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The sun and fun of SPARK HR was well underway as Day 2 of our conference kicked off. From Disney to Chick-fil-A, the world’s premiere HR leaders took the stage to shine a light on what the HR world needs, and how to flourish in the field. The thing they all agree on? Empathy is […]
Wait, did you read that right? “What does ranch dressing have to do with employment law?” Well, quite a lot actually, as long as we’re talking about the most famous type of ranch dressing, the brand that introduced most of America to ranch dressing: Hidden Valley Ranch. Legend of the Hidden Valley The story of […]
Gen AI tools are now embedded in daily business operations—from drafting emails and summarizing documents to analyzing data and preparing internal reports—whether they’re sanctioned or not. But as companies and employees adopt these tools, courts are beginning to address an important question: Are AI prompts, uploads, and outputs safe from discovery? Two recent federal decisions […]
In what has been heralded as “the death of the resume,” a post on X by Elon Musk advised applicants for engineering jobs at his Dojo 3 AI chip project to forgo submitting resumes and simply provide, “3 bullet points on the toughest technical problems you’ve solved.” The reality is that resumes have continually been […]
In February 2026, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued guidance titled “Frequently Asked Questions from the Federal Sector about Telework Accommodations for Disabilities.” Although it’s targeted toward federal agencies, the guidance draws on standards also relevant to private employers covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Alternative Reasonable Accommodations The ADA entitles qualified […]
An employee uses AI to generate a recommendation in seconds. It looks polished, confident, and complete. But it’s flawed. Without the skills to question or validate that output, the mistake moves forward faster than ever before. This is the reality organizations are facing as AI in HR adoption accelerates. The biggest challenge with AI transformation is not adoption, but workforce readiness, making sure […]
When a party communicates with a publicly available AI platform in connection with a legal dispute, are the party’s communications protected by the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine? In one of the earliest decisions on this issue, Judge Jed S. Rakoff—an influential judge in the Southern District of New York—held that such communications were […]
Action plans are only as good as the system that supports them. After the survey closes and priorities are set, managers are often expected to deliver results without the structures, skills, or motivation needed to succeed. So, what can HR professionals do to help managers actually function? We asked upcoming SPARK HR speaker, I/O psychologist, […]
The legal framework governing worker classification in the United States has undergone significant turbulence over the past five years, leaving businesses to navigate a seemingly ever-changing regulatory environment. Most recently, on February 27, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a notice of proposed rulemaking that would alter the analysis for determining whether a […]
HR executives have entered new territory. The function is no longer viewed as a support operation focused on policies, processes, or head count alone. HR leaders are now expected to shape outcomes, business outcomes, mission outcomes, and human outcomes, often at the same time and under heightened scrutiny. That shift is reflected in how CEOs think about the role. A growing majority now […]