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Human Times helps you stay ahead of the latest news and trends that impact the HR industry. Every weekday, our unique blend of AI and team of expert HR and employment editors and researchers monitor 100,000s of articles, and social posts to create summaries of the most relevant and useful content to help you lead, innovate and grow. The award winning Human Times newsletter has four geographical editions with news tailored to your region.
From HR leadership to diversity and inclusion, hybrid working, organisational data, performance management, and retention strategies, Human Times is the only trusted free online news source dedicated to covering the most up to date headlines, articles, reports and interviews to make sure you’re abreast of changes in the HR industry.
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Recent Editions
Human Times
North America
Healthcare costs are rising sharply for U.S. workers, with employees who receive workplace coverage expected to spend an average of $5,297 in 2026 on premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, according to Aon, up $388 from 2025. The pressure is expected to intensify in 2027, when employers project an 11.1% increase in healthcare costs, potentially the largest rise in more than two decades and the fifth consecutive year of accelerating increases. Employers are increasingly passing some of these higher costs to workers through larger premium contributions, deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance. The increases are being driven by factors including higher hospital prices, greater use of medical services, expensive cancer treatments, and growing adoption of GLP-1 diabetes and weight-loss drugs, with employee use of GLP-1s for weight loss rising 75% among Aon clients in 2025. As healthcare spending outpaces income growth, employers are increasingly treating benefits costs as a company-wide financial issue rather than solely an HR concern.
Full Issue
Human Times
UK
Trade unions warn that proposed rules implementing Labour’s ban on exploitative zero-hours contracts risk falling short of the party’s manifesto commitment. Usdaw, GMB and Unite are concerned that an upper hours threshold and a proposed "regularity requirement" could exclude significant numbers of workers from the right to guaranteed-hours contracts, creating loopholes that would weaken the reforms. The TUC has also rejected business claims that the measures could cost employers up to £2.9bn a year as "scaremongering," arguing that much of the estimated cost assumes no changes in employers’ scheduling practices. A government spokesperson said ministers are "absolutely committed to ending exploitative zero-hours contracts," adding that the planned reforms will give workers "greater income security and predictability of hours." They added that while no final decisions have been made, ministers are consulting with business and trade unions "to get the detail right and ensure this works in the real world."
Full Issue
Human Times
Europe
Uber has been fined €825m by the Dutch Data Protection Authority for breaching Europe's general data protection regulation (GDPR) by deactivating driver accounts through automated systems without proper notification. The penalty is the second-largest under GDPR, behind only a €1.2bn fine imposed on Meta by Ireland in 2023 for unlawfully transferring European Facebook users’ data to the United States. “We strongly disagree with this decision and disproportionate fine,” an Uber spokesperson said, adding that the company's policies include both human reviews and opportunities for drivers to dispute platform suspensions. “Uber has committed serious infringements” by deactivating driver accounts without warning or human involvement, the Dutch regulator’s deputy chair Monique Verdier said. “From one moment to the next [drivers] no longer had any income . . . A computer should not make decisions on its own that have (such) major consequences.”
Full Issue
Human Times
Middle East
Dubai has launched the Workforce Productivity Measurement System, a unified platform for 32 government entities, aimed at enhancing resource allocation and decision-making. The Dubai Government Human Resources Department (DGHR) announced the initiative, which follows a development process that began in 2020. The system employs advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to monitor productivity indicators and improve operational efficiency. Abdullah Ali bin Zayed Al Falasi, Director-General of DGHR, said: "The adoption of the workforce productivity measurement system in the Dubai Government represents a strategic milestone in the development of government work and reflects Dubai's vision of building a data-driven government that employs advanced analytics to develop policies, enhance performance efficiency and enable government entities to make more accurate, proactive and impactful decisions."
Full Issue
Read the latest HR highlights
How HR is Tackling Long Covid?
Fingers remain tightly crossed around the world that the rampant hospitalization and fatality stage of the Covid-19 pandemic has generally peaked. Vaccination programmes are accelerating, and restrictions are gradually being lifted...
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ESG Is Not Just Another Name For CSR
Back in the distant 1980s if you wanted to demonstrate your environmental and ethical credentials it was sufficient to shop at or purchase shares in retailer The Body Shop. The charismatic Anita Roddick, founder of the “hippy” tinged retail chain, heralded a new age of environmental concern, caring capitalism and corporate awareness that evolved into what became known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR was much talked about and lauded, but in reality often ended up being a lot of a hot air (excuse the pun) and often never progressed much beyond a footnote in the annual report.
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Have Older Workers Paid The Highest COVID-19 Price?
Across the world the pandemic is slowly but surely moving into its next phase. Recovery beckons. As furlough schemes across the U.S. and U.K. are being wound down, restrictions eased or lifted, and workforces moving back up the gears, early signs indicate that older employees are more likely to be casualties of the pandemic aftermath than their younger colleagues. Here at the we have witnessed an increasing number of stories supporting the growing belief that older workers are disproportionately paying the highest Covid-19 price.
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Bosses. What's not to like? Plenty, say employees
“You’ll never have another boss like me, someone who’s basically a chilled-out entertainer”
So said, David Brent, the fictional manager of Slough-based paper merchant Wernham Hogg in the seminal TV comedy The Office. Ricky Gervais’s portrayal of Brent as a flawed, narcissistic, incompetent, and deluded manager was so well observed that many (including me) believed it was a genuine fly-on-the-wall documentary when they alighted accidentally on the first ever episode.
Rolling with the Payroll
To mark National Payroll Week the team at the Human Times has provided some insight into the industry that we hope you’ll find useful.
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