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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
Professional-services firms including PwC, McKinsey, EY, Deloitte, and KPMG are cutting executive assistant and other support roles as they look to reduce costs, improve profitability, and invest more heavily in artificial intelligence. The layoffs come amid slowing growth in consulting and professional services following the post-pandemic boom, with firms increasingly relocating support jobs from expensive hubs such as New York and London to lower-cost locations including Florida, Poland, India, Argentina, and the Caribbean. Executive assistants, who can earn more than $100,000 annually at top firms, are seen as particularly vulnerable to AI because many administrative tasks - including scheduling, travel booking, expense management, and document preparation - can increasingly be automated. PwC’s U.S. business reportedly cut about 600 support staff earlier this year, while other firms including Grant Thornton, Baker McKenzie, and Standard Chartered have also announced reductions or restructuring plans affecting support functions. Industry experts say firms are prioritizing higher-paid revenue-generating employees in areas such as AI, cybersecurity, and private equity, while support staff are often the first targets during cost-cutting efforts. Some observers also believe companies are overstating AI’s immediate impact to justify layoffs that were already planned.
Full Issue
Human Times
UK
The threat posed to workers by artificial intelligence is giving employers more leverage, and CEOs are increasingly demanding results and holding people accountable for them. The focus now is on building a “performance culture” - a phrase used 633 times, up from about 460, on earnings calls and in corporate documents across companies in the S&P 500 Index last year - where expectations of workers soar, underperformers risk getting managed out and executives are less forgiving of bureaucratic impediments to efficiency. Ben Bryant, a professor of leadership and organisation at Switzerland’s IMD Business School, wonders: “What will be sacrificed in the interests of performance?” Bloomberg observes that employee mental health, which business leaders prioritised during the pandemic, could once again get short shrift.
Full Issue
Human Times
Europe
The threat posed to workers by artificial intelligence is giving employers more leverage, and CEOs are increasingly demanding results and holding people accountable for them. The focus now is on building a “performance culture” - a phrase used 633 times, up from about 460, on earnings calls and in corporate documents across companies in the S&P 500 Index last year - where expectations of workers soar, underperformers risk getting managed out and executives are less forgiving of bureaucratic impediments to efficiency. Ben Bryant, a professor of leadership and organisation at Switzerland’s IMD Business School, wonders: “What will be sacrificed in the interests of performance?” Bloomberg observes that employee mental health, which business leaders prioritised during the pandemic, could once again get short shrift.
Full Issue
Human Times
Middle East
The threat posed to workers by artificial intelligence is giving employers more leverage, and chief executives are increasingly demanding results and holding people accountable for them. The focus now is on building a “performance culture” - a phrase used 633 times, up from about 460, on earnings calls and in corporate documents across companies in the S&P 500 Index last year - where expectations of workers soar, underperformers risk getting managed out and executives are less forgiving of bureaucratic impediments to efficiency. Ben Bryant, a professor of leadership and organisation at Switzerland’s IMD Business School, wonders: “What will be sacrificed in the interests of performance?” Bloomberg observes that employee mental health, which business leaders prioritised during the pandemic, could once again get short shrift.
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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