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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 Teamsters union has urged a federal judge to block UPS from offering $150,000 buyouts to drivers, warning that more than 10,000 workers could accept the deal if it proceeds. UPS plans to extend the enhanced buyout offer to around 105,000 eligible employees as part of a broader restructuring that includes cutting up to 30,000 jobs and closing 24 facilities. The company says the move is aimed at reducing its driver workforce amid falling package volumes and a strategic shift away from lower-margin deliveries for Amazon. The union argues the buyout program violates its 2023 labor contract, claiming UPS failed to negotiate the plan and is barred from making individual agreements with drivers. UPS counters that the contract does not prohibit voluntary buyouts and says blocking the program could force it to implement layoffs instead. Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston said she would issue a ruling shortly.
Full Issue
Human Times
UK
The number of workers on zero-hours contracts has hit a record high. A surge in 16-to-24-year-olds and workers not in full-time education helped drive the number of people employed on the contracts to 1.23 million in December. Analysis by the Work Foundation at Lancaster University based on Office for National Statistics (ONS) data has found that was a 91,000 increase on a year earlier. Labour's 2024 election manifesto promise of a ban on "exploitative" zero-hours contracts forms part of the government's Employment Rights Act, and is expected to come into force next year as a right to guaranteed hours for workers. The Department for Business and Trade said it "will ensure people can have the security they need by giving eligible workers the right to guaranteed hours."
Full Issue
Human Times
Europe
Dutch mail and parcel company PostNL anticipates a significant reduction in its workforce, affecting 2,000 to 3,000 jobs, according to the FNV union. The company plans to manage the reduction through natural attrition, opting not to replace staff who leave the postal division and scaling back on temporary hires. PostNL is also reducing the number of its mail depots, in a move that may force some employees to travel farther to reach their workplace. FNV board member Pieter Beuzenberg said the additional travel time may cause problems for part-time mail carriers who have additional responsibilities. “There is a reason they work part-time for us. The job serves as a bridge, whether due to physical limitations, caregiving duties, or another job they hold in addition,” he said.
Full Issue
Human Times
Middle East
The World Bank has said that full workplace equality does not exist anywhere in the world, and only "less than 5% of women worldwide" live in economies with near full legal economic equality. Even in instances when workplace equality laws are passed by lawmakers they are truly enforced in only about half of all cases, the World Bank said in a report on women, business and the law. “Even in economies that have modernised their laws, women still face constraints that shape the work they can do, the businesses they can start, and the safety they need to pursue opportunities,” said Dr Indermit Gill, the bank’s chief economist.
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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