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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
Bloomberg reports that Amazon is offering $1,000 prizes to delivery drivers who share what they love about their jobs. The "My Why" contest from the world’s largest e-commerce company is for drivers employed by delivery service partners, a network of small businesses that Amazon contracts with to manage workers who bring its packages to customers. Amazon said the competition is meant to "spotlight the drivers employed by our partners and celebrate the diverse motivations for doing this work and supporting their communities." Jerome Sloss, a New York City delivery driver and a Teamsters union activist who supports a New York bill that would require companies such as Amazon to directly employ last-mile delivery workers, said: “They’re not even acknowledging us as actual employees, but they’re offering us $1,000 to talk about why we like ‘delivering smiles.’”
Full Issue
Human Times
UK
Marks & Spencer CEO Stuart Machin has criticised senior executives who disconnect from work while on holiday. Speaking at a business event in central London, Machin said he prefers leaders to remain engaged, and rejects traditional notions of work-life balance in favour of broader personal responsibility. Since becoming CEO of M&S in 2022, he says he has replaced his entire executive team as part of a wider turnaround strategy. Machin highlighted a strong focus on curiosity and accountability in leadership hires, including requiring new executives to present candid assessments to the board early in their tenure. Machin also said that rising costs and Labour's new regulations are squeezing entry-level job opportunities for young people. He stressed the importance of retail and hospitality in providing first job experiences, and urged a re-evaluation of policies that he said disincentivise hiring young workers.
Full Issue
Human Times
Europe
Work absences in the Netherlands due to stress have surged, particularly among women aged 25 to 45, according to data from HumanCapitalCare and ArboNed. Over the past five years, stress-related sick days have increased by 43%, while women took twice as many sick days as men last year, often due to the pressures of pregnancy, hormonal changes, and heavy workloads. “That doesn't surprise me,” developmental psychologist Lianne Hulsbosch said. “It is the period in which many women become pregnant and give birth. Life is turned upside down then.” She added: “They get stuck and do not dare to ask for help.”
Human Times
Middle East
Microsoft is making changes across human resources, and the company's chief diversity officer, Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, is leaving to become chief people officer of another organisation. Meanwhile, the tech giant is close to hiring a new talent acquisition head who will report to chief people officer Amy Coleman. The company is going through an “AI-powered transformation,” wrote Coleman, who took on her role last year. “As technology and the way we work at Microsoft continue to evolve, we are transforming our people function so Microsoft remains a place where our employees can do their best work,” a spokesperson said in an email to CNBC. “The organisational updates we are making today align closely to our business priorities, and help us work more closely across teams, move faster, and simplify how we operate in support of our employees and customers.”
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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