6 July 2021
This Canadian social networking specialist company has decided to offer 7 additional calendar days off to all its employees worldwide, in addition to the already implemented non-working Friday afternoons during the summer. Management explained the move as a response to how Covid-19 has altered the work-life balance for its staff and how the company wants to maintain staff well being at work. This ‘wellness week’ is part of a global HR policy to preserve employees’ mental health.
30 April 2021
The Austrian subsidiary of Swedish furniture giant IKEA is implementing an innovative programme to improve the mental wellbeing of its staff. The effort comes at a time when employees face upheaval as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as shifts driven by the digitalisation of the economy. Speaking to Planet Labor, Katharina Masser, who leads the health and wellbeing unit at IKEA Austria, explained the two-part programme.
1 April 2021
With schools closed in a large part of the country and only set to gradually reopen after the Easter period, the agreement signed on 18 March at Autostrade per l’Italia (Aspi, Italy’s major motorway management company), and which runs for one month from 22 March, provides agile working parents a specific ‘right to disconnect’ for 1.5 hours every morning, so they can support...
31 March 2021
Since the start of 2021, Kering has been rolling out its global domestic violence policy that provides specific support to all employees who open up on their situations as victims of domestic violence, which includes adapting their working conditions, making referrals to specialized associations and providing tailored assistance. In conversation with Planet Labor, Béatrice Lazat, Group Human Resources Director talks about some of the actions Kering has undertaken as part of its global policy.
26 March 2021
There will be no more Friday video calls for employees of Citigroup. The New York-based financial services group, the world’s 12th-largest company according to the Forbes Global 2000, has decided to adopt a policy of “Zoom-free Fridays”, meaning none of its 200,000 employees will have to attend internal video meetings on Fridays. Citigroup employees will be encouraged to conduct meetings over the phone, as the group looks to combat the fatigue engendered by the pandemic and extensive remote work over the...
9 February 2021
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, the massive deployment of telework has turned the corporate arena into a huge laboratory that is trying out new ways of working and the work of the future. So what impact does telework have on employee productivity levels? Does the office still have a future? What lessons are HR managers drawing from the crisis in terms of work organisation and indeed how has their work also evolved? The German Association for Human Resources Management (Deutsche Gesellschaft...
2 December 2020
From 07 December and for a one-year trail period, 81 employees working in sales, distribution and marketing roles at the Unilever food giant in New Zealand will be working in the office for 4 days a week while being paid for 5. The UK multinational has explicitly stated that the daily working hours of these employees will not be extended. “If we end up in a situation where the team is working four extended days then we miss the point of this. We don’t want our team to have really long days, but to bring...
29 September 2020
It is a news story that has caused quite a stir in Japan. From October onwards, Yahoo Japan will let its employees choose their working hours and their place of work. In a country where human resources management is often synonymous with long hours in the office and a rigid collectivist spirit, the rise of remote working due to the Covid-19 health emergency is beginning to shift boundaries.
8 September 2020
The US digital giant has for the second time encouraged its teams globally to take a Friday off in order to enjoy a 3-day weekend. This second day ‘off-work’ was implemented for all workers on Friday 04 September and notably allowed the US work teams to enjoy a 4-day weekend as Monday, 07 September 7 was also a public holiday (Labor Day). Google, which announced several months ago that it would maintain teleworking on an ongoing basis until the summer of 2021 at the earliest, is also aware of the consequences...
27 August 2020
Only a fifth of UK companies plan to re-open their offices to staff next month, according to a survey conducted by specialist HR site People Management, reported on 25 August. The same study indicates that one third of employers will ask their staff to come into the office only a few days per week and that 15% of companies still do not know when staff will be brought back into the office. The desertion of UK offices is a concern to the Confederation of British Industry, the UK business organisation, which has...
