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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
Employers are introducing tougher recruitment checks as AI-assisted cheating, deepfakes and fraudulent remote candidates complicate hiring. Companies are asking applicants to remove virtual backgrounds, show their surroundings, share screens and complete live assessments to verify identities and abilities. Some are checking IP addresses or using software to detect browser switching and suspicious behavior. A survey found 59% of managers suspected candidates had used AI to misrepresent themselves. HR teams are also reconsidering take-home assignments, which can be easily completed using AI, in favor of supervised exercises and in-person interviews. Employers still value candidates’ AI skills but increasingly want evidence they can independently explain previous experience, solve problems and think critically. The shift is adding new responsibilities for recruiters, who must balance fraud prevention with fair candidate assessment while determining when AI use is appropriate.
Full Issue
Human Times
UK
Consulting executives want junior staff in the office more frequently to develop key interpersonal skills, arguing human competencies are increasingly valuable as AI takes over their technical work. EY is encouraging junior employees to return to the office but has made no formal changes to remote work policies. Sayeh Ghanbari, EY's UK head of consulting, told the FT: "This change we've seen in the last few years where people have set up their lives to be at home a lot is just not the route to success in the world of AI." KPMG UK's head of advisory Callum Licence agreed, saying learning softer skills directly from others is now "more important than ever." Licence added: "While the benefits of AI will enable more efficient working and a different kind of role over the long term, the human benefits of connectivity and interaction will always remain."
Full Issue
Human Times
Europe
Finland had 289,000 unemployed people in July, 20,000 more than a year earlier, with the increase driven entirely by women. Female unemployment rose by 24,000 while male unemployment fell by 4,000, leaving rates at 9.8% for women and 10.0% for men. The trend unemployment rate for people aged 15–74 reached 10.5%. Employment remained unchanged at 2.637m, however, suggesting the higher jobless total partly reflects an expanding labour force. EVA chief economist Elias Erämaja said unemployment remains “at an ugly level” but does not solely indicate labour-market deterioration. Economists also identified encouraging signs, including 1,400 more construction vacancies in spring than a year earlier.
Full Issue
Human Times
Middle East
More than 100 companies, including tech giants Google, Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI, have signed an open letter urging a global effort to strengthen AI-powered cybersecurity threats. "We have a limited window to strengthen cyber defences," the letter reads. "In the coming months, AI-enabled cyber attacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable." The companies call on national governments to provide "capable, defensive AI" and testing to hospitals and water utilities, and on technology companies to aid such efforts. Collectively, tech firms and government "should bring the full weight of their technology, resources, and expertise to this effort," the letter says.
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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