THE BARF: Gen Z Expectations, AI in Recruitment, and DEI Trends Shaping the Future of Work

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[00:00:31] Alright, I want to talk to you for a moment about retaining and developing your workforce.

[00:00:36] It's hard. Recruiting is hard. Retaining top employees is hard.

[00:00:40] Then you've got onboarding, payroll, benefits, time in labor management.

[00:00:44] You need to take care of your workforce and you can only do this successfully if you commit to transforming

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[00:00:56] We've seen it with a number of companies that we've worked with, and this is why we partner with them here at WorkDefined.

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[00:01:20] Hey, what's going on everybody? Ryan, Larry William Tincup here with the...

[00:01:25] Harp, did you just hit me?

[00:01:27] No.

[00:01:28] I know.

[00:01:28] Oh, just to look back at the week that was so you could be prepared for the week that is.

[00:01:34] There's a little fist bump there, right?

[00:01:36] People who are listening are like, what the fuck are you talking about?

[00:01:39] Yeah.

[00:01:40] Yeah, whatever, man. How's your weekend been?

[00:01:42] Good, good, good, good, good. All good, man. No complaints.

[00:01:46] Yeah, all is good. We're doing a zombie walk tonight, post-Halloween.

[00:01:50] Yeah.

[00:01:50] And so they're going to paint my bald head like a zombie and I'm going to walk.

[00:01:55] Huh. Take pictures.

[00:01:56] I will. I will. And if I win the scariest zombie award, which there's no chance that I will do that,

[00:02:04] I might not come back.

[00:02:06] Well, there's, you know, people take that really seriously. So that's the thing.

[00:02:10] A nice Sunday zombie walk down the main street.

[00:02:13] So I don't hate that.

[00:02:15] Anywho, you want to kick us off today?

[00:02:17] Let's do it, man. Let's do some breaking news. You ready?

[00:02:20] Sober curious. Have you ever heard this phrase?

[00:02:23] Mm-mm.

[00:02:25] So it came from a book, but the benefitspro.com, I read this article and it's, uh, gains, uh,

[00:02:33] popularity among young employees. And so I was reading along and I'm like, okay, well,

[00:02:37] so what's the, like, what's the bit? And, uh, they don't have a negative view of alcohol.

[00:02:44] Actually consider it like for celebrations and occasional festivities. It's cool. Alcohol,

[00:02:49] cool. You know, it's not like a hate deal. The concern, it was rather the long-term health

[00:02:57] consequences of alcohol. And so, you know, reading this, I'm like, okay, all right. You know,

[00:03:03] like, and it's talking about from a work perspective, office parties, Christmas parties, all that type

[00:03:08] stuff. And, uh, so you want your kids to be better than you, you know, like all parents. That's the bit

[00:03:17] one to be better, live better and all that other shit. Uh, but still, you know, what's the use for me?

[00:03:24] What's the use of living a long life or a longer life? If you don't have stories to tell

[00:03:31] most of my stories, not all, most of my story stories come from alcohol, drugs, juvenile delinquency.

[00:03:40] I never know where your stuff's going to go, man. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, like when someone says,

[00:03:45] Hey, Dave, you ever lost a car? Yeah. You know, like, yes, I, I, I have lost a car. I was renting a

[00:03:50] car and lost the car. I don't know where that car is. I hope it got back to its home.

[00:03:55] Yeah. But it's like most of the, most of those stories that I have that people are like,

[00:04:01] yeah, that's both funny and terrifying. They came from alcohol or drugs or other types of stuff like

[00:04:08] that. So I'm like, is this generation? Yeah. They'll live to 90, but what the fuck are they not

[00:04:13] talk about? Don't have stories. Don't have stories. No, I'm talking about outrageous stories,

[00:04:19] like, like, like story stories. You know what I'm saying? The Harry Potter book was,

[00:04:23] it just, yeah, you know what I'm talking about. I'm going to sit around and talk about,

[00:04:27] you remember that one time that we, you know, went to the internet?

[00:04:32] Yeah. So yeah, sober curious is a thing. Okay. And for your younger employees,

[00:04:38] it isn't a hatred of alcohol. So it's, uh, that's where I thought they were going with it.

[00:04:44] Uh, but that's not the bit. It's just, they look at it at the long-term health consequences

[00:04:48] and they say pros and cons. So.

[00:04:51] Well, okay then there you are. So let me ask you this. I may have asked you this before.

[00:04:57] So there's this running joke among my, my inner circle at home. Yeah. Yeah. How many people will

[00:05:05] be at your funeral? I hope none. Yeah. Well, cause that means you live the longest, right?

[00:05:09] Yeah. That's what I think. But if I die now. Oh yeah. You'll have a whole bunch of people.

[00:05:16] I don't know. You have your fraternity. Yeah. I don't know. I go to funerals and they have a

[00:05:21] hundred people. I'm like, you know, I've got to think, I don't know if I'd have that many people here.

[00:05:26] The life that I've lived doesn't really, it doesn't exude a lot of, of, of like, you know,

[00:05:35] first of all, I'm going to be cremated. So, and then people still, they still be there.

[00:05:40] Yeah. Maybe. You might have people to watch you get cremated.

[00:05:44] Yeah. He's dead. Yeah. I can dance on his grave. Yeah. I took his way off track here.

[00:05:50] No, no. But, but, but the thing is, is like the goal I think of most lives is to have

[00:05:57] enough people to carry your casket. Six people. Six people. Three if they're strong.

[00:06:03] Yeah. Well, you know a lot of strong people, so maybe you need less.

[00:06:06] But the, the, that's the, that's the goal. Just have six people.

[00:06:09] That's the goal. Just have six people.

[00:06:11] If you have six, you've had a great, you've had a good life, blah, blah, blah.

[00:06:14] All right. I'll get his back on track.

[00:06:16] I dare you.

[00:06:17] All right. So this is a story I think you'll have much more to talk about than me, but I

[00:06:22] wanted to bring it up because it's a, it's an interesting story around the PNW, which

[00:06:28] is Pacific Northwest, Pacific Northwest. So EEOC partners with the PNW based tribal employment

[00:06:36] advocates ahead of heritage month. Okay. So this is, this is interesting for me for a couple

[00:06:43] of reasons. Locally, the school district is now recognizing pretty much everything, right?

[00:06:51] The kids either have off or they do something to recognize. And that creates questions from

[00:06:55] the kids like, Hey, what is this? Cause they don't know. Right. And that's a good thing.

[00:07:01] That's a good thing. And so I was talking about this or something similar to this, like

[00:07:07] this to, to one of my kids and they didn't quite get it. Like why, why does it matter?

[00:07:13] And so the example that I kind of came up with in my head that I'll share here, I don't

[00:07:19] want to get your thoughts on this because I think this is obviously your area. And I was

[00:07:24] saying, look, imagine your school decided only, so let me back up and say exactly what's

[00:07:29] happened. This is worker rights. So this is similar to unions, right? Like if you're,

[00:07:34] if, if there's a construction project, you know, if it's a union based company, they, you

[00:07:39] know, they go to unions, et cetera, local, local labor, et cetera. So this is about, about

[00:07:46] making sure that, that the indigenous or tribal have working rights, you know, fair working,

[00:07:52] right? So, and so the conversation went some, something like this, where imagine in your

[00:07:56] school that your school decided only certain students can access to the best classes or

[00:08:03] certain books.

[00:08:03] Right. You have to be white to take AP classes.

[00:08:06] Right. Based random rules that don't make sense, right? Nobody thinks it's fair, but

[00:08:10] Hey, you get to go here, but you don't, you get to go over there. Kind of like the, you

[00:08:14] know, the, the walks and stuff like that. And so that's what this, that's what this is

[00:08:17] about. But what I found interesting is that it's, I don't hear much about this. It's always

[00:08:25] when you, when you, when we're talking about marginalized groups, we don't hear much about

[00:08:28] tribal. We always hear about color. We hear about ethnicity, but we don't hear about this.

[00:08:34] I'm curious to get your thoughts because this is, this is you.

[00:08:37] So, so tribes, the, uh, the hardest concept to get is, uh, what's called tribal solvature.

[00:08:44] True. Think of tribes. Okay. So pick your favorite tribe, Choctaw nation. Uh, you know,

[00:08:50] let's just, let's just say in Oklahoma. Right. So the Choctaw is France. So it has, it is

[00:08:58] a nation within a nation. So you have these reservations, uh, and you, you're inside these

[00:09:05] reservations inside that tribal land, they make their own laws. Now they can't be, they have

[00:09:12] to be congruent with federal laws. However, they, if the, where it hits employment is really

[00:09:18] interesting because on tribal land, you can have tribal preference. Meaning, uh, if you're,

[00:09:26] if you have an Indian casino, right. Again, we'll go to the Choctaw, uh, their Indian casino,

[00:09:32] they can have Indian preference, not just Choctaw preference. If you have, if you're a member of

[00:09:38] the Choctaw nation, yes, you, you get to tell your resume goes to the top of the stack. Um,

[00:09:44] and Indian, so native American tribal, uh, membership that goes to the, goes to the top

[00:09:51] of the stack. And that for a lot of people is crazy talk because they're like, well, that's,

[00:09:57] that's racist. And then, and the thing is, is it's not racist because it's their country.

[00:10:03] Right. It's a country within whatever the hell they want. It's very difficult for people to

[00:10:07] understand. Oh yeah. And states, states, this, uh, federal to nation to state relationship is

[00:10:14] weird because states still have to interact with tribes. And, uh, so like when something happens on

[00:10:22] a tribal, on tribal land, states have to do stuff and then the feds have to do stuff. And, uh, it,

[00:10:28] it gets interesting quick, but as it relates to work, the preference, hiring preference throws

[00:10:34] most people in HR and recruiting off. Um, uh, because that's not the way it is in the rest of,

[00:10:42] uh, America. You can't have preference. Is there, so, and obviously, so the, the goal of this is to help,

[00:10:48] help with that outside of, right. Right. The, the, uh, outside of the, of the reservations.

[00:10:53] We don't really hear about this. Is there really, I mean, obviously there is, is, is,

[00:10:59] is there a problem here that, that they're being overlooked?

[00:11:02] Oh, well, outside the reservation, a hundred percent, they're treated just like every other

[00:11:06] brown person. That's interesting. Okay. So, but on the reservation, they can control,

[00:11:11] the tribe can control it. So they can basically say, we're going to hire our own members.

[00:11:16] Right. And if you're white or black or Mexican or whatever, great, we would, we would like to

[00:11:22] hire you as well, but you're, you're going to positionally, you're, you're going to have the

[00:11:27] lower positions and you're going to get hired at a slower rate than natives. Right. Right.

[00:11:33] That's the way they balance things out. Okay. So a lot of, a lot of tribal people that live or

[00:11:39] near or on reservations, they work on the res because it's just easier. Right. Right.

[00:11:46] So there you go. There you go. Good stuff. Alrighty. Yeah. I know this one you are going to love.

[00:11:56] Google just gave a, it's AI access to search and that happened hours before open AI launched

[00:12:05] chat GPT search. Right. So, which is very annoying by the way. Oh yeah. But Mark, this is the day.

[00:12:14] The search wars have begun. This is on venture beat. It's everywhere actually, but venture beat,

[00:12:20] go and take a look at it. It's basically saying, okay, Google just opened up AI search chat,

[00:12:26] open AI opened up chat GPT search. Right. What's really what, how it impacts work, uh, as I can see

[00:12:33] it for 20 years, we haven't thought about search. It's, it's Google has been in their lexicon.

[00:12:41] You just went there. You just Google it. Yeah. Like you're at work. You're like, oh,

[00:12:45] how do I do this thing? You just Google it. Yeah. Well now you got a choice, a legit choice

[00:12:52] to then say, nope, chat GPT. Let me search it there. It's interesting. You say it like that because

[00:12:57] Hey everybody, I'm Lori Rudiman. What are you doing? Working? Nah, you're listening to a podcast

[00:13:03] about work and that barely counts. So while you're at it, check out my show, Punk Rock HR now on the

[00:13:10] Work Defined Network. We chat with smart people about work, power, politics, and money. Are we

[00:13:16] succeeding? Are we fixing work? Probably not. Work still sucks, but tune in for some fun,

[00:13:21] a little nonsense, and a fresh take on how to fix work once and for all. You're right. We, we,

[00:13:28] we had choices. We had Yahoo, all that other crap, but you never really, you just went to Google.

[00:13:32] Like that was it. Yeah. And now I do find like Google's my third or fourth option, but I have to

[00:13:40] think about it. I never really thought of it that way. And this is actually pretty stressful. Now that

[00:13:45] I think about it, like, I just can't go there and, and like Google's going to get me the answer.

[00:13:52] Yes. Still going to get me the same answer, but I got to kind of filter through a few things and do

[00:13:56] work to get that answer. But see with their AI infusion, I don't think you're going to have to

[00:14:01] filter through as much. Right. Right. I don't know. I mean, we'll see how it plays out. I'm not,

[00:14:06] I don't want to bet against Google. At the same time, I'm not going to bet against Microsoft or

[00:14:12] open AI. Right. So it's like, but we have choice. And I think that's the thing for people to listen

[00:14:17] to or to people understand when they're listening. It's like, okay, for years you had cho-duck,

[00:14:23] duck, duck, go. You had choice. However, you basically, most people just Google it. And now

[00:14:29] with ChatGPT getting smarter and smarter and smarter and smarter. Yeah. You have a legit choice. So

[00:14:36] that's, that's, that's really interesting. Google that. Yeah. I kind of have a little headache now

[00:14:40] knowing that I have to make a decision where I want to search. Paralysis. Speaking of big

[00:14:48] beasts, LinkedIn has introduced an AI powered hiring assistance. So larger companies, more and more,

[00:14:59] we're seeing larger companies building or integrating AI, building integrated AI agents,

[00:15:06] like into their products. Right. Right. Right. Right. By the way, did you know LinkedIn crossed over

[00:15:12] $7 billion on their recruiting product alone? $7 billion on just that? And that's a third of

[00:15:19] their revenue. So they're a $21 billion company? That's insane. That's insane. I did not realize

[00:15:25] LinkedIn recruiter was $7 billion. That's insane. That is, that's pretty nuts. Yeah. So, all right. So

[00:15:33] nothing here is new, right? This is an AI agent, right? So simplest explanation here, this is going

[00:15:40] to do, uh, help create hiring plans. It's going to help assist recruiters. It's going to source job

[00:15:45] candidates. It's going to spit out the analysis of the candidates and give them some rankings and all

[00:15:50] of that other stuff. Okay. Every, there's a lot on the market that does it, but LinkedIn sits on a

[00:15:55] massive amount of hiring data, job seeker data, uh, and the recruiter activity itself. Right. Right.

[00:16:04] And that's search, search activity, all the, everything they do. They know what time they're

[00:16:09] doing it, how they're doing it, how long they're spending doing it. There's a lot of information

[00:16:14] there that can now, which was always used, but now, now they're serving it up. Now they're

[00:16:20] serving it up. Exactly. Right. So they know who, what, why, when, and where, everything that's

[00:16:25] happening in recruiting. So I'm curious to see how this plays out because people are going to hate

[00:16:30] LinkedIn for LinkedIn. Right. But can you really deny it as a recruiter, right? So as sourcing goes away

[00:16:37] more and more and more. Well, this is just a, another way to do elegant match. If it can read a job

[00:16:44] description and then go out and search their entire database to find better matches for that,

[00:16:52] and then serve the candidates up and say, Hey, we searched the database instead of you doing it,

[00:16:57] we did it. And, uh, here's five candidates that look pretty good for the, for the job.

[00:17:02] Dude, I, I I'm signing up. Like I, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like I'll at least look at the five

[00:17:09] candidates. And now if I can tweak that, now that'll be, uh, you know, I want to play with it

[00:17:14] first. Yeah. If I can then say five candidates and go, okay, I like these, but could I do this?

[00:17:22] And it comes back with another recommendation. Shit. I'm all in. Yeah. No. And so, and so for

[00:17:28] white collar. Yeah. And another, another point to this. So here, here's what I find really fascinating

[00:17:32] about all of this. So across the board with these, well, across the board with all the recruiting

[00:17:36] assistants, essentially they're being audited and judged the same as a human recruiter. Oh yeah.

[00:17:43] Yeah. Oh, right. So, so this is a direct quote. I'm going to read this here. This is a direct quote

[00:17:47] from their, I think it was a product guy, um, to keep the hiring assistance activity, transparent

[00:17:54] and accountable. We make sure that every action that it takes is logged and audited just the same way

[00:18:01] that we do with a human recruiter. Makes perfect sense. Yeah. I don't know that people are thinking

[00:18:08] about it that way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're just thinking, oh, it's the machine. Oh, it's AI.

[00:18:13] No, no. There's an audit trail. There's an audit trail and it's a, it's a recruiter. They look at

[00:18:17] this as a recruiter, not just an assistant. I love it. I, again, start there. If you see the

[00:18:25] recommendations, if it can then tweak and get better. Right. Yeah. Done. I mean, I think for me,

[00:18:32] when I read that story, there's a deep seated hatred by a lot of recruiters. Yeah. And there

[00:18:38] shouldn't be. About LinkedIn recruiter, the product, but if their product gets better, there will,

[00:18:44] as long as they don't raise prices, uh, then, uh, there, now people will, will complain less

[00:18:52] about recruiting product. Yeah. Because it'll be able to do more. Yeah. I've never, I've never,

[00:19:02] I can tell you why it is. I get it. So when they started in 2003, they reached out to staffing

[00:19:08] and recruiters to build their database. Yeah. So that's, that's how they got their initial database

[00:19:14] was all through recruiters. Yeah. And then they turned around and charged recruiters for access

[00:19:20] to their own data. Yeah. But not, not the thousands and tens of the, of the recruiters that are on

[00:19:27] there today. Oh yeah. Not, not all of them. I mean, half of these people weren't even out of

[00:19:32] fucking high school. No, that's fair. You know, so they're just carrying out of whatever. That's

[00:19:36] just a story for another time. It's hard to find a recruiter or corporate recruiter

[00:19:42] or even staffing. If they do that, it's hard to find one that really loves LinkedIn recruiter.

[00:19:47] Right. Not just the product, the talent insights and all of that. Now the assistant. Yeah. But

[00:19:54] loves that they pay for it. Right, right, right, right. Like the, you know what I'm saying? Like

[00:19:58] if I'm paying $10 for an app on my phone and I love using it, the $10 is like, okay, that's cool.

[00:20:05] Like I, not there, I haven't found a human being, a corporate recruiter that's okay with the

[00:20:11] product features to cost ratio. And I think that's what you're kind of zoning in on is like,

[00:20:18] they're bitter, but they don't, might not even know why they're bitter. Right. Yeah. Okay.

[00:20:22] All right. Go for it. So read this title. This was on benefitnews.com. So read this title

[00:20:29] and it says, the election will change the way organizations recruit. So of course that piqued

[00:20:36] my interest. Uh, and basically separating politics and work. So, and basically it said, regardless

[00:20:43] of, of, of, uh, who wins the election, will it impact recruiting? So it got me to thinking

[00:20:50] about, okay, the how of recruiting versus the volume of recruiting. So whomever wins, if

[00:20:59] they fix the economy and they fix inflation, we're going to be hiring more. Now, what do you

[00:21:06] it does impact? So this, this, that that's volume. That just means, okay, we're going to go, the

[00:21:12] economy gets better and we're going to be hiring more people, whether or not the frontline or whether

[00:21:17] or not they're white collar or whatever, who cares? We'll be hiring more. So we'll need more

[00:21:23] efficiency in recruiting. So if, if the Democrats or Republicans, whoever fixes that recruiting

[00:21:29] will be impacted. Now, the way they recruit, I'm not sure. I'm just, I think that's a parallel

[00:21:36] thing dealing more with AI and automation that the, I don't think that politics impacts that.

[00:21:46] I do think politics impacts the EEOC and the National Labor Relations Board. So like those types

[00:21:53] of things because historically Democrats have wanted to have things more regulated. Yeah.

[00:22:04] Yeah. And historically Republicans have want less regulation. So those boards change with the

[00:22:10] politics. And so the course, the cases change and, you know, all of that stuff changes, but

[00:22:17] recruiting, I think, I don't think the election changes the way organizations recruit. I think it

[00:22:24] impacts if one wins and it's decisive, whatever, which, whatever one wins and it's decisive and they can

[00:22:33] fix the economy, especially inflation, then organizations are going, there's going to be a flood money.

[00:22:41] We, it's been pent up for four years now. People are going to want to spend money and want to build

[00:22:47] businesses and want to do stuff. And we will record, we will recruit more, probably leaning on AI and

[00:22:55] Gen AI to help us recruit more. Yeah. So anyhow, go read the story because it's fascinating the way they

[00:23:01] talk about the election and recruiting. So there you go.

[00:23:07] We only have a week to go less than a couple of days, a couple of days to go. And, uh,

[00:23:13] and we'll know, or maybe we won't, maybe, maybe not. We'll say,

[00:23:18] all right, I've got one around workplace religion, uh, religious accommodations. This is,

[00:23:25] this is an interesting, there's a long, long couple, a bunch of articles on this one,

[00:23:28] but it's a really long article. So the TLDR of it is there's a woman who did a retreat

[00:23:35] for religious reasons, a religious retreat every year, several years, you know, three or four

[00:23:40] years. Married couples. Yeah. It's like three or four years and it's a month long retreat.

[00:23:44] Okay. Oh wow. So it's a month long retreat. Uh, it's always been approved by the company.

[00:23:51] Yeah, sure. Go, I don't know if it was paid or not, but I'm sure part of it was paid,

[00:23:55] part of it was not, or she's vacation, whatever. Um, but it was approved. Anyhow,

[00:24:00] this time it was declined. It was denied. Okay. Really? They gave her one week. And so,

[00:24:07] of course, this didn't go well with her, right? And one thing led to another and all the other

[00:24:14] cans of, all the can of worms is open. All this other stuff starts coming out. She filed some claims

[00:24:19] and, you know, about religious accommodations and, you know, all of this turned into a disability

[00:24:24] play because she has degenerative arthritis and she's unable to do her job, which is a file clerk.

[00:24:28] So she's filing papers. Was the, was a retreat about degenerative arthritis?

[00:24:34] No, no, no, it was not. Um, so the company was found not guilty. They dismissed the case

[00:24:42] across the board. Yeah. So, so here's what happened. So they dismissed the case one. It's not religious

[00:24:48] accommodations. The company needed, they didn't have the employees or the staff to run the courthouse

[00:24:54] and the filing systems and all. They needed people and they said, well, we can't accommodate

[00:24:58] it this year at this time. Yeah. Didn't say no at this time. So that blew it up. Anyhow,

[00:25:05] she has degenerative, um, arthritis. So she's been unable to do her job of filing. So she's

[00:25:14] doing other parts of her job and her coworkers for the last 12 months have been doing her

[00:25:20] job for her. So they accommodated her. Well, a couple of weeks after the denial, et cetera,

[00:25:26] et cetera, she got fired because she's unable to perform her job. Oh, that's life. But they

[00:25:32] accommodate it. And based on the union rec rules and all of that, she's deemed incapacitated.

[00:25:40] Therefore, she's able to be terminated. So she lost around the corner, but I just thought

[00:25:45] this was an interesting case because everybody, not everyone, a lot of people think, well,

[00:25:49] I need to be accommodated. And I was fired for a stupid reason. And I can claim, you can't

[00:25:55] always do that. It depends on your state, your federal law, but the state laws, the employment

[00:25:59] laws, like Texas is a, we call it right to fire. Yeah. State. Because you don't, I mean,

[00:26:06] you still do. I need to document and all that other stuff as traditional HR person. However,

[00:26:11] you don't have to give the person a fucking reason. Yeah. Like, you know, you just, Hey,

[00:26:16] Sandy, how you doing? Good. Peace out. I'm here to fire you. Yeah. We won't see you next.

[00:26:23] We won't see you tomorrow, babe. No, but I'm fascinated by this because it's, it's competing

[00:26:28] interests, a religious retreat that's a month long. Okay. That's, that's one thing. And especially

[00:26:35] if they've historically done it, but this year they can't because one background check is always

[00:26:41] enough to protect your business. SISIV's continuous criminal monitoring solution helps HR professionals

[00:26:46] stay informed of any criminal activity post-hire, giving you the peace of mind after onboarding.

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[00:26:57] you have real time data you need to respond to risk immediately. Protect your organization

[00:27:03] with SISIV's continuous criminal monitoring because workplace safety doesn't stop after hiring.

[00:27:11] Dieser komplexe Finanzierungstalk ist ganz schön anstrengend. Ob ich mein Depot jemals angelegt

[00:27:16] kriege? Aber du hast doch schon ein Depot. Äh, nee. Doch, du hast das Vodafone Gigadepot.

[00:27:21] Ha, stimmt. Und da habe ich ja selbst in der Hand, wie groß mein Depot ist. Jetzt mit dem Vodafone

[00:27:26] Gigadepot unverbrauchtes Datenvolumen in den nächsten Monat mitnehmen. Go on im zuverlässigen

[00:27:31] 5G-Netz von Vodafone. Vodafone. Together we can.

[00:27:36] They just don't have the staff. That's one thing. Her having degenerative arthritis is

[00:27:42] something completely different. Right. And so a person can't be fired for degenerative arthritis.

[00:27:48] They can be fired if they can't do their job. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Now, was there another job

[00:27:55] available? I don't know. But... Never know. It was a story. I thought it was interesting and...

[00:27:59] That's fascinating. Read through it. Here you go. All right. All right. I found this

[00:28:04] fascinating. One in four companies report they've lost customers due to Gen Z's employees' behavior.

[00:28:13] Oh, I could totally see that. So... So, of course, I'm going to use a Gen Z term that my kids use.

[00:28:21] Fire. Yeah. Yeah. But you know what? I can kind of see this. I mean, it tracks with both my kids.

[00:28:30] Because, like with Van, I have to tell him stuff, like, three times. And it's not that he's not

[00:28:35] listening to me. Like, I can tell that he's listening to them. Like, yeah, take the trash cans out to the...

[00:28:41] No, take the trash out. Okay. So, he takes the trash out to the cans. I'm like, okay, no, Van, it's Thursday.

[00:28:47] You got to take it to the curb. You got to take it to the curb. And he puts them together. I'm like,

[00:28:53] no, you can't put them together. The trucks...

[00:28:55] They can't get the thing in there.

[00:28:56] Can't get the thing. Like, dude, you've been doing this for two years.

[00:29:01] Yeah. Yeah. Come on, homie. Get with it.

[00:29:03] Yes. So, if I'm dealing with that at home, and I've got Henry's stories as well, but if I'm

[00:29:08] dealing with that at home, I can't help but think that Walmart or Target or somebody else

[00:29:15] is dealing with that as well.

[00:29:17] Yeah.

[00:29:18] Yeah.

[00:29:19] Well, it's...

[00:29:20] I...

[00:29:21] No.

[00:29:22] I can totally see it.

[00:29:23] 25% of companies report they've lost customers due to Gen Z's employees' behavior. I wonder

[00:29:30] how much of that...

[00:29:31] I didn't dig into that, but I wonder how much of that's due to phones or phone usage.

[00:29:35] Like, I've gotten this at Home Depot before. I don't know if you've gotten this, where I've

[00:29:39] gone up to an employee.

[00:29:41] I'm like, hey, how you doing?

[00:29:44] Good.

[00:29:44] Like, they don't look up.

[00:29:45] Yeah.

[00:29:46] They're staring at their phone.

[00:29:47] They're doing shit on their phone.

[00:29:49] Texting.

[00:29:49] They're like, oh, good, man.

[00:29:50] Thanks.

[00:29:51] Appreciate it.

[00:29:52] I'm like, yeah, I'm looking for...

[00:29:53] And whatever the bid is.

[00:29:54] And they're like, oh, yeah, I think that's over...

[00:29:57] I'm pretty sure that's over in lumber.

[00:29:59] Yeah.

[00:30:00] And they never make...

[00:30:02] I asked for paint, buddy.

[00:30:02] I asked for paint.

[00:30:10] Oh, yeah.

[00:30:11] Headphones for accommodation.

[00:30:12] They have to take out the earbud?

[00:30:13] Yeah.

[00:30:14] Like, they got the earbud hidden by their hair.

[00:30:15] My daughters do this.

[00:30:16] Like, I'm like...

[00:30:17] Dude, you listen to Mo Bamba while I'm sitting here talking to you?

[00:30:20] Yeah.

[00:30:20] Yeah, whatever.

[00:30:22] All right.

[00:30:22] Let's get on to Walmart here.

[00:30:24] So, Walmart had...

[00:30:25] Now, this isn't new.

[00:30:26] Walmart opened this up back in May.

[00:30:28] But on-site childcare at Walmart to support the RTO that they were pushing back into the

[00:30:35] organization.

[00:30:36] Now...

[00:30:37] So, this is corporate, not retail?

[00:30:38] Corporate, not retail.

[00:30:39] No, corporate, not retail.

[00:30:40] Now, I thought that when I read that.

[00:30:42] I'm like, that's amazing.

[00:30:43] I didn't see any here at the Walmart.

[00:30:46] No, this is corporate only.

[00:30:47] Yeah.

[00:30:48] If that would hit retail, that would be amazing.

[00:30:51] It would be cool.

[00:30:52] Maybe not in the store, but like close to the store.

[00:30:55] Close enough to the store.

[00:30:56] You know those front stores that they have in front of the registers?

[00:30:58] Yeah.

[00:30:59] Turn one of those into childcare.

[00:31:00] Right.

[00:31:01] So, I love this.

[00:31:04] This isn't a new concept, right?

[00:31:06] Right.

[00:31:06] A lot of big companies have this.

[00:31:08] But what I didn't really think about, and obviously there's a great recruiting tool or

[00:31:14] retention tool for RTO, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:31:17] What I never thought about is the amount of childcare that they offer to have space for

[00:31:26] 500 kids.

[00:31:27] That opens up 15% childcare openings in the local community.

[00:31:34] Oh, that's cool.

[00:31:35] So, where there's historically a waiting list for childcare centers, it's opening 15% of

[00:31:42] those openings up for those people to now-

[00:31:45] There's employees.

[00:31:46] Yeah.

[00:31:47] For those that have childcare.

[00:31:49] And they're bringing them on site.

[00:31:51] Now, I get it.

[00:31:52] People could say, well, they're pulling business from.

[00:31:54] Well, maybe, yeah.

[00:31:56] But they're also giving it to their employees.

[00:31:59] Employees.

[00:32:00] But they're opening it for people who can't get childcare.

[00:32:03] Right.

[00:32:03] And I never really thought about that.

[00:32:05] Right, right, right.

[00:32:05] Because the amount of money on childcare that they'd spend would be equal to or thereabouts

[00:32:11] one of the parents.

[00:32:12] Yeah.

[00:32:13] Well, they do have to pay.

[00:32:15] They have to pay for childcare.

[00:32:17] Really?

[00:32:17] Yeah, they have to pay for it.

[00:32:19] That was the one downside I saw.

[00:32:21] So, if you're investing in two buildings, 500 children from infancy to pre-K, why not

[00:32:26] just cover the cost?

[00:32:28] Yeah.

[00:32:28] I mean, it's $1,000 a month.

[00:32:30] Between $1,000 and $1,200 a month.

[00:32:32] That's solid debt for me.

[00:32:34] Right.

[00:32:34] It's a great, I love it, but it shouldn't be a profit center.

[00:32:37] It shouldn't even be a cost center.

[00:32:38] It should just be-

[00:32:39] Yeah.

[00:32:39] It's just baked in.

[00:32:40] They're doing it in partnership.

[00:32:41] I think it's with Bright Horizon.

[00:32:42] So, they have to pay.

[00:32:44] I understand that, but that's probably something that could be-

[00:32:47] They got plenty of profit, man.

[00:32:48] Exactly.

[00:32:49] Exactly.

[00:32:49] But you know what's interesting is this is, for all the folks that are doing a return to

[00:32:54] office, this is a great way to look at it.

[00:32:57] It's like some of the people that can't apply to your jobs or won't apply to your jobs or

[00:33:03] or are we going to leave your jobs.

[00:33:05] It's about their child.

[00:33:07] Yeah.

[00:33:07] It's about their kids.

[00:33:08] Yeah.

[00:33:09] And so, you know what?

[00:33:10] Fix it.

[00:33:11] Like, okay, we want you to be back at office.

[00:33:13] You know what we're going to do?

[00:33:14] We're going to turn, you know, the-

[00:33:18] Yeah.

[00:33:18] The-

[00:33:19] You know, the-

[00:33:20] Whatever room-

[00:33:20] We're going to turn something in and we're going to then cover it.

[00:33:23] Right.

[00:33:23] Like, make it a benefit.

[00:33:25] Yeah.

[00:33:25] For those-

[00:33:26] Yeah.

[00:33:26] For the employees.

[00:33:27] Yeah, which-

[00:33:28] Good story.

[00:33:28] Talk about benefits.

[00:33:29] I'll go back to the Google story real quick.

[00:33:31] Did you-

[00:33:32] I didn't-

[00:33:32] I didn't realize Google's death benefit.

[00:33:35] Have you-

[00:33:36] Oh, dude, no.

[00:33:36] Do tell.

[00:33:37] I think I need to go work at Google and die.

[00:33:39] My wife would love it.

[00:33:41] Okay.

[00:33:41] Okay.

[00:33:42] So, you-

[00:33:43] So, the death benefit at Google starts on day one.

[00:33:47] They get-

[00:33:48] I'm sure there's a vesting, but whatever it is, but your spouse, your significant or

[00:33:53] partner, domestic partner, they specifically label that, gets up to 10 years of 50% of your

[00:33:59] salary.

[00:34:00] Oh, that's cool.

[00:34:01] Yeah.

[00:34:02] Yeah, that's cool.

[00:34:02] And each child gets $1,000 a month until they're 19-

[00:34:06] Yeah.

[00:34:07] Or 23 if they're in full-time education.

[00:34:11] You know what?

[00:34:12] First of all, I love that.

[00:34:14] And what I would want on my Google death, if I were working at Google, is eliminate me from

[00:34:20] the internet.

[00:34:24] Don't let my kids find anything that I've done in life.

[00:34:28] Just everything that has my name attached to it, just delete it, make it for where people

[00:34:34] can't find it.

[00:34:35] That would be a benefit for me.

[00:34:36] That's awesome.

[00:34:37] That's awesome.

[00:34:38] Yeah.

[00:34:38] So, twice I took us off track today, but-

[00:34:41] No, it's fine.

[00:34:41] You said benefit.

[00:34:42] It triggered my thought.

[00:34:43] Anyway, let's get into some acquisitions.

[00:34:45] We got some-

[00:34:46] All right.

[00:34:46] Acquisitions.

[00:34:46] What's happened?

[00:34:48] Arcos acquires Clearion, expanding its workforce management solutions for Prolio.

[00:34:55] So, clearion.com.

[00:34:56] And that's just clear, I-O-N.com.

[00:35:00] You go look at that.

[00:35:01] So, Arcos is workforce management software for utilities and critical infrastructure industries.

[00:35:09] So, that's what they do.

[00:35:11] And Clearion is a provider of SaaS mobile software for vegetation management inspection and maintenance.

[00:35:19] So, basically, they've got these different industries that they cover.

[00:35:24] Arcos has other industries.

[00:35:26] Now, Arcos, by acquiring them, can now go into those other industries.

[00:35:30] And vice versa.

[00:35:31] They take Clearion into the industries that they serve.

[00:35:34] So, this is a great example of vertical integration, where you have verticals.

[00:35:41] Now, you bring on other verticals that you weren't dominant in.

[00:35:43] You acquire those.

[00:35:45] Right.

[00:35:45] And they'll do what Ultimate Software and Kronos did years ago, is Kronos will sell to Ultimate Software customers.

[00:35:54] Ultimate Software will sell to Kronos customers.

[00:35:55] There's a little overlap.

[00:35:57] And they don't have to do anything other than just sell to each other's customers for a while.

[00:36:01] So, great acquisition.

[00:36:04] Good for them.

[00:36:04] Okay.

[00:36:05] We got EQT acquires PageUp.

[00:36:07] I forgot about PageUp.

[00:36:09] Yeah.

[00:36:09] And I did not realize.

[00:36:11] They've been in this business since 1997.

[00:36:15] I didn't know it went back to 97.

[00:36:17] Yeah.

[00:36:17] I remember in the aughts, I remember meeting their founders.

[00:36:21] Yeah.

[00:36:21] It's been a while.

[00:36:23] So, EQT made the acquisition through BPEA, Private Equity.

[00:36:29] The goal here is to focus on deeper offerings and a wider international expansion.

[00:36:35] Mark Rice, who is their CEO, founder, CEO.

[00:36:39] No, not founder.

[00:36:40] Not founder.

[00:36:41] Sorry.

[00:36:41] CEO.

[00:36:42] My apologies.

[00:36:43] Will retire as CEO.

[00:36:46] I don't know if he's going to retire or retire.

[00:36:47] A lot of CEOs say that and then they do some other show.

[00:36:50] He's being retired.

[00:36:50] He's being retired.

[00:36:52] That's kind of what's happening here, right?

[00:36:54] It's what it is.

[00:36:55] It's normal.

[00:36:56] But for those who don't know, PageUp, for whatever reason, recruitment, marketing, ATS, performance.

[00:37:01] Good.

[00:37:02] I think this is good for them all around.

[00:37:04] Congrats on them.

[00:37:05] When I first met the founders as a husband and wife, and it was in Australia.

[00:37:13] And great – I mean really, really like great people, really, really nice people.

[00:37:17] And then they moved to Bangkok, and they ran the company from Bangkok.

[00:37:21] And they've been going around the world.

[00:37:23] They've got a worldwide clientele.

[00:37:25] For me, what's great for everybody is EQT equity are experts in international expansion.

[00:37:34] That's their bit.

[00:37:34] That's how they make money.

[00:37:36] They do this right.

[00:37:38] Battery Ventures basically own PageUp.

[00:37:40] So they get a great exit.

[00:37:42] So it's great for PageUp and PageUp's customers because now they've got a company that really fundamentally knows international expansion.

[00:37:51] They've been doing – PageUp has been doing international work for a long time.

[00:37:57] But they're not experts in it.

[00:37:59] They've kind of had to learn through the process, right?

[00:38:02] But good for everybody.

[00:38:03] Good one.

[00:38:03] Ryan, I got one last acquisition that I think is noteworthy, and that's Financial Finesse kind of doubles down on financially vulnerable employees.

[00:38:17] So Financial Finesse acquired of color.

[00:38:20] And I found this on Napanet.org.

[00:38:23] I love this acquisition because Financial Finesse has been focusing on financial wellness for a while and getting people's literacy.

[00:38:33] They've got all kinds of cool products.

[00:38:34] So acquiring this basically says to the market, financial wellness or financial literacy is not just for those that can afford it.

[00:38:46] And so it's a great acquisition.

[00:38:49] So take a look at it, Financial Finesse and of color acquisition.

[00:38:55] Very cool.

[00:38:57] All right.

[00:38:57] On to research.

[00:38:59] Research.

[00:39:00] We got research.

[00:39:01] So I blacked out some numbers for you.

[00:39:03] Oh, I like that.

[00:39:05] So we've got DEI in five numbers.

[00:39:09] So I found this on HR Dive, and I just thought this was pretty cool, and I wanted to throw this out.

[00:39:15] Okay.

[00:39:16] I'm going to give you 30 seconds.

[00:39:17] Okay.

[00:39:17] And I'm going to stop you.

[00:39:20] I'm not really going to time you.

[00:39:21] I'm just going to say shut up.

[00:39:22] I'm just going to say shut up.

[00:39:24] All right.

[00:39:25] 2024, the year by which 50-50 women on boards is expected or expects gender parity on U.S. corporate boards.

[00:39:37] 2044.

[00:39:38] Is it before or after?

[00:39:40] After.

[00:39:41] Wow.

[00:39:43] Okay.

[00:39:44] 79%.

[00:39:44] 79%.

[00:39:45] The rate of women seeking seasonal work who say they would prefer part-time position.

[00:39:50] This is according to iSims because they feel saddled with gendered responsibility of child care.

[00:39:59] 30 seconds.

[00:40:00] What's your thought?

[00:40:01] What's the – am I saying it's before or after?

[00:40:04] No.

[00:40:04] Oh, no, no, no.

[00:40:05] Just your thought on it.

[00:40:06] That number is probably – should be higher.

[00:40:10] Should be higher.

[00:40:11] Wow.

[00:40:11] Okay.

[00:40:12] I think a lot of women feel that.

[00:40:13] You don't think we've moved off of it yet.

[00:40:14] No, no.

[00:40:15] Hell no.

[00:40:16] No.

[00:40:16] You know, as I was writing this down, one of everybody that I know – two, sorry, two.

[00:40:22] Two men of everyone that I know are stay-at-home fathers or were stay-at-home fathers.

[00:40:29] Right, right.

[00:40:29] And their wives were.

[00:40:30] Out of everybody, only two.

[00:40:32] Yeah.

[00:40:33] It's the perception that I'm dealing with in 20 years.

[00:40:38] 20 years is nothing.

[00:40:39] It's a generation.

[00:40:39] Yeah.

[00:40:40] And I don't think we – I think it will take longer than that, and it's to really actually get there.

[00:40:45] Yeah.

[00:40:45] So 18 percent.

[00:40:47] Now, this is just now.

[00:40:48] This is in 2020.

[00:40:49] This is now.

[00:40:49] Rate of U.S. adults who, on average, say they've adopted a side hustle to hone their skills.

[00:40:55] The number jumps to 44 percent when you're talking about Gen Z.

[00:41:00] That's probably – legit for now, for Gen Z, that's probably a low number.

[00:41:06] That's probably higher for them.

[00:41:08] Yeah.

[00:41:09] Right.

[00:41:09] Well, there you go.

[00:41:11] Yeah.

[00:41:12] That's good.

[00:41:12] That's good.

[00:41:14] You got any other numbers?

[00:41:15] No.

[00:41:16] Those are the numbers?

[00:41:17] I think I'm good.

[00:41:17] You can underdact those.

[00:41:18] All right.

[00:41:19] Corn Ferry research reveals talent acquisition trends shaping 2025.

[00:41:26] Corn Ferry, huge.

[00:41:29] So you can go take a look at it.

[00:41:31] It's a huge study, and it's their 11th year of doing talent acquisition findings.

[00:41:36] So let me give you three nuggets that came from the report.

[00:41:40] 67 percent of talent professionals feel AI will have a major role in talent strategies in 2025.

[00:41:50] That's a big number for that to be just two months away.

[00:41:54] Yeah.

[00:41:55] So let's put a little post-it note on that.

[00:41:58] 64 percent of talent leaders say one of the biggest challenges facing the new world of work is finding candidates willing to work in the office.

[00:42:10] Oh, R-T-O.

[00:42:13] 64 percent.

[00:42:14] Can't believe it.

[00:42:15] Yeah.

[00:42:16] I'm thinking that number's low.

[00:42:18] I want to take a break real quick just to let you know about a new show we've just added to the network.

[00:42:24] Up Next at Work, hosted by Gene and Kate Akil of The Devon Group.

[00:42:30] Fantastic show.

[00:42:31] If you're looking for something that pushes the norm, pushes the boundaries, has some really spirited conversations, Google Up Next at Work, Gene and Kate Akil from The Devon Group.

[00:42:44] But for those that have to recruit for R-T-O, I think that's probably more like 80 percent.

[00:42:52] Wow.

[00:42:53] Yeah.

[00:42:53] It's just the pool just gets smaller and smaller and smaller.

[00:42:56] I'm starting to feel like an old man like, excuse me, Sharni, get off my lawn.

[00:43:00] You know, like, why?

[00:43:02] Just get to the goddamn office and work.

[00:43:06] Holy crap.

[00:43:07] Like, I'm all for staying at home.

[00:43:09] I'm not going to an office.

[00:43:10] I get this.

[00:43:11] It's hypocritical.

[00:43:12] Yeah, but you did your time.

[00:43:12] I did my, yeah.

[00:43:13] Yeah.

[00:43:13] Not that much time.

[00:43:15] It's like a prison sentence.

[00:43:16] Yeah.

[00:43:17] Whatever.

[00:43:18] All right.

[00:43:18] So last nugget is 67 percent of employees said they would stay at a company if it offered upskilling and advancement opportunities, dash, even if they didn't like the job.

[00:43:35] I found that fascinating.

[00:43:37] So basically two-thirds of your employees will stay.

[00:43:43] If you just offer them upskilling and advancement opportunities, you don't even have to worry about their happiness.

[00:43:50] They'll stay.

[00:43:51] I guess so.

[00:43:52] They'll stay just because of those things.

[00:43:54] Yeah.

[00:43:55] So fascinating.

[00:43:57] Anyhow, cornfairy.com.

[00:43:59] Go take a look at the research.

[00:44:01] It's fascinating, as always.

[00:44:04] All right.

[00:44:05] I have one more number I want to give you.

[00:44:07] Oh.

[00:44:08] We'll go back to this.

[00:44:09] One more number because I wanted to get you to tell you guys.

[00:44:11] Ninety-four percent.

[00:44:13] This is a Deloitte survey.

[00:44:15] Ninety-four percent.

[00:44:16] The rate of Deloitte respondents who worry that younger generations will not be equipped with adequate human skills in the workplace by 2044.

[00:44:26] It should be higher.

[00:44:28] How much higher can you get?

[00:44:30] Does it matter?

[00:44:31] No, because it's generational.

[00:44:33] This has nothing to do with AI.

[00:44:34] This has nothing to do.

[00:44:35] This is one generation looking at another generation saying they don't have what they need to do whatever.

[00:44:42] Keep the generation to yourself.

[00:44:44] Boomers have done that.

[00:44:45] Yeah.

[00:44:45] X did that with millennials.

[00:44:47] Millennials didn't know Z.

[00:44:48] So that's why it's a high number.

[00:44:50] Yeah.

[00:44:50] And it will be a high number because it's just what I call generational warfare.

[00:44:55] Right.

[00:44:56] All right.

[00:44:57] All right.

[00:44:57] So this is a survey that was done by Express Pros.

[00:45:02] This is really interesting.

[00:45:05] 40% of job seekers avoid companies without clear stances on key issues.

[00:45:11] Now, this is going to take us through like 97 conversations that we've had over the last like six months.

[00:45:18] So I'm going to throw this out here.

[00:45:20] So approximately 20% of hiring managers have encountered job applicants.

[00:45:27] This is during the interview process.

[00:45:29] Right.

[00:45:29] Or current employees who question their company stance on DEI.

[00:45:35] And other stuff.

[00:45:36] But DEI was the leader.

[00:45:38] Okay.

[00:45:39] Top concerns for job seekers.

[00:45:41] This is during interview process asking the hiring managers.

[00:45:44] So top concerns that job seekers want the companies to address publicly are diversity or DEI.

[00:45:51] Yep.

[00:45:53] 37%.

[00:45:53] Racism.

[00:45:56] 35%.

[00:45:56] Environmental issues at 30%.

[00:45:59] And sexism at 30%.

[00:46:01] I found that to be really interesting.

[00:46:03] With all these companies pulling out and not having a stance.

[00:46:07] Right.

[00:46:08] And just being silent in a lot of this.

[00:46:10] This is the exact opposite.

[00:46:11] Or worse.

[00:46:12] Or worse.

[00:46:13] Or trench.

[00:46:13] Yeah.

[00:46:14] Right.

[00:46:14] Right.

[00:46:14] And so this is a key thing for – this is critical for job seekers.

[00:46:20] And they're asking these questions in interviews.

[00:46:23] And the hiring managers don't know how to answer this.

[00:46:27] They're not trained on this.

[00:46:28] They're just going in for interviews.

[00:46:30] Well, this is the – it's whose might will bend first.

[00:46:38] Correct.

[00:46:39] Do you want the talent?

[00:46:41] And if you've got – if you can get the talent and you don't have to answer these questions,

[00:46:45] you don't have to have policies, you don't have to do things publicly, you're not going to care.

[00:46:50] Right.

[00:46:50] The moment in which you can't get the talent, that's the moment that your corporate policy changes.

[00:46:58] Right.

[00:46:58] Right.

[00:46:58] So it's really bending to the will.

[00:47:01] The will of Gen Z is these things.

[00:47:05] Fantastic.

[00:47:06] And there's nothing wrong with it, by the way.

[00:47:08] Right.

[00:47:08] Right.

[00:47:08] Right.

[00:47:09] Right.

[00:47:09] Right.

[00:47:09] However, they're not in control.

[00:47:12] It's the people that are – the generations above them that are in control that see that stuff as, yeah, listen, it's a job.

[00:47:20] Do your job.

[00:47:20] When Gen Z gets to a point where they're running the company, are they still going to have these same concerns?

[00:47:28] They have these concerns in their 20s.

[00:47:31] Right.

[00:47:31] So, as most people do in their 20s, in their 40s and 50s, will they be still concerned about these things?

[00:47:41] Probably not.

[00:47:42] No, because life is the same as us.

[00:47:44] I mean, we were concerned with something at 15 and 20 and 25 and 35.

[00:47:48] I care deeply about it.

[00:47:49] Yeah.

[00:47:50] Yeah.

[00:47:50] Now, could care less.

[00:47:52] Thanks.

[00:47:52] So, you know, that is fascinating.

[00:47:55] Show me the money.

[00:47:56] That's what I care about right now.

[00:47:57] Yeah.

[00:47:58] Yeah, again, what would be interesting to then see on that study is like, hey, we'll pay you 10% more.

[00:48:03] Yeah.

[00:48:03] To just shut up and stop asking these questions.

[00:48:07] Would you do it?

[00:48:09] Maybe.

[00:48:10] Probably.

[00:48:10] The younger Gen Z probably would.

[00:48:12] I would.

[00:48:16] You're going to give me 10%?

[00:48:17] I'm going to do the same job?

[00:48:18] Yeah.

[00:48:19] I don't need to ask questions.

[00:48:20] I'm good, brother.

[00:48:21] All right.

[00:48:22] Last one in research for me is 83% of Gen Z frontline employees are burned out at work.

[00:48:32] Over a third may quit because of a recent study by UKG.

[00:48:39] So, basically, this is about burnout and Gen Z.

[00:48:41] So, UKG, huge study.

[00:48:45] 13,000 frontline workers because that's their clientele, right?

[00:48:50] So, they really wanted to kind of get into Gen Z, what's different about Gen Z, what do they care about, blah, blah, blah.

[00:48:56] So, 61% of Gen Z isn't satisfied with the overall employee experience.

[00:49:03] Now, take that and then go back to that study of the note where companies believe that Gen Z is one in four.

[00:49:16] Gen Z, they're losing business because of their behavior.

[00:49:19] Yeah.

[00:49:19] Right?

[00:49:20] So, now you look at it from a corporate perspective.

[00:49:22] It's like, we're losing 25% of our business because of these kids.

[00:49:27] And they got 61% of the Gen Z saying, yeah, we're not satisfied with the employee experience.

[00:49:34] At one point, baby.

[00:49:36] Conflict.

[00:49:37] At one point.

[00:49:37] Passion for all.

[00:49:38] I mean, the conflict's there.

[00:49:39] The conflict is there.

[00:49:40] It's there.

[00:49:41] It's legit.

[00:49:42] It's not going to be there.

[00:49:43] It's there.

[00:49:43] So, a couple more notes real quick.

[00:49:45] 72% of Gen Z say interactions with people at work have worsened their mental health.

[00:49:51] That's a big number.

[00:49:52] Like, talking to people?

[00:49:56] Dude, I don't know.

[00:49:58] Define this a little more.

[00:49:59] Like, arguing, like, is mental-

[00:50:01] Interactions with people.

[00:50:04] That can only be interactions with people.

[00:50:07] I'm hoping it's like, because, I'm hoping what they're really talking about is there's

[00:50:12] really bad people at work saying really toxic things.

[00:50:15] Not just talking to people.

[00:50:16] Could be.

[00:50:16] Could be.

[00:50:17] Yeah, yeah.

[00:50:18] Could be.

[00:50:19] I mean, it is exhausting talking to you all day.

[00:50:21] Yeah, I get it.

[00:50:22] Fair enough.

[00:50:23] Fair enough.

[00:50:23] Fair enough.

[00:50:24] That's been all my life.

[00:50:26] Not a big deal.

[00:50:27] This is insane.

[00:50:28] Oh, my God.

[00:50:29] Impacts my mental health.

[00:50:31] All right, 71% of Gen Z say that they may quit because of negative interactions with their

[00:50:40] managers, coworkers, or customers.

[00:50:42] What I found fascinating, 25% of companies believe that they're losing business because

[00:50:47] of Gen Z.

[00:50:48] 71% of Gen Z says they may quit because of interactions with-

[00:50:54] Customers.

[00:50:55] Customers.

[00:50:56] Sick.

[00:50:57] I mean, yeah.

[00:50:59] Conflict.

[00:50:59] That's going to happen.

[00:51:01] All right, so-

[00:51:02] There was an episode of Undercover Boss.

[00:51:05] Yeah.

[00:51:06] That this reminds me of.

[00:51:07] The guy, it was a kid.

[00:51:09] He was probably 18, something like that.

[00:51:12] He was working fast food place, and he just-

[00:51:15] I mean, I get it.

[00:51:16] It's scripted.

[00:51:16] But they were saying, it's like, I hate people.

[00:51:19] I hate customers.

[00:51:20] They suck, and this and that.

[00:51:21] He's cursing this and that.

[00:51:23] And I'm just like, you're working in a fast food place in the drive-thru.

[00:51:27] How do you hate people?

[00:51:29] Yeah.

[00:51:30] I don't get it.

[00:51:32] Find a job where you don't have to interact with people.

[00:51:34] Cool.

[00:51:34] Yeah.

[00:51:34] Go get into a warehouse and just put stuff off a shelf or something.

[00:51:38] Throw boxes.

[00:51:39] You can do that.

[00:51:39] All right.

[00:51:39] Last thing on that is 20% of Gen Z say they've never been recognized by their manager.

[00:51:50] That for me.

[00:51:51] Yeah.

[00:51:51] I could see that.

[00:51:53] Because it deals with what is recognition.

[00:51:56] Yeah.

[00:51:57] The concept of recognition.

[00:51:59] What is that?

[00:52:00] Yeah.

[00:52:00] Yeah.

[00:52:00] What is it defining?

[00:52:02] What did it-

[00:52:02] I think the company feels as if they're- and I've always felt this, but I feel it more

[00:52:07] now.

[00:52:07] I feel like the companies feel as if they are recognizing.

[00:52:11] Right.

[00:52:12] By doing certain things.

[00:52:14] But they're boomer things.

[00:52:15] Right?

[00:52:15] That's right.

[00:52:16] They're old and they're antiquated.

[00:52:17] And these people who are in the workforce today, us and click, we want to be recognized

[00:52:22] in a different way.

[00:52:24] Whatever that way is.

[00:52:26] Recognition comes in the form of EFT.

[00:52:29] Yeah.

[00:52:31] Just throw me-

[00:52:33] Electronic funds transfer.

[00:52:35] Yeah.

[00:52:35] You know what?

[00:52:36] That's all the recognition I need, baby.

[00:52:38] That's all I need.

[00:52:39] But I fully- and I don't- honestly, companies should be jumping at the offerings for total

[00:52:48] rewards.

[00:52:49] Yeah.

[00:52:49] Like Vizier and some of these others.

[00:52:52] And they don't.

[00:52:53] They have to be sold and convinced on it.

[00:52:56] Yeah.

[00:52:56] And they really shouldn't be.

[00:52:58] No.

[00:52:58] They really shouldn't be, but-

[00:53:00] You want to do some funding?

[00:53:01] Let's do some dollars.

[00:53:04] All right.

[00:53:05] F-Y-L-D field secures 10 million to-

[00:53:10] I thought you were saying like FOMO or something like that.

[00:53:13] I had to figure it out.

[00:53:14] I'm like, you're going to ask me what this means.

[00:53:15] What does it mean?

[00:53:16] No, no.

[00:53:16] No, that's the name of the company.

[00:53:18] F-Y-L-D.

[00:53:19] Field, I like that.

[00:53:19] They acquired, they got raised 10 million to accelerate growth opportunities expansion

[00:53:24] for its AI-powered field work software.

[00:53:29] So this one's Startup Weekly.

[00:53:31] Now, when you dig into the story, this is about safety.

[00:53:34] Yeah.

[00:53:35] That's at the end of this bit is F-Y-L-D software promotes safety, better safety behaviors.

[00:53:43] And increases productivity and high quality outcomes through AI enhanced workflows.

[00:53:51] So the bit is all about safety, productivity, quality.

[00:53:56] You know, it's the things that you as a business owner, that's the things that you would care

[00:53:59] about.

[00:54:00] Yeah.

[00:54:00] Good for them.

[00:54:01] $10 million, not a small amount of money in this market.

[00:54:03] So congratulations.

[00:54:06] Very nice.

[00:54:07] Okay.

[00:54:07] Finger check.

[00:54:08] Have you heard of finger check?

[00:54:09] I never heard of finger check.

[00:54:10] That could get awkward very, very quickly.

[00:54:13] Finger check.

[00:54:13] They get $115 million.

[00:54:17] So this is a workforce management platform for SMBs with deskless workforces.

[00:54:23] So think payroll, time tracking, on-demand pay, onboarding, bed admin, all of that stuff.

[00:54:30] Yeah.

[00:54:30] Of course.

[00:54:30] So what's interesting here is this year, we've, so congratulations won.

[00:54:37] I should say that, right?

[00:54:38] This is a much, much needed infusion in an area that is certainly underserved in a lot

[00:54:44] of ways.

[00:54:45] But what's really interesting here is that this year we've seen just 300 rounds of funding

[00:54:51] in HR and HR tech.

[00:54:53] So the total, $1.7 billion, at least from what I can find.

[00:54:58] And this is only the fourth out of all of those deals of at least $100 million or more.

[00:55:05] Really?

[00:55:06] Interesting.

[00:55:06] Yeah.

[00:55:07] I could be wrong.

[00:55:08] We'll have to get with George.

[00:55:08] Make sure he can fact check me on that.

[00:55:10] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:55:11] But that's what I'm seeing.

[00:55:12] It's a big round.

[00:55:13] I mean, that's a...

[00:55:14] That's a big round.

[00:55:14] Yeah, yeah.

[00:55:15] That's a big round.

[00:55:16] Rippling is the highest with 200.

[00:55:19] Right.

[00:55:19] 200 million that we reported on a little bit ago.

[00:55:22] But yeah, congrats to these guys.

[00:55:25] I love that space and there's plenty of work to be done there for sure.

[00:55:29] Finger check not to be confused with finger bang.

[00:55:32] I couldn't get the sound effect in there quick enough.

[00:55:35] Mute your voice.

[00:55:38] There you go.

[00:55:38] Oboe.

[00:55:39] I tried.

[00:55:39] I knew it was coming.

[00:55:41] Oboe raises $4 million to make humans smarter with AI.

[00:55:45] Yeah.

[00:55:46] Startuphub.ai.

[00:55:47] Go take a look at this story.

[00:55:48] So Oboe, O-B-O-E, leverages AI to kind of redefine learning, make it faster, more effective

[00:55:58] and affordable for students, professionals and lifelong learners.

[00:56:03] Founders are from Spotify and Anchor.

[00:56:06] So I'm not going to bet against them.

[00:56:08] No.

[00:56:09] But basically what they're doing is they're trying to get so that you can learn AI faster.

[00:56:16] And it learns faster.

[00:56:18] So this is twofold.

[00:56:20] But I love it.

[00:56:22] First of all, it's this A round, I believe.

[00:56:25] Good founders.

[00:56:27] Solid background.

[00:56:28] Track record.

[00:56:28] So let's make humans smarter with AI.

[00:56:32] There we go.

[00:56:33] Always getting smarter.

[00:56:34] Finger bang.

[00:56:35] Okay.

[00:56:35] Sana.

[00:56:36] Sana.

[00:56:37] S-A-N-A.

[00:56:38] I'm going to say Sana.

[00:56:39] It's probably Sana.

[00:56:41] Raises $55 million at a $500 million valuation.

[00:56:45] That's legit.

[00:56:46] At the same time, they acquired workflow automation startup Control.

[00:56:50] C-T-R-L.

[00:56:51] I love that name.

[00:56:51] Yeah.

[00:56:52] I love the whole thing about that name.

[00:56:55] All right.

[00:56:55] So this is an LMS.

[00:56:56] This is a learning platform.

[00:56:58] The LMS market is highly fragmented.

[00:57:01] We know that.

[00:57:02] Right.

[00:57:02] But this funding is twofold.

[00:57:05] It's strategic.

[00:57:07] Twofold.

[00:57:08] Yeah.

[00:57:08] And it's strategic.

[00:57:09] The company acquired workflow automation startup with Control.

[00:57:13] And at the same time, they've announced their new AI agent features.

[00:57:18] So they've taken this money.

[00:57:21] They're bringing in Control to fill a massive gap that they had.

[00:57:25] Right.

[00:57:25] And they're leveraging that now internally to build more of their agents, so on and so forth.

[00:57:30] But at the same time, they also just quietly announced their AI agent features, which is the foundation of everything moving forward.

[00:57:39] So good for them.

[00:57:41] Good on them.

[00:57:41] And I do love that name, Control.

[00:57:44] Yeah, I do too.

[00:57:45] Credible Mind.

[00:57:45] You're going to love this one, by the way.

[00:57:47] Credible Mind announces $7.5 million in Series A to expand access to expert-curated and AI-personalized mental health platform.

[00:57:59] Okay.

[00:58:00] So this one's solutions.

[00:58:01] It's on Credible Mind.

[00:58:03] So you can just go to Credible Mind.

[00:58:04] It's in their press release.

[00:58:05] Series A, $7.5 million, all good stuff.

[00:58:08] But why you, Ryan Leary, why you will love it is they're going in the direction of creating personalized mental health co-pilots.

[00:58:18] Interesting.

[00:58:19] Interesting.

[00:58:20] So you have a question about your own mental health, about your sleep, you know, all that stuff?

[00:58:24] Mm-hmm.

[00:58:25] Just bam, it's right there.

[00:58:26] So I have a therapist in my pocket.

[00:58:29] Pretty much, baby.

[00:58:30] I like that.

[00:58:31] I think it's cool.

[00:58:33] Sure.

[00:58:33] And once you dig into their solutions, they've been doing cool stuff for a while now, like Credible Mind has.

[00:58:38] But this money is actually to do this bit, to create this little co-pilot.

[00:58:43] So I say this little co-pilot.

[00:58:45] It's massive.

[00:58:48] Little beady co-pilot.

[00:58:49] Yeah.

[00:58:50] You know, I just think it's cool.

[00:58:52] This is where you've been talking for months about how everyone's going to – it's not just one co-pilot.

[00:58:58] We're going to be surrounded with co-pilot.

[00:58:59] Yeah.

[00:59:00] Which is great.

[00:59:00] Yeah, this is the example of, well, I had this idea 90 years ago.

[00:59:04] Yeah.

[00:59:05] And somebody else did it, and I'm still sitting here working.

[00:59:08] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:59:08] 100%.

[00:59:09] You're going to be better.

[00:59:10] Yeah.

[00:59:12] All right.

[00:59:13] Beamery.

[00:59:14] Beamery takes a round of debt financing.

[00:59:19] I saw this one.

[00:59:21] Yeah.

[00:59:21] So I like this.

[00:59:24] I like this.

[00:59:25] A lot of people –

[00:59:25] Tell me why you like this.

[00:59:26] I like this for a lot of reasons.

[00:59:28] No.

[00:59:29] A lot of people get nervous when they hear companies taking rounds of debt financing.

[00:59:34] I think it's a confidence thing.

[00:59:35] I think these guys believe in what they're doing.

[00:59:37] They've been around forever.

[00:59:40] They've been written off a number of times, and people just kind of brush them under the rug, but they're here.

[00:59:45] And they're doing well.

[00:59:47] So the amount hasn't been disclosed, but they did say – this is what I don't like about it.

[00:59:53] They did say the funds will be used for innovation, whatever that means.

[00:59:59] It's going to be used for innovation and expansion.

[01:00:02] But they're bullish on what they're doing right now, and the banking gods trust them.

[01:00:06] So God bless them.

[01:00:08] Confidence is in the air.

[01:00:09] When you look at – at the end of the day, you look at your cap table, and if you're not giving up equity, the money if you need it –

[01:00:16] Better for them.

[01:00:17] It's better for them.

[01:00:18] Now, it depends on at what rate you have to pay back the debt.

[01:00:24] So if it's expensive debt financing, that's not a good thing.

[01:00:29] That means that they're starving for cash.

[01:00:31] They don't have enough money to then do it, and they couldn't raise.

[01:00:35] Correct.

[01:00:35] So sometimes it's a signal of they couldn't go out into the market and raise money, and so they had to take debt.

[01:00:41] When they have to take debt, it's at a high rate.

[01:00:44] Right.

[01:00:44] Not quite a loan shark, but real close.

[01:00:48] So when terms aren't disclosed, I always distrust it.

[01:00:53] You get worried about that.

[01:00:54] You do.

[01:00:54] I always distrust it because, again, if you took out $150 million from Silicon Valley Bank in debt financing, cool.

[01:01:03] Like why not disclose that?

[01:01:06] There's no reason not to – for me, there's no reason not to disclose what you raised in debt financing because, again, it's not hitting your cap table.

[01:01:15] It's not equity.

[01:01:16] It's not –

[01:01:16] Right.

[01:01:17] It is debt.

[01:01:18] Right.

[01:01:19] So –

[01:01:19] And you're able to pay that back if you're in a good spot.

[01:01:22] Or not.

[01:01:22] Or not.

[01:01:24] Or not.

[01:01:25] In the case of some companies.

[01:01:28] I'm going with good.

[01:01:29] No, no.

[01:01:29] I got you.

[01:01:29] I got you.

[01:01:30] I got you.

[01:01:30] But, yeah, I saw that note too, and I'm always – even with funding rounds, when people don't disclose, it's just a big flag for me.

[01:01:38] I'm like, why?

[01:01:39] What's the deal?

[01:01:39] Well, they like to keep their pocketbook private, you know?

[01:01:42] Yeah.

[01:01:44] So American Student Assistance –

[01:01:48] Assistance.

[01:01:50] Invest 2.5 million into SpringPod to expand work-based learning opportunities for young people in the United States.

[01:01:58] Why not older people?

[01:02:00] Do I now?

[01:02:01] Why not older people?

[01:02:03] Yeah, they give it up on those folks.

[01:02:05] That's just –

[01:02:06] Sorry.

[01:02:07] Old dog, new tricks.

[01:02:08] Eh, man.

[01:02:10] Anyhow, this is on PR Newswire.

[01:02:11] So I like this, first of all.

[01:02:13] I think it's a great investment because the gap for entry-level employees for either college or high school, when they define young people, you know, could be any of that.

[01:02:23] Mm-hmm.

[01:02:24] It's always been off.

[01:02:26] Like, when you graduate high school and then you get into the working world, you're like, whoa, I didn't know that.

[01:02:31] Okay, so they're going to be – they create, basically, learning opportunities, scenarios, situational learning.

[01:02:38] Yeah.

[01:02:39] Experiential learning, all that type of stuff, to then narrow the gap between what you learn in school, whether or not you graduate high school, high school, graduate college, whatever the bit is, and then when you enter the workforce.

[01:02:51] Mm-hmm.

[01:02:52] So how do you narrow that gap?

[01:02:54] Spring Pod, that's what they're doing is narrowing the gap.

[01:02:57] So great investment.

[01:02:58] Good.

[01:02:58] I can't wait to see where they take this and how they do, but good for them.

[01:03:02] All right.

[01:03:04] I've got one more in funding, and then we're going to call it a Tooth Fairy.

[01:03:08] We're going to channel the Tooth Fairy here.

[01:03:11] So Toothio, which I just love the name.

[01:03:13] That is cool.

[01:03:14] I'm covering them.

[01:03:15] They raised $5 million for themselves.

[01:03:18] This is a digital staffing marketplace.

[01:03:20] For the dental industry.

[01:03:22] Right.

[01:03:22] So this is on-demand hygienists, dental assistants, receptionists, people like that in the offices that are hard to come by and may be out of the office, and you can't just cancel 30 appointments in a day.

[01:03:38] Right.

[01:03:38] Just can't afford to do that, right?

[01:03:40] I mean, the dentists are backed up a quarter at this point.

[01:03:43] And so this is an on-demand staffing platform to allow them to locally pull people who need flexible shifts that are qualified, vetted, and ready to go.

[01:03:54] So $5 million for these guys.

[01:03:57] Don't hate it.

[01:03:57] I love the name.

[01:03:58] No, don't hate it at all.

[01:03:59] And that's why I'm covering them because I like the name.

[01:04:01] Do you know 22% of dental hygienists are ex-sex workers?

[01:04:07] No, I don't.

[01:04:09] How do you know that?

[01:04:12] Well, I study the market.

[01:04:14] That's what I do.

[01:04:15] Move on.

[01:04:16] I don't know where that came from.

[01:04:18] When you mentioned dental hygienists, that's what I thought of.

[01:04:23] Strippers.

[01:04:24] Well, there you go.

[01:04:25] All right, last one, and you are going to love it because you love this type of stuff.

[01:04:29] It's Read AI raises $50 million to capitalize on a strong demand for its AI summary tool.

[01:04:37] So they've been around for a while doing great stuff.

[01:04:39] And so techcrunch.com, you go read about Read AI.

[01:04:44] But they've been summarizing emails, summarizing messages, summarizing meeting programs.

[01:04:49] But now they're getting into Slack, Teams, Confluence, like everything.

[01:04:54] And so they want to be in the summarizing business of everything that you do.

[01:04:59] And so this ultimately helps with productivity because we don't have to read the six pages of things.

[01:05:05] It's like, all right, tell me that in 500 words or less.

[01:05:08] Love that.

[01:05:09] Which, again, productivity, but also happiness.

[01:05:13] Yeah.

[01:05:13] So good for them.

[01:05:14] You've got to be able to trust it.

[01:05:15] So that's good too.

[01:05:17] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:05:17] Yeah, yeah.

[01:05:18] Read AI.

[01:05:19] That's it.

[01:05:20] We're done.

[01:05:21] That's all we got for today.

[01:05:22] So thank you all so much for listening.

[01:05:26] We really, really appreciate it.

[01:05:28] Yeah, we do.

[01:05:29] Go birds.

[01:05:30] We'll see you all next week.

[01:05:32] Subscribe, like, and rate us if you're out there and listening.

[01:05:35] I should say that in the beginning so that they can just stop listening and rate.

[01:05:39] Good point.

[01:05:39] You know.

[01:05:40] Yeah.

[01:05:40] So anyhow, thank you all for listening.

[01:05:42] Until next time.