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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
Food delivery company DoorDash is to pay $131.5m to settle a New York City government investigation that found it underpaid or waited too long to pay workers. DoorDash will provide nearly $115m of relief to about 264,000 workers; the median payout is about $48. The firm accepted a $16.7m civil fine. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the settlement was "part of a larger commitment to hold delivery companies accountable." Through its use of "greedy algorithms," Mamdani said DoorDash failed to comply with the 2023 city law intended to improve pay for delivery workers. "For years, DoorDash failed to count every hour worked by delivery workers," he said. "This was not a rounding error or an accidental mistake."
Full Issue
Human Times
UK
Former John Lewis chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield has told The Times he wants to see a shift in workplace culture over sick leave. He says employees should directly inform their managers when unwell to foster open dialogue. Mayfield, lead author of the Keep Britain Working review, said: "It's very important that you're immediately establishing a contact, a dialogue, between the employer and the employee . . . So you can't just text, send a WhatsApp, or send an email. You've actually got to ring somebody up. It gives you the opportunity to have a conversation." He says workers will need to feel safe talking to their line manager, observing: "Some people worry they'll lose their job, or not get a pay rise, or be seen as someone who's not going to be as good an employee in the long term." But, he notes, employers are fearful too. "In the UK we have become very procedural and risk aware in terms of the cost of a complaint or a grievance, let alone a tribunal . . . And so you actually have quite a lot of situations where people will be advised not to contact employees when they're off sick."
Full Issue
Human Times
Europe
AI is increasingly taking over tasks traditionally assigned to junior employees, raising concerns about career advancement and skill development for young workers. Tobias Green, founder of London-based ad agency Catalyst, notes that AI tools now enable one junior employee to manage five client accounts, reducing the need for multiple hires. The Open University’s 2026 Business Barometer report found that 51% of UK business leaders believe AI is changing hiring practices, with 19% reducing entry-level recruitment due to AI adoption. While AI is enhancing productivity, experts like Cheney Hamilton, director at UK research firm Bloor, warn that it may hinder the development of critical judgment skills in junior workers, arguing: “AI raises the floor of what a junior can produce, but it doesn't give them the judgement to know when the output is wrong.”
Full Issue
Human Times
Middle East
The Human-Tech Synergy Summit in Dubai on September 29 will explore leadership readiness for AI adoption. Organised by human-technology leadership consultancy CLD, the summit will gather 60 senior executives from the GCC to contribute to the Human-Tech Readiness Report. This research will focus on four dimensions: mindset, skillset, culture set, and system set, rather than just technological access. Omar Hayat, director at CLD BLOOM, emphasised the importance of aligning leadership with rapid technological changes, saying: "Organisations only transform as far as their people are prepared to transform with them." The study aims to provide insights specific to the GCC context.
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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