Manufacturing HR Shifts, Safety, and the Weight of Plant Life with Terry Cook & Stacey Wenczel

AI at Work: The HR Questions Companies Are Facing Now

AI has been showing up at work for years — but now the questions are unavoidable. Pete Wright talks with Kyle Pardo and Terry Cook from AIM HR Solutions about the real AI dilemmas hitting the HR helpline: who actually owns AI inside a company, whether it's safe to let it draft warnings and termination letters, and what happens to confidential employee data once it's out there. They get into the tension between executives mandating AI everywhere and younger workers who want nothing to do with it, the recruiting surprises that come with AI-written applications, and the legal minefield of note takers and meeting recordings. A practical conversation about guiding AI before it quietly reshapes your workplace. Links & Notes * The New York Times v. OpenAI [https://openai.com/index/response-to-nyt-data-demands/] — the case Pete references on chat data that can't simply be deleted. A May 2025 preservation order required OpenAI to retain ChatGPT logs; that order was later terminated (October 2025), and in November 2025 the court ordered OpenAI to produce roughly 20 million de-identified chat logs to the plaintiffs. A useful reminder that "deleted" and "gone" aren't the same thing. * Massachusetts Wiretap Statute (M.G.L. c. 272, § 99) [https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter272/Section99] — the two-party (all-party) consent law behind the note-taker and smart-glasses discussion. Massachusetts is one of roughly a dozen all-party consent states, and secretly recording a conversation can carry criminal penalties. For a plain-language walkthrough, the Digital Media Law Project's Massachusetts recording guide [http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/massachusetts-recording-law] is a good starting point. AIM HR Helpline [https://aimhrsolutions.com/] — AIM members can reach the helpline with questions like the ones in this episode by phone at 800-470-6277 or by email at helpline@aimnet.org [helpline@aimnet.org], Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. * AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog [https://aimhrsolutions.com/training/] * AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or helpline@aimnet.org for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours.

Workplace Investigations with Sarah Piscatelli and Tom Jones

Every HR professional knows the feeling: a complaint comes in, and you sense that whatever you do next could be read back to you under oath. This week, Pete Wright sits down with AIM HR Solutions' Sarah Piscatelli and Tom Jones to talk through how to run a workplace investigation that actually holds up — starting with the question employers ask most, "Do I even have to investigate?" From anonymous complaints and he-said-she-said standoffs to the difference between a real policy violation and ordinary workplace drama, the conversation gets practical fast. Along the way: who should hold the pen, when to call in an outside investigator, why you can't promise the confidentiality everyone wants, and the retaliation trap that snares companies even after they've won. Plus, what invisible recording devices and AI note-takers mean for HR in a two-party-consent state. Links & Notes AIM HR Solutions https://aimhrsolutions.com [https://aimhrsolutions.com/] HRInfo@AIMHRSolutions.com [HRInfo@AIMHRSolutions.com] | 617-488-8321 AIM HR Helpline (for AIM members) https://aimnet.org/hr-helpline/ [https://aimnet.org/hr-helpline/] 800-470-6277 | helpline@aimnet.org [helpline@aimnet.org] Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. ET * EEOC — Questions and Answers: Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues [https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/questions-and-answers-enforcement-guidance-retaliation-and-related-issues] * Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) [https://www.mass.gov/orgs/massachusetts-commission-against-discrimination] * Massachusetts Wiretap Statute — M.G.L. c. 272, § 99 [https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter272/Section99] (two-party consent / interception of wire and oral communications) * AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog [https://aimhrsolutions.com/training/] * AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or helpline@aimnet.org for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours.

Pre-Hiring Assessments: Smarter Hiring or Hidden Risk?

Employers love the idea of a hiring tool that does the hard work for them — a test that surfaces the right candidate before the interview even starts. But the gap between a useful assessment and a discrimination claim is narrower than most HR leaders realize, and in Massachusetts, the ground keeps shifting underneath them. This month, Terry Cook and Sarah Piscatelli walk Pete through the real stakes of pre-hiring assessments: what counts as job-related, what the EEOC has already shut down, and why the rise of AI-powered video interviews is creating a brand-new category of legal exposure. If your hiring process leans on any kind of test — physical, technical, behavioral, or otherwise — this is the conversation to hear before you run another candidate through it. Links & Notes * AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or helpline@aimnet.org for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours.  * AIM Blog - Ask the Helpline: Are Your Hiring Assessments Creating Legal Risk? [https://aimnet.org/ask-the-helpline-are-your-hiring-assessments-creating-legal-risk/] * Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures of 1978 [https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2014-title29-vol4/xml/CFR-2014-title29-vol4-part1607.xml]  * Code of Federal Regulations [https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2014-title29-vol4/xml/CFR-2014-title29-vol4-part1607.xml] * AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog [https://aimhrsolutions.com/training/] * AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or helpline@aimnet.org for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours.

Orientation & Onboarding with Kyle Pardo & Annette Dupree

Here's a question worth sitting with before we get into it: when's the last time a new hire walked into your organization and really landed? Not just completed their paperwork, not just got their badge and their laptop — but actually felt like they understood where they were, why it mattered, and where they fit in it? Because if you're like most employers, you're probably conflating two things that are doing very different jobs. Orientation and onboarding. They're not the same thing, and treating them like they are is quietly costing your people. Today, Kyle Pardo and Annette Dupree from AIM HR Solutions are here to untangle them — what each one is actually supposed to do, where AI can genuinely help and where it absolutely cannot, and how a thoughtful, intentional new hire experience can be the difference between a great long-term hire and a frustrating early exit. AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or helpline@aimnet.org for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. EST. Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours.   * AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog [https://aimhrsolutions.com/training/] * AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or helpline@aimnet.org for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours.

Manufacturing HR Shifts, Safety, and the Weight of Plant Life with Terry Cook & Stacey Wenczel

Manufacturing is one of those environments that exposes every gap in your HR infrastructure fast. When you're covering three shifts, managing safety committees, handling workers' comp, and trying to get information to people who don't have a company email address, "strategic HR" starts to feel like a luxury. This episode, Terry Cook and Stacey Wenczel join Pete to talk about what it actually looks like to do HR in a plant environment — the strain, the workarounds, and the risks that quietly accumulate when no one's watching. The conversation covers a lot of ground: how shift supervisors end up doing de facto HR work on overnight shifts and why that creates its own resentment and risk; why safety committees work best when someone who doesn't work in an area is the one walking through it; and how accommodation requests in physically demanding roles force a more honest conversation about essential job functions than most HR professionals are used to having. Terry also demystifies donning and doffing — the question of whether the time employees spend putting on and taking off protective equipment is compensable — and why the location of your time clock matters more than you'd think. The episode closes with a discussion of safety training cadence, repeat workers' comp incidents, and what it takes to build a culture where employees trust HR enough to actually come to them. Terry and Stacey also share details on AIM's Supervisor Essentials training series, with upcoming sessions available this spring. Links & Resources * Find the Perfect Training Resource in our updated 2026 Training Catalog! [https://aimhrsolutions.com/learning-development/catalog/] * AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or helpline@aimnet.org for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours. * AIM HR Solutions Supervisor Essentials Training Upcoming public sessions available in April — virtual format, open enrollment https://aimhrsolutions.com/learning-development/ [https://aimhrsolutions.com/learning-development/] * AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog [https://aimhrsolutions.com/training/] * AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or helpline@aimnet.org for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours.