⚡ AI Skills Crisis, Firing Over Kirk Comments, Positionless HR Tech - Sep 17, 2025

On today’s agenda:

⚡ Closing the AI skills gap

📊 HR analytics made simple

☁️ Positionless HR Tech

🤐 Employees fired over Kirk comments

THE HR SPOTLIGHT

 ⚡ Closing the AI Skills Gap: The HR Game Plan

HR leaders are on the front lines of the AI skills challenge. In the face of a widening skills gap, strategizing to maintain a resilient workforce is key to a future-proof organization that adapts to a constantly changing tech-dependent landscape.

🚨 The skills crunch: 

AI adoption is skyrocketing, but the workforce isn’t quite ready. This 2025, jobs requiring generative AI skills in non-tech roles have grown 9× since 2022 (Lightcast). Without focused training, the gap between AI demand and employee readiness will only widen.

🎯 The game plan:

Here’s a simple but impactful plan you can build from to upskill and reskill your talent pool:

1. Build AI literacy - Give every employee a foundation in how AI works, its uses, and its limits.

2. Train with purpose - Provide microlearning and targeted upskilling programs tied to real roles.

3. Pilot & scale - Run small AI projects, share results, then expand across the workforce.

Every missed opportunity to train is a gap your competitors might exploit. The faster HR leads, the quicker teams adapt.

WEEKLY STEAL

📊 HR Reporting & Analytics Made Simple: Excel Your Insights

🤐 Fired Over Kirk Comments? - CBS News

• What’s unfolding: Several employees were either fired or suspended after public comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, with employers citing reputational risks.

• Why it matters: HR needs clear social media and conduct policies to balance free speech with protecting company image.

• What’s unfolding: Mental health leave has risen 300％ since 2019, making up nearly 8％ of total leave days.

• Why it matters: HR must prioritize accessible mental-health benefits and manager training to reduce burnout-driven absences.

• What’s unfolding: Paychex earned Newsweek recognition as one of America’s Greatest Companies and Most Admired Workplaces.

• Why it matters: Such awards highlight how strong culture, ethics, and employee voice drive both reputation and retention, spotlighting companies HR pros could emulate.

COMPLIANCE CORNER

• What’s unfolding: Amazon terminated drivers employed through a contractor after contract changes, triggering anger and union claims of retaliation. The move raises serious concerns about how companies alter contractor relationships.

• HR implications: HR leaders must scrutinize contractor agreements and ensure that contractual changes are legally sound and transparently communicated to avoid union backlash or legal risk.

• What’s unfolding: The 2nd Circuit has ruled that the EEOC retains its investigatory authority even after a “Notice of Right to Sue” is issued and litigation begins. This means a lawsuit doesn’t halt regulatory oversight.

• HR implications: Maintain compliance and cooperation with any ongoing or potential investigations regardless of lawsuit status, update policies to reflect this ruling, and train involved teams on documentation and response timelines.

• What’s unfolding: A bill is being proposed requiring interstate weigh stations to verify truckers’ English language proficiency and commercial driver’s license (CDL) compliance.

• HR implications: Companies in transportation and logistics must prepare for possible changes in driver screening, ensure clear documentation, possibly implement or upgrade verification systems, and stay ahead of regulatory shifts.

BREAKROOM

📬 Missed Monday’s issue ‘Engage Through Culture’? Read it »