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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 IRS has temporarily reassigned employees from IT and human capital offices to taxpayer services roles during the current filing season, as the agency grapples with staffing cuts. Affected staff have been placed on 120-day involuntary details as customer service representatives or tax examiners, with training beginning in late February. The move follows warnings from the Treasury Inspector General that the IRS has lost about 19% of its workforce since October 2025, including significant reductions in IT and filing-related staff, potentially jeopardizing system upgrades and modernization efforts. While the agency says the reassignments are intended to support taxpayers during its busiest period, some employees have raised concerns that diverting IT personnel could further delay technology projects and increase processing backlogs.
Full Issue
Human Times
UK
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) says efforts to close the gender pay gap will not be successful until 2056 if progress continues at the current rate. Currently, the gap stands at 12.8%, costing the average woman £2,548 annually. Women effectively work 47 days a year without pay compared to men. The TUC attributes the gap to part-time work due to caring responsibilities. Paul Nowak, TUC General Secretary, said: "Women have effectively been working for free for the first month and a half of the year compared to men." He added that the Employment Rights Act represents a crucial step towards achieving pay parity, as it will ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, which disproportionately affect women. The TUC has urged the government to enhance flexible working and childcare access to address this issue. Research released by the British Journal of Industrial Relations last year suggests that the gender pay gap may have been underestimated for more than 20 years: the Office for National Statistics had failed to properly account for the fact that it received more data from larger employers when it reported its annual survey of hours and earnings.
Full Issue
Human Times
Europe
Russia is facing a significant labour shortage exacerbated by the ongoing war in Ukraine. Traditional sources of labour from Central Asia have dwindled, prompting Moscow to turn to India for assistance. In 2022, nearly 72,000 work permits were issued to Indian nationals, an increase from 5,000 in 2021. President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a deal in December to make it easier for Indians to work in Russia. Denis Manturov, Russia's first deputy prime minister, said at the time that Russia could accept an “unlimited number” of Indian workers.
Full Issue
Human Times
Middle East
Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft's AI chief, predicts that most white-collar jobs could be fully automated within 12 to 18 months. He said that AI is nearing "human-level performance" in tasks including law, accounting, and project management. Suleyman noted that AI-assisted coding is already common in software engineering. The potential job losses could be severe, with estimates suggesting up to 80% of entry-level positions might be at risk.
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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