13 January 2020
More than 18 months ago Jean-Roch Houllier, director of educational innovation at...
10 January 2020
India’s leading mid-range hotel chain, Lemon Tree is making the hiring of those with disabilities an integral part of its business model. Initially implemented in 2007, many hotels have are following suit.
16 December 2019
With the festive season fast approaching, a digital marketing start-up in the north-west of England has attracted attention for offering its employees “hangover days”. The idea behind the policy at Bolton-based The Audit Lab is to allow employees who have perhaps had one too many the night before to work...
4 December 2019
On 03 December, The Guardian daily newspaper revealed that executives and managers at the Edinburgh-headquartered TSB bank will likely see their 2019 bonuses cut for failing to meet its targets for the number of females in senior roles in the group. In 2016 the TSB signed the Women in Finance charter (c.f. article No. 9771) committing the bank to raising the number of females in senior roles to between 45% and 55% by 2020. This target is no longer feasible with latest gender equality data for the bank showing that...
2 December 2019
On 25 November the German arm of US IT giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced that all employees will now be eligible for six months of parental leave, with 100% pay from the company, following the birth of a child or an adoption. This move is indicative of a growing trend in Germany; faced with a shortage of qualified staff and the aspirations of new generation of workers, less focused on their careers, an increasing number of companies are introducing measures to foster an improved work-life balance....
22 November 2019
From banking group HSBC to supermarket chain Sainsbury’s and professional services group PwC, more and more UK companies are now talking about the sensitive topic of menopause and the need to put in measures to support those employees affected. Their aim? To prevent any kind of stigmatisation of women, as well as to avoid mass departures and potential legal action. Planet Labor has spoken to two experts on this issue, which has now become unavoidable for HR departments in the UK.
12 November 2019
On 05 November 2019, Tata Starbucks, a 50/50 joint-venture between Tata Global Beverages and the Californian Starbucks company announced in a statement (here in English) that its female participation rate had risen by 15 percentage points and that it had achieved its gender pay equity objective. Although female labor participation rates are falling in India, at Tata Starbucks, ‘women now make up 29 percent of its workforce (Ed. note: this percentage was 14% in 2014), a key gender diversity milestone toward its...
8 November 2019
Under a new policy introduced by the UK telecommunications giant, male and female employees whose partner has a baby, adopts a child or becomes a parent through surrogacy will be entitled to 16 weeks of paid leave with full pay following the child’s arrival. Effective from next year in some countries, this global policy – which is identical to that already introduced for mothers – will gradually be rolled out by Vodafone across 24 countries by 2021.
6 November 2019
HR divisions able to pilot transformation processes: it is with this ambition in mind that Xavier Chéreau has positioned the French automaker’s HR function as a strategic partner in driving transformation change. In an interview with Planet Labor, the HR head explains how and where the division should position itself as a strategic business partner and become entrusted with the...
5 November 2019
Over the course of August 2019, the 2,300 staff at Microsoft’s Japanese headquarters tried out working on a 4-day per week basis, when they worked for four consecutive days and did not work on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays (Microsoft statement here – in Japanese). The trial run was part of the company’s ‘summer challenge’, aimed at improving work-life balance, and that included funding support depending on how workers invested in their free time activities. For instance, funding was available for those...
31 October 2019
Starting January 2020, all new parents working for Standard Life Aberdeen (regardless of gender and including those having recourse to adoption and/or surrogacy) will, from the moment of hire, have the right to 40 weeks of parental leave on full pay. This landmark policy is one of the most generous in the U.K.
24 October 2019
With funding from the Baden-Wurtemberg Economic Ministry, and created by German company Trumpf, one of the global leaders in industrial laser manufacturing, F4DIA (Fit for digitized world of work) is a project designed to train ‘digital revolution’ ‘multipliers’ so as to support SMEs as they face the complex digital transformation process that is occurring in the world of work,...
23 October 2019
Thirty employers including banking names Santander Bank, Barclays Bank and Lloyds Banking Group, the Royal Mail, multinationals such as Unilever, and the advisory firm Deloitte have promised to recognize the importance of mental health at work and have signed the Mental Health at Work Commitment. This landmark agreement includes six core commitments stemming and formulated from the 2017 UK Government commissioned report, Thriving at Work (c.f. article No. 10928). The first commitment is to prioritize mental health...