6 February 2020
The Franco-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CFACI) and the French branches of four large German chemicals groups (BAYER, BASF, Merck and Boehringer) have teamed up to create a joint training scheme for maintenance engineers, through which they can earn a BTS, a French vocational qualification. The scheme will involve digital training as well as several weeks spent in Germany, with trainees earning a double French and German certification. The initiative was unveiled on 20 January but the content of the...
6 February 2020
Employees at the pharmaceutical company’s French subsidiary are set to receive an extra two weeks of paid parental leave above and beyond the standard minimum duration as required in the pharmaceutical company’s global policy that was issued in March 2019 (cf. article No. 11048), and that fixes a minimum of 14 weeks of paid parental leave irrespective of employment contract (permanent or fixed term), career length, and marital status, and is available to those welcoming the arrival of a child (childbirth and...
5 February 2020
An opinion piece published in the 05 February edition of the daily economics publication Les Echos (here) indicates that 105 companies (primarily in the tech, organic, and sustainable development sectors, and for a large part SMEs) have committed to putting second parent leave arrangements in place. French legislation currently recognizes only 11 days of paternity leave (that is partially paid by the social security system). These 105 companies are highlighting their willingness and intention to ‘lead by example...
5 February 2020
Fathers in Hungary can avail of five-days of paid statutory leave following the birth of a child. This leave can be taken whole or in several parts but must be used before the child is two months old. Diageo, one of the leading global alcoholic beverages companies, has introduced a family-friendly measure that will see fathers having the opportunity to avail of an additional 26 weeks of leave. The company’s global parental policy provides a standard 4 weeks of leave as well as 26 weeks of maternity leave. The...
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....
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.
27 August 2019
On 23 August, Google updated its Community Guidelines, a company policy designed to govern internal interaction between employees. Having been faced in recent months with a new form of social activism harnessing both internal and external communications, the Californian tech giant says it wants to strike a balance between right of employees to speak up , which is something it encourages, and individual responsibility, while banning political debates. Indeed, for several months, Google employees have been coming...
6 June 2019
The HR Innovation Lab recently launched by Orange Business Services is a mix between a think tank and a laboratory, intended as a venue for observing developments beyond the company, not only in France but also abroad, in the area of new human resource practices, as well as technology and the impact on workers. In keeping with the operations of Orange Business Services, a division of the Orange group providing IT and telecommunications services to companies in France and across the world, the lab also provides an...
27 March 2019
In its recently published annual Global Talent Trends report for 2019, LinkedIn analyses the four major trends driving change in the employment relationship (new employee expectations and new company needs) that it has been able to identify both from the key search terms its network’s members are using, as well as from a qualitative survey of more than 5,000 talent professionals in 35 countries. In October 2018 the report identified these four key areas: job candidate soft skills, work flexibility,...
1 February 2019
Amazon is en route to dominating India’s voice assistant market. The online giant’s strategy relies on independent outside developers with whom Amazon has no legal connection, and according to Amazon some 40,000 are now developing Alexa compatible ‘skills’ (voice-powered apps that run on all Amazon Echo devices).
