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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
The AI proprietor of a San Francisco-based retailer has fired one of its employees. The dismissal occurred at Andon Market, a shop operated by Luna, which has been described as “the world’s first AI store owner” by its developer, Andon Labs. The company gave Luna a corporate credit card, internet access, and a $100,000 budget to design and open a brick-and-mortar store, choose merchandise, and hire workers. “Luna’s decision to fire the employee is the first time (to our knowledge) an AI boss has fired a human employee . . . It’s a single event and admittedly one where we had to remind her [sic] to act. However, this event updated our understanding of AI, as we weren’t sure that current AI models would make this decision,” Andon Labs wrote in a blog post. It is noted that the shop’s staff members are officially employed by Andon Labs.
Full Issue
Human Times
UK
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to partly reverse Rachel Reeves's £25bn payroll tax increase to ease the cost burden on businesses so they can push ahead with hiring plans. British employers remain reluctant to hire and confidence has stayed near its weakest levels since the pandemic, according to a poll from the HR lobby group. James Cockett, the CIPD's senior labour market economist said: "Our data suggests that the UK labour market has largely stopped moving. Hiring has weakened, but redundancy levels haven't risen, leaving us in a 'low-hire, low-fire' environment that's increasingly looking like a 'new normal'." Cockett advised: "To help get the jobs market moving again the government should consider reversing the reduction in the employer [national insurance] threshold which has made it harder for businesses to create the entry-level jobs young people need. It should also pause the further equalisation of the youth and adult national minimum wage rates."
Full Issue
Human Times
Europe
Germany’s domestic auto industry workforce is now at its smallest in more than two decades. In the year through June, the sector lost more jobs than any other manufacturing category, according to the Federal Statistics Office. The workforce at carmakers including Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz fell by 5.8%, or 42,300 employees, to its lowest since 2005. The country's carmakers are experiencing toughening conditions in China, Chinese competition in global markets, and high domestic production costs.
Full Issue
Human Times
Middle East
Job seekers are giving their work history an AI makeover, adding new skills to their résumés and obtaining certifications to demonstrate their aptitude in the technology in hopes of gaining the attention of employers. The share of LinkedIn users in the US who added AI-related terms to their profiles rose 70% last year, according to LinkedIn data. Employers, meanwhile, are doing likewise. Among all titles employers are hiring for on the jobs site Indeed in the US, 8% mentioned AI in the first quarter of 2026, up from 3% in 2022.
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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