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- Spooky Culture vs. Smart Culture: What's Haunting Your Workplace?
Spooky Culture vs. Smart Culture: What's Haunting Your Workplace?
This week: banishing workplace ghosts, democratizing AI skills, and building better talent pipelines
Inside This Issue:
It's mid-October, which means two things: your office is probably drowning in pumpkin spice, and somewhere, someone's planning a "fun" mandatory Halloween costume competition.
But while we're leaning into spooky season for laughs, too many workplaces are genuinely haunted year-round—by ghosting managers, mysterious policy changes, and cultures that make people want to run away, not toward.
Meanwhile, the EX landscape is shifting fast: AI literacy just became non-negotiable for UK apprentices across all sectors, companies are finally stress-testing hiring algorithms for bias (and finding plenty), and a few smart organizations are building their own talent pipelines instead of complaining about the skills shortage.
This week, we're looking at what separates the ghouls from the good guys, plus a candid reminder that supporting working parents takes more than welcome-back cupcakes.
Let's dig in.
Featured Insights:
Scares belong at the cinema, not in your culture. From graveyard silence to Frankenstein values that look impressive on paper but don't match day-to-day behaviour, award-winning comms strategist Courtney Ellul walks through seven ways to exorcise the real workplace demons.
The antidote to haunted workplaces isn't fancy programs—it's clarity, consistency, and the kind of leadership that gives energy back instead of draining it.
In a landmark move, QA Ltd is embedding Microsoft Copilot training across every UK apprenticeship program—finance, marketing, HR, all of it. This isn't just about tech upskilling; it's about democratizing AI literacy as a baseline competency for the next generation of talent. For HR and L&D leaders, the message is clear: AI tool proficiency is now table stakes, not nice-to-have.
Fresh off the Press
Stay current with key headlines and announcements from across the industry.
From Our Vault
A raw, research-backed look at what it really means to return to work after becoming a mother. Spoiler: it's not about cupcakes. It's about phased returns, real mentorship, and asking what she actually needs instead of assuming you know.
The Extra Point
If you're still treating AI ethics and fairness as a "nice to explore later" issue, this week's AEQUITAS coverage should be your wake-up call. The EU AI Act isn't theoretical anymore, and bias mitigation isn't something you bolt on at the end. Fair-by-Design means embedding fairness at every stage—scoping, development, deployment.
Start asking your vendors for proof of stress-testing. Your future candidates (and regulators) will thank you.
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