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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
Deloitte is to pay $21.5m to settle U.S. Department of Justice claims that it discriminated against employees and job applicants on the basis of race or sex. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said the settlement was another example of how the DOJ was “eliminating woke, unconstitutional practices from American workplaces,” adding: “Merit drives opportunity and promotion. Not someone’s sex or race.” The department said that business units within the audit giant received monthly summaries tracking "demographic goals" and alleged that Deloitte's Partners, Principals and Managing Directors were evaluated, in part, based on their contributions to helping the firm achieve its workforce composition goals. In a statement, Deloitte said it was pleased to have resolved the matter “to avoid the cost and distraction of protracted litigation.”
Full Issue
Human Times
UK
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has defended proposed reforms to zero-hours contracts. "The policy is about the person on zero hours getting the right to a contract that reflects what they regularly work," he said. "So, if you're regularly working a number of hours . . . presumably the contract that reflects those hours is not higher cost to the business." However, he acknowledged potential "monitoring costs" for employers. The reforms would require companies to guarantee a minimum number of hours and provide notice for shift changes. An official impact statement has estimated costs could reach £3bn annually, with the retail and hospitality sectors being most affected. Reynolds said of the reforms: "This is a well-known part of the [government's] business plan. It's a manifesto commitment and governments should fulfil their manifesto promises. It meets the balance between the flexibility employers will need [and] the discretion of the employees if they want a contract that reflects those regular hours."
Full Issue
Human Times
Europe
Volkswagen's labour unions are opposing proposed job cuts that could affect up to 50,000 workers. Over 10,000 employees protested at the company's headquarters in Wolfsburg, some jeering Oliver Blume, the carmaker's chief executive, as he called on employees to "pull together" behind the company's restructuring. Blume also said that no decision had yet been taken on factory closures, which he called the "last and most expensive resort." Outside, workers waved banners bearing slogans such as "Our jobs are not your balance sheet adjustments" and "Respect is not up for negotiation." Volkswagen labour leader Daniela Cavallo said German factories were "an integral part" of the group. "Our trust in this company's executive board, and especially in Oliver Blume, has been damaged. Not yet beyond repair, but damaged nonetheless," she said. Rival turnaround proposals have been drawn up by labour representatives, which they intend to introduce at a supervisory board meeting next week.
Full Issue
Human Times
Middle East
In a 6,000 word essay on the impact of artificial intelligence, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has proposed the notion of "human reserved" jobs: occupations or tasks that society would deliberately keep for people even where AI could do them. “I like the phrase human reserved because it makes me think of nature reserves - places where we could put buildings and roads but we choose not to because the loss would be too great,” Gates wrote. “In health, for example, imagine a robot giving you the awful news that you have an incurable disease. There’s no technical reason why it couldn’t. Yet it shouldn’t.” He warned that “many jobs will disappear forever” but policymakers could “set aside certain things for only people to do.”
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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