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An HR compliance audit is a vital process that evaluates your organization’s human resources practices against established laws and regulations. This assessment not merely helps identify potential compliance issues but likewise reveals outdated practices that could hinder operational efficiency. By ensuring that your HR policies are aligned with legal requirements, you protect your organization from penalties and lawsuits. Comprehending the key components of these audits can greatly impact your talent acquisition and retention strategies, making it imperative to explore their benefits further. Key Takeaways HR compliance audits assess HR policies and practices for alignment with laws and regulations, ensuring organizations avoid legal pitfalls. They identify non-compliance issues that could lead to costly penalties or lawsuits, protecting the organization’s financial health. Audits improve operational efficiency by revealing outdated practices and facilitating updates to HR policies. Regular audits promote accountability and transparency, fostering trust among employees and enhancing workplace culture. Conducting HR compliance audits provides a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining top talent through a compliant and trustworthy environment. Understanding HR Compliance Audits Grasping HR compliance audits is vital for any organization looking to maintain lawful operations and cultivate a positive workplace environment. An HR compliance audit is a thorough evaluation of your organization’s HR policies, procedures, and practices, ensuring they align with applicable laws and regulations. This human resource audit includes evaluating employee documentation, payroll practices, and compliance with workplace safety standards at federal, state, and local levels. Regular HR compliance audits help you identify potential areas of non-compliance and operational inefficiencies, allowing you to address issues proactively before they escalate into legal disputes. Conducting these audits encourages a culture of accountability and transparency, enhancing employee trust and morale. In the end, HR compliance audits serve as a strategic tool for long-term business success, supporting the alignment of your HR practices with organizational goals as well as reducing the risk of penalties from non-compliance. Importance of HR Compliance Audits Recognizing the importance of HR compliance audits is vital for any organization aiming to navigate the complex terrain of employment law effectively. These audits play a significant role in identifying non-compliance issues that could lead to costly penalties, protecting your organization from potential lawsuits and fines. By conducting regular audits, you nurture a culture of accountability and transparency, which can greatly improve employee trust and morale. Moreover, HR compliance audits help boost operational efficiency by revealing outdated or ineffective HR policies, allowing for better alignment with current laws. Proactively addressing compliance gaps supports your sustainable growth strategy, ensuring adherence to evolving regulatory changes. Furthermore, regular audits can provide a competitive advantage by improving workplace culture, eventually enhancing your organization’s ability to attract and retain top talent. Key Components of HR Compliance Audits To effectively manage compliance risks, organizations must focus on the key components of HR compliance audits. First, conduct a thorough review of your policies and procedures to guarantee they align with federal, state, and local employment laws. It’s essential that your employee handbook accurately communicates company policies and is updated regularly to reflect any legal changes. Furthermore, maintaining and securing employee records is imperative for safeguarding sensitive information and complying with data privacy regulations. You’ll also need to verify the accuracy of employee classifications, payroll practices, and adherence to workplace safety standards. Finally, an all-encompassing examination of HR functions during the audit helps identify potential compliance gaps proactively. This minimizes legal risks and cultivates a fair workplace environment, eventually enhancing your organization’s overall compliance posture and employee satisfaction. The HR Process Audit How can organizations guarantee their HR functions remain effective and compliant? One of the most reliable methods is conducting an HR process audit. This thorough evaluation examines HR functions such as recordkeeping, hiring processes, and safety compliance, ensuring they align with legal standards and organizational policies. Key steps include defining the audit scope, collecting relevant documents, and interviewing HR personnel to assess how policies are practically applied. Benefits and Best Practices of HR Compliance Audits Even though many organizations recognize the importance of HR compliance audits, the specific benefits and best practices can greatly boost their effectiveness. Regular audits help you identify potential compliance gaps early, mitigating legal risks and preventing costly penalties. They likewise improve operational efficiency by revealing outdated HR practices, leading to better resource allocation. Moreover, conducting audits promotes a culture of accountability and transparency, which boosts employee trust and morale. To maximize the benefits, consider implementing the following best practices: Best Practices Benefits Frequency Annual audits Early identification of gaps Annually Continuous improvement Stay updated with laws Ongoing Employee training (e.g., EasyLlama) Reinforce comprehension As needed Documentation review Improve process efficiency Bi-annually Feedback mechanisms Improve transparency Regularly Frequently Asked Questions What Is an HR Compliance Audit? An HR compliance audit is a thorough evaluation of your organization’s HR policies and practices. It checks for alignment with legal and regulatory standards, reviewing employee documentation, payroll practices, and workplace safety. By identifying potential compliance gaps, it helps you mitigate risks and avoid costly penalties. Regular audits improve transparency, bolster employee morale, and guarantee your HR practices adapt to evolving laws, keeping your organization legally sound and operationally efficient. What Is HR Audit and Its Importance? An HR audit evaluates your organization’s HR policies and practices, ensuring they meet legal requirements and standards. It identifies compliance gaps, which helps mitigate risks associated with employment law violations. The importance of an HR audit lies in its ability to improve transparency and trust within your workforce, streamline processes, and adapt to evolving regulations. Regular audits can furthermore improve operational efficiency and support your efforts in attracting and retaining top talent effectively. What Is Compliance in HR and Why Is It Important? Compliance in HR means following employment laws and regulations at local, state, and federal levels. It’s vital since it helps you avoid legal issues that can lead to hefty fines or lawsuits, affecting your organization’s reputation. By ensuring compliance, you create a fair workplace, enhancing employee trust and morale, which boosts productivity and retention. Regularly evaluating your HR practices through audits helps identify and address potential compliance gaps proactively, safeguarding your organization’s interests. Why Is Compliance Audit Important? Compliance audits are essential for maintaining adherence to legal standards and regulations in your organization. They help you identify non-compliance areas, preventing costly penalties or lawsuits. Regular audits promote a culture of transparency and accountability, enhancing employee trust. By updating outdated policies and improving operational efficiency, compliance audits support overall business performance and sustainable growth. Staying informed about regulatory changes guarantees that your HR practices remain aligned with current legal requirements, safeguarding your organization’s reputation. Conclusion In conclusion, an HR compliance audit is essential for ensuring your organization adheres to legal standards and best practices. By regularly evaluating your HR policies and procedures, you can identify potential risks, improve operational efficiency, and promote a culture of accountability. Implementing effective audit practices not just protects your organization from legal issues but furthermore strengthens your talent acquisition and retention efforts. Prioritizing HR compliance audits supports sustainable growth and positions your organization for long-term success. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "What Is HR Compliance Audit and Why Is It Essential?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Most people never change careers, which is remarkable when you consider how little evidence most of us had when we chose our first one. For many professionals, early career decisions are shaped less by talent or long-term fit than by convenience and coincidence. We follow friends into certain degrees, accept the first decent offer, listen to family advice, or pursue interests that feel meaningful at 18 but prove less durable at 38. These choices are understandable, but they are weak predictors of where our strengths will compound over time, or of what will sustain both performance and satisfaction across decades of work. In essence, we follow our own or other people’s intuition rather than facts or data, which is rarely a recipe for success. The problem is further compounded by how fast the ground has shifted, especially over the past decades. Even before the rise of generative AI, career predictability had been steadily eroding. Globalization, repeated economic shocks, declining job tenure, the collapse of clear promotion ladders, and the shift from stable organizational careers to project-based and boundary-less work all contributed to rising uncertainty. Longitudinal labor data shows that occupational half-lives were shrinking well before automation became a mainstream concern, with entire roles emerging and disappearing within a decade. In parallel, individuals were expected to manage their own employability, continuously update skills, and absorb risks once carried by employers or institutions. AI has not created this uncertainty so much as amplified it, accelerating the obsolescence of skills, compressing career ladders, and blurring professional boundaries. Knowledge and technical expertise, once reliable sources of differentiation, are increasingly commoditized. At the same time, employers place growing value on judgment, learning agility, influence, and curiosity, capabilities that universities still struggle to measure or systematically develop. The result is a widening gap between what people trained for, what they are good at, and what the labor market actually rewards. It is therefore no surprise that career anxiety is rising, even among people who appear successful on paper. Gallup data shows that roughly 60% of employees feel emotionally detached at work, while fewer than one in four strongly believe their job aligns with their strengths. LinkedIn data consistently finds that the average worker will change roles every three to four years, yet meaningful career pivots remain rare and often delayed until dissatisfaction becomes acute. At the same time, mobility has slowed. After the Great Resignation came what economists now call the Big Stay: people feel stuck rather than settled. They are rethinking their careers cognitively, but postponing action behaviorally. In other words, “job hugging” has replaced “job hopping”. So how can you tell whether you are merely going through a rough patch or whether it is genuinely time for a career pivot? Decades of research on career development, identity, and motivation point to four reliable signals. 1. Your learning has stalled, not just your motivation One of the most robust predictors of engagement and career satisfaction is perceived progress. When people feel they are learning, they tolerate stress and uncertainty better. When learning stops, even high performers disengage. Professor Herminia Ibarra’s research on career transitions shows that people rarely pivot successfully through introspection alone. Clarity follows action, not the other way around. If your role no longer exposes you to new skills, perspectives, or problems, that is not a temporary slump but a structural constraint. Before quitting outright, experiment: Be ready to fail smart, in the sense of learning from your experience and becoming wiser as a consequence. As the saying goes, “experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted to get”. For example, take on side projects, advisory roles, or temporary assignments that test alternative identities. Stagnation becomes dangerous only when experimentation stops. 2. Your strengths no longer translate into value Many careers falter not because people lose competence, but because the market stops rewarding what they are good at. Technological change makes this especially common. Skills that once differentiated professionals are automated, standardized, or absorbed into platforms. As I have illustrated in one of my previous books, AI is far more likely to automate tasks within jobs—changing the skills constellation needed to perform them—than actual jobs. Research on person–job fit shows that sustained misalignment between strengths and role predicts burnout and underperformance, even among conscientious high achievers. A useful diagnostic question is whether your best contributions still feel essential or merely adequate. Successful pivots rarely involve abandoning strengths. They involve redeploying them where they matter more. 3. Your career identity has become rigid Ibarra’s work highlights that career change is as much an identity transition as a skills transition. People delay pivots not because they lack options, but because they are overly attached to who they think they are supposed to be. This is also why authenticity is overrated: Why limit yourself to your past and present self when you can instead create or sculpt a broader, more diverse, and richer version of yourself? This is where the “squiggly careers” concept, popularized by Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis of Amazing If, is especially useful. Modern careers are no longer linear ladders but adaptive paths, shaped by lateral moves, pauses, reinventions, and redefinitions of success. If you feel compelled to defend your current title, industry, or trajectory rather than evolve it, you may be protecting a legacy identity rather than building a future one. Indeed, progress is not a straight line! 4. You are succeeding externally but disengaging internally One of the most overlooked signals is sustained performance paired with declining well-being. Longitudinal studies show that people can maintain output for years after motivation erodes, but at a cost to health, creativity, and long-term employability. If your reputation is strong but your curiosity, energy, or sense of meaning is steadily diminishing, that is not ingratitude. It is misalignment. Career satisfaction is not a soft outcome. It is a leading indicator of future performance and adaptability. In short, we tend to romanticize career pivots as bold acts of reinvention. But the evidence suggests the opposite. Successful pivots usually happen through small, low-risk experiments that reshape identity over time, guided less by passion than by a disciplined willingness to revise assumptions in response to reality. In an era where work will change repeatedly, the real risk is not changing direction too often, but staying in place long after the signals suggest you should move. The most resilient professionals are not those with fixed plans, but those who know when the cost of standing still has quietly begun to exceed the cost of change. View the full article

Six incidents in six days follow a year without any reports of damage to underwater infrastructureView the full article

The geopolitical implications of President The President’s controversial weekend attack on Venezuela and the capture and extradition of its president, Nicolás Maduro, are still being digested by legal and security experts in the two days following the shocking announcement. What is more certain is the immediate market reaction from a select number of publicly traded stocks that have the potential to be impacted by the military action. Here’s how America’s top energy, defense, and tech stocks are moving on the first trading day after the U.S. intervened in the affairs of its South American neighbor. America’s oil and energy stocks soar Some of the most closely watched stocks today will be those of oil and energy giants traded on U.S. exchanges, particularly Chevron Corporation. The Texas-based oil company is the American energy giant with the biggest footprint in the region, notes CNBC, and thus the one primed to benefit the most from The President’s stated desire to “start making money for the country.” But Chevron isn’t the only one that stands to benefit. In a Saturday press conference addressing America’s military intervention, The President said, “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies—the biggest anywhere in the world—go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure.” While the president did not name any specific companies, based on premarket trading this morning, investors seem to think that the following oil and energy giants stand to benefit from the intervention: Chevron (NYSE: CVX): up 7.3% Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM): up 4.5% ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP): up 7.3% Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL): up 10.3% One interesting thing to note: Two prominent oil companies that trade on the New York Stock Exchange are currently down slightly in premarket trading. Those companies are Shell (NYSE: SHEL), down 0.7%, and BP (NYSE: BP), down 0.7%. Shell is a British-Dutch company and BP is a British company. Investors may believe that The President is unlikely to allow foreign oil companies—even those of its allies—to profit from America’s intervention in Venezuela. But investors are cautious about defense stocks America’s military intervention in Venezuela suggests that under The President’s second term, the U.S. may engage in a new expansionist hard power policy, directly using its military might to enforce changes around the globe. Indeed, as noted by Reuters, The President has already threatened another military operation against a southern neighbor—this time in Colombia. While the moral and legal aspects of such action are debatable, it’s undeniable that an expansion of America’s military action is good for the bottom lines of the country’s most prominent defense companies. However, investors so far seem to be taking a cautious approach to U.S. companies operating in the defense space, with many companies up only slightly in premarket trading on Monday: Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT): up 1% RTX (NYSE: RTX): up 0.7% Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC): up 1% General Dynamics (NYSE: GD): up 1% The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA): up 0.2% Defense-adjacent tech stocks are also up While many of America’s tech giants, including Google and Microsoft, have defense contracts, some smaller tech firms almost exclusively cater to the country’s military and security apparatus. Such companies likewise stand to benefit from increased U.S. military operations. Yet as of the time of this writing, investors also seem to be taking a more cautious approach to these stocks, which include: Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR): up 3.8% Honeywell International (NASDAQ: HON): up 0.2% L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX): up 0.7% View the full article

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Twenty twenty-six will be a year of financial corrections, AI-driven biological breakthroughs, and new thinking about cybersecurity and executive protection—at least according to the CEOs I recently asked to provide bold prognostications. Here’s how 12 of them responded. New threats, new protections Rick Caccia, CEO of AI security platform WitnessAI, believes 2026 will bring the first major AI-driven cyberattack that causes significant financial damage. After that happens, he predicts corporations will augment their existing security budgets, and those deals will close three times faster than current cycles as companies move fast to secure their systems. “Currently, enterprise AI spending remains largely compliance-focused as companies prepare for regulatory requirements in the absence of active threats,” Caccia says. An AI-powered attack will highlight the need for additional security investment, he says, adding, “This will create a new market dynamic where AI security moves from ’nice to have‘ to ’business critical‘ overnight.” Ted Bailey, founder and CEO of Dataminr, and Balaji Yelamanchili, CEO of ThreatConnect, see business leaders demanding threat intelligence that’s tailored to their specific organizations in 2026. Amid tight budgets and staffing shortages—not to mention AI threats—companies need real-time intelligence about threats, communicated in the context of their businesses and investments. They say information that can’t answer the question How does this affect my organization? is unhelpful, and that 2026 will see organizations matching data about external threats with the effectiveness of their internal controls to understand their true vulnerabilities. Filip Kaliszan, CEO and cofounder of software-driven building security company Verkada, predicts that attacks on politicians and executives will drive a “new era of investment and standardization in executive protection.” Rising threats, ranging from harassment and doxxing to high-profile physical attacks such as the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s Brian Thompson—will prompt boards of directors to think differently about C-suite security. “Just as cybersecurity teams measure dwell times, breach costs, and vulnerability exposure, executive protection teams will increasingly quantify risk reduction and operational impact—how many threats were identified, potential losses avoided, or disruptions mitigated,” he says. AI infrastructure evolves KR Sridhar, founder, chairman, and CEO of Bloom Energy, maker of fuel-cell energy systems, predicts that AI data centers and large-scale manufacturing facilities that need massive, reliable energy will move to onsite power rather than relying solely on the central grid. “As AI’s explosive growth collides with grid limitations, businesses and regulators will accelerate adoption of next-generation energy models that deliver clean, affordable, and abundant power,” Sridhar says. “This is essential for building a future where innovation and sustainability go hand in hand.” And Sami Issa, director and CEO of Global AI, believes the world will treat sovereign AI—a nation’s ability to use its own infrastructure and data to produce AI—the same way it treats national energy grids. “This shift may look sudden from the outside, but from my vantage point, the demand signals are already impossible to ignore,” Issa says. “Nations will compete to secure gigawatt-scale, single-tenant capacity, and the organizations that move early will define the next decade of AI capability and security.” Evan Beard, CEO and cofounder of Standard Bots, predicts the United States will hit 45,000 new industrial robot installations as AI-powered robots prove they can handle sustained production. He believes that first-time automation buyers, especially small to midsize manufacturers, will embrace the technology as industrial robots become more accessible and affordable. “By year-end, those new deployments will empirically confirm what American manufacturers already tell us: When companies adopt advanced robotics, they become more cost-competitive, improve productivity, and retain or grow their workforce in more technical and higher-wage roles,” he says. AI: big and small Bam Azizi, CEO and cofounder at Mesh, a global payment network, predicts the true engine of growth for agentic commerce—AI agents handling digital transactions—won’t be fueled by consumer shopping but by business-to-business applications, especially micropayment processing. “Agents are set to perform thousands of high-velocity, fractional transactions for API (application programming interface) calls and cross-border services that traditional card rails can’t handle,” Azizi says. Micha Breakstone, cofounder and CEO of biotech company Somite AI, predicts venture capitalists this year will prioritize investing in biotech companies that essentially transform cellular biology into a predictive engineering science that can transform medicine and drug development. He asserts that these companies “will be valued less like traditional biotech and more like Tesla. The value proposition to investors is not just the individual car (the drug), but the ‘autonomous driving software’ (the platform) that powers it.” A coming correction A few CEOs expressed concerns about overheated financial markets. “I’ve been in private equity for 31 years, and I’ve never seen anything like the current level of froth in the credit markets,” says Graham Weaver, founder and CEO of Alpine Investors. Indeed, corporate bond issuance and growth in the $1.1 trillion private credit market showed little sign of slowing last fall. “I can’t predict when this ends—maybe it’s 2026, maybe not—but as night follows day, it will end,” Weaver says. “When it does, and when debt becomes less available and the froth begins to fade, [over-leveraged] companies could face a very painful reckoning. My advice is to prepare now so the de-leveraging becomes a soft landing rather than a crash landing.” Sam Miller, CEO and cofounder of payments app Kasheesh, offers an even starker warning: “In 2026, America could face the largest financial correction in modern history, and AI will not be the safety net for everyday Americans.” As AI scales, he says, corporations will gain efficiency and speed, but small businesses and consumers will struggle. “We need AI built for inclusion, designed for those being left behind, to create a financial system that helps everyone rise, not just those already ahead.” Then again . . . If these projections feel unsettling, you can always take solace in the words of Kunal Kapoor, CEO of Morningstar, who takes a refreshingly contrarian stance: “I predict that most predictions will not come true!” (Disclosure: Morningstar’s executive chairman, Joe Mansueto, owns Inc. and Fast Company’s parent company.) Kapoor adds: “Put me in the optimist camp when it comes to thinking about the impact changing technology will have on our industry, the economy, or business landscape.” Indeed, being a Modern CEO requires a good measure of enthusiasm and sanguinity in the face of change and uncertainty, which we’re sure to experience throughout 2026. Your predictions What big changes are you anticipating in 2026? Send your bold predictions to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com, and I’ll compile the most compelling prognostications in a future newsletter. Read more: unpredictable predictions Axios Pro Rata’s Dan Primack collected one-line predictions on AI, life sciences, and more Three futurists weigh in on how AI will change the world in 2026 AI predictions from a ChatGPT pioneer View the full article

2026 will be a year of architectural showstoppers. Major projects, from corporate headquarters to sports stadiums and museums, will wrap construction and open to the public in 2026, bringing bold, sometimes audacious buildings to cities around the world. Here are nine buildings opening in 2026 to watch for. Arena Milano—opening in February Milan David Chipperfield Architects Built partly to host ice hockey games during the 2026 Winter Olympics, Arena Milano is a 16,000-seat multipurpose arena that’s expected to become a new center for sports and concerts in Milan. Pritzker Prize-winning David Chipperfield Architects’ design, done in conjunction with Arup, is the standout venue for this edition of the Olympics. An inverted triple-decker layer cake that calls to mind Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York, the building is intended to evoke the elliptical form of the city’s former Roman amphitheater. Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s David Geffen Galleries—opening in April Los Angeles Peter Zumthor Inherently controversial, architect Peter Zumthor’s Wilshire Boulevard-spanning blob-like replacement of Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s (LACMA’s) main gallery buildings has been more than a decade in the making, with no shortage of hand-wringing about its shape, cost, and necessity. The concrete building’s ink blot form spreads across a single elevated floor, marking a hard departure from the museum’s mid-century campus design. One early review—ahead of a slightly odd three-day preview in June 2025 of what was essentially an empty building—found the execution of Zumthor’s vision flawed, but also calls the building a refreshingly risk-taking piece of architecture. Hudson Valley Shakespeare Theater—opening in June Garrison, New York Studio Gang The Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center is the first permanent, purpose-built stage for Hudson Valley Shakespeare, an open air theater company that has been performing under a glorified tent since 1987. Tucked under a swoopy timber tortoise shell of a canopy, the new theater was designed by Studio Gang to shield performers and audience members from the elements and the sun’s glare during dusk performances. It’s also a picture frame for the site’s epic view, opening fully behind the stage to provide audiences a panorama of the ridgelines of the Hudson Valley. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Expansion—opening in June Bentonville, Arkansas Safdie Architects The 2011 opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Northwest Arkansas was a bold investment by Walmart heir Alice L. Walton in broadening access to world class art beyond the typical metropolitan centers of the U.S. Now, 15 years later, Safdie Architects has returned to broaden the museum’s reach even further. The project expands the museum’s space by 50% while extending the aesthetics of the original design. Future visitors may be unable to tell where the expansion begins, or that there ever even was one. Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library—opening in July Medora, North Dakota Snøhetta Set in the wide openness of North Dakota where Theodore Roosevelt ranched for years before becoming the 26th president of the United States, the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is a stunning earthship of rammed earth, mass timber, and a nearly camouflaged roofline. Designed by Snøhetta to physically blend into the landscape, the building is meant to reflect Roosevelt’s environmental stewardship and deep connection to the landscape of the North Dakota Badlands. Buffalo Bills’ Highmark Stadium—opening in summer 2026 Orchard Park, New York Populous The Buffalo Bills NFL team is moving on from its previous home of more than 50 years into a brand new 60,000-seat stadium. Despite—or possibly because of—Buffalo’s snowy winters, the stadium was designed to be an open bowl, welcoming the elements onto the field and all but the uppermost stadium seats. The stadium’s designer, sports architecture specialists Populous, calls it “one of the most intimidating home field environments in the league.” Lucas Museum of Narrative Art—opening in September Los Angeles MAD One of the most anticipated new cultural institutions in recent years, George Lucas’s $1 billion museum is hotly awaited both for its extensive art collection and its far-out architecture. Designed by MAD Architects with an integrated landscape by Studio-MLA, the spaceship-shaped building is a curvaceous modern behemoth in Los Angeles history-laden Exposition Park. Though his firm has built dozens of shapely museums and opera houses across China, this will be lead architect Ma Yansong’s first major cultural institution in the U.S. Atlassian Central—opening in November Sydney SHoP Architects When software giant Atlassian’s new headquarters building opens in 2026, this 39-story skyscraper will be the world’s tallest hybrid timber building. Made up primarily of six mass timber four-level buildings-within-the-building, the tower encases everything in a criss-crossing steel exoskeleton wrapped in operable glass windows. Designed by SHoP Architects, the tower is also a hybrid at ground level, preserving a historic train shed and converting part of it into the tower’s new lobby. Guggenheim Abu Dhabi—opening TBD Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Gehry Partners Possibly the last major project to be designed by architect Frank Gehry before his death in December 2025, the long-awaited Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is expected to open to the public sometime in 2026, 20 years after it was first announced. Appearing to be a jumble of funnels, tubes, and cubes, the museum fully embodies Gehry’s signature style. Its government backers hope the museum also taps into the energy of previous Gehry projects, like its counterpart museum in Bilbao, Spain. One official recently told a local newspaper the museum aspired to be “a civic space.” View the full article

A world order built around great power spheres of influence is a recipe for instability and conflictView the full article

A few months ago, I was scrolling through TikTok when I came across a video that stopped me in my tracks. It starred an animated frog, dressed in a wizard hat, robe, and pink nail polish, superimposed over a psychedelic background and speaking in a hypnotizing, ethereal voice. “It’s time to stop doing nothing, and start doing something,” he crooned. “I cast . . . motivation!” I’d stumbled across the Pine Wizard Frog—a recurring character on the official TikTok account of household cleaning fluid Pine-Sol. Pine-Sol’s page, with its surrealist visuals and hypnotizing songs, is an example of what I call “brain-rot-brand TikTok”: It’s a subgenre of digital marketing that rejects traditional advertising in favor of the kind of content that actually performs well on TikTok and Instagram Reels. Rather than selling products directly, brain-rot-brand TikTok embraces head-turning, often nonsensical choices, like fried visuals, abrasive design, and unsettling storylines, to spread brand awareness and—presumably—boost sales. A few years ago, most companies wouldn’t have touched brain-rot TikTok with a 10-foot pole. But as brands like Duolingo have built entire communities around bucking digital brand norms, others have gradually jumped on the bandwagon. Nutter Butter might be the first brand that went full brain rot, with hits like a Nutter Butter taking a trip to the playground on what appeared to be way too much acid. More recently, Brita, Amtrak, Sour Patch Kids, Brisk Canada, Mug Root Beer, and Dr Pepper have adopted some flavor of brain-rot branding. The strategy appears to be working. According to Clorox, which owns Brita and Pine-Sol, in the past year Pine-Sol was the only brand to crack the top 15 in TikTok’s #cleaning category (the other 14 were creators with followings). In June, Brita’s TikTok content raked in more than 44 million views. In July, Amtrak scored its most-viewed Instagram post of all time by trying out a weirder brand voice. And multiple years into its brain-rot experiment, Nutter Butter still regularly amasses millions of views with its TikToks. But as someone who’s now likely watched hundreds of these videos (for research, obviously), I’ve been wondering: Is brain-rot-brand TikTok cringe yet? As more and more brands try to break through the crowded attention economy with wackier social concepts, at what point does it stop feeling like they’re in on the joke and more like a desperate plea for attention? To get to the bottom of this query, I rang up Ryan Benson. He’s the self-described “social media menace” who led Nutter Butter’s original brain-rot strategy, helped build Sour Patch Kids’s uniquely threatening brand voice, and has since gone on to found his own creative agency, Loudmouth. We discussed Nutter Butter’s creepy ’60s commercial, a tea brand that’s weirdly into cheese, and Dunkin’s horny spider donut. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Can you give a bit of background on the brand story you were telling with Nutter Butter? Why did it make sense to go so weird—even weirder than Duolingo, which many people cite as the OG unhinged brand? With Nutter Butter, our agency contract was for I think 23 Mondelēz brands. Nutter Butter was a tier three—there were three tiers, so they were on the bottom. Like a C-list snack? Yes, exactly. And that meant the resources that were available to each brand were fully dependent on what tier they were. So tier one is Oreo, and as you can imagine Oreo has six agencies working for it and endless resources. There are ads on TV, billboards, all sorts of agencies. Nutter Butter had $2,000 in an expense account and me. The narrative we were working with was, this is an old cookie, there’s not a lot of story here. What can we do to get people talking about Nutter Butter? And as we experimented with different formats—brain rot being one of those—what we learned is people were left asking, “Is Nutter Butter okay?” And we were like, “Hey, it’s not, ‘How do I buy a Nutter Butter off the shelf,’ but they’re talking about this.” Nutter Butter So then we learned how to feed the conversations that they wanted to see. We picked up from the comments like, “Oh, they’re talking about this aspect of the photo–let’s make sure that we edit that into the next one.” Or, “They’re noticing that we put Morse code in the bottom of the image. Let’s make sure we put a message in a different coded language in the next one.” It actually became a conversation. Through that, we developed Aidan and brought back the Nutter Butter man from the ’60s commercial, and we really started to reintroduce all these creepy analog horror themes. [Editor’s note: Aidan is an original recurring character in Nutter Butter’s videos, based on one of the brand’s biggest online fans.] I think what some people miss when they’re like, “Let’s copy and paste the Nutter Butter approach,” is that we didn’t have to make things up. We were just pulling from the old commercial that exists already. If you were consulting for another brand, how would you advise them on whether they should get in on this strategy? The first question I would be asking is, “Why?” And if their reason is anything at all about Nutter Butter, I would tell them no. What made Nutter Butter so successful is that we already had the audience that was receptive to the weirdness. We were playing off of things that we saw—they were posting, they were reposting, they were interacting on—so we knew that our audience had a shared interest. We understood that some of the outrage that we saw was actually fanship. They were following, they wanted to find out, they were up for the antics. And somehow, at the end of the day, we actually influenced people to go buy more off the shelves. Once the client saw that it was actually somehow affecting sales numbers, they were like, “Okay, go for it.” I encourage everyone to try out-of-the-box things and do new things for brands that haven’t had attention on them. But if the only reason you want to do it is because it worked for Nutter Butter, go back to the drawing board, because I don’t want you to waste your time. Sure, weird people might see it, but are you going to alienate all of your actual followers? Are you also noticing more of this brain-rot-brand strategy online? If so, I’m curious if there are any examples that come to mind. Yeah, absolutely. One of my new favorite things that I’ve just developed as a personality trait is I attract people sending me things from brands that are going rogue or going brain rot, and they’re like, “This is your legacy. You did this.” Off the top of my head, some brands that I love that are doing the brain-rot approach right now: Mug Root Beer is insane; Brisk Canada is insane; Dr Pepper is doing a big one right now—not necessarily analog horror vibes, but they are deep-frying images, they’re purposefully low quality. It’s stupid, irreverent humor. These are promising to me because they all seem like they’re playing off the same energy of like, “Oh, it worked in the comments last time.” Brisk Canada’s thing is cheese. They make tea in a can, but they love shredding cheese onto the can. They love just copious amounts of cheese. It makes no sense. They don’t sell cheese. Duolingo What kinds of mistakes do you see companies making when they try this out? The thing that I see being a problem is that some of these brands have adopted this brain-rot strategy not understanding that it’s a means of communication that transcends traditional marketing. It does that for a reason, because we’ve developed this ability to communicate without selling. But then if a brand comes and co-ops this ability to communicate without selling in order to sell, they’re just kind of shitting on it. I think that we will continue to see brands try to adopt this, but I don’t know how many will be successful, because they have to understand that at the end of the day, they’re selling to people who experience real things and experience a real world outside. There are two different worlds operating, and the mastery is understanding how to join these communities and have conversations that are two-sided, instead of just showing up and being like, “Hello, you dumb kids—you like cheese on your tea? Well, I have a six-pack and it’s $29.99.” You lose people. And for some brands, all of this is just a ploy to sell, so it will have issues. Dunkin’ Donuts I don’t want to make you burn any bridges with brands, but I am curious if you’ve seen anyone try the more unhinged strategy in a way that wasn’t really working for you. I don’t have any bridges here, so it may burn, but I’m not on the other side. Dunkin’ Donuts and their spider donut thing. They did a first post with an apology graphic, where they bolded certain letters and it spelled out “spidey” or something. That was actually duplicative of my work two or three years ago, where I posted an apology from Nutter Butter and bolded letters to spell “Aidan.” It was the exact same format—with their logo and their colors—almost down to the font. And then they did it again the next year. This last year, they put a lot of budget into an experiential drive-through where they decorated the store, but I did see some commentary of fans being like, “Hey, we’re kind of done with the horny spider donut thing.” They’re milking it. On that note, do you see a point at which we reach a critical mass of this kind of thing? What’s going to happen that makes people say, like, “Ugh, this is stupid—I’m over it”? Honestly, sometimes I question if we’re there. I think back to the evolution of the Nutter Butter account. When I started, we were not immediately posting these deep-fried, demon-in-a-closet-covered-in-peanut-butter-type vibes. We were posting memes and text posts on Twitter and doing brand things. So it’s not like we’re a full anomaly and we’ve never done the things that other brand accounts have done. We tried everything. So I question how many brands right now are in the early stages of what we did and are about to hit a wall of responses of people being like, “Meh,” because there’s already comments on my old stuff being like, “Okay, guys, you’ve played this out too long.” I also questioned the apology trend that hit a couple months ago. For me that was a turning point, because when we did it, we fully understood like, “Hey, it’s not normal for brands to post an apology, it could go south.” We understood this itself is a little bit risky, absurd, extreme. And then it devolved. I question how many brands are about to be shamed, because going back to what I was saying earlier, this method of communication is supposed to be human-based. I don’t know how many brands are pursuing it with that in mind. If you’re just deploying 15 assets in a campaign that are scheduled, you’re not doing any community management, so there’s no user insights in whatever you’re building. They won’t necessarily feel like they’re along for the ride. It will just be like, “Oh, they’re doing an absurdist thing.” If you add in another degree of people doing it just because it worked for Nutter Butter, there’s no natural tie-in. Now you’re just throwing a pizza party for the marketing team. It’s hard to make a prediction, but I just feel like we’re going to see a brand like Palantir get in on it, or we’re going to see something dystopian, and then everyone’s going to be like, “We’ve had enough.” I don’t think we’re there yet, but I feel like we’ve been bordering on it. View the full article

An employee handbook is a crucial document that outlines your company’s policies and expectations. It serves as a guide for both new hires and current employees, detailing procedures and standards for behavior. Comprehending its structure and content is fundamental for promoting a positive workplace environment. Key sections, like employment policies and conflict resolution procedures, will help you navigate your role and responsibilities. But what specific components make an effective handbook? Key Takeaways An employee handbook outlines company policies, procedures, and standards for employee behavior within the organization. It serves as a roadmap for new hires to understand the company mission, values, and culture. The handbook promotes legal compliance, helping to mitigate risks related to employment laws and workplace conduct. Regular updates ensure policies remain relevant and reflect changes in laws or organizational practices. Clear documentation of conduct expectations fosters accountability and aids in conflict resolution among employees. What Is an Employee Handbook? An employee handbook is an important document that serves as a roadmap for understanding the policies and expectations within an organization. So, what’s a handbook? It’s a thorough resource that outlines the company’s policies, procedures, and standards for employee behavior. In simple terms, the employee handbook definition encompasses guidelines that help new hires understand the company’s mission, values, and culture right from the start. Typically, this handbook includes vital information such as legal disclaimers, equal employment opportunity statements, and anti-harassment policies to guarantee compliance with applicable laws. It clarifies your rights and responsibilities, reducing misunderstandings and potential legal issues for the organization. Finally, regular updates are necessary to keep the handbook current with changes in laws, policies, and employee feedback, thereby promoting transparency and consistency in the workplace. Importance of an Employee Handbook Though you mightn’t realize it, an employee handbook plays a crucial role in shaping the workplace environment and guiding employee behavior. It centralizes company policies, guaranteeing all employees access to consistent information, which promotes fairness and transparency across the organization. This resource is particularly significant for onboarding new hires, helping them understand your company culture, values, and expectations, in the end improving retention rates and cultivating a sense of belonging. Additionally, the handbook helps mitigate legal risks by clearly outlining compliance with laws like Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and anti-harassment policies, reducing the likelihood of litigation. Key Components to Include in an Employee Handbook Building on the importance of an employee handbook, it’s vital to understand which key components should be included to create an effective resource. Start with a clear introduction outlining your company’s mission, vision, and core values; this sets the tone for alignment among employees. Next, detail important employment policies, including equal employment opportunity, anti-discrimination measures, and workplace conduct to guarantee a fair environment. Extensive information on compensation and benefits is significant, so include salary structures, health insurance options, and unique perks. Clearly outline leave and time-off policies, specifying procedures for requesting time off, types of leave available, and guidelines for reporting absences. Finally, incorporate health and safety procedures to inform employees about workplace safety protocols and emergency procedures. Including these components will help create a thorough and useful handbook that serves as a reliable resource for your employees. Steps to Create an Effective Employee Handbook Creating an effective employee handbook involves several key steps that guarantee it serves as a useful resource for your staff. Start by identifying key stakeholders, including HR, legal, and management, to gather input on necessary policies and procedures. Next, draft the handbook using clear, employee-friendly language, ensuring that all policies are easily grasped without legal jargon. Once drafted, review the document with stakeholders for feedback and to confirm compliance with federal, state, and local laws before finalizing the content. After finalization, distribute the handbook to all employees in an accessible format, requiring them to acknowledge receipt to confirm their comprehension of the outlined policies. Finally, schedule regular reviews and updates of the handbook to reflect changes in laws, company practices, and employee feedback, ensuring it remains relevant and compliant. Best Practices for Updating Your Handbook To keep your employee handbook relevant and effective, it’s crucial to schedule regular reviews at least once a year. This process should include input from diverse stakeholders, such as HR and employees, to guarantee your policies are clear and concise. Schedule Regular Reviews Regularly scheduling reviews of your employee handbook is essential for maintaining compliance and relevance in an ever-changing legal environment. Aim to conduct these reviews at least annually to guarantee your policies align with current federal, state, and local laws. Involve a diverse group of stakeholders, such as HR, legal counsel, and department heads, during the review process. This collaboration will provide thorough insights and feedback on necessary updates. Document all changes made in each review cycle to track policy evolution and guarantee transparency. After updates, communicate major changes to all employees without delay, making sure they acknowledge and understand the revisions. This reinforces the handbook’s role as a living document that evolves with your organization. Incorporate Employee Input Incorporating employee input into the employee handbook update process can greatly improve its relevance and effectiveness. Start by soliciting feedback through surveys or focus groups, ensuring that employees feel their perspectives are valued. New employees can help identify unclear sections, making the handbook more user-friendly. Long-term employees can share their experiences and suggest improvements, leveraging their knowledge of the company culture. Regularly communicate with staff about upcoming revisions, emphasizing the importance of their input to encourage ownership and engagement. Furthermore, implement a system for ongoing feedback, allowing employees to submit suggestions at any time. This approach promotes continuous improvement, ensuring the handbook evolves with the needs and insights of your workforce. Benefits of a Well-Structured Employee Handbook A well-structured employee handbook promotes consistency across teams by centralizing policies and expectations, making it easier for everyone to understand their roles. This clarity not merely cultivates a unified work environment but additionally greatly reduces legal risks by clearly outlining policies related to discrimination and workplace safety. When employees know the rules and benefits, it improves their overall satisfaction and helps maintain a professional atmosphere. Promotes Consistency Across Teams When you implement a well-structured employee handbook, you help guarantee consistency across teams by clearly defining company policies and procedures. This clarity guarantees that all employees understand their expectations and responsibilities, which reduces misunderstandings and conflicts. As a result, your workplace environment becomes more positive and productive. By providing uniform information on benefits, time-off policies, and workplace conduct, the handbook promotes trust between employees and management. Consistent communication through the handbook likewise contributes to increased employee satisfaction and retention, as individuals feel informed and valued. Regularly updating the handbook helps maintain this consistency amid evolving laws and organizational practices, assuring all employees remain aligned with current expectations and feel supported in their roles. Reduces Legal Risks By clearly outlining company policies and procedures, a well-structured employee handbook greatly reduces legal risks for your organization. It helps minimize misunderstandings among employees, which can lead to potential legal disputes. By including thorough anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies, the handbook acts as a legal defense against claims of workplace misconduct. Regularly updating the handbook guarantees compliance with evolving federal, state, and local employment laws, considerably lowering the risk of penalties for non-compliance. Clear documentation of conduct expectations and disciplinary procedures promotes fairness, deterring litigation related to wrongful termination or discrimination claims. Providing employees with a resource to reference their rights and responsibilities additionally diminishes conflict, as documented policies can resolve misunderstandings effectively. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Definition of an Employee Handbook? An employee handbook is a document that outlines your organization’s policies, procedures, and expectations regarding behavior and performance. It provides you with crucial information about workplace rules, benefits, and your rights and responsibilities. The handbook helps guarantee compliance with legal requirements, covering topics like anti-discrimination and workplace safety. Typically, it includes sections on company culture, employment policies, conduct, compensation, and benefits, aligning you with the organization’s values and goals. What Are the Key Points of the Employee Handbook? The key points of an employee handbook include the company’s mission, values, and code of conduct, which help align your behavior with organizational goals. It outlines fundamental policies on equal opportunity, anti-discrimination, and workplace conduct. You’ll additionally find details about compensation, benefits, and leave policies, which clarify your rights and entitlements. Regular updates are vital to guarantee compliance with laws and keep the content relevant, emphasizing the importance of periodic reviews. What Not to Put in an Employee Handbook? You shouldn’t include overly detailed job descriptions, personal opinions, or informal language in an employee handbook. Avoid making promises about job security, as they can lead to legal issues. Exclude confidential company information, like trade secrets, to protect your organization. Furthermore, steer clear of any policies that aren’t compliant with local, state, or federal laws, as including them can damage the handbook’s credibility and expose the company to legal repercussions. How to Structure a Handbook? To structure a handbook effectively, start with a clear introduction that outlines your company’s mission, vision, and values. Organize the content into sections like Employment Policies, Workplace Conduct, and Compensation and Benefits, ensuring each topic flows logically. Include a table of contents and an index for easy navigation. Regularly review and update the handbook to reflect policy changes or legal requirements, keeping it relevant and user-friendly for employees. Conclusion In conclusion, an employee handbook is crucial for outlining company policies, procedures, and behavioral expectations. By comprehending its components and following best practices for creation and updates, you can guarantee that the handbook remains a relevant resource for all employees. A well-structured handbook not just clarifies company values but additionally cultivates a positive workplace environment. In the end, investing time in developing and maintaining your employee handbook can improve compliance and boost overall organizational effectiveness. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Understanding Employee Handbook Definition – A How-To Guide" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

An employee handbook is a crucial document that outlines your company’s policies and expectations. It serves as a guide for both new hires and current employees, detailing procedures and standards for behavior. Comprehending its structure and content is fundamental for promoting a positive workplace environment. Key sections, like employment policies and conflict resolution procedures, will help you navigate your role and responsibilities. But what specific components make an effective handbook? Key Takeaways An employee handbook outlines company policies, procedures, and standards for employee behavior within the organization. It serves as a roadmap for new hires to understand the company mission, values, and culture. The handbook promotes legal compliance, helping to mitigate risks related to employment laws and workplace conduct. Regular updates ensure policies remain relevant and reflect changes in laws or organizational practices. Clear documentation of conduct expectations fosters accountability and aids in conflict resolution among employees. What Is an Employee Handbook? An employee handbook is an important document that serves as a roadmap for understanding the policies and expectations within an organization. So, what’s a handbook? It’s a thorough resource that outlines the company’s policies, procedures, and standards for employee behavior. In simple terms, the employee handbook definition encompasses guidelines that help new hires understand the company’s mission, values, and culture right from the start. Typically, this handbook includes vital information such as legal disclaimers, equal employment opportunity statements, and anti-harassment policies to guarantee compliance with applicable laws. It clarifies your rights and responsibilities, reducing misunderstandings and potential legal issues for the organization. Finally, regular updates are necessary to keep the handbook current with changes in laws, policies, and employee feedback, thereby promoting transparency and consistency in the workplace. Importance of an Employee Handbook Though you mightn’t realize it, an employee handbook plays a crucial role in shaping the workplace environment and guiding employee behavior. It centralizes company policies, guaranteeing all employees access to consistent information, which promotes fairness and transparency across the organization. This resource is particularly significant for onboarding new hires, helping them understand your company culture, values, and expectations, in the end improving retention rates and cultivating a sense of belonging. Additionally, the handbook helps mitigate legal risks by clearly outlining compliance with laws like Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and anti-harassment policies, reducing the likelihood of litigation. Key Components to Include in an Employee Handbook Building on the importance of an employee handbook, it’s vital to understand which key components should be included to create an effective resource. Start with a clear introduction outlining your company’s mission, vision, and core values; this sets the tone for alignment among employees. Next, detail important employment policies, including equal employment opportunity, anti-discrimination measures, and workplace conduct to guarantee a fair environment. Extensive information on compensation and benefits is significant, so include salary structures, health insurance options, and unique perks. Clearly outline leave and time-off policies, specifying procedures for requesting time off, types of leave available, and guidelines for reporting absences. Finally, incorporate health and safety procedures to inform employees about workplace safety protocols and emergency procedures. Including these components will help create a thorough and useful handbook that serves as a reliable resource for your employees. Steps to Create an Effective Employee Handbook Creating an effective employee handbook involves several key steps that guarantee it serves as a useful resource for your staff. Start by identifying key stakeholders, including HR, legal, and management, to gather input on necessary policies and procedures. Next, draft the handbook using clear, employee-friendly language, ensuring that all policies are easily grasped without legal jargon. Once drafted, review the document with stakeholders for feedback and to confirm compliance with federal, state, and local laws before finalizing the content. After finalization, distribute the handbook to all employees in an accessible format, requiring them to acknowledge receipt to confirm their comprehension of the outlined policies. Finally, schedule regular reviews and updates of the handbook to reflect changes in laws, company practices, and employee feedback, ensuring it remains relevant and compliant. Best Practices for Updating Your Handbook To keep your employee handbook relevant and effective, it’s crucial to schedule regular reviews at least once a year. This process should include input from diverse stakeholders, such as HR and employees, to guarantee your policies are clear and concise. Schedule Regular Reviews Regularly scheduling reviews of your employee handbook is essential for maintaining compliance and relevance in an ever-changing legal environment. Aim to conduct these reviews at least annually to guarantee your policies align with current federal, state, and local laws. Involve a diverse group of stakeholders, such as HR, legal counsel, and department heads, during the review process. This collaboration will provide thorough insights and feedback on necessary updates. Document all changes made in each review cycle to track policy evolution and guarantee transparency. After updates, communicate major changes to all employees without delay, making sure they acknowledge and understand the revisions. This reinforces the handbook’s role as a living document that evolves with your organization. Incorporate Employee Input Incorporating employee input into the employee handbook update process can greatly improve its relevance and effectiveness. Start by soliciting feedback through surveys or focus groups, ensuring that employees feel their perspectives are valued. New employees can help identify unclear sections, making the handbook more user-friendly. Long-term employees can share their experiences and suggest improvements, leveraging their knowledge of the company culture. Regularly communicate with staff about upcoming revisions, emphasizing the importance of their input to encourage ownership and engagement. Furthermore, implement a system for ongoing feedback, allowing employees to submit suggestions at any time. This approach promotes continuous improvement, ensuring the handbook evolves with the needs and insights of your workforce. Benefits of a Well-Structured Employee Handbook A well-structured employee handbook promotes consistency across teams by centralizing policies and expectations, making it easier for everyone to understand their roles. This clarity not merely cultivates a unified work environment but additionally greatly reduces legal risks by clearly outlining policies related to discrimination and workplace safety. When employees know the rules and benefits, it improves their overall satisfaction and helps maintain a professional atmosphere. Promotes Consistency Across Teams When you implement a well-structured employee handbook, you help guarantee consistency across teams by clearly defining company policies and procedures. This clarity guarantees that all employees understand their expectations and responsibilities, which reduces misunderstandings and conflicts. As a result, your workplace environment becomes more positive and productive. By providing uniform information on benefits, time-off policies, and workplace conduct, the handbook promotes trust between employees and management. Consistent communication through the handbook likewise contributes to increased employee satisfaction and retention, as individuals feel informed and valued. Regularly updating the handbook helps maintain this consistency amid evolving laws and organizational practices, assuring all employees remain aligned with current expectations and feel supported in their roles. Reduces Legal Risks By clearly outlining company policies and procedures, a well-structured employee handbook greatly reduces legal risks for your organization. It helps minimize misunderstandings among employees, which can lead to potential legal disputes. By including thorough anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies, the handbook acts as a legal defense against claims of workplace misconduct. Regularly updating the handbook guarantees compliance with evolving federal, state, and local employment laws, considerably lowering the risk of penalties for non-compliance. Clear documentation of conduct expectations and disciplinary procedures promotes fairness, deterring litigation related to wrongful termination or discrimination claims. Providing employees with a resource to reference their rights and responsibilities additionally diminishes conflict, as documented policies can resolve misunderstandings effectively. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Definition of an Employee Handbook? An employee handbook is a document that outlines your organization’s policies, procedures, and expectations regarding behavior and performance. It provides you with crucial information about workplace rules, benefits, and your rights and responsibilities. The handbook helps guarantee compliance with legal requirements, covering topics like anti-discrimination and workplace safety. Typically, it includes sections on company culture, employment policies, conduct, compensation, and benefits, aligning you with the organization’s values and goals. What Are the Key Points of the Employee Handbook? The key points of an employee handbook include the company’s mission, values, and code of conduct, which help align your behavior with organizational goals. It outlines fundamental policies on equal opportunity, anti-discrimination, and workplace conduct. You’ll additionally find details about compensation, benefits, and leave policies, which clarify your rights and entitlements. Regular updates are vital to guarantee compliance with laws and keep the content relevant, emphasizing the importance of periodic reviews. What Not to Put in an Employee Handbook? You shouldn’t include overly detailed job descriptions, personal opinions, or informal language in an employee handbook. Avoid making promises about job security, as they can lead to legal issues. Exclude confidential company information, like trade secrets, to protect your organization. Furthermore, steer clear of any policies that aren’t compliant with local, state, or federal laws, as including them can damage the handbook’s credibility and expose the company to legal repercussions. How to Structure a Handbook? To structure a handbook effectively, start with a clear introduction that outlines your company’s mission, vision, and values. Organize the content into sections like Employment Policies, Workplace Conduct, and Compensation and Benefits, ensuring each topic flows logically. Include a table of contents and an index for easy navigation. Regularly review and update the handbook to reflect policy changes or legal requirements, keeping it relevant and user-friendly for employees. Conclusion In conclusion, an employee handbook is crucial for outlining company policies, procedures, and behavioral expectations. By comprehending its components and following best practices for creation and updates, you can guarantee that the handbook remains a relevant resource for all employees. A well-structured handbook not just clarifies company values but additionally cultivates a positive workplace environment. In the end, investing time in developing and maintaining your employee handbook can improve compliance and boost overall organizational effectiveness. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Understanding Employee Handbook Definition – A How-To Guide" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

In a world where trust in institutions is at an all-time low and the pace of change is relentless, the most effective leaders are not those who hide behind polished press releases or corporate jargon. They are the ones who step forward with authentic stories—stories that reveal not just their vision, but their humility, values, and the messy realities of leading in uncertain times. Welcome to the era of the storytelling CEO, where transparency isn’t just a buzzword, it’s the new leadership currency. Why Stories Matter More Than Ever For millennia, stories have been the glue that binds communities, shapes cultures, and helps us make sense of the world. Today, as organizations grapple with complex challenges, from digital transformation to climate change, data and strategy alone are not enough. Humans are narrative animals, and stories help us make sense of the world in ways that data and rational arguments often can’t. Stories help to build trust, foster empathy, and catalyze action in ways that spreadsheets never will. Transparency: The Foundation of Innovation Culture Culture is critical to innovation. The storytelling CEO understands that transparency, sharing not just successes but also failures, doubts, and lessons learned, creates the conditions for new ideas and psychological safety. When leaders model openness through the stories they tell, they give permission for others to do the same, unlocking creativity and risk-taking across the organization. For example, Satya Nadella at Microsoft championed a “learn-it-all” culture over a “know-it-all” one. By sharing stories of his own learning journey, Nadella made it safe for others to experiment, fail, and grow. This shift didn’t just improve morale, it drove innovation and business results. The Five Phases of Story-Centred Leadership Based on my research and work with thousands of leaders globally, I’ve developed a five-phase circular model for story-centred leadership: Story Listening: Deep listening is the antidote to echo chambers and ego chambers. Walk in the shoes of others to gain empathy and perspective. Story Building: Craft narratives that are clear, compelling, rooted in purpose and full of sticky details. The best stories answer, “why does this matter?” for every stakeholder. Story Shaping: Practice and refine stories with feedback. Authenticity beats perfection, and people connect with what’s real, not what’s rehearsed. Story Sharing: Stories are the connective tissue of change. Seed stories throughout the organization to grow a fearless, purpose-led culture. Story Living: Embody the story through actions and decisions. The most powerful stories are those we live, not just tell. Stories are not ‘soft’, they are our essential software Many leaders struggle with the idea of storytelling, dismissing it as superficial or “soft.” As digital transformation efforts repeatedly fail due to lack of buy-in and cultural resistance, the need for narrative becomes clear. If we want our strategies to succeed, we must shift that mindset: stories are our essential software. As a previous Fast Company article notes, “The six most common reasons digital transformations fail” often boil down to poor communication and lack of shared vision—gaps that stories can bridge. Storytelling is not about spinning fairy tales or sugarcoating reality. It’s about making meaning from complexity, surfacing the “why” behind the “what,” and inviting others into a shared journey. As one leader, Ian Ellison, told me, “I’ve learnt the hard way that they (stories) are essential in engaging people in sustainable change.” The Risks of Storytelling and How to Avoid Them Stories can always be misused, something that we’re currently seeing on a global scale. In the wrong hands, they can become tools for manipulation or exclusion. The shadow side of storytelling is spin, distraction, and even outright deception. That’s why transparency is so vital. The storytelling CEO must be vigilant about grounding stories in truth, inviting diverse voices and challenge, and acknowledging complexity rather than oversimplifying. Cross-Cultural Communication: Stories as Bridges In our globalized world, leaders must navigate cultural differences with sensitivity and skill. Stories are universal, but the way they’re told and received can vary widely. The best leaders are those who listen deeply to the stories of others, adapt their narratives for different audiences, and use storytelling to bridge divides. The Neuroscience of Storytelling Understanding how our brains are wired for stories can make us better leaders. Stories activate multiple regions of the brain, making messages more memorable and emotionally resonant. As Fast Company has reported, “understanding how your brain works can make you a better leader” and storytelling is a key part of that tool kit. The New Leadership Currency In a world awash with information but starved for meaning, the storytelling CEO stands out. Transparency, rooted in authentic, purpose-driven stories, is the currency that builds trust, inspires action, and accelerates change. As leaders, our challenge is not just to tell better stories, but to listen, shape, share, and live them every day. If you want to lead, start by asking: What’s the story you’re telling? And is it true, transparent and worth following? Five Ways to Become a Storytelling CEO Listen first. Seek out stories from every corner of your organization. Be humble. Share your failures and lessons learned, not just your wins. Connect the dots. Use stories to shine a light on your North Star, linking strategy to purpose and values. Invite others in. Make space for diverse voices and perspectives. Live your story. Let your actions reinforce your words. And remember: you are speaking volumes before you even open your mouth! View the full article

Washington’s capture of Nicolás Maduro risks triggering internal instability and renewed conflict with the USView the full article

Exactly one year ago, Sam Altman ​made a bold prediction​: “We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents ‘join the workforce’ and materially change the output of companies.” Soon after, OpenAI’s Chief Product Officer, Kevin Weil, elaborated on this claim when he stated in an interview that 2025 would be the year “that we go from ChatGPT being this super smart thing…to ChatGPT doing things in the real world for you.” He provided examples, such as filling out paperwork and booking hotel rooms. ​An Axios article covering Weil’s remarks​ provided a blunt summary: “2025 is the year of AI agents.” These claims mattered. A chatbot can summarize text or directly answer questions, but in theory, an agent can tackle much more complicated tasks that require multiple steps and decisions along the way. When Altman talked about these systems joining the workforce, he meant it. He envisioned a world in which you assign projects to an agent in the same way you might to a human employee. The often-predicted future in which AI dominates our lives requires something like agent technology to be realized. The industry had reason to be optimistic that 2025 would prove pivotal. In previous years, AI agents like Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex had become impressively adept at tackling multi-step computer programming problems. It seemed natural that this same skill might easily generalize to other types of tasks. Mark Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, became so enthusiastic about these possibilities that early in 2025, he claimed that AI agents would imminently unleash a ​“digital labor revolution”​ worth trillions of dollars. But here’s the thing: none of that ended up happening. As I report in my most recent New Yorker article, titled ​“Why A.I. Didn’t Transform Our Lives in 2025,”​ AI agents failed to live up to their hype. We didn’t end up with the equivalent of Claude Code or Codex for other types of work. And the products that were released, such as ChatGPT Agent, fell laughably short of being ready to take over major parts of our jobs. (In one example I cite in my article, ChatGPT Agent spends fourteen minutes futilely trying to select a value from a drop-down menu on a real estate website.) Silicon Valley skeptic Gary Marcus told me that the underlying technology powering these agents – the same large language models used by chatbots – would never be capable of delivering on these promises. “They’re building clumsy tools on top of clumsy tools,” he said. OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy implicitly agreed when he said, during ​a recent appearance on the Dwarkesh Podcast​, that there had been “overpredictions going on in the industry,” before then adding: “In my mind, this is really a lot more accurately described as the Decade of the Agent.” Which is all to say, we actually don’t know how to build the digital employees that we were told would start arriving in 2025. To find out more about why 2025 failed to become the Year of the AI Agent, I recommend reading ​my full New Yorker piece​. But for now, I want to emphasize a broader point: I’m hoping 2026 will be the year we stop caring about what people believe AI might do, and instead start reacting to its real, present capabilities. For example, last week, Sal Kahn wrote ​a New York Times op-ed​ in which he said, “I believe artificial intelligence will displace workers at a scale many people don’t yet realize.” The standard reaction would be to fret about this scary possibility. But what if we instead responded: says who? The actual examples Kahn provides, which include someone telling him that A.I. agents are “capable” of replacing 80% of his call center employees, or Waymo’s incredibly slow and costly process of hand-mapping cities to deploy self-driving cars, are hardly harbingers of general economic devastation. So, this is how I’m thinking about AI in 2026. Enough of the predictions. I’m done reacting to hypotheticals propped up by vibes. The impacts of the technologies that already exist are already more than enough to concern us for now… The post Why Didn’t AI “Join the Workforce” in 2025? appeared first on Cal Newport. View the full article

When someone takes a shower at a new apartment complex in Washington, D.C., the water is heated in part by a brewery downstairs. The mixed-use development—part of a larger new neighborhood called the Bridge District—is designed to be as sustainable as possible. That includes using waste heat from commercial tenants like the brewery to save energy in the apartments. Atlas Brew Works, a solar-powered brewery that serves craft beers, moved into the building in November. At most breweries, the heat that’s generated from the brewing process would be vented outside. But in the new building, any hot water that the brewery doesn’t reuse is sent into a heat exchanger, which transfers heat to the hot water loop for the apartments. (The water itself never mixes; tenants are not showering in brewery water.) “They’re still ramping up, but they’re starting to make a lot of beer,” says William Passmore, managing partner at Redbrick LMD, the developer behind the project. “So we’re using as much of that heat as possible. We’re literally transferring the heat to support domestic hot water for all of the units throughout the building.” When the brewery is operating at full capacity and the complex’s 757 apartments are fully occupied, around 60% to 70% of the heat for the apartments’ hot water can come from the brewery. The complex is also designed to be able to harvest heat from other businesses. A small grocery store that will soon open can share waste heat from its refrigerators, for example. All of this means that residents can save money on energy bills, and the buildings have a lower carbon footprint. The heat exchange system is one piece of a larger sustainability strategy for the development, which is on track to become the largest net-zero carbon residential project in the U.S. The development is next to a metro station and a riverside bike trail, so residents can drive less. The all-electric buildings feature a solar array on each rooftop—expected to generate 228 megawatt-hours of electricity each year—with renewable power purchased to cover additional energy needs. The developers carefully tracked the carbon footprint of construction, measuring the embodied carbon of every piece of material and even how individual construction workers commuted to the site. They used materials like low-carbon steel and produced 40 different concrete mixes, carefully tailoring the amount of cement for each part of the building, which cut the overall carbon footprint of that material by 35%. In the next phase of the development, another new building will use mass timber construction. Even though some parts of the process didn’t necessarily cost much more from an engineering perspective, it took a commitment to make it happen. “You need to have the mindset and the staff and the willingness to invest in it as an organization,” Passmore says. Developers typically wouldn’t go this far. “It’s one of those things that doesn’t sound that difficult. [But as] you start to go and try and do it, [they’re thinking], ‘Oh, you know what? Let’s put this off for the next project,’” he says. The developer’s theory: The work is worth it—not just for the environmental benefit, but because tenants are looking for more sustainable options. In surveys, the companies found that the renters they were targeting in their 20s and 30s wanted options like this. “It differentiates our product, so it helps us with lease-up,” Passmore says. “We hope it will help down the road—residents will appreciate it and enjoy the lower utility bills. And perhaps they’ll stay a little longer, so that will help us again.” View the full article

Artificial intelligence certainly didn’t debut in 2025, but it was the year it really started to hit the mainstream. ChatGPT, at the start of the year, had between 300 million and 400 million average weekly users. By October, that number had doubled. Meanwhile, usage of other AI systems, including Perplexity and Google’s Gemini, saw similar leaps in usage. Now, with 2026 on the horizon, people are wondering what’s next. Fast Company spoke to several analysts and industry experts to get their projections on what we can expect as AI’s influence continues to spread in 2026. The bubble won’t pop While the bears on Wall Street continue to talk loudly about an AI bubble, Wedbush’s Dan Ives says those fears are overblown and the AI trade will actually get bigger in 2026. Ives says the consumer AI revolution has not truly begun, and the expected rise of robotics in the years to come, as well as the long runway for corporate use and global expansion, will drive an ongoing tech bull market. “This AI revolution is just beginning today, and we believe tech stocks and the AI winners should be bought, given our view that this is Year 3 of what will be a 10-year cycle of this AI revolution build-out,” he writes. “We expect tech stocks to be up another 20% in 2026 as this next stage of the AI revolution hits its stride.” A leap in “lazy thinking” Not all of the predictions around AI in 2026 are quite so bullish. Gartner sends up a red flag about people’s growing dependence on chatbots and their automatic acceptance of whatever those devices spew out. Through 2026, the analytics firm predicts, there will be an “atrophy of critical-thinking skills due to Gen AI use.” That, it says, will push half of global organizations to require “AI-free” skills assessments. “As automation accelerates, the ability to think independently and creatively will become both increasingly rare—and increasingly valuable,” Gartner writes. Gen AI will move from stand-alone sites to search engines Generative AI chatbots are how many people interact with AI. They don’t require any tech knowledge (although the more you know about how to phrase prompts, the more efficient they are), and they’re free. For tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, you generally have to visit a stand-alone website to access them. In 2026 and beyond, however, Deloitte says that more people will begin to use generative AI that’s embedded within existing applications, like search engines. “In terms of daily use, accessing Gen AI within a search engine [when a search yields a synthesis of results] will be 300% more common than using any stand-alone Gen AI tool,” the consulting firm writes. Rise of the robots While humanoid robots in 2026 may not reach the levels Elon Musk predicts, we are likely to see a substantial increase in AI-driven robotics, Deloitte says. The number of industrial robots is expected to reach 5.5 million. That’s the beginning of a wave—which could see annual shipments begin to increase until they reach 1 million per year by 2030. That increase, the firm says, will be driven by labor shortages and “exponential advancements in computing power.” A legal tsunami AI firms are already facing a number of lawsuits, most prominently involving cases in which plaintiffs argue that AI drove people to take their own lives. That has put a spotlight on the lack of guardrails around the industry. But to date, Washington has shown little interest in setting firm parameters for AI companies. (Some states are attempting to do so, however.) Gartner predicts that by the end of 2026, there will be more than 2,000 “death by AI” legal claims. The upside of this tragedy, it continues, is that it could finally push regulators to focus on safety issues. “Black box systems—AI models whose decision-making processes are opaque or difficult to interpret—can misfire, especially in high-stakes sectors like healthcare, finance, and public safety,” the analytics firm writes. “Explainability, ethical design, and clean data will become nonnegotiable.” View the full article

For venture capital, 2025 was all about artificial intelligence—a trend that’s all but certain to carry into 2026. More than half of all VC dollars—and 36% of total deals—now flow to AI companies, according to a recent Silicon Valley Bank report. Crunchbase recently reported that 14% of all global venture investment in 2025 went to AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic. The year also saw huge deals like a $2 billion seed round raise by Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. AI deals are also often closing quickly, with investment rounds that once would have taken weeks to close being handled in a manner of days, says Tim Tully, a partner at Menlo Ventures. “You’re seeing people raise these large rounds with no decks, which is kind of shocking, or not even absolute clarity around precisely what the company is going to do,” he says. “You’re seeing funding of teams over what the team is doing.” But even amid speculation that the industry could be in a bubble—and some signs of public fatigue with the technology that’s snuck into everything from therapy sessions to children’s toys—investors and industry observers say the AI push will continue in 2026. TAM explosion In some ways, AI mimics the investment wave around other recent transformative technologies, like the rise of the PC, internet, and mobile phone. “New technologies come, and they’re transformative, and that drives a lot of investment,” says Steven Neil Kaplan, a professor at the University of Chicago who studies venture capital. “Some of them work out, some of them don’t, and hopefully the world becomes more productive.” But Michael Carmen, co-head of private investments at Wellington Management and the coauthor of a venture capital outlook report the firm released in December, says AI companies have recently been growing revenue at a historically fast rate—quicker than previous generations of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. Widespread internet use has given new AI products essentially instant access to a huge potential market, Carmen adds, noting, “When you think about the [total addressable market] of AI over the longer term, it could be the largest TAM of anything that we’ve ever seen in technology.” AI is increasingly competing with traditional SaaS businesses for both customers and investors, says Saagar Bhavsar, partner at Begin Capital. For one thing, artificial intelligence has businesses wondering if it’s more viable to build software tools in-house with the aid of new coding assistants and other AI agents. “If your cost of building the software and time of building the software is going close to zero, the whole idea of SaaS disappears,” says Sergey Gribov, general partner at Flint Capital. Even without AI, some companies have begun to reconsider the sprawling set of cloud services they’ve signed up for over the years, including deals they signed during the chaos of the pandemic shutdowns, Bhavsar says. And investors are taking note. “Few people are calling themselves B2B SaaS investors anymore, even if they did that historically,” he says. Bhavsar says VC firms and their investors are showing an increasing appetite for new kinds of opportunities, including investments in computing hardware, data centers, physical computing, and robotics. There’s also a rising interest in so-called AI roll-ups, popularized by VCs like General Catalyst, where VC-backed businesses buy services businesses like IT companies, call centers, or accounting firms with the goal of making them more efficient through AI adoption. It’s historically more like private equity investment, but the tech tie-in has made it appealing to the VC world. “The most interesting part right now is that any type of deal can be a VC deal,” Bhavsar says. “Any pitch can be a VC pitch if they pitch it right.” AI models, running on powerful graphics processing units like the ones that have helped chipmaker Nvidia’s market value skyrocket, could become the basis for a wide range of applications. (It’s similar to the wave of software developed atop Microsoft Windows and Intel chips in the PC era, suggests Carmen.) VCs are looking to invest in companies building those AI-powered apps, though they’re also still enthusiastic about the frontier labs developing the models and core technology that help AI process text, images, video, and sound. That market, after all, still sees fierce competition among companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, and new startup labs emerging like Murati’s Thinking Machines or Tokyo-based Sakana AI. “I think there will be a lot more of these people coming out of the bigger names, or researchers coming out of academia wanting to start these research labs,” says Christine Tsai, founding partner and CEO of 500 Global. There’s also room—and VC appetite—for new, innovative AI models for other areas besides language and image processing, like autonomous vehicles and robotics. “We believe there’s going to be a company that’s going to build the robotic brain, if you will, that will power many different apps, many different use cases,” says Janelle Teng, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. Fintech, defense tech, and the rest Still, AI hasn’t completely captured the VC sector. Other areas seeing investor interest include fintech, particularly after the 2025 IPOs of companies like Klarna, Circle, and Chime, as well as space and defense tech, Teng says. Space and defense startups also benefit from the The President administration’s push to overhaul military procurement and move business away from big defense contractors, while fintech startups may take advantage of the administration’s deregulatory approach to finance. VCs that in the past wouldn’t have invested in defense tech have also been encouraged by the success of Anduril, according to Carmen, who notes that another area of excitement for VCs is health tech, including wearable technology and other tools that help provide consumers with information to manage their health. One open question for VCs and other startup investors is whether the IPOs and acquisitions that characterized 2025 will continue into the new year. “There was a lot more activity and liquidity in the markets, and we saw it in our own portfolio, in contrast to years prior, where it was extremely dry and felt like things were still frozen,” Tsai says. A number of big startups are reportedly preparing for IPOs, including AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Their success could spur more initial offerings. Those transactions provide early-stage investors with funds for the next round of investment, though with big companies staying private for longer than in previous tech booms, there are often other ways to sell stock through company tender offers and other private deals. And, if recent activity is any indication, there’s no shortage of investor cash pursuing stakes in startups, particularly around AI. Only time will tell, of course, which of those investments will prove wise, and whether the ever-escalating valuations of so many AI companies will last. “The thing that’s hard to know is, are we in 1997, or are we in 1999,” says Kaplan. “VC investments in ’97 did very well. VC investments in ’99 did horribly.” View the full article

I am not clairvoyant and have no crystal ball. But I’ve got some predictions for 2026. I learned about predictions from a master of the craft: Byron Wien, a market strategist who rose to Wall Street prominence in the 1990s for his annual “Ten Surprises” list. Back in the day, I spent several weeks shadowing Wien as a reporter, and the lessons have long stuck with me. Wien said that the prediction game wasn’t about being right. It was about identifying trends. He knew many of his “surprises” would never come to pass, at least not in the extreme form that he shared. But they sparked dialogue and got people to confront their assumptions. And every now and then, he’d hit something spot-on. In the spirit of Wien’s lists, I’m sharing my own predicted “surprises” for the year ahead. Consider them provocations for discussion. And we’ll see how it all plays out. I’m reminded of an insight Wien shared privately with me, as he ticked through the holdings in his personal investment portfolio. He said that he owned Investment A for Reason A, and Investment B for Reason B. And then he said that he owned Investment C “as a hedge against everything else I believe.” He knew that he’d be wrong about some things, and was prepared to be wrong about everything. I’ve yet to find a better approach for navigating a chaotic world. Now, on to the predictions! 1. Tech stocks will stall No one—and I mean no one—has a consistent record of correctly calling the stock market. But just this once, I have a feeling. Yes, AI profits at Nvidia are astounding. Yes, the dominance of hyperscalers like Google and Amazon and Microsoft continues to grow. But the money being plowed into AI capabilities right now is not yet yielding significant incremental value for AI end users: the customers of hyperscalers. So while a narrow group of very rich companies are pouring billions into AI development (and driving those huge numbers at Nvidia), it is not yet a tide that raises all boats. For tech stock valuations to climb from here, the value generated by artificial intelligence needs to broaden. If other tech cycles are a guide, there’s usually a period of consolidation at some point—a plateau at best, a significant crash at worst. I’d bet on the former, in part because AI investment is largely being pulled from cash rather than leveraged by borrowing. Before you rush to sell all your tech stocks, a caveat: More than 15 years ago, early in my tenure as editor of Fast Company, we ran a cover with the headline “Open Season on Apple.” We outlined how competitors were coming at the company from all sides, and the risks that the still-in-charge Steve Jobs faced. Our analysis was keen. Our concern was flat-out wrong. 2. AI will be an excuse for layoffs more than a cause of them The workforce will be dramatically reset by the expanded use of AI tools. But not in the next 12 months. For now, tech-driven workplace changes remain on the periphery. Despite the worry and uncertainty, AI so far has made workers more valuable rather than redundant. Still, that won’t deter many businesses from citing AI as a rationale for 2026 restructurings that will have more to do with addressing overexpansion or evolving business practices than with AI bots taking over human jobs. By pointing to AI as the culprit, business leaders will have public cover for their activities (“it is a necessary adjustment to a new reality”) and engage the ardor of investors (“we are becoming an AI-first enterprise”). Identifying which layoffs are truly tech-related and which are in response to failed business strategies will become a schadenfreude-based parlor game. 3. Cyber hacks will reach crisis level When you talk to the CEOs of major cybersecurity firms, they extol AI as a security enhancer: a tool to identify never-before-seen attacks in never-before-possible ways. They acknowledge that “bad actors” are increasingly using AI in their exploits. But they contend that AI protection tools are more sophisticated—essentially, “our AI is better than their AI.” I have no evidence to undercut that assertion. But it is also true that not every business or individual has the protection of a cutting-edge cybersecurity system. It is said that AI raises the floor on capabilities, and it certainly lowers costs—which means we are in for more attacks, better attacks, and more disruption. Only those outfits that can raise the ceiling on cyber defense will be better protected. And if those cyber pros saying “our AI is better” are wrong? Then mind your bank accounts, crypto wallets, and power grids! 4. Electricity costs will drop AI data centers have dominated headlines about energy prices and energy availability. But that masks a larger trend toward electrification globally, at a scale that far exceeds AI’s demands. A decade’s worth of renewable energy investments around the world (particularly by China) is creating a baseline of energy self-sufficiency in parts of the developing world. In developed countries, modernization of electrical grids will yield significant efficiency gains. And whatever your views on the environmental impact, the The President administration’s embrace of more fossil fuel drilling will increase supplies. So is all the media coverage of data-center power demands overblown? Hate to say it, but “yes.” 5. U.S. immigration numbers will rise U.S. immigration policy has long been hostage to politics. The vast majority of Americans want to simultaneously protect the U.S. border from illegal crossings and facilitate entry for approved newcomers. But that commonsense approach has been stymied by partisan posturing. Yet just maybe, 2026 offers a window to square that circle. Donald The President, by virtue of his hardline border position (and deportations), has the unprecedented opportunity to reset policy in a healthier direction. Here’s why he might embrace that opportunity: The economy benefits from the low-cost labor of newcomers. Silicon Valley is desperate to remain a magnet for worldwide tech talent. U.S. voters in both parties support a commonsense mix of strong borders and open-entry rules, especially among Latino voters who supported The President but have become disillusioned. A balanced remaking of immigration policy would defang a key Democratic critique and rallying cry. 6. MAHA will succumb to science Government health websites have recently added language that connects vaccines to autism—a core tenet of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., despite bare scientific evidence. But there are other signals that, as Kennedy learns more about how the health research communities actually work, he is becoming more open to reconsidering some of his assumptions. Vaccines and autism may remain a bright line for MAHA, but as 2026 unfolds, the value of the FDA and the CDC and other public health entities will take a growing role in U.S. health policy. 7. Nuclear power will solve climate change We all want a silver bullet for intractable challenges, and they rarely exist. But there is a chance that breakthroughs in nuclear power can do just that when it comes to climate change. There have been important advances in using nuclear fusion to generate power—the safer, less discussed, and more prospective cousin of nuclear fission, which is responsible for all current nuclear reactors (as well as nuclear weapons). In 2026, the advances in nuclear fusion are poised to reach a tipping point, opening the way to broadscale commercial applications. While it will take years for a nuclear fusion industry to establish itself and measurably impact the direction of global climate change, we will look back at 2026 as the beginning. At least I hope so! 8. The U.S. will win the World Cup! Let’s be clear: I am not predicting that Team USA will win the World Cup. That would be awesome—but it’s unrealistic, given how the U.S. men’s national soccer team has performed in international play. But as a host of the World Cup, the U.S. as a nation will make the most of a tremendous opportunity to reestablish the brand of the United States on the global stage. After the disruptions of tariff wars, the U.S. brand is in an uncomfortable position heading into 2026. What the World Cup offers is a window for the world on what makes the U.S. special, desirable, and worthy of global esteem. Am I talking about propaganda? Maybe some might see it that way; I like to think of it as patriotism. The World Cup is a test case for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, the ultimate spectacle to highlight America’s leadership model globally. Here’s hoping the World Cup sets the right tone. View the full article

The design of the steel-ribbed umbrella has changed little since it was introduced in the 1850s, but the mechanical engineers and origami experts who made an umbrella that works by folding say they’ve finally improved upon it. The $249 Ori umbrella has a frameless design with a laminate composite canopy, which fits into a 3.5-centimeter cylinder smart handle with an OLED display. That means there are no steel elements that can go haywire and leave you with a misshapen mess when you’re caught in a strong wind. It seems we finally have an umbrella that looks like it was invented in the 21st century. The design team included origami experts who usually work in aerospace, research, and advanced deployable structures. And that’s where the key lay. The team used an origami technique called the the Miura-ori, invented by Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura in 1970, to replace the functionality of a steel frame. Miura-ori allows for a compact fold—and it has since been used in satellites. “Everyone owns one, yet the umbrella is a forgotten object, stuck in the past. We wanted to turn it into a modern device: smart, intentional, premium, and engineered like a modern device,” Ori founder Modestas Balcytis tells Fast Company in an email. The canopy feels solid when it’s open, as it’s not fabric stretched over a frame, but rather a single continuous origami surface. “When it opens, you can feel the geometry locking into place, turning a flat surface into a strong, self-supporting structure,” Balcytis says. The umbrella is wind resistant, unlike traditional umbrellas that can fold and turn inside out. Ori’s canopy surface is also UV resistant and lasts longer than a ribbed umbrella, according to the company. The umbrella is available now to reserve and is expected to start shipping in spring or summer 2026. The Ori Umbrella is priced far above your standard pharmacy brand, and it’s being marketed that way: Promotional images look akin to those you might see for Dyson vacuums or Apple iPhones. The umbrella comes in blue, silver, and gold; charges with a USB-C cable; and opens and closes with a single click. The company is pitching its product as an alternative to poorly designed ribbed umbrellas, which often break and don’t last as long. Ori says it has tested the umbrella through 400 to 500 folding cycles. This is umbrella as high tech, and the company says it has plans to design more products using the Miura-ori technique. “Ori isn’t here to sell umbrellas,” Balcytis says. “We’re building a new language for folding objects.” View the full article

2026 will be a crucial inflection point for businesses. The data are striking—the proportion of employees using AI in their role in the U.S. doubled between 2023 and 2025. Across the Atlantic, 30% of EU workers are already using AI in their jobs. And according to Gartner, by 2026 more than 100 million workers will collaborate with “robo-colleagues.” The question for the coming year, then, is no longer whether AI will transform your organization, it’s whether your leadership team will guide that transformation thoughtfully or let it happen haphazardly, tool by tool and team by team. I have spent much of the past year working with my research team and industry partners to think through the most pressing challenges organizations face as they implement AI at scale. Drawing on this work, I have identified seven key priorities for leaders preparing for 2026. These aren’t isolated tactics but interconnected imperatives that, taken together, provide a road map for building resilient, adaptive, and human-centered organizations in the age of AI. 1. Embrace Regenerative Leadership Principles Traditional leadership models that focus on efficiency and extraction are creating burned-out workforces and fragile organizations. As AI increases the temptation to pursue short-term gains, leaders must shift toward regenerative approaches that actively restore and enhance human, environmental, and technological resources. Regenerative leadership means moving beyond sustainability to create systems that actually improve over time. This involves: Adopting systems thinking to see your organization as an interconnected ecosystem Prioritizing employee well-being alongside productivity Measuring impact beyond profit to include ethical AI usage and community impact Companies like Patagonia, Interface, and Unilever have demonstrated that this approach doesn’t sacrifice performance. Rather, it enhances it through improved brand loyalty, employee engagement, long-term resilience, and higher growth. The key is recognizing that AI should augment human potential, not exploit it. Leaders who build purpose-driven, people-centered strategies will create organizations that don’t just survive disruption but evolve through it. Read more: The age of AI requires a new kind of leadership 2. Transform Your Organization, Not Just Your Training Most organizations treat AI reskilling as a training problem. But AI will cause systemic change that affects virtually every function and workflow, so preparing employees for the coming revolution requires more than just teaching them how to use AI tools. Fundamentally, it requires organizational redesign—reimagining what work looks like in the AI age and transforming the organization to enable that work. Success requires working in three interconnected dimensions: Rebuilding the infrastructure of work (providing the tools, data access, and workflow redesigns that make AI adoption possible) Redesigning interconnected roles across the organization simultaneously (because when one role changes, every connected role must shift) Cultivating a learning culture that prizes experimentation over perfection and treats failure as data rather than disgrace Read more: What AI reskilling really requires 3. Master the Art of Leading AI-Augmented Teams Throughout history, the core competence of leadership has always been guiding humans to achieve defined goals. But in the age of AI, leadership will take on a new meaning: leading hybrid teams in which humans and AI systems work side by side. Leaders must learn how to leverage the unique strengths of each while creating the context in which those unique strengths multiply by working in concert. In order to succeed, leaders must: Personally engage with AI tools themselves, so they can understand and eventually model effective collaboration Cultivate clarity of purpose to discern what is actually worth doing in a world in which AI makes everything possible Become moral agents capable of navigating urgent ethical questions surrounding the use of AI Develop the enhanced emotional intelligence needed to guide teams through an often unsettling transition Read more: The 7 secrets to successfully leading AI-augmented teams 4. Build a Balanced AI Portfolio: Moonshots and Mundane Wins Successful AI transformation requires a well-balanced innovation portfolio—a deliberately diversified mix of initiatives spanning different risk levels and time horizons. Leaders must grapple with big-picture questions about industry transformation while simultaneously identifying tactical opportunities for near-term deployment. The immediately practical projects create the foundation—and funding—for more ambitious undertakings. Evaluating which initiatives deserve resources requires systematic assessment across multiple dimensions: technical feasibility, true investment costs (including organizational attention), risk-reward balance, alignment with core purpose, and realistic timeframes. In our book Transcend and a companion piece in Harvard Business Review, we provide comprehensive tools—the OPEN and CARE frameworks—for this strategic evaluation and portfolio management. Critical to all of this is engaged leadership at the C-suite level. CEOs cannot simply delegate AI projects to technical leaders. Instead, they must orchestrate the entire innovation portfolio to maintain strategic coherence. Read more: Why your organization needs both AI moonshots and mundane wins 5. Protect Your Organizational Uniqueness When everyone uses the same AI tools that have been trained on the same public data, outputs converge toward generic mediocrity. The quirks, the specific language, the unique ways of thinking that define your organization get smoothed into statistical averages. Competitive advantage in 2026 will come from authentic difference—leaning into what makes you, you. You can do this by: Auditing your uniqueness: Identify what is different and distinctive about your organization. Creating proprietary datasets: Whenever possible, use internal data rather than generic datasets that everyone has access to. Establish AI-free zones: Maintain places where only humans get to operate. Adversarial prompting: Use AI to critically evaluate your conclusions rather than to confirm them. The goal isn’t to reject AI but to use it strategically while preserving the distinctive elements that make your organization valuable. Read more: How AI is creating a crisis of business sameness 6. Reinvent Middle Management for the AI Era AI is eliminating traditional middle-management functions at an unprecedented rate. Gartner predicts that through 2026, 20% of organizations will use AI to flatten their structures, eliminating more than half of current middle-management positions. And by 2028 and 2029, AI-driven “jobs chaos” will force organizations to reconfigure, redesign, split, or fuse more than 32 million jobs every year. There are significant efficiency gains to be made here. But organizations must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Rather than simply trying to eliminate as much of middle management as possible, the task is to streamline it intelligently—middle management is still important, but its role must be fundamentally reimagined. Orchestrating AI-human collaboration: Understanding how to integrate AI with humans Serving as agents of change: Guiding organizations through continuous AI-driven disruption Coaching for a new era: Mentoring employees through constant reskilling and role evolution To successfully navigate this transformation, organizations must reskill middle management to enable them to succeed in their reimagined roles. Read more: How AI is killing (and reinventing) middle management 7. Know When to Change—and When to Hold Steady In a profoundly uncertain world, and a business environment in which the only constant is disruption, the most critical leadership skill of all might well be discernment: the wisdom of knowing what to preserve and what to transform. Effective leaders distinguish between their organization’s core identity (the “what” that they must not compromise) and their methods (the “how” that can be endlessly reimagined). In times of change, it is essential for leaders to be steadfast about the former while being completely flexible about the latter. Read more: How to know when (and when not) to make a change An Integrated Path Not every organization will need to emphasize all seven priorities equally. A company with a strong and adaptable middle-management culture may focus elsewhere; one already grounded in regenerative principles can move quickly to portfolio building. The point is not to tackle everything at once but to recognize that these are the dimensions along which the AI transformation will play out, and to make deliberate choices about where to invest attention. What leaders cannot afford is drift. Organizations that treat AI adoption as something that happens to them—tool by tool, team by team, without strategic intent—will find themselves shaped by the technology rather than shaping it. The difference between leading and following in 2026 will come down to whether these choices are made consciously or by default. The leaders who prepare their organizations for 2026 by tackling these priorities won’t just survive the AI revolution. They’ll shape it—building organizations that are more resilient, more human, and more capable of creating lasting value in an age of unprecedented technological change. View the full article

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At CES 2026, I was able to play the Nintendo Switch 2 in AR. That's something I hadn't done before, and that's because until now, only one company had an AR dock that worked with Nintendo's latest console, which doesn't like to play nice with AR glasses plugged directly into it. Viture's solution is fine, if a bit bulky, but Lifehacker has long praised the AR glasses from competitor XREAL, and finally, you can use XREAL glasses with the Nintendo Switch 2. Previously, XREAL did have an accessory that allowed for gameplay on the original Nintendo Switch, but it's since been discontinued, and even if you buy it secondhand, it won't work with the Switch 2. Now, the XREAL NEO changes that. Coming in smaller than Viture's dock, the NEO is basically a combination portable battery bank and AR adapter that allows you to use your XREAL glasses while powering them and charging/converting whatever device you're displaying at the same time. It's got a 10,000 mAh capacity and a 20W output on its own—enough for fast charging—but you can also plug it into a wall while using it, which will allow your devices to charge at 65W+. That should be especially handy if you're primarily using the Neo as an adapter, and yes, it will allow your glasses to display the original Switch as well, not just the Switch 2. XREAL also notes that you can use the Neo on other handhelds like the Steam Deck, although it's a bit less necessary there, as the Steam Deck can output video to XREAL glasses directly. Credit: XREAL In a confusing move, the Neo also has a magnetic ring to attach directly to your device, but it can't charge wirelessly. It seems the magnet is more there for easy storage, and so you can use a flip-out kickstand on the back of the Neo to prop your device up. Using the Neo with the Switch 2, it worked like a dream. The console immediately swapped over to docked mode and started playing on a connected pair of XREAL glasses like it was on a television, which gave me a virtual 171-inch screen and graphics outputting at 1200p. Oh, and those graphics? They were in 3D. The XREAL 1S converts 2D video to 3DThat's because, alongside the Neo, I got to test out the new XREAL 1S AR glasses. These bump the resolution up to 1200p, and increase the FOV from the base XREAL One's 50 degrees to 52 degrees. Refresh rate is still 120Hz, but the glasses are brighter (at 700 nits) and the aspect ratio is larger, at 16:10. Most importantly, these come with the ability to add 3D depth to 2D imagery out of the box. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt I tried it out with Mario Kart World, and if you told me the game was designed with this 3D natively, I would have believed you. It was flawless, just the right amount of subtle, and I never saw any telltale blur around the characters. According to XREAL, though, the 2D-to-3D conversion is happening entirely within the glasses using the onboard spatial chip and AI. This has the benefit of working with any content you plug into the XREAL 1S, although XREAL did warn me the effect might not come across as well for flat content as opposed to content using CGI. For instance, the AI just didn't know what to do with the original Super Mario Bros. for NES, leading to some elements getting depth and others being ignored. Still, you can turn the effect off in those cases, and I could see it being really handy if you're a big fan of 3D movies, since it can be kind of hard to find them on streaming. Now, you can turn any movie 3D, even if your mileage may vary from flick to flick. The best part of the XREAL 1S, though? Despite the upgrades, they're actually cheaper than the base XREAL ONE, at $449 vs. $499. And they're available now, with estimated delivery windows sitting around this weekend. Plus, if you don't want to get a new pair of AR glasses, the 2D-to-3D conversion tech, called Real 3D, is also now out for the XREAL ONE Pro, and can be downloaded in an update. The XREAL NEO, meanwhile, is currently only up for pre-order, with shipments scheduled to start in February. The Neo is available for $99 until February 4, by the way, but the price will jump up to $119 after that. Even with the cheaper NEO pricing, the total package for both the dock and the glasses will cost you $548. But if you really miss the 3DS, this is another easy way to play your Nintendo games in 3D, without sacrificing portably, but while keeping a big screen at the same time. View the full article

With President The President back in the White House, this year has brought a barrage of executive orders and edicts that target workers. The President reduced the minimum wage for federal contractors, made major cuts to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration—whose express mission is to keep people safe in the workplace—and attempted to undermine collective bargaining rights for federal workers. He has also, of course, set his sights on dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs across both the federal workforce and corporate America. Still, there’s a glimmer of hope for workers: Many states have taken it upon themselves to enshrine policies like paid leave and pay transparency, with some of them now turning their attention to how the misuse of artificial intelligence in hiring could harm workers. Here are some of the laws and policies that will take effect in 2026—many of which continue to push forward on important issues for workers despite what the federal government has in store. Anti-DEI measures The President has made anti-DEI policies a focal point of his time in office, kicking off this year with a number of executive orders that forced federal agencies to terminate all DEI-related policies and programs and stripped away a requirement for federal contractors that had been a crucial element of diversifying the workforce. That means, going into 2026, all federal DEI programs have been eliminated—but there are a number of state-level bills that seek to curtail how DEI is utilized in hiring and across public education. In Ohio, for example, legislation that passed this year prohibits any consideration of DEI in hiring decisions at public colleges and universities. Similar laws in Kansas, Idaho, and Wyoming will curtail DEI programs for hiring across higher education. Meanwhile, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—the agency tasked with enforcing antidiscrimination laws in employment—has made clear that corporate DEI programs will be under greater scrutiny going into 2026. The use of AI in hiring As companies have embedded AI into their hiring process, many HR teams have started relying on automated résumé screeners and other AI tools. In 2026, three laws will take effect at the state level to create some guardrails around how AI is being used for employment decisions, following in the footsteps of New York City and California, which have already adopted AI in hiring laws. Colorado and Texas are introducing broader AI governance laws that also explicitly call for more oversight of how the technology is used in the hiring process to ensure it is not discriminatory. In Illinois, the law is an amendment of the state’s Human Rights Act and regulates how workers are impacted by the use of AI in all employment decisions. At the federal level, a bipartisan bill introduced in Congress last month would—if passed—force employers to disclose when layoffs are caused by AI. Minimum wage The minimum wage continues to rise, year after year, as states have raised the wage floor in response to worker advocacy. As 2026 rolls around, 20 states will have enacted and started phasing in a $15 minimum wage, with hourly wages actually crossing $15 in a total of 11 states by the end of next year. Since 2012, a total of 15 states have adopted a $15 minimum wage, according to the National Employment Law Project, in no small part because of the Fight for $15 movement that originated among fast-food workers. By the end of 2026, many workers will see even greater pay increases as the minimum wage is boosted to $17 across 53 cities and localities. A handful of states have also approved changes to the subminimum wage, which typically pays tipped workers a lower hourly rate. (There have been several proposals at the federal level to eliminate the subminimum wage altogether, but nothing has successfully passed.) Paid leave While the efforts to pass federal paid family leave have more or less come to a standstill, a handful of states have kept pushing to secure those benefits for their workers. In Delaware, Maine, and Minnesota, a paid leave program will take effect in 2026, joining 10 other states that have already introduced the benefit. Meanwhile, states like Connecticut are making significant expansions to their paid sick leave program, now requiring companies with as few as 11 employees to provide leave. (By 2027, even employers with one worker will have to do the same.) In total, about 20 states now offer paid sick leave in some capacity, as these laws have picked up steam in recent years. A number of cities and localities also provide paid leave, even in states like Pennsylvania that don’t have broader coverage. Pay transparency Pay transparency laws have grown in popularity over the last four years, in an effort to arm workers with more information as they go into salary negotiations—or before they apply for a job at all. These laws often require employers to disclose a salary range in all job postings, though some states have only mandated that employers verbally share salary information. This year, Massachusetts and New Jersey adopted laws that require pay ranges in job listings, bringing the total number of states with these laws on the books to 14. At the local level, some cities in Ohio have started requiring salary disclosures, as is also the case in Washington, D.C. Salary transparency laws also often prohibit employers from asking about a candidate’s salary history during the interview process and using that to determine their compensation. View the full article

Running a background check on someone involves several key steps to guarantee thoroughness and accuracy. First, gather vital details like their full name, date of birth, and Social Security number. Then, utilize online databases and public records to find additional information. You should likewise consider checking social media profiles for insights into their character. As you proceed, comprehending the legal implications and best practices is critical for effective results. What’s next on your checklist? Key Takeaways Gather essential information such as full name, date of birth, and Social Security number for accurate background checks. Utilize online databases and services like GoodHire or Checkr for quick access to comprehensive background reports. Conduct criminal history searches through public databases or local law enforcement agencies for relevant records. Review social media profiles to gain insights into character and potential red flags. Ensure compliance with FCRA regulations and obtain necessary consent before using background information. Gather Necessary Information When you’re ready to run a background check, the first step is gathering the necessary information about the individual. You’ll need details like their full name, date of birth, and Social Security number (SSN) to guarantee accurate searches. Collecting additional information, such as previous addresses, known aliases, and current employment, improves the effectiveness of your background check. Remember to verify the purpose of the check, as different types may require specific information or even consent from the individual being checked. If you’re wondering how can I run a background check on someone, you can likewise utilize online services that offer a totally free background check no credit card needed, especially for basic information. In Pennsylvania, you might find options for a free background check pa. Just keep in mind that certain reports, like criminal history, may need the individual’s consent under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Utilize Online Databases Utilizing online databases can greatly streamline the process of running a background check. These platforms aggregate information from various public records, making it easier for you to get extensive details about an individual’s history. Many services, such as GoodHire and Checkr, offer user-friendly interfaces that provide quick access to background reports, often within hours. You can even perform a lookup background check for free, which might include a totally free background check no credit card required option. Additionally, using a Social Security number trace can reveal associated names and addresses, offering valuable context. Online databases often feature specialized searches, including sex offender registries and global watchlists, ensuring thorough vetting across multiple jurisdictions. For those interested in ongoing monitoring, subscription-based services notify you of any new entries or changes, helping protect your reputation or hiring prospects. This makes them some of the best free background check options available. Check County Court Records To check county court records, start by accessing online databases or visiting your local courthouse. These records include a variety of civil and criminal cases, allowing you to find specific information about a person’s legal history. Comprehending the types of records available and how to interpret their findings is crucial for conducting a thorough background check. Accessing Court Records Online Accessing court records online can be a straightforward process if you know where to look. Start by visiting the official website of the county court where the case is filed, as many jurisdictions offer online databases for public records. You’ll likely need to input specific information, such as the individual’s name, case number, or date of birth, to retrieve relevant court records. Although some counties provide basic information for free, others may charge a fee for accessing certain documents, so check the specific rules first. Keep in mind that not all court records are available online, especially sensitive or sealed cases, which might require an in-person visit. Utilizing state-wide databases can improve your search, especially for free background check NC or Pennsylvania background check options. Types of Court Records County court records encompass a variety of legal documents that provide insight into an individual’s interactions with the judicial system. These records include civil, criminal, probate, and family court cases, reflecting an individual’s legal history in a specific jurisdiction. You can find case filings, judgments, and dockets detailing the proceedings and outcomes of legal matters. Accessing these records typically involves visiting the local courthouse, even though many areas now offer online databases for convenience. Different states have varying regulations regarding access, with some requiring formal requests or fees for copies. Conducting a free background check in Texas or a Pennsylvania criminal record check can reveal important information about past legal issues, including lawsuits and criminal charges. Interpreting Court Record Findings During the review of court records, you’ll want to carefully analyze the details they contain to gain a clear comprehension of an individual’s legal history. County court records typically provide insights into civil cases, criminal cases, and traffic violations. You’ll find information on case outcomes such as convictions, dismissals, and fines, which are essential for evaluating a person’s background. Keep in mind that access to these records can vary by state; some jurisdictions offer online databases, whereas others require in-person visits. Although many records are public, certain sensitive cases like juvenile records might’ve restricted access. To guarantee accuracy, always cross-reference your findings with multiple sources to avoid discrepancies and misunderstandings. Review Social Media Profiles Reviewing social media profiles is a significant step when conducting a background check, as it can reveal valuable insights into a person’s character and interests. Many individuals share personal information and life updates publicly, providing a glimpse into their lives. You can spot potential red flags, like inappropriate content or concerning behavior, which mightn’t surface in formal checks. Social media posts and interactions can illustrate how a person engages with others and their professional demeanor in various situations. Employers often incorporate social media checks into their hiring processes, viewing online presence as an extension of a candidate’s professional image. Nevertheless, be mindful of privacy settings and the risk of misinformation, as not all social media content accurately reflects an individual’s true character or qualifications. Conduct a Criminal History Search When you’re ready to conduct a criminal history search, comprehending criminal records is crucial. You can access public databases through state or local law enforcement agencies, and many states even offer online portals for quick searches. Make sure you have the individual’s full name, date of birth, and any known aliases to get the most accurate results. Understanding Criminal Records Conducting a criminal history search is a crucial step in comprehending an individual’s background and evaluating any potential risks associated with hiring or forming personal relationships. This search typically involves examining records of arrests, convictions, and ongoing legal issues. Criminal records in the U.S. are categorized into felonies and misdemeanors, affecting their implications. Category Description Examples Felony Serious crimes with severe penalties Murder, robbery, drug trafficking Misdemeanor Lesser offenses with lighter penalties Petty theft, vandalism Arrest Record Document of arrests made Arrest for DUI, assault Conviction Legal judgment of guilt Convicted for fraud Pending Charges Ongoing legal proceedings Charges under investigation Performing this search can aid in making informed decisions. Accessing Public Databases Accessing public databases for a criminal history search is essential for obtaining reliable information about an individual’s past. You can start by visiting state or local law enforcement agency websites, which often maintain online portals for searching criminal records. Typically, you’ll need to input personal details like the individual’s name and date of birth. Keep in mind that some jurisdictions may require a fee or a formal request to get detailed reports. Furthermore, local courthouses provide access to court records, allowing you to view or request copies of criminal case documents. Remember to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and relevant state laws when using this information, especially for employment decisions. Interpreting Search Results Interpreting search results from a criminal history check can be straightforward if you know what to look for. Start by checking for felony and misdemeanor convictions through national, state, and county databases, in addition to federal district courts. Be aware that reports can include arrest records, ongoing investigations, and conviction records, which differ by jurisdiction and can impact employment eligibility. Pay attention to the nature of offenses, sentencing details, and whether records have been expunged or sealed. Remember, accessing this information often requires compliance with legal regulations, including consent from the individual being checked, as outlined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Many online services can help aggregate this data for a clearer picture of an individual’s legal background. Verify Driving Records Verifying driving records is essential for anyone looking to assess an individual’s driving history, particularly when making decisions related to employment or insurance. To start, you can request a Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) check from your state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). This record typically includes critical information like driving history, license status, and traffic violations. Driving records can reveal significant details such as DUI offenses, accidents, and points on the license, all of which may influence insurance rates and job eligibility, especially for positions that require driving. Many states offer online access to driving records, and you might need to provide personal information like the driver’s license number and date of birth. If you’re an employer, keep in mind that you must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by obtaining consent before accessing an individual’s driving history. Consider Professional Background Check Services In regard to obtaining a thorough grasp of an individual’s background, considering professional background check services can be a smart move. These services, like iprospectcheck and GoodHire, provide detailed reports that comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), guaranteeing legal standards are met for employment screenings. By aggregating data from various public records and databases, they offer faster and more extensive results than self-conducted searches. Many professional services cater to specific needs, offering checks that include criminal history, employment verification, and education validation. Reports are organized and guarantee secure data management, enhancing user trust in the information provided. As for costs for basic checks, they often start around $39.95, with turnaround times able to be as quick as one hour for standard reports. Utilizing these services can simplify your background check process and yield reliable insights that you might miss on your own. Interpret and Analyze the Results Comprehending the results of a background check is crucial for making informed hiring decisions. Start by examining discrepancies between the reported information and the candidate’s statements; these inconsistencies can signal red flags. When analyzing criminal records, consider the nature, severity, and recency of offenses, as they directly affect workplace safety and hiring choices. Verify employment and education claims to confirm that qualifications match the resume, as inaccuracies can lead to liability issues for your organization. Moreover, be aware of the context surrounding civil records such as lawsuits or judgments, as they may impact the individual’s reliability and professionalism. Finally, review any public records related to financial behavior, like bankruptcies or liens, particularly for roles with financial responsibilities. This thorough analysis helps you assess a candidate’s suitability and guarantees a safer, more trustworthy work environment. Frequently Asked Questions Can I Legally Run a Background Check on Someone? Yes, you can legally run a background check on someone, but you must follow federal and state laws. If the check is for employment or housing, you need their written consent. The Fair Credit Reporting Act mandates that individuals be informed about the check. Furthermore, some states have specific regulations regarding what information you can access, especially concerning criminal history. Always use a reputable service to guarantee compliance and accuracy. How to Run a Background Check on Someone for Free? To run a background check for free, start by visiting government websites that provide access to public records. Look into local courthouses for civil and criminal records, as many allow online searches. Explore social media platforms to gather insights about a person’s online presence. Furthermore, consider genealogy sites like FamilySearch for historical information. Combining these resources can improve your search, giving you a more thorough view without incurring costs. How Much Does It Cost to Do a Full Background Check on Someone? The cost of a full background check varies greatly. Basic checks typically range from $30 to $100, whereas extensive checks, including criminal history and employment verification, can be $100 to $300 or more. Some services offer subscription models, costing $20 to $50 monthly for multiple reports. Keep in mind that additional fees may apply for specific searches, like driving records. Always choose a provider that’s FCRA-compliant to guarantee the report meets legal standards. Can I Get a Background Check for Someone Else? Yes, you can obtain a background check on someone else, but you need a valid reason, like employment or legal matters, to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Additionally, most services require the individual’s consent, so it’s best to inform them beforehand. Different providers offer various checks, including criminal history and employment verification, with costs and turnaround times varying. Make sure you use a reputable, FCRA-compliant service to guarantee accurate information. Conclusion In summary, running a background check effectively involves gathering crucial information, utilizing online databases, and reviewing public records. By conducting thorough searches and verifying driving records, you can obtain an extensive view of an individual’s history. Consider professional services if you need more detailed reports. Always make sure you comply with legal regulations, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act. With careful analysis, you can make informed decisions based on the results of your background check. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "How to Run a Background Check on Someone" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Running a background check on someone involves several key steps to guarantee thoroughness and accuracy. First, gather vital details like their full name, date of birth, and Social Security number. Then, utilize online databases and public records to find additional information. You should likewise consider checking social media profiles for insights into their character. As you proceed, comprehending the legal implications and best practices is critical for effective results. What’s next on your checklist? Key Takeaways Gather essential information such as full name, date of birth, and Social Security number for accurate background checks. Utilize online databases and services like GoodHire or Checkr for quick access to comprehensive background reports. Conduct criminal history searches through public databases or local law enforcement agencies for relevant records. Review social media profiles to gain insights into character and potential red flags. Ensure compliance with FCRA regulations and obtain necessary consent before using background information. Gather Necessary Information When you’re ready to run a background check, the first step is gathering the necessary information about the individual. You’ll need details like their full name, date of birth, and Social Security number (SSN) to guarantee accurate searches. Collecting additional information, such as previous addresses, known aliases, and current employment, improves the effectiveness of your background check. Remember to verify the purpose of the check, as different types may require specific information or even consent from the individual being checked. If you’re wondering how can I run a background check on someone, you can likewise utilize online services that offer a totally free background check no credit card needed, especially for basic information. In Pennsylvania, you might find options for a free background check pa. Just keep in mind that certain reports, like criminal history, may need the individual’s consent under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Utilize Online Databases Utilizing online databases can greatly streamline the process of running a background check. These platforms aggregate information from various public records, making it easier for you to get extensive details about an individual’s history. Many services, such as GoodHire and Checkr, offer user-friendly interfaces that provide quick access to background reports, often within hours. You can even perform a lookup background check for free, which might include a totally free background check no credit card required option. Additionally, using a Social Security number trace can reveal associated names and addresses, offering valuable context. Online databases often feature specialized searches, including sex offender registries and global watchlists, ensuring thorough vetting across multiple jurisdictions. For those interested in ongoing monitoring, subscription-based services notify you of any new entries or changes, helping protect your reputation or hiring prospects. This makes them some of the best free background check options available. Check County Court Records To check county court records, start by accessing online databases or visiting your local courthouse. These records include a variety of civil and criminal cases, allowing you to find specific information about a person’s legal history. Comprehending the types of records available and how to interpret their findings is crucial for conducting a thorough background check. Accessing Court Records Online Accessing court records online can be a straightforward process if you know where to look. Start by visiting the official website of the county court where the case is filed, as many jurisdictions offer online databases for public records. You’ll likely need to input specific information, such as the individual’s name, case number, or date of birth, to retrieve relevant court records. Although some counties provide basic information for free, others may charge a fee for accessing certain documents, so check the specific rules first. Keep in mind that not all court records are available online, especially sensitive or sealed cases, which might require an in-person visit. Utilizing state-wide databases can improve your search, especially for free background check NC or Pennsylvania background check options. Types of Court Records County court records encompass a variety of legal documents that provide insight into an individual’s interactions with the judicial system. These records include civil, criminal, probate, and family court cases, reflecting an individual’s legal history in a specific jurisdiction. You can find case filings, judgments, and dockets detailing the proceedings and outcomes of legal matters. Accessing these records typically involves visiting the local courthouse, even though many areas now offer online databases for convenience. Different states have varying regulations regarding access, with some requiring formal requests or fees for copies. Conducting a free background check in Texas or a Pennsylvania criminal record check can reveal important information about past legal issues, including lawsuits and criminal charges. Interpreting Court Record Findings During the review of court records, you’ll want to carefully analyze the details they contain to gain a clear comprehension of an individual’s legal history. County court records typically provide insights into civil cases, criminal cases, and traffic violations. You’ll find information on case outcomes such as convictions, dismissals, and fines, which are essential for evaluating a person’s background. Keep in mind that access to these records can vary by state; some jurisdictions offer online databases, whereas others require in-person visits. Although many records are public, certain sensitive cases like juvenile records might’ve restricted access. To guarantee accuracy, always cross-reference your findings with multiple sources to avoid discrepancies and misunderstandings. Review Social Media Profiles Reviewing social media profiles is a significant step when conducting a background check, as it can reveal valuable insights into a person’s character and interests. Many individuals share personal information and life updates publicly, providing a glimpse into their lives. You can spot potential red flags, like inappropriate content or concerning behavior, which mightn’t surface in formal checks. Social media posts and interactions can illustrate how a person engages with others and their professional demeanor in various situations. Employers often incorporate social media checks into their hiring processes, viewing online presence as an extension of a candidate’s professional image. Nevertheless, be mindful of privacy settings and the risk of misinformation, as not all social media content accurately reflects an individual’s true character or qualifications. Conduct a Criminal History Search When you’re ready to conduct a criminal history search, comprehending criminal records is crucial. You can access public databases through state or local law enforcement agencies, and many states even offer online portals for quick searches. Make sure you have the individual’s full name, date of birth, and any known aliases to get the most accurate results. Understanding Criminal Records Conducting a criminal history search is a crucial step in comprehending an individual’s background and evaluating any potential risks associated with hiring or forming personal relationships. This search typically involves examining records of arrests, convictions, and ongoing legal issues. Criminal records in the U.S. are categorized into felonies and misdemeanors, affecting their implications. Category Description Examples Felony Serious crimes with severe penalties Murder, robbery, drug trafficking Misdemeanor Lesser offenses with lighter penalties Petty theft, vandalism Arrest Record Document of arrests made Arrest for DUI, assault Conviction Legal judgment of guilt Convicted for fraud Pending Charges Ongoing legal proceedings Charges under investigation Performing this search can aid in making informed decisions. Accessing Public Databases Accessing public databases for a criminal history search is essential for obtaining reliable information about an individual’s past. You can start by visiting state or local law enforcement agency websites, which often maintain online portals for searching criminal records. Typically, you’ll need to input personal details like the individual’s name and date of birth. Keep in mind that some jurisdictions may require a fee or a formal request to get detailed reports. Furthermore, local courthouses provide access to court records, allowing you to view or request copies of criminal case documents. Remember to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and relevant state laws when using this information, especially for employment decisions. Interpreting Search Results Interpreting search results from a criminal history check can be straightforward if you know what to look for. Start by checking for felony and misdemeanor convictions through national, state, and county databases, in addition to federal district courts. Be aware that reports can include arrest records, ongoing investigations, and conviction records, which differ by jurisdiction and can impact employment eligibility. Pay attention to the nature of offenses, sentencing details, and whether records have been expunged or sealed. Remember, accessing this information often requires compliance with legal regulations, including consent from the individual being checked, as outlined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Many online services can help aggregate this data for a clearer picture of an individual’s legal background. Verify Driving Records Verifying driving records is essential for anyone looking to assess an individual’s driving history, particularly when making decisions related to employment or insurance. To start, you can request a Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) check from your state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). This record typically includes critical information like driving history, license status, and traffic violations. Driving records can reveal significant details such as DUI offenses, accidents, and points on the license, all of which may influence insurance rates and job eligibility, especially for positions that require driving. Many states offer online access to driving records, and you might need to provide personal information like the driver’s license number and date of birth. If you’re an employer, keep in mind that you must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by obtaining consent before accessing an individual’s driving history. Consider Professional Background Check Services In regard to obtaining a thorough grasp of an individual’s background, considering professional background check services can be a smart move. These services, like iprospectcheck and GoodHire, provide detailed reports that comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), guaranteeing legal standards are met for employment screenings. By aggregating data from various public records and databases, they offer faster and more extensive results than self-conducted searches. Many professional services cater to specific needs, offering checks that include criminal history, employment verification, and education validation. Reports are organized and guarantee secure data management, enhancing user trust in the information provided. As for costs for basic checks, they often start around $39.95, with turnaround times able to be as quick as one hour for standard reports. Utilizing these services can simplify your background check process and yield reliable insights that you might miss on your own. Interpret and Analyze the Results Comprehending the results of a background check is crucial for making informed hiring decisions. Start by examining discrepancies between the reported information and the candidate’s statements; these inconsistencies can signal red flags. When analyzing criminal records, consider the nature, severity, and recency of offenses, as they directly affect workplace safety and hiring choices. Verify employment and education claims to confirm that qualifications match the resume, as inaccuracies can lead to liability issues for your organization. Moreover, be aware of the context surrounding civil records such as lawsuits or judgments, as they may impact the individual’s reliability and professionalism. Finally, review any public records related to financial behavior, like bankruptcies or liens, particularly for roles with financial responsibilities. This thorough analysis helps you assess a candidate’s suitability and guarantees a safer, more trustworthy work environment. Frequently Asked Questions Can I Legally Run a Background Check on Someone? Yes, you can legally run a background check on someone, but you must follow federal and state laws. If the check is for employment or housing, you need their written consent. The Fair Credit Reporting Act mandates that individuals be informed about the check. Furthermore, some states have specific regulations regarding what information you can access, especially concerning criminal history. Always use a reputable service to guarantee compliance and accuracy. How to Run a Background Check on Someone for Free? To run a background check for free, start by visiting government websites that provide access to public records. Look into local courthouses for civil and criminal records, as many allow online searches. Explore social media platforms to gather insights about a person’s online presence. Furthermore, consider genealogy sites like FamilySearch for historical information. Combining these resources can improve your search, giving you a more thorough view without incurring costs. How Much Does It Cost to Do a Full Background Check on Someone? The cost of a full background check varies greatly. Basic checks typically range from $30 to $100, whereas extensive checks, including criminal history and employment verification, can be $100 to $300 or more. Some services offer subscription models, costing $20 to $50 monthly for multiple reports. Keep in mind that additional fees may apply for specific searches, like driving records. Always choose a provider that’s FCRA-compliant to guarantee the report meets legal standards. Can I Get a Background Check for Someone Else? Yes, you can obtain a background check on someone else, but you need a valid reason, like employment or legal matters, to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Additionally, most services require the individual’s consent, so it’s best to inform them beforehand. Different providers offer various checks, including criminal history and employment verification, with costs and turnaround times varying. Make sure you use a reputable, FCRA-compliant service to guarantee accurate information. Conclusion In summary, running a background check effectively involves gathering crucial information, utilizing online databases, and reviewing public records. By conducting thorough searches and verifying driving records, you can obtain an extensive view of an individual’s history. Consider professional services if you need more detailed reports. Always make sure you comply with legal regulations, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act. With careful analysis, you can make informed decisions based on the results of your background check. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "How to Run a Background Check on Someone" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article