Bots delivering bad news badly

Signal Summary: Companies are letting automation break the worst news while hiring managers panic-hire their way to safety disasters. Meanwhile, professional staffing hours decline for the fourth straight week. Plus, the purple toupee that killed a deal.

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HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK ↓

SIGNAL 1
ANZ Bank's automation apocalypse shows what not to do

The disaster: ANZ Bank hit the news recently after staff learned of job losses via an automation error requesting they return their laptops.

Translation: over 100 bankers discovered they were fired when a bot politely asked for their equipment back.

What went wrong:

• Systems jumped ahead of humans in the termination sequence

• No dual approval gates to prevent automation from running wild

• Governance failed spectacularly, turning layoffs into a public relations nightmare

The fallout: The union called it "disgusting." The headlines wrote themselves. When trust unravels inside the company, it explodes online faster than you can draft an apology email.

Signal → Strategy: Audit your offboarding workflows and document all automations immediately. Make them easy to understand, so they can be quickly modified in case your “P.J.” gets fired for creating a PR nightmare.

Go deeper: Unleash - Bad news shouldn't come from a bot

SIGNAL 2
Hiring panic creates safety disasters in industrial sectors

The pressure cooker: 73% of hiring professionals in certain industries - such as manufacturing, logistics, and engineering feel pressure to hire quickly, but they also feel the consequences of making rushed recruiting decisions

The damage report:

• 21% experienced an increase in safety incidents after a bad hire

• 50% saw increased costs from rehiring or training failures

• 63% observed decreased productivity from rushed placements

The real kicker: Among the top four skills missing in most new hires, hiring pros said they wanted to see attention to detail, problem-solving, communication, and advanced technical skills

Signal → Strategy: Launch "Quality First" industrial staffing packages with extended vetting periods. Market safety compliance as your competitive advantage over speed-focused competitors.

Go deeper: HR Dive - Hiring pros face pressure to hire quickly

SIGNAL 3
Professional staffing continues bleeding

The stagnation: US staffing hours were flat this week (up just 0.1%). Commercial hours inched up 0.5% week-over-week, while professional hours continued a trend of declines, down 2%.

The disconnect:

• Overall staffing index remained at its 2025 high of 77 for the 4th week in a row

• But year-over-year comparison fell to -5%

• Professional staffing declined for a fourth straight week

• Commercial staffing holding steady at 2025 highs

The reality check: The outlook for temporary staffing remains clouded by factors such as slowing growth in the overall US labor market, high interest rates, policy uncertainty, and uncertainty regarding the impact of AI, leading to a continued cautious approach to hiring from clients.

Signal → Strategy: Focus on uncertainty as your selling point. Pitch flexible workforce solutions to clients who are paralyzed by economic unknowns but still need to keep projects moving.

Go deeper: SIA Bullhorn Staffing Indicator

RECRUITING CONFESSIONAL
The Purple Toupee That Killed A Deal

Recruiting Confessional A weekly series featuring anonymous stories from recruiting and staffing professionals. Submit yours here.

The Setup: Several years ago, I was working for an agency hunting for the perfect candidate for a very rare type of software developer. Think unicorn-level scarce.

The Victory Lap: I found the developer and scored him a coveted interview at a large oil company. We were pumped - this guy was flying in for the interview. Up until this point, we'd only communicated over phone and email, so we'd never met face-to-face.

The Plot Twist: Interview day arrives. I roll up to his hotel to drive him to the interview. As I pull up, I see him standing there. He was hard to miss since he was wearing a purple toupee. That's right. A. Purple. Toupee.

The Aftermath: While we don't discriminate based on hair color, the purple toupee was definitely not the right fit for this conservative oil company role. Sometimes the perfect technical match isn't the perfect cultural match.

Have a story? Submit it here

WEEKLY POLL

SHARE THE SIGNALS
3 people you should share these signals with:

1. Your operations manager dealing with automation workflows

2. That industrial recruiter who's been speed-hiring disasters

3. Your business development team missing the staffing upturn