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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
Twenty-six Meta employees have sued the company, alleging that AI-assisted systems used during mass layoffs disproportionately selected workers with disabilities, medical conditions, pregnancies, or caring responsibilities. The plaintiffs claim employee rankings considered productivity, AI token use, communications, documents, keystrokes, screen content, emails and browser history, disadvantaging those who had taken medical leave. They are seeking to pause layoffs scheduled to begin on July 22 while pursuing individual arbitration claims. The lawsuit also alleges Meta failed to test its systems for discrimination under California and New York City rules. Meta rejected the accusations, with a spokesperson stating: “Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI.” The case appears to be the first major U.S. lawsuit challenging the alleged use of artificial intelligence to determine layoffs and could test how existing employment protections apply to automated workplace decision-making.
Full Issue
Human Times
UK
University of York research suggests more than 600,000 people in Britain may be unemployed because of obesity, highlighting significant consequences for productivity and public spending. Analysis of 284,258 UK Biobank participants found obesity reduced the likelihood of employment by 4.2 percentage points, with a stronger effect among men at 6.6 points compared with 2.1 points for women. Lower education levels were also linked to greater employment risks, while having a degree appeared to offer some protection. Lead author Dr Aharon Katz said: “Tackling obesity isn’t just a health imperative, it’s an opportunity to boost economic productivity.” Researchers called for targeted workplace policies that challenge discrimination and improve inclusion. Separate findings showed weight-loss injections reduced sickness absence by 45% after nine months and long-term absences by 56%. With two in three UK adults overweight or obese, policymakers are exploring treatments to help unemployed people return to work, although NHS access remains limited.
Full Issue
Human Times
Europe
Germany’s cabinet has approved Labour Minister Bärbel Bas’s proposal allowing employees to test a potential new job for up to four weeks, or six weeks exceptionally, without immediately resigning or accepting a permanent offer. The “job-to-job trial” is designed to move skilled workers quickly from declining industries into sectors facing shortages. Bas said workers should be able to change industries “quickly and easily” when companies cut jobs. The legislation would also make digital communication standard for unemployment benefit recipients, ending the requirement to remain available for postal correspondence. Further measures include video access to employment agencies, digital-first applications and reduced workplace-safety administration, potentially removing up to 123,000 safety officer roles in smaller businesses. Trade union Verdi criticised this as weakening safety. The package is expected to reduce annual bureaucracy costs by more than €720m, although Green labour-market spokeswoman Sylvia Rietenberg questioned whether it adequately addresses disruption from AI, decarbonisation and economic transformation.
Full Issue
Human Times
Middle East
AI requirements appeared in 3.4% of professional Gulf vacancies during the first half of 2026, nearly triple the 1.2% recorded in 2022, according to GulfTalent’s analysis of 118,000 jobs across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Adoption remains highly concentrated: nearly one-third of technology vacancies mention AI, compared with around one in 15 banking and audit roles. Most other industries remain at one in 30 vacancies or fewer. AI involvement also increases with seniority, reaching roughly one in 12 leadership roles. Among AI-connected vacancies, about one-third require employees to use AI, another third involve implementation, and one-quarter focus on selling AI services. Fewer than 10% involve building models. GulfTalent said AI capability is becoming a “competitive necessity” in technology, while most sectors remain early in their transition.
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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