the friday 🖐️ : wfh, ai training, resumes

what's happened this week in HR?

February 20, 2026

Howdy HR friends!👋

Happy Friday, HR friends! 🙌

Time for the Friday 🖐️ ! Five articles, five takeaways. Five minutes away from the chaos to grab a coffee and get caught up on everything that’s been happening in HR this week!

This week feels like a gentle but very public reality check for HR. The “best employer” title is showing up in unexpected places, traditional hiring tools are looking a little outdated, AI upskilling is getting a formal framework, remote work debates refuse to die, and even well meaning benefits are proving harder to execute than they sound.

In short, the rules aren’t gone, they’re just shifting. And the companies paying attention are the ones willing to rethink what’s normal.

Today’s edition is presented by SelectSoftware Reviews

Choosing HR software that meets your needs can either feel structured and focused… or scattered and exhausting. 🫠 The difference often comes down to whether you have the right support. 🧑‍💼 

😟 On your own

  • Endless tabs and side-by-side spreadsheets

  • Demos that don’t really fit your expectations

  • Unclear next steps after every conversation

  • Decisions that drag out longer than they should

🤝 With SSR’s HR Software Advisor

  • A focused shortlist tailored to your team

  • Fewer, more relevant conversations

  • Clear direction on what to explore next

  • Faster progress with fewer distractions

If you’d rather move forward with clarity than guess your way through it, SSR’s free HR software advisor is a practical place to start!

👇️ Coming up

In today’s edition

🏆 Trader Joe's beats Google at being a great employer

📄 Monster.com's founder says the résumé is basically dead

🤖 The government wants to teach your workers AI

🏠 WFH is coming back (just wait for the Gen Z takeover)

💸 Your 401(k) emergency fund is more complicated than it sounds

💭The Friday Five

🏡 WFH might be coming back and Gen Z is driving

🏆 Your grocery store is a better employer than your tech giant. Trader Joe's topped Forbes' Best Large Employers list, beating Google and Microsoft, with purpose, financial wellness and leadership trust the key differentiators. 🔗 HR Executive

📄 The résumé had a good run, but its time is up. Monster.com's founder is launching Boomband, an AI-native platform replacing CVs with rich "dossiers" that show the whole person, not just a keyword-stuffed summary. 🔗 HR Brew

🤖 The government just handed you an AI training roadmap. The Department of Labor released its AI Literacy Framework, outlining five core content areas to help employers upskill workers — including judgment, creativity and responsible use. 🔗 HR Dive

🏠 RTO is just a boomer power move, and the clock is ticking. A study of 8,000 workers found Gen Z and millennial CEOs are significantly more flexible on remote work, meaning today's office mandates may be a generational blip. 🔗 Fortune

💸 Emergency savings in your 401(k) sounded great, nobody's biting. Just 4% of plans adopted the Secure 2.0 provision allowing $1,000 emergency withdrawals, with employers finding external savings accounts far simpler to implement. 🔗 CNBC

For easy reading

That’s it for today.

Thanks for reading to the end and we hope today’s edition helped saved you a few hours in scouring the web for the latest news! 🧠

We know you’re super busy and as ever, we really appreciate you saving some room for us in your inbox 😀

Have a great weekend!

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