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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
A growing number of Wall Street economists and analysts are questioning the reliability of the latest U.S. employment report after the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Thursday that the leisure and hospitality sector lost 61,000 jobs in June, despite the economic boost expected from the FIFA World Cup. Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group, described the data as "misleading" and said it should be disregarded, arguing there was "zero chance" the hospitality industry shed jobs while the U.S. hosted one of the world's largest sporting events. Similar concerns were raised by economists at Pimco, RSM, UBS, and EY-Parthenon, who pointed to the sector's reported losses as inconsistent with broader economic activity. Bank of America data showed card spending increased 5.4% year over year during the tournament's group stage, with spending by visitors rising 17.4%, suggesting stronger demand for hotels, restaurants, and entertainment. Analysts said the broader labor market still appears to reflect cautious hiring rather than widespread layoffs, and some suggested that, excluding the unexpected hospitality decline, the employment data would have indicated a steadier trend in job growth.
Full Issue
Human Times
UK
Former John Lewis chair Sir Charlie Mayfield has said that tackling unemployment linked to long-term illness will unlock economic growth that's "hiding in plain sight." More than 250 of the UK's biggest employers have signed up to his Get Britain Working taskforce, which aims to prevent people dropping out of work due to ill-health and encourage those signed off to return to the workplace. The participating companies will track sickness absence, return-to-work outcomes, and disability participation, which the government said would make workplace health performance visible for the first time. Mayfield said: "I can't tell you how many people I've met who said: 'I was signed off work for three months, or six months, and I never had any contact with my employer at all.' "That's not because the employer is a bad person. It's because we've got a situation at the minute where people don't talk to each other when they really need to." He said his plans could help cut the government's welfare bill. "Fixing these problems at the fundamental level, could make a really big contribution to getting this economy working better - for employers, for employees, for the taxpayer, for all of us."
Full Issue
Human Times
Europe
Bloomberg reports on how Ireland is more exposed to AI-driven labour market disruption than other European countries. More than 6% of the country's workforce is employed in the tech sector, higher than the European Union average, and Ireland is heavily exposed to US multinationals including Google, Meta, Amazon, many of whom are cutting jobs as they invest in AI processes. There are also signs that AI is having an impact on early-stage hiring. Nevertheless, Colin Hunt, chief executive of financial services group AIB, says that Ireland’s longstanding reputation as a reliable location for multinational firms means it can withstand the pressure. “We are going through a period clearly of labour market loosening in the tech sector,” he said. “The impact is being felt. But will Ireland remain a key hub for tech in Europe? Yes.”
Full Issue
Human Times
Middle East
A preliminary report from the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, which has been described as the first global independent assessment of AI's risks and opportunities, has said developments in the technology are outpacing scientific understanding and government policy, and there are no guarantees that it will not cause catastrophic harm. "AI capabilities are outpacing both scientific understanding and governments’ ability to adapt," said Yoshua Bengio, co-chair of the panel. "With growing evidence of deceptive AI behaviour, science currently cannot guarantee that as capabilities continue to increase, AI will not cause catastrophic harm, either on its own or due to malicious users." AI's task complexity is doubling every four to seven months, potentially allowing systems to complete work that takes humans days or weeks, the report notes.
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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