some employers.

Like countries including Brazil and India, Japan uses hiring quotas to encourage employers to hire more disabled workers. The requirements went into effect in the 1970s with a quota of 1.5%. More than 40 years later, just 46% of employers currently meet or exceed the target disability representation rate, and employers that don’t meet the quota have to pay a fine, according to the 

In a country of roughly 124 million people, there are nearly 700,000 disabled workers, but businesses struggle to find workers to fill the quota, according to 

. The country and its employers have also taken steps toward disability inclusion, by incorporating assistive technology and educating non-disabled workers, the Japan Times 

However, employers still face hurdles as they try to meet their hiring targets. While there are more disabled people in the workforce than ever, the overall workforce is shrinking, and many workplaces are still not designed for people with physical disabilities. Furthermore, some disabled people claim that the work isn’t set up for their skillsets and disabled workers are hired just to hit the quota, which results in high turnover, the Financial Times reported. Workers are frequently hired for menial jobs, like sorting mail or doing inventory at clothing stores.

“Society has made some progress in creating a barrier-free environment,” Naoya Tsuji, director of the AJU Center for Independent Living, told the Financial Times. “If the workplace environment were more barrier-free, people with disabilities would be able to work more.”

Tsuji added that more employers need to provide flexibility so disabled workers can reach their potential.

“The fast-paced shift to active recruitment raises such concerns as the quality and mismatch in the employment,” Satoko Shinbo, a professor and disability employment specialist at Hosei University, told the Japan Times. “Companies need to discuss with such employees their disability conditions and suitability for jobs to constantly make adjustments.”

DEI