This Week's Top Five HR Stories

BCG: 65% of leaders see HR as a strategic business driver

It’s no secret that organisations measure the success of their HR function by the value it adds to the business, rather than the volume of activity it delivers. 

According to BCG’s latest report, Creating People Advantage 2026: Four Power Moves for the CHRO, 65% of leaders shared that they saw HR as a strategic business driver. 

However, 51% of HR teams are consumed by manual administrative tasks, describing them as the “primary barrier to the function making a more strategic contribution".

Despite this, expectations for HR to truly operate as a value‑creating function have never been higher. To understand what HR leaders must know, HR Chief Magazine spoke exclusively to BCG’s Managing Director and Senior Partner, Nick South. 

Why is JPMorgan Chase Tracking Junior Banker’s Hours?

JPMorgan Chase has introduced a pilot programme to monitor the working hours of its junior investment bankers and ensure staff are not overworking. 

The tool will reportedly track video calls, keystrokes and meetings alongside employees’ reports of working hours to help the bank build a better understanding of staff workloads.

While the company has introduced caps on working hours in recent years, employees often underreport their working hours to avoid being told to take breaks or be taken off deals, according to the Financial Times. 

A representative from JPMorgan Chase said: “Much like the weekly screen time summaries on a smartphone, this tool is about awareness – not enforcement.

“It’s designed to support transparency, wellbeing and encourage open conversations about workload.”

Reddit CEO: "There are so many reasons to hire new grads"

Today’s global workforce is increasingly using AI, with 65% of entry-level workers now admitting to using the technology on a daily basis.

With almost two‑thirds of entry‑level roles being touched by AI tools, it’s no surprise that more employees are becoming increasingly worried that these positions may be the first to disappear. 

As AI can be used to automate routine, repetitive tasks that traditionally helped early‑career employees learn the ropes, workers fear that the foundation of the career ladder is being eroded.

Consequently, employees striving to join the workforce are now not just competing against each other, but against technology, too. 

However, Steve Huffman, CEO of social media platform Reddit, is spinning a more positive narrative, insisting that his company is actually experiencing the opposite.

"The kids coming out of college right now learned how to program with AI,” Steve recently said on the Sourcery with Molly O'Shea podcast. “They're really good at it, so I think we will go heavy on new grads because they're so much more AI native."

As a result, new hires should be focused on building the right skills to help them better utilise AI, rather than seeing it as a blocker. 

He added: “I think there are so many reasons to hire new grads. Also, the best new grads, if you don't hire them as new grads, you will never see them. 

“They will never be on the job market again. They're too valuable to ever let them be on the job market.”

How BNY's 150 AI Agents Work Alongside its Human Employees

Robin Vince, CEO of BNY has shared that the company is embedding AI at the heart of its strategy with the help of 140 digital employees.

Each of these AI agents has a range of skills and is treated similarly to human staff members. Vince tells Business Insider that each AI agent will "report to a human manager," who will oversee its work and even give the agent performance reviews.

Robin says that when a digital employee completes a piece of work, it will show the "human who's responsible for the process" and tell them, "I've just done three-quarters of the work for you. And by the way, I did it in 10 minutes instead of what would have otherwise been two weeks."

Are AI Investments Stalling Small Business Hiring?

Small business hiring may be reducing as tech investments increase, according to the Bank of America’s Small Business Checkpoint. 

The report finds that spending on tech services for small businesses grew 14% in February, the highest since the start of its data series, with Bank of America suggesting that this is because these businesses are investing in “tools that boost productivity and streamline operations.”

Meanwhile, the hiring landscape “remains relatively depressed,” says the report – despite the fact that small businesses employ close to half of US workers. The number of small businesses who planned to hire also fell 4.4%.