Human Capital Intel - 7/30/25
GenZ whisperers wanted | Unappreciated talent | AI-disengagement nexus | Job market disfunction
Welcome to the latest edition of Human Capital Intelligence, your weekly brief synthesizing over 250 leadership, HR, and people sources to filter out the noise. As always, we would love to hear from you at ken@reyvism.com with questions you’d like answered or topics covered.
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By Ken Stibler; Powered by Reyvism Analytics
Deep Dive: GenZ Whisperer Wanted (Needed)
Gen Z is no longer on the sidelines. They are growing rapidly as both workers and consumers, and their influence is already reshaping how companies operate. Whether employers like it or not, this is the generation that will staff the front lines, drive digital conversations, and fill leadership pipelines in the coming decade. Their expectations around flexibility, purpose, and communication are forcing organizations to adjust, sometimes awkwardly, but ignoring them is no longer a viable strategy.
The challenge is that many executives are still operating off stereotypes. Gen Z is often seen as (and are) disloyal, oversensitive, or lacking work ethic. In reality, this is a generation shaped by ongoing instability, low chances of ever owning a house, and formative years interrupted by a global pandemic. They can be impatient, but also highly adaptive. The loneliness generation, they’re rapidly turning on remote work, valuing transparency over polish and connection over hierarchy. The companies struggling the most are the ones trying to force-fit old systems to new realities.
The companies getting it right are not making Gen Z a side initiative, they are building around their behaviors and communication patterns as a core strategy. Cetaphil rewrote its product language to appear in AI-driven search because Gen Z shoppers now ask ChatGPT for skincare advice in-store. Beauty giant E.l.f.’s CEO hands younger employees real authority over community strategy and treats them as an always-on focus group.
These aren’t culture plays. They’re operational advantages that lead to faster iteration, stronger consumer resonance, and higher retention in key growth roles. In a labor market defined by churn and digital noise, understanding Gen Z is not a branding exercise. It’s a performance edge.
AI and employee engagement: oil and water?
The promise of AI-driven productivity is clashing with the human foundation required to realize its value. Dell’s employee satisfaction score has dropped by nearly half over two years, and insiders cite layoffs, culture shifts, and fatigue with the company’s AI push as central to the decline. Despite solid earnings and leadership approval scores, the emotional undercurrent among staff is one of instability, eroded trust, and mounting disengagement. As workloads rise and career paths narrow, even high performers report feeling expendable in the name of modernization.
Read more: Anthropic Allows AI Use in Hiring After Initial Ban. (AInvest)
Across industries, AI tools are being assigned logins, team roles, and even human managers. While technically impressive, these rollouts are occurring in an environment where human employees are uncertain whether they are collaborators or competitors. Communication has not kept pace with innovation. Silence from leadership breeds fear, and fear undermines the very performance gains AI is supposed to unlock.
The gap is emotional as much as operational. Workers are absorbing rapid change without clarity, context, or security. That turns technological progress into a morale drain, even in companies with strong financials. The irony is stark: AI may be accelerating output, but without engagement, the net result may be less resilience, not more.
Quote of the Week: From HR to ‘People Ops’
“People ops is focused on pushing the business forward. It’s focused on streamlining operations. They have objectives around making the company go faster. HR is much more misaligned with the business’s speed and growth and execution, and has developed a culture—in my opinion—of being comfortable not doing much.”
—Ryan Breslow, CEO of Bolt, on the company’s recent pullback from progressive management
Reading List:
Big company policy pain creates a new small business competitive advantage
Big-company return-to-office mandates are backfiring, creating an unexpected edge for smaller firms that offer flexibility. With younger and mid-career workers increasingly prioritizing autonomy, startups and small businesses are attracting top talent priced out or burned out by rigid corporate policies. Remote and hybrid work has become a competitive advantage, often valued as highly as an 8% pay bump, and helps smaller firms retain employees at lower cost. As large employers tighten control to reassure investors, they may be handing nimble rivals a rare opening to pull ahead in the talent race.
Late career layoffs create a talent pool - without the GenZ baggage
A wave of late-career layoffs is flooding the market with experienced, motivated talent that doesn’t come with the same concerns associated with younger workers. Workers in their 50s have been hit hardest, while layoffs among 35 to 44-year-old managers has risen over 400% since 2022. Those who find new roles take an average 11% pay cut, and many are open to part-time or lower-responsibility positions just to stay employed. In a labor market strained by inflated resumes, short tenures, and cultural friction, this cohort offers something rare: reliability, institutional knowledge, and low-drama onboarding. It's an underused asset hiding in plain sight.
AI drives noticeable declines in job market efficiency
Far from streamlining hiring, AI is creating a “doom loop” for job market efficiency. Nearly half of Gen Z applicants now admit to lying on resumes, gaming automated screeners, or fabricating work samples…tactics driven by desperation in a market flooded with automation, ghosting, and fewer entry-level jobs. Hiring processes designed to filter at scale are backfiring, pushing candidates to perform for machines rather than signal real fit. The result is a hiring ecosystem clogged with false positives, missed talent, and growing distrust on both sides. Instead of faster, better matches, AI is driving noise, distortion, and a growing disconnect between employers and the workforce.
Data Point: Time to revisit degree requirements?
50%
Percentage of 2025 college graduates who believe their degrees did not prepare them to be valuable in today’s job market
In Other News
The U.S. Economy Is Regaining Its Swagger. (Wall Street Journal)
To Bitcoin or not to Bitcoin? A Corporate Cash Question! (Musing on Markets)
HR professionals are confident about managing change — but past efforts haunt them. (HR Dive)
AI in hiring faces a legal reckoning: HR lessons from ‘Mobley v. Workday. (HR Executive)
Employees are paying out-of-pocket for the benefits they're not getting at work. (Employee Benefits News)
2 in 5 workers say personal social media use poses a career risk. (HR Dive)
Fully Remote Work Least Popular With Gen Z: Gen Z prefers hybrid work and is more likely to want employees in the office more often. (Gallup)
Trump taps DOL for ‘rapid retraining’ of workers displaced by AI. (HR Dive)