Inside This Issue:
Welcome to this week’s Employee Experience Magazine newsletter.
A surprising amount of HR still runs on assumptions that made perfect sense at the time.
Pay people differently based on where they live. Ask candidates to compress their career into a CV. Send another email when employees need to know something.
But the technology, workforce and expectations around those systems are changing quickly.
This week, we look at what geography is really doing in a pay formula, whether AI could finally push recruitment beyond the CV, and why internal communicators may need to borrow more aggressively from advertising if they want messages to cut through.
There is a common thread running through all three. Some workplace practices survive because they are good. Others survive because they are familiar, easy to administer and deeply embedded in the systems around them.
Those are not the same thing.
And elsewhere in this issue, there is a more cultural sign that work itself is changing shape: young professionals are turning commuting, coffee runs, office outfits and lanyards into lifestyle content. Which is a useful reminder that the workplace is not just changing operationally. It is changing in meaning too.
So perhaps the question for HR is not simply what needs improving. It is what we are still doing because that is how work has always worked.
Featured Insights:
Employers often use the language of living costs to explain a location premium and the language of labour costs to explain a discount. London weighting is one of the most familiar examples of location-based pay. But UK city of Bristol now costs more to live in than Paris or Berlin, remote employees can change salary by moving house and global employers routinely pay different rates for the same work by moving it offshore or near-shore. So what is geography in a pay formula actually measuring?
Clever ways to make sure your internal comms cuts through: Vera Staltmane with a guest post: What I Use Instead of Another Internal Comms Post
If your internal comms are competing with a wall of emails, Slack messages and company updates, creativity is not a nice-to-have. Vera Staltmane, Internal Communications Manager at JetBrains, argues that internal communicators should borrow more from advertising and shares five ideas for making messages people actually notice, remember and talk about.
The CV was built for a world where recruitment software needed every career squeezed into the same predictable file. That world is disappearing. Javier Martínez, founder and CEO of Self, argues that AI could finally move recruitment beyond the PDF CV and towards a richer, more useful picture of what candidates have actually done.
In other news
Stay current with key headlines and announcements from across the industry.
Events
A reminder of a few event dates that are worth having on your radar this September, from employee experience and internal communications to workplace wellbeing. You can also browse our full events calendar for conferences, summits and industry dates throughout the year.
Free event of the week
CIPD: Evidence-based approaches to better work and organisational performance
23 September 2026 | Online | Free for everyone
16:00–17:00 UK | 11:00–12:00 ET | 10:00–11:00 CT
One for the diary if you’re interested in workplace innovation, performance and how we actually create better work.
US
Future of Work USA 2026
15–16 September | Dallas, Texas
Senior leaders share strategies and ideas for navigating the changing world of work.
Find out more
ECE Washington 2026: Employee Communications & Experience
29 September–1 October | Washington, DC
A conference for corporate communicators focused on improving employee experience through stronger communication.
Find out more
UK
Wellbeing at Work UK Summit 2026
22–24 September | London, Manchester & online
Wellbeing strategy, leadership roundtables and keynotes, with free places for qualifying in-house HR and wellbeing leaders.
Find out more
Unite 26
29–30 September | London
Employee experience, digital workplace and internal communications, with case studies and peer discussion.
Find out more
