Human Solutions: Simplifying HR for People who Love HR

"We're in an at-will state." "She never said the words 'reasonable accommodation.'" Many of the most expensive HR mistakes begin with something that sounds like common sense. In this episode, Terry Cook and Tom Jones of AIM HR Solutions work through ten of the most common HR myths, covering terminations, resignations, harassment complaints, paid family and medical leave, accommodations, social media, and the surprisingly durable idea that the safest handbook is no handbook at all.

Pete plays the manager hunting for a loophole. Terry and Tom are the people who have taken that call on the AIM HR Helpline more times than they can count. What comes out of it is a practical map of where the law actually sits, and what to do instead when the easy answer turns out to be the expensive one.

Links & Notes

• AIM HR Helpline (AIM members) — 800-470-6277 | [email protected] | Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. ET
• AIM HR Roundtables, including the September 23 Western Mass sessions in Pittsfield and Palmer
• AIM HR Solutions Employee Handbook Services

• AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog
• AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours. 

Companies spend real money on benefits their employees might not understand. Mary McNally of AIM HR Solutions joins Pete Wright to talk about why that happens, and why the forty-page PDF sent once a year is doing almost none of the work employers think it's doing.

Mary makes the case that high enrollment and real understanding are two different measurements, and that most of the confusion is the employer's to fix. She walks through the checklist she uses with clients, the generational split in how information actually lands, what AI can do with a summary plan description and what it still can't, and how to talk with an employee who feels the company went back on a promise as costs climb.

Also in this one: the year-round cadence that takes about five minutes at a time, how to run a benefits focus group without turning it into a wish list, and the phone call every employee should make before a scheduled procedure.

AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] 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
• AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours. 

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 — 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) — 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 is a good starting point.

AIM HR Helpline — AIM members can reach the helpline with questions like the ones in this episode by phone at 800-470-6277 or by email at [email protected], Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET.

• AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog
• AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours. 

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
[email protected] | 617-488-8321

AIM HR Helpline (for AIM members)
https://aimnet.org/hr-helpline/
800-470-6277 | [email protected]
Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. ET

• EEOC — Questions and Answers: Enforcement Guidance on Retaliation and Related Issues
• Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD)
• Massachusetts Wiretap Statute — M.G.L. c. 272, § 99 (two-party consent / interception of wire and oral communications)

• AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog
• AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours. 

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 [email protected] 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?
• Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures of 1978 
• Code of Federal Regulations

• AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog
• AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours. 

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 [email protected] 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
• AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] 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 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!
• AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] 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/

• AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog
• AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours. 

Bonding leave sounds straightforward: an employee has a baby, takes time off, and returns to work. But Sarah Piscatelli and Mary McNally from AIM HR Solutions know that the space between a well-intentioned law and its practical implementation is where almost every employer gets stuck. Not because the law is unclear, but because making it work requires navigating overlapping state and federal regulations, measurement periods that don't align, and scenarios the drafters probably didn't anticipate.

In this episode, Pete talks with Sarah and Mary about why bonding leave has become one of the most frequently used and most frequently misunderstood benefits in Massachusetts HR. They explore how 12 weeks of bonding leave can combine with medical leave to reach 26 weeks total, how that coordinates (or doesn't) with FMLA and an older state parental leave law still on the books, and what happens when both parents work for the same company or when an employee wants to take leave intermittently rather than all at once. They discuss why there's no standardization in how doctors approve medical recovery time, why taking a vacation during bonding leave isn't fraud, and why a benefit designed to support families requires HR professionals to operate as project managers just to keep everything compliant.

Press play to discover why something that sounds simple becomes intricate the moment you try to implement it—and what it takes to get it right.

AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours.

Links & Notes

• Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave (DFML)
  • Official PFML program information and employer resources
  • https://www.mass.gov/orgs/department-of-family-and-medical-leave
• U.S. Department of Labor - FMLA Information
  • Federal Family and Medical Leave Act guidelines
  • https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fmla
• Massachusetts Parental Leave Act (1972)
  • Information on the eight-week unpaid parental leave statute
  • https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-parental-leave

• AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog
• AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours. 

The workplace in 2025 feels like it's moving at double speed. Federal contractors saw affirmative action requirements disappear virtually overnight. DEI programs have gone from top priority to barely mentioned in less than a year. AI is racing ahead of regulation, and states like Massachusetts are charting their own course while the federal government pulls in the opposite direction.

Pete Wright sits down with Tom Jones and Kyle Pardo to make sense of it all. They walk through what the rollback of Executive Order 11246 means for employers still figuring out what they're required to track, how DEI is quietly shifting toward broader inclusion efforts, and why Massachusetts employers need to watch for changes to state average weekly wage calculations. The conversation also touches on what AI regulation might look like when the technology is evolving faster than lawmakers can keep up, and why remote work mandates are hitting morale harder than many leaders expected.

But the biggest revelation comes from AIM's latest HR practices survey: for the first time in years, employee engagement and morale have become the number one priority for employers heading into 2026, surpassing even compensation. It's a signal that something fundamental has shifted in how organizations are thinking about their people. This episode offers a clear-eyed look at the year that was and what HR teams should be watching as they head into the next.

AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours.

Links & Notes

• Executive Order 11246 (Wikipedia overview) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_11246 (historical context and 2025 repeal information)
• I-9 Central (USCIS) — https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central (comprehensive I-9 compliance guidance)
• Form I-9 (USCIS) — https://www.uscis.gov/i-9 (current form and instructions)
• Handbook for Employers M-274 — https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-resources/handbook-for-employers-m-274 (detailed guidance for completing I-9)
• Massachusetts Workers' Compensation Rates — https://www.mass.gov/info-details/minimum-and-maximum-compensation-rates (official state average weekly wage information)
• Massachusetts PFML 2025 Updates — https://www.fisherphillips.com/en/news-insights/massachusetts-employers-should-prepare-for-2026-paid-family-and-medical-leave-updates.html (state average weekly wage and benefit updates)
• State AI Legislation 2025 (Future of Privacy Forum) — https://fpf.org/blog/the-state-of-state-ai-legislative-approaches-to-ai-in-2025/ (comprehensive analysis of state AI laws)
• NCSL Artificial Intelligence 2025 Legislation — https://www.ncsl.org/technology-and-communication/artificial-intelligence-2025-legislation (tracker of AI bills by state)
• State AI Laws 2025 (White & Case) — https://www.whitecase.com/insight-alert/california-kentucky-tracking-rise-state-ai-laws-2025 (detailed breakdown of enacted state AI laws)

• AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog
• AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours. 

There is a specific moment in the life of a Human Resources professional that is fraught with a peculiar kind of tension. It happens when a door opens, an employee sits down, and they say, simply, "I need something to change."

We like to think of the workplace as a rational machine, governed by clear inputs and outputs. But what happens when the machine encounters the messy, unpredictable reality of the human body? In this episode of Human Solutions, we explore the "messiest corner of HR": the medical accommodation.

Host Pete Wright and AIM HR Solutions’ Terry Cook take us into the labyrinth of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It turns out, the difference between a lawsuit and a success story often hinges on things we rarely think about—the precise wording of a job description, the speed of a reply, and the strange social dynamics of an office chair.

We explore why the most dangerous thing a manager can do is try to be "nice" without a process, why "undue hardship" is much harder to prove than you think, and the uncomfortable silence HR must maintain when the rest of the staff starts asking why that guy got to work from home.

It is a conversation about the friction between compassion and compliance, and why, sometimes, the best way to help a human being is to strictly follow the rules.

In this episode, we cover:

• The "Magic Words" Myth: Why an employee never actually has to say "disability" or "accommodation" to trigger a legal obligation.
• The Interactive Process: Why the answer isn't "yes" or "no," but rather a conversation about what is safe and essential.
• The Trap of Benevolence: How granting a request off the books can create a precedent that makes future equity impossible.
• The Paradox of the Chair: A look at how a $1,000 ergonomic chair can disrupt the morale of an entire department—and why morale doesn't count as an "undue hardship".
• The Manager’s Dilemma: How to train supervisors to handle the frustration of not being allowed to know why their employee is being treated differently.

Links & Notes

• The Job Accommodation Network (JAN): A critical toolkit for understanding workplace accommodations.
  • AskJAN.org
• Compliance Resources:
  • ADA.gov
  • EEOC: Employer Responsibilities
• AIM HR Helpline: For AIM members dealing with complex accommodation scenarios.
  • Phone: 800-470-6277
  • Email: [email protected]

• AIM HR Solutions Training Catalog
• AIM members can reach the HR Helpline at 800-470-6277 or [email protected] for inquiries Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (EST). Email requests will be responded to within 24 hours.