21 October 2021
Since 06 September, the digital solutions company CIB has switched over to a four-day working week with shortened weekly hours (36 instead of 40 previously), Thursday nights off, and the digital disconnection of all employees on the last three days of the week. The new work organization applies to the company’s headquarters in Munich and its six other locations spread across Germany, Austria and Spain.
13 October 2021
Since 20 May, London-based professional services group Arup, which employs 6,000 people in the United Kingdom, has been implementing a flexible work organization model that supplants the traditional 5-day working week and allows employees to divide their working hours between Monday and Sunday according to how they see fit. This system has been acclaimed by employees, who believe it provides a better balance in their daily lives.
9 September 2021
During the HR Solutions trade show, where HR innovation start-ups, specialized companies and clients have all gathered together to meet in Paris, Planet Labor wanted to explore the main tools available on the market that are specifically dedicated to the prevention of psychosocial risks, the importance of which has been well demonstrated by the crisis (c.f. article No. 12405 in Fr.). Since 2017 and 2018, start-ups have been launching tools that can measure employee well-being, train managers in caring management,...
7 July 2021
From the end of the year, The Way We Work initiative that Credit Suisse launched globally will in principle allow employees to work permanently away from the office. The initiative should enable better a work-life balance, the bank’s press release stated. Between July and December 2020, and as part of its ‘New Ways of Working’ experiment, the bank studied several work organization formulas being tested by its Swiss employees across all its business divisions. The results were positive, with a higher rate of...
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...
