S1
HR & operations
Top 3
What changed in HR systems, compliance and workforce data for a team under 500 people, and what it costs or saves.
Operations
The EEOC sued Bombardier on September 29. It says an aircraft mechanic with 15 years of experience moved his family to Arizona, passed every other physical test, then failed a lung capacity test over a condition he was born with and lost the job.
15 yrs
of experience, ended by one breathing test
Why this mattersPre-hire tests get added once and never checked against the actual work. If yours screens anyone out, write down which task needs it and who signed off. A test you cannot tie to the job is a lawsuit you pay for twice.
Operations
Triad National Security, which runs the Los Alamos lab, agreed on September 29 to pay $2.8 million. The EEOC found it had turned down religious and medical accommodation requests tied to its vaccine and testing rules since 2021.
$2.8M
paid over accommodation requests turned down
Why this mattersMost of these cases start with a request nobody logged and a decision nobody wrote down. Give accommodation requests one inbox, a written answer within ten business days, and a note of why. The paperwork is what ends these before a lawyer is involved.
Operations
The EEOC went to court on September 28 to force Hyundai's engineering arm to hand over hire dates, termination reasons, nationality and pay going back to January 2020. The company produced data from 2023 forward and left out several categories.
2020
the year the records were supposed to start
Why this mattersWhen a charge lands, you get asked for years of hire, exit and pay data in one export. Most small teams cannot produce it because the data moved systems. Ask your HR system vendor today how far back your records go and what happens to them at renewal.
S2
Science & technology
Top 3
Research and technology that is making money, saving money, or about to change how work gets done.
Science
John Kurelek at Queen's University, with Michael Howland's group at MIT, ran a 15-centimeter turbine inside a pressurized wind tunnel and found that changing how fast the blades spin when the wind shifts raises output. Tuning speed, angle and alignment together is worth tens of thousands of dollars per turbine a year, published in PNAS Nexus this month.
$10k+
a year per turbine, purely from better settings
Why this mattersThe extra revenue came from the settings, not from buying anything. Before your next tool purchase, spend an hour on the one you already pay for and check what is switched off. Most HR systems ship with reminders and approval flows nobody ever turned on.
Science
Brian Hedden and Manish Raghavan at MIT tested the usual objections to every company screening candidates with the same tool. The exclusion argument did not hold, since the same number of people still get hired, but the shared tool stops anyone from ever testing the candidates it rates poorly. Published in Philosophical Perspectives.
1 tool
shared across firms, so nobody tries the rest
Why this mattersIf you and your competitors screen on the same signals, you all miss the same people, and that is where a cheap hire sits. Take two candidates your system ranked low this quarter, interview them anyway, and see what the score missed.
Science
A Cambridge-led team, with the British satellite builder SSTL, designed a suitcase-sized observatory to park behind the Moon, where radio noise from Earth cannot reach it, and listen for the earliest hydrogen. The two-year mission is budgeted under 50 million euros, published September 28 in Nature Astronomy.
50M EUR
budget cap for the whole two-year mission
Why this mattersThe advantage here is position rather than size, and a small thing in the right place beat a large one in the wrong place. Same test before your next senior hire. Check whether the work is actually stuck at a step further down that nobody owns.
S4
Three things to do this week
3 actions
Three moves with the best payoff for the least effort, each with what it is roughly worth. Even one of them saves hours of work, cash, or a risk you would rather not carry.
🛡️1
Risk
Tie every pre-hire test to a task the job actually requires
List every test a candidate must pass before you hire, physical or otherwise. Next to each, name the job task that needs it and who approved it. Drop any you cannot connect. About 90 minutes.
PayoffThe EEOC is suing an aircraft maker over a lung test it never tied to the job. Defending one ADA hiring charge commonly runs tens of thousands in legal fees before any payout, and recent settlements in this area landed between $60,000 and $230,000.
$50k+
defense and settlement exposure on one ADA charge
Effort 90 minutes
🛡️2
Risk
Give accommodation requests one inbox and a written answer
Name one place where any medical or religious accommodation request goes, answer each in writing within ten business days, and record the reason behind every denial. About two hours.
PayoffOne employer just paid $2.8 million over accommodation requests it turned down. These cases turn on what was written at the time, and defending a single charge commonly runs tens of thousands in legal fees before any settlement.
$40k+
legal defense cost on one accommodation claim
Effort 2 hours
💵3
Cash
Switch on what your HR system already includes
Open your main HR system, list the features your current plan includes, and mark which ones are switched off. Turn on two that replace manual work this week. About one hour.
PayoffA turbine team found tens of thousands a year per machine purely in settings. Most HR platforms ship with reminders, approval flows and reporting nobody enabled, and an unused feature is a second tool you are about to pay several thousand a year for.
$5k+
a year in a second tool you no longer need
Effort 1 hour
Want this handled, but no time or capacity?Olga takes on HR ops projects like these on a fractional or interim basis. A 30-minute call is enough to scope one.
Reach out to Olga ↗Payoff figures are order-of-magnitude estimates for a company under 500 people, based on typical costs, not quotes for your business.