Insights

Notes from the practice of global HR.

Articles on hiring across borders, building remote-first operations, and the human side of scaling teams. Written from years on the ground in Nepal, Manila, Sydney, and New York.

For tech-leaning writing, find me on Medium.

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The death of the resume — and what's replacing it in the AI screening era.

Resumes were already broken. AI screening just exposed it. Here's what founders and people leaders should actually look at when 87% of applications never touch a human eye.

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Workplace TrendsMay 15, 2026

Quiet cracking: the workplace trend that's worse than quiet quitting.

Quiet quitting was a refusal. Quiet cracking is something else — slow erosion, lost confidence, and the employees still showing up who already left in their heads. Here's how to spot it before they walk.

8 min

AI & HRMay 15, 2026

HR 2030 is mostly hype. Here's what AI agents will actually do in your HR stack in the next 24 months.

Every analyst is talking about 'agentic HR' and 'superagents.' Most of it is slideware. Here's the honest line between what AI will own, what it will assist, and what it won't touch — written for operators, not keynotes.

11 min

AI in HRMay 14, 2026

Will AI replace HR by 2027? An honest answer from someone using it daily.

The fear is loud, the data is quieter. Here's what AI is actually taking over inside People functions right now — and the four parts of HR no model is touching anytime soon.

11 min

HiringMay 14, 2026

Skills-based hiring failed at 60% of companies. Here's the honest post-mortem.

Everyone announced the death of the degree. Two years in, most rollouts quietly added the degree back. Here's what actually went wrong — and the four conditions that separate the rollouts that worked from the ones that became a press release.

9 min

AI & HRMay 13, 2026

12 ChatGPT prompts for HR that actually work (with the ones that don't).

Most HR teams are using AI as a fancy spell-checker. Here are the prompts that compress 2 hours of work into 10 minutes — and the ones that look impressive in a demo but break in production.

10 min

TalentMay 13, 2026

Internal mobility math: why your 30% goal is probably the wrong number.

Every CEO wants 'more internal mobility.' Most companies pick a target — 20%, 30%, sometimes 50% — with no idea what it means or what it costs. Here's the actual math, the failure modes, and the right number for your stage.

10 min

For FoundersMay 12, 2026

What your CEO actually wants from their first People hire.

Most founders hire a People person too late, then expect them to fix culture, recruiting, and compliance in 90 days. Here's what the role actually needs to be — and how to scope it before you post the job.

10 min

EngagementMay 12, 2026

Continuous listening is making engagement worse. Here's how to fix it.

Every quarter you ship another pulse survey. Response rates drop. Managers ignore the dashboard. Employees feel surveyed-at, not listened-to. The problem isn't the tool — it's the loop you never closed.

9 min

CompensationMay 11, 2026

Pay equity in 30 days: the operator's playbook nobody publishes.

Most pay-equity guides are written by consultants who want a 6-month engagement. Here's how to run a defensible audit in 30 days with a spreadsheet, a statistician's hour, and the right framing for legal.

11 min

Future of WorkMay 10, 2026

The return-to-office mandate is failing. Here's the data CEOs aren't seeing.

Three years of RTO push, and the numbers are in. Productivity hasn't moved, attrition has — and the people leaving first are the ones you can least afford to lose.

10 min

CultureMay 10, 2026

The loneliness epidemic at work — and what HR can actually do about it.

1 in 4 workers say they don't have a single friend at work. The Surgeon General called it a public health crisis. Here's the part HR teams are not talking about — and the small things that move the needle.

8 min

LeadershipMay 10, 2026

Managers are the missing layer in every AI HR rollout. Here's how to fix it.

Every AI HR rollout has a beautiful executive sponsor, a polished employee experience layer, and a giant manager-shaped hole in the middle. That hole is why most rollouts stall at 30% adoption.

8 min

PerformanceMay 9, 2026

Killing performance ratings: what 8 companies actually replaced them with.

Adobe killed ratings in 2012. The press loved it. The actual replacement — and the failure modes that followed — never made the keynote. Here's what 8 companies that went rating-less actually did, and what worked.

10 min

For FoundersMay 8, 2026

CHRO vs Head of People vs Fractional — what your stage actually needs.

A practical decision framework for founders and boards weighing their first senior People hire. With pay ranges, scope boundaries, and the failure modes I've watched companies walk into at every stage.

9 min

RetentionMay 8, 2026

Why your best employees are leaving — and how you missed every signal.

Top performers don't quit because of one thing. They quit because of 18 small things you stopped noticing six months ago. Here's the signal map every founder and HR leader should run quarterly.

9 min

Org DesignMay 8, 2026

Org design in the AI era: span of control is doubling. Most companies aren't ready.

If AI eats the bottom 30% of every individual contributor's job, the math on manager span of control breaks. Here's what's actually changing in org structure — and the three mistakes companies are making right now.

9 min

Hard ConversationsMay 7, 2026

Layoffs done right: the operator's checklist most companies skip.

Nobody wants to write this post. But layoffs are happening, and the difference between a layoff that protects the brand and one that destroys it is almost always in the operational details — not the comms.

12 min

CompensationMay 6, 2026

Pay transparency is here. What CEOs and HR leaders need to fix before Q3.

By the end of 2026, more than 60% of US and EU workers will be covered by pay transparency laws. Most companies are not ready — and the cost of being caught flat-footed shows up in the next engagement survey, not the next audit.

12 min

HR Operating ModelMay 6, 2026

The HR Business Partner role is dying. Here's what's replacing it.

The HRBP model worked when business leaders needed a generalist translator for HR. In 2026 they need a specialist for the one or two things keeping them up at night. The role is bifurcating — fast.

9 min

LeadershipMay 5, 2026

Manager burnout is the silent middle crisis — and it's reshaping every team.

Front-line managers are quitting management roles at the highest rate on record. Here's why the middle layer is breaking, and what it means for every CEO trying to scale.

9 min

LeadershipMay 2, 2026

Managing Gen Z in 2026: what actually works (and what condescends to them).

Gen Z will be 30% of the global workforce by the end of 2026. Most of the management advice written about them gets it wrong in the same predictable way — and the teams that figure this out early will compound a decade of advantage.

10 min

AI & HiringMay 2, 2026

Hiring for AI fluency — the resume signal that didn't exist 18 months ago.

Every team is hiring for it, almost no one knows how to test for it. Here's what AI fluency actually means, how to interview for it, and the three traps that make most assessments useless.

8 min

OnboardingApr 29, 2026

The 90-day onboarding formula that actually makes new hires stay.

Most onboarding ends on day 7 and quietly costs you 30% of new hires within a year. Here's the 90-day structure that doubles ramp speed and cuts first-year attrition in half.

8 min

Future of WorkApr 28, 2026

The 4-day work week, three years later: what the data actually says.

The pilots are done, the headlines moved on, and the real numbers are in. Here's what 4-day weeks have actually delivered for productivity, retention, and burnout — and the conditions that decide whether it works for you.

11 min

DEIApr 26, 2026

DEI in 2026: what survived the backlash, and what's quietly working.

Headlines say DEI is dead. The data says something more interesting: the performative parts died, and the structural parts are getting stronger. Here's what's actually working in companies that didn't fold.

9 min

CompensationApr 23, 2026

The salary negotiation playbook — what HR is actually thinking on the other side.

Most candidates negotiate badly because no one tells them what HR is allowed to do, what is bluffing, and where the real flexibility sits. Here's the honest version, from someone who has sat in that seat for seven years.

8 min

PerformanceApr 22, 2026

Performance evaluation that actually works — and what to stop doing in 2026.

Annual reviews don't change behavior. Continuous, evidence-based feedback does. A research-backed playbook from running performance systems across four countries.

12 min

AI in HRMar 8, 2026

AI in HR: augment the human, do not automate the judgment.

AI is the best research assistant HR has ever had — and the worst decision-maker. A frank, sourced look at where it earns its place and where it must not go alone.

11 min

Remote WorkFeb 14, 2026

Managing remote teams across timezones: rhythm beats real-time.

Synchronous-by-default is killing your distributed team's productivity. Here's the research — and the playbook — for designing async-first rhythms that respect everyone's clock.

11 min

Global HRJan 20, 2026

Global HR strategy from Nepal to New York: build the spine, localize the skin.

A global HR system that pretends every market is the same will fail in all of them. The structure I've used to scale across four very different ones — and the data behind it.

12 min

LeadershipDec 5, 2025

The feedback culture leaders actually build — versus the one they talk about.

Every leadership team says they want a 'culture of feedback.' Almost none of them have built one. Here's the gap, the research behind it, and the small habits that close it.

9 min

Global HRSep 12, 2025

The future of HR is borderless — but not cultureless.

Universal tools, local practice. Why premium HR leaders build systems flexible enough to honor difference while driving consistent outcomes.

9 min

RecruitmentAug 4, 2025

Speed-to-hire is a vanity metric. Quality-of-hire is the only one that matters.

A fast hire who leaves in 90 days costs more than a thoughtful hire who stays for years. Slow down the process — not the decision.

8 min

OperationsJun 22, 2025

Great HR operations are invisible. People only notice them when they fail.

The best HR infrastructure removes friction before employees feel it. A premium people function is operationally boring — on purpose.

8 min

Remote WorkMay 10, 2025

Remote-first HR requires more intentionality, not less.

When you can't rely on office proximity, every touchpoint — onboarding, feedback, recognition — must be designed with deliberate care.

8 min