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- 🤓 Cyber-Smart Monday, SHRM in Hot Waters, The Dealbreaker Perk - Dec 1, 2025
🤓 Cyber-Smart Monday, SHRM in Hot Waters, The Dealbreaker Perk - Dec 1, 2025
Staying cyber-safe this holiday season, SHRM under the microscope, employees demand new perk, and more HR updates...
Hello, Culture Champions! 💪 As we all click back from the holiday chaos, here’s your quick Cyber-Smart Monday nudge to refocus your teams on secure habits, clean clicks, and safer data.
On today’s agenda:
TODAY’S CULTURE CUE
🔒 Cyber Reset Drill: 2-Minute Team Check - Have each team member flag one suspicious email from the weekend—real or mock. Quick huddle, 2 mins, instant awareness boost.
THE HR SPOTLIGHT
🤓 Cyber-Smart Monday: Post-Holiday Cybersecurity Tips
As teams return from the holiday haze, it’s the perfect time to reset not only calendars but also cyber‑savvy habits.
⚠️ The scene: Holiday + year‑end risks are real - Recent headlines report that ransomware attacks are surging, triggered by the recent layoffs and workforce shifts, with particular increase on holidays and weekends, where security teams often scale down, creating a “quiet window” for attackers to strike. Separately, a 2025 report by Keepnet highlights that new hires are 44％ more likely to fall for phishing attacks during their first 90 days — often coinciding with post‑holiday onboarding bursts.
Fresh spreadsheets, new hires, and end‑of‑year turbulence = attackers’ version of Black Friday.
✅ HR’s solution: Tight‑ship, smart‑click culture
Reboot access control now — ensure departing employees’ accounts are deactivated, and newly onboarded staff have only the minimum required privileges.
Launch a quick “holiday‑return” security refresher for all staff — remind them about phishing, password hygiene, and safe practices before they dive into work.
Prioritize security awareness during onboarding — new employees are especially vulnerable, so include cybersecurity training or simulated phishing as part of Day‑1 (or Week‑1) orientation.
Maintain coverage during off‑hours — even if ops teams are smaller over weekends or holidays, consider third‑party monitoring to keep watch: attackers often strike when vigilance drops.
Cyber‑Smart Monday should be ‘Back‑to‑Work, Lock‑It‑Down Monday.’ The best part? This also doubles as your cybersecurity prep for the December holidays.
 | WEEKLY GOODY |
TOGETHER WITH iSPRING
🚀 A Complete Checklist for Customer Training Launch
If customer onboarding drains your teams, your training needs a better launch plan. Get a step-by-step framework that helps teams deliver consistent customer training, improve adoption, and keep customers engaged long term.
THE HR PULSE
🔎 SHRM Under the Microscope — HR Grapevine
What’s unfolding: SHRM — often seen as the gold standard for HR best practices — is being called out by former employees for allegedly enforcing overly strict attendance policies, rigid dress codes, and a workplace tone marked by criticism and abrupt layoffs.
Why it matters: It’s concerning when even one of the leading HR organizations struggle to model healthy culture and transparent leadership. Take this as a reminder to audit internal practices — ensuring fairness, clarity, and respect — to avoid hypocrisy and maintain trust with teams.
🤖 High AI Risk Texas Cities — Spectrum News
What’s unfolding: A recent study finds a few cities in TX among the top six cities most at risk of job displacement due to expanding artificial-intelligence adoption. Across Texas, hundreds of thousands of jobs could be vulnerable as AI rapidly reshapes industries.
Why it matters: Preparing your workforce for AI creep-ins — through training, career-path planning, and transparent communication — can help safeguard morale, retain talent, and mitigate fear of sudden displacement.
📉 2025 Layoff Wave Gathers Steam — Reuters
What’s unfolding: This year, a large number of U.S. companies across sectors — retail, energy, services, corporate services — have announced job cuts as they restructure and cut costs.
Why it matters: Widespread layoffs aren’t just a staffing issue — they’re a test of culture, communication, and trust. Being proactive and transparent, supporting impacted employees, and offering re-skilling can help preserve company reputation and minimize morale fallout.
RESOURCE ROUNDUP
 | HR Dept |
 | Inspired eLearning |
COMPLIANCE CORNER
🔥 Campbell’s Exec Bounced for Toxic Rant — HR Grapevine
What’s unfolding: Campbell's Soup Company ousted a senior IT leader after a recorded meeting revealed allegedly racist, disparaging remarks about co-workers and the company’s own products.
HR implications: Even senior leaders can expose companies to serious reputation and legal risk. HR pros should review escalation and reporting channels: ensure that any employee — regardless of level — can safely report misconduct.
🧑⚖️ SCOTUS Lowers Bar in Discrimination Cases — HR Dive
What’s unfolding: A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision relaxes what counts as harm under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — employees alleging discrimination now only need to show “some harm,” not significant or economic harm, to challenge employment actions.
HR implications: HR leaders should audit recent employment-action decisions and ensure documentation shows nondiscriminatory rationale, and refresh training on discriminatory-practice risks.
⚠️ Federal Crackdown on National-Origin Hiring — NatLaw Review
What’s unfolding: The U.S. DOL and EEOC launched the Project Firewall initiative to step up coordinated enforcement against national-origin discrimination, especially preferential hiring that disadvantages U.S. workers.
HR implications: If your hiring or recruiting practices include visa-status preferences or non-neutral screening criteria, now is the time for a compliance check. Audit job postings and selection procedures, to ensure they’re fair because enforcement actions and investigations may increase.
TREND WATCH
🤰Fertility Support: The New Dealbreaker Perk
Digesting the data: Ferring Pharmaceutical’s new global study finds that nearly 39％ of employees who face fertility challenges would consider leaving their jobs if their employer doesn’t offer fertility support — and 67％ say their workplace currently fails to provide any help.
This isn’t just about doctor visits: 60% didn’t get paid time off for appointments, and many had to use annual leave, sick leave, or unpaid leave instead. At the same time, 58% of employers say they’ve integrated — or plan to integrate — fertility and family-building support into their benefits or wellbeing strategies, especially since fertility treatments also impact employee mental wellbeing.
Outlook for HR: For HR leaders, this isn’t a “nice-to-have” perk anymore — it’s a retention issue. As fertility challenges increasingly affect the workforce, failing to offer proper support could cost you top talent. Organizations should act quickly to develop clear fertility policies, offer flexible leave or support options, and communicate them openly. Doing so can strengthen employee loyalty, reduce turnover, and position the company as a more inclusive, people-first employer.
UPCOMING EVENTS
 | Dec 3, In-Person (Los Angeles, CA) - From Day One |
 | Dec 3, In-person (Berlin, Germany)- Deel |
HR TECH WATCH
🔄 A Review of Keka: One Platform to Power Every HR Workflow
Why we selected it: Keka is a popular cloud-based HRMS that simplifies HR, payroll, performance, and workflows — used globally by thousands of companies for its all-in-one convenience and clear interface.
Key features:
Unified HR + Payroll + PSA — handle hiring, payroll, attendance, performance, projects, and more from one platform.
Automated Payroll & Compliance — processes payroll, taxes, deductions, and payslips automatically, reducing errors and manual effort.
Performance & Talent Management — set goals/OKRs, run 360° reviews, give real-time feedback and track growth with analytics.
Employee Self-Service & Document Hub — staff can view payslips, request leave, update info, and access documents anytime; HR gets a central secure record store.
Pros:
| Cons:
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HRAddict rating: ★★★★☆ 4.4
Keka is a smart choice if you want to move beyond spreadsheets and stitch-together tools — giving your HR team one polished, end-to-end hub for all people ops
This is an independent review using aggregated insights and publicly available data.
BREAKROOM
SMART READS
🎓 How to Recruit an Intern: Methods & Tips
🌱 Promoting Sustainability in the Workplace
🎁 Compensation & Benefits: HR’s Complete Guide
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