🧘‍♀️ HR’s Wellness Role, Preserving Expertise [Guide], Gen Z’s AI-xiety - Aug 6, 2025

Hiya, HR Gurus! 🧘 Wellness Month + Health Center Week = HR’s cue to flex those people-first muscles. From burnout blockers to culture boosters, it’s time HR leads the charge on wellbeing with a smile. 

On today’s agenda:

🧘‍♀️ HR-led wellness

📘 Preserve expertise when staff leave

😰 Gen Zs AI-xiety fueled pivot

💻 Silicon valley goes 996 hard

THE HR SPOTLIGHT

🧘‍♀️ HR’s Role in Wellness: Boosting Benefits During National Health Center Week

HR pros, your moment has arrived. With wellness in the spotlight this August, it’s time to step up as the champions of employee health. Whether it’s to revamp mental health benefits or brainstorm burnout blockers, your people are counting on you. This isn’t just about yoga classes or free fruit in the breakroom—it’s about reimagining how we support the whole employee, inside and out. 

🚨 The situation: Employees are running on empty

Burnout is still off the charts—and it’s hitting younger workers hardest. A recent survey by Mind Share Partners found over 50％ of U.S workers experience different levels of burnout, anxiety, and depression. Meanwhile, mental health benefits often fall short or go unused. Traditional EAPs? About as appealing as lukewarm coffee.

Employees thrive better with on-demand care, holistic options, and real support, not just pamphlets.

✅ What HR can do: Reboot wellness the smart way

HR pros can lead the charge by rethinking health offerings. Here’s what’s trending:

1. Mindfulness apps & virtual therapy: Think BetterHelp or Headspace for Work.

2. On-site or near-site clinics: More companies are using Community Health Centers (NACHC) as partners in care.

3. Proactive benefits education: Help employees actually use what you offer.

4. Wellness stipends: From massages to meal kits, flexibility wins.

🎯 Want more ways to upgrade your wellness program? Try offering these employee benefits that go a long way beyond wellness 👉

Stop Losing Company Expertise When People Leave [Expert Guide]

Every company hits this point eventually: new hires join in waves, while experienced "old hands" move on, often at the worst possible moment. 

If strong knowledge-sharing processes are in place, transitions like these feel manageable. But when knowledge stays siloed, the impact can ripple across entire departments.

Download a free guide on creating a corporate knowledge base to explore how to:

✅ Identify what’s worth documenting and gather essential company knowledge.

✅ Choose the right knowledge base platform for your business needs.

✅ Empower internal experts to share knowledge and keep content up to date.

🤹‍♂️ Hybrid Hoops Still in Play – HR Grapevine

• What’s unfolding: Despite fresh return‑to‑office mandates, employees aren’t showing up. Companies pushing RTO have seen minimal actual attendance, and workers are quietly resisting restrictions.

• Why it matters: HR should know enforcement alone won’t work. Mandates without benefits can hurt morale and drive turnover. HR teams should survey preferences, tailor hybrid plans, and reinforce collaboration tools to bridge remote-office divides.

• What’s unfolding: A Miami hotel sparked outrage after a viral clip showed guests being checked in by a receptionist via video call—apparently based in India. Social media erupted over perceived outsourcing of American jobs.

• Why it matters: For HR, this is a cautionary tale in tech adoption without empathy. While cost-cutting is real, removing local roles can trigger backlash and harm employer brand. Proactive HR should align technology use with workforce values and communicate transparently about such innovations.

• What’s unfolding: Some U.S. AI startups are adopting an extreme “996” schedule—72‑hour workweeks—forcing employees into six 12‑hour days.

• Why it matters: HR leaders must be alarmed: mimicking discredited overtime models can lead to burnout, legal risk, attrition and poor culture. HR can intervene by tracking workload, enforcing rest boundaries, and promoting sustainable performance without glorifying overwork.

COMPLIANCE CORNER

• What’s unfolding: A dental practice agreed to pay $61K to resolve a charge after denying a religious exemption request related to its dress code..

• HR implications: HR leaders need to review exemption policies to ensure compliance with Title VII and prevent similar missteps, and train managers to handle religious accommodation requests promptly.

• What’s unfolding: The IRS bumped the ACA affordability threshold to 9.96％ of household income and raised penalties for non-compliance to $3,340 or $5,010 per impacted employee, effective in plan years starting in 2026.

• HR implications: HR must assess plan designs ahead of 2026 open enrollment to meet new affordability standards and communicate changes to employees to dodge costly IRS penalties.

• What’s unfolding: A major legal decision highlights the risk of misclassifying independent contractors when they're essentially performing employee duties, even risking large damages.

• HR implications: HR professionals should audit contractor policies, ensure proper classification under IRS and DOL guidelines, and proactively convert roles to employment status where applicable to limit liability.

BREAKROOM

📬 Missed Monday’s issue ‘August Reset’? Read it »