The latest business Intelligence for HR professionals and people managers everywhere
Sign UpOnline Version
North American Edition
21st July 2021
Together with

THE HOT STORY
Bank's law firms are warned against remote work policies
Morgan Stanley chief legal officer Eric Grossman has delivered a "warning" to the bank's outside law firms about their remote work policies and "the lack of urgency to return lawyers to the office." His memo said firms that get lawyers back to the physical workspace "will have a significant performance advantage over those that do not," affecting their work for Morgan Stanley. He said that the bank "will not be accommodating Zoom participation in critical meetings." The ability of law firms to "offer flexibility is a competitive advantage," opined Marcie Borgal Shunk, president of law firm consultancy The Tilt Institute, who said Grossman's perspective was "antiquated" and "unrealistic." Reuters notes that law firm managers have raised concerns that it can be difficult to train junior talent and maintain a cohesive culture outside the office.
HYBRID WORK

The Hybrid Workforce Revolution Report

A new era of work is emerging, but there isn't a playbook to help you successfully navigate your way through it. 

Enboarder spoke to over 1,000 employees and business leaders to understand how this change is impacting your workforce, your workplaces, and your businesses. 

Get your copy of the report to understand the major disconnect between organizations and employees that is fueling a global retention crisis, and the issues you need to address IMMEDIATELY to thrive in this new work environment.

Download Now


 
REMOTE WORKING
Apple is to delay office returns until October
Apple is to delay the return of staff to its offices by at least a month to October at the earliest and is recommending that workers at its retail stores, whether vaccinated or not, wear masks as COVID-19 cases surge in the U.S. and elsewhere. In localities where the authorities have reinstated mask mandates, retail workers must comply, the company told its employees. Apple had dropped its internal mask mandate in June. The iPhone maker will inform its employees at least a month before their expected return to offices, according to people familiar with the matter.  Apple CEO  Tim Cook had originally planned a summer return. When staff members eventually return, they are expected to work from the office on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Wednesday and Friday will be optionally remote for some employees. Workers specialising in hardware will be required to work from the office four or five days per week. Apple says the return to work arrangement is a pilot and will be reevaluated next year.
HIRING
Desperate firms contact job applicants from way back
Increasingly desperate employers including McDonald’s, Cheesecake Factory and Cracker Barrel are calling job applicants from years ago as they adopt tactics learned from retail marketers to maintain contact with prospects through regular emails or texts. McDonald's said that in the current competitive hiring environment, some of its restaurants were reaching out to former job applicants, increasing pay or adding hiring incentives. Dina Barmasse-Gray, senior vice president of human resources at Cheesecake Factory, observed that the Calabasas, Calif., headquartered restaurant company “has always engaged new candidates, past applicants and alumni in our recruitment efforts.” The Wall Street Journal says that some workers are left bemused by the various companies’ efforts — which can also offer the opportunity for schadenfreude. “I was like ohhhhh, thank you, but yeah, I found another job,” says  Arcadia, Calif., based Joseph Guerrero, who applied to Cheesecake Factory two years ago, without hearing back. He is now a case intake worker at a law firm who helps evaluate prospective clients.
HEALTH & SAFETY
Returning workers may bring new addictions
As employees return to offices, they may bring new addictions with them, reports the Chicago Tribune. Some people have been able to hide alcohol and drug use precipitated by the isolation and stress of the past year while working from home, but companies may soon have to contend directly with substance abuse as workers return to physical workspaces. “Without question, the workforce that’s returning is not the same as the one that left,” said Paula Allen, global leader of research and total well-being at LifeWorks, a Chicago-based company which promotes services to help employers with worker health and well-being. “We have a lot of anxiety. We have a lot of people on edge. We are seeing more unhealthy behaviors, including more risky substance use,” she says. Tom Britton, president and CEO of the Gateway Foundation, an Illinois-based addiction treatment organization, says employers risk being unable to spot problems until they become disruptive, noting that many managers are not trained to identify substance abuse issues or may feel uncomfortable asking staff about such matters. “Somebody has to (do something) really, really significant, do something obvious, to get caught in the workplace,” Britton said.
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
Bankers must put in a 72-hour week to master job, wealth boss says
Mary Erdoes, chief executive officer of JPMorgan’s $4 trillion asset and wealth management business, says working 12-hour days, six days a week, will help junior bankers master the job in two to three years, instead of the five years it might take if they took a more relaxed pace. “If you think 10,000 hours is about what you need to master any subject, if someone comes in and has a regular, eight-hour-a-day job, five days a week, it’s gonna take about five years to have a base-level mastery,” she said.  “On Wall Street, it’s more like 12 hours a day, six days a week. That cuts you down to about two and a half years before you become mastered in something.” The 10,000 hour rule, which was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell's blockbuster book “Outliers,” says it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials, like playing the saxophone as well as Sonny Rollins.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
BlackRock increases opposition to high executive pay in Europe
BlackRock has increased its opposition to executive pay in Europe over the past year, details of the asset manager’s voting records show, indicating an increased willingness to drive up corporate governance standards. BlackRock said it voted against management on 33% of “say-on-pay” proposals in European companies in the year to the end of June – up from 26% last year. This increase in opposition votes was “largely attributed” to BlackRock's opposition to adjustments that companies made during the pandemic. “BlackRock opposed executive pay programmes when companies were not able to explain how these adjustments supported long-term, sustainable value creation for shareholders, ” said Sandy Boss, global head of investment stewardship.
REMUNERATION
Deutsche Bank raises junior banker pay
Deutsche Bank is raising the amount it pays investment banking analysts by $15,000 to $100,000, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters late on Tuesday. U.S. analysts being promoted to the associate level midyear will see their pay rise by $25,000 to $150,000.
INTERNATIONAL
Most UAE organizations experience cyberattacks targeting remote workers
Eighty per cent of UAE-based organizations have experienced cyberattacks as a result of more employees working remotely, according to a poll. The UAE findings are extracted from the fourth installment of VMware’s Global Security Insights Report, which was based on an online survey of 3,542 CIOs, CTOs and CISOs in December 2020 from around the world, including 250 in the UAE. “The rapid switch from a centralized workplace, infrastructure and applications to distributed workforce, cloud-based and modern applications has resulted in organisations losing visibility of their networks,” observed Ahmed El Saadi, Regional Director of Sales, Middle East, Turkey & Africa, VMware. Rick McElroy, Principal Cybersecurity Strategist, VMware, said: “Legacy security systems are no longer sufficient. Organisations need protection that extends beyond endpoints to workloads to better secure data and applications. As attacker sophistication and security threats become more prevalent, we must empower defenders to detect and stop attacks, as well as implement security stacks built for a cloud-first world.”
Gorillas delivery riders protest about working conditions
Rapidly-expanding Berlin-based grocery delivery start-up Gorillas has contended with multiple worker strikes and protests in the past month amid the termination of some employees’ tenure, a lack of suitable equipment, and pay discrepancies. The Gorillas Workers Collective recently organised a protest that saw employees and activists cycle to three different delivery warehouses, temporarily halting operations at each one. "There are a lot of issues," said Gorillas rider Anna Zakelj, who identified missing pay, insufficient poor weather gear, and chronic back pain from carrying heavy loads as her main concerns. "The company is expanding so quickly without fixing existing problems." Gorillas reached an estimated valuation of $1bn in just nine months and hired 10,000 employees.
Whirlpool workers block rail tracks
Whirlpool workers in Naples yesterday blocked the high-speed rail tracks at the southern Italian city’s central station in protest at the US domestic appliance maker's announcement of the closure of its local operation. The protest lasted for about two hours. Workers from the Naples plant had previously blocked access to the departures area of the city's Capodichino airport. Whirlpool has started a procedure to fire 320 workers at the plant.
OTHER
Team USA flagbearers to be cool customers at Olympics
The Team USA flagbearers at the Tokyo Olympics are set to benefit from a personal air conditioning system that Ralph Lauren has built in to a white jacket to be worn by the athletes during the opening ceremonies for the Olympics and Paralympics. The technology disperses heat from the wearer’s skin through a fan at the back of the neck, with a lightweight personal battery controller concealed inside. The rest of the team will walk in tailored navy blazers made of U.S.-grown wool, a red Olympic patch on one breast and the company’s Polo Pony emblem on the other.

The Human Times team is delighted to announce an exciting new referral program that enables our readers to earn access to in-depth HR-related analysis reports and a free annual subscription to the World of Work database - a 5 year searchable archive of all Human Times content categorized by topic, sector, region and geography, usually costing $250. 

To find out more see our latest Referral Program page for details...

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Email
WhatsApp

or, simply copy your own referral link to share with others

https://industryslice.com/subscribers/dbc8cfad-6689-4447-aeb1-9bd98d0a2b61?rh_ref=[[data:sl_referralcode]]

PS: You have referred [[data:sl_referralscount:"0"]] people so far

The Human Times is designed to help you stay ahead, spark ideas and support innovation, learning and development in your organisation. The links under articles indicate original news sources. Some links lead directly to the source material. Others lead to paywalls where you may need a subscription. A third category are restricted by copyright rules. For reaction and insights on any stories covered in the Human Times, join the discussion by becoming a member of our LinkedIn Group or Business Page, or follow us on Twitter.

This e-mail has been sent to [[EMAIL_TO]]

Click here to unsubscribe