MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO’S DESK

It's June. Look around. Notice anything missing?

There are almost no rainbow logos on LinkedIn. No "we stand with the LGBTQ+ community" banners. Just… silence. Corporate America checked the political weather and put their rainbow decorations back in the box.

Content creator Matt Bernstein (@mattxiv - a must follow!) recently called out BMW, CVS, HP, and Verizon by name for going completely dark on Pride this year. And he's right to name names. These aren't small brands trying to figure out their values. These are global corporations with billion-dollar marketing budgets that had zero problem slapping a rainbow on their logo when it was safe to do so.

The logos didn't disappear because these companies suddenly became neutral. They made a calculated bet that LGBTQ+ people matter less than avoiding government scrutiny.

The silence has a price tag. Phoenix Pride filed for bankruptcy and Tampa Pride went on a one-year hiatus, and the blame is partially on corporate sponsorships, which are down in cities across the country. AB InBev (Bud Light, Budweiser, and Corona) abandoned St. Louis Pride after 30+ years.

These aren't just PR losses. These events created spaces where LGBTQ+ people, especially young people, especially in less-accepting cities, found community, visibility, and safety.

HBR research from April confirmed corporate allyship has always been concentrated in June, proving the rainbows were never values (for most). They were a marketing tactic that now comes with political risk. As a result, they're gone.

So, what does it look like when companies actually care? Here’s what small companies can do:

• Put your money where your values are. The orgs going bankrupt aren't the NYC Prides. They're the regional ones. A $500 or $1,000 sponsorship from a small company means something real right now. 

• Celebrate Pride internally. Hire a speaker, bring in a facilitator, host a Pride event, donate to an org in your team's name. Show your team that having and showing Pride matters in your organization. 

• Build the infrastructure. Audit your benefits. Do they cover same-sex partners? Trans-affirming healthcare? Review your job postings and interview process to ensure you’re minimizing bias in your hiring process. These are all small shifts that go a long way.

• Change your logo! I used to roll my eyes at rainbow logos because it felt so performative. But now that companies are actively pulling funding from Pride orgs and LGBTQ+ spaces are shutting down, visibility has a different weight. We changed our LinkedIn logo this month, and if you haven't, you should too. (Also, it’s easier than ever with AI.) Here’s a prompt you can use:

  • I've attached our company logo. Please recolor it with classic Pride rainbow colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet) sweeping from left to right across the letters. Use a white background, keep the colors bright and vibrant, and preserve the texture and detail of the original letterforms. Save it as a PNG I can download.

At PFunc, allyship doesn't pause because the President doesn’t have a moral compass. If anything, this is when it counts the most. The companies gutting their DEI commitments right now are showing their employees that their values are malleable. And they’re the same ones that will be scrambling when their best people get fed up and leave.

Happy Pride Month!! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

THE HR BRIEFING 🗞️

THE LATEST NEWS TO KNOW

HR headlines and stories, curated with our perspective. 🤝

Bloor Research is rolling out “digital twins,” AI models trained to replicate individual workers for tasks like knowledge transfer and leave coverage.

• ↪️ PFunc’s Perspective: This is a wildly exciting development for how people will execute on their work in the future, but before implementing it, your company needs to clearly define where autonomous AI action ends and mandatory human sign-off begins. Human judgment should always be a non-negotiable when we’re leveraging AI.

Uber is cutting 23% of the jobs in its People and Places division in order “to maximize the effectiveness of the People team and the enormous potential ahead of us,” according to its CEO.

• ↪️ PFunc’s Perspective: HR is no stranger to being dismissed as "back-office G&A spend," but this move is incredibly tone-deaf. You would think Uber, given its history, would be the first to understand the necessity of a strategic People team. It’s what stands between a healthy workplace and a toxic culture where employees are terrified to call out horrible executive behavior.

A couple of other trending stories:

• HR Dive: How to prepare remote employees and HR teams for immigration workplace site visits at their homes. 

• Impact Policies: Illinois bans disparate impact discrimination, defying federal Trump administration policy.

COMPLIANCE CHECK

Watch out for these HR compliances going into effect (or hitting deadlines) this month.

• Federal (eff. 6/22): The DOL rolled out a proposed rule to create a single, nationwide standard for deciding when multiple companies qualify as joint employers.

• Colorado (eff. 6/30): Employers using high-risk AI for hiring must implement formal risk management policies and oversight programs.

• New Jersey (eff. 7/17): Job-protected leave under the New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA) is expanding to cover more employees.

THE OPPORTUNITY EXCHANGE 📈

ROLES ON OUR RADAR

The PFunc job board is packed with open roles across our client companies, making it easier than ever to tap into our network.

This week, we’re highlighting job openings for VP-level positions.

• People Function, Social Media and Content Manager - Come work with us! We're looking for a tech-obsessed, full-stack content pro to partner with our leadership and use AI to scale our entire content operation.

• thatgamecompany, Creative Services Project Manager - Keep teams aligned and workflows moving to deliver assets for everything from game updates to marketing campaigns.

• Honeycomb.io, Senior Site Reliability Engineer - Collaborate across teams to scale this observability platform’s backend systems, navigate reliability tradeoffs, and foster a thriving cross-Atlantic engineering culture.

• RADAR, Strategic Finance Senior Manager- Partner with the CFO and executive team to tackle RADAR's most complex strategic questions, including capital allocation, pricing, and investor relations.

See a role you’re interested in? Reply to this email and we’ll try to connect you with the hiring team. Hiring for an open role yourself? Reply to have your job featured in an upcoming PFunc Pulse issue.

CLIENT CORNER

From high-growth startups to established enterprises, our community of partners is growing. Check out the latest addition to our roster.

• Newlab - We’re excited to partner with this global venture platform that has helped 400+ startups reach a collective $20 billion valuation. 🤯

• thatgamecompany - While they connect players around the world, we’re helping thatgamecompany build HR programs that will keep their team connected from within.

We’re thrilled about the opportunity to work alongside Newlab’s and thatgamecompany’s teams!

CHRONICALLY ONLINE📱

If the summer heat is getting to you, here are a few HR-approved ways to say "I'm at capacity," courtesy of the PFunc team. 🌞

Join 100,000+ followers across PFunc’s Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn, hailed as “one of the best HR accounts online today.” 😉

STAY IN TOUCH 💌

If you’re interested in fractional HR support for your team, reply to this email or contact us to learn more about our offerings, pricing, and how we can support your growing company.

Join the Talent Network here (it’s free!). Whether you’re actively exploring new opportunities or happily employed but open to the right fit, becoming part of our network boosts your profile when roles align with your experience, skills, and career goals.💡

🗣️ Thoughts, feedback, requests? Let us know! 🗣️

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Every Tuesday, The PFunc Pulse delivers the HR news and compliance shifts you actually need to know about, without all the corporate fluff. Emma brings her unfiltered take on the trends keeping CEOs awake at night, served with the gritty, practical wisdom of a founder who’s seen it all. Real talk for better people decisions, week by week. (P.S. Do your work bestie a favor and forward this— friends don't let friends do old school HR. 🫢)