Workers struggling with their mental health are a big concern for 71% of employers who feel this dynamic is negatively impacting their companies’ finances. That's according to new research from The Hartford.

The study by the insurance giant also finds that 34% of U.S. workers reported feelings of depression or anxiousness at least once a week this year. This is up from 20% in 2020.

“Our data shows an undeniable, direct correlation between employee mental well-being, mental health support, and the impact to a company’s bottom line,” The Hartford’s Chairman and CEO Christopher Swift said.

“Employers who want a contemporary, inclusive workplace that supports its people should proactively invest in mental health, with an eye to empathy and equity. The need is real, and the time is now.”

Read the full announcement. 

Department of Homeland Security federal employees are used to working holidays, but last month they received an unexpected surprise from their boss. So reports Federal News Network.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorka had sent his staff an email where he noted how Easter, Passover and Ramadan all fell in April this year and acknowledged how many of his employees would not be able to take time off to celebrate their respective faiths.

“This sacrifice is characteristic of the selfless dedication that all of you demonstrate every single day, as you serve our department and our country with such distinction,” Mayorka wrote. “In recognition of your service, I am privileged to grant all personnel 16 hours of administrative leave that can be used this calendar year or next. Your agency’s or office’s human resources personnel will provide you with implementing guidance.”

Angie Bailey, a former DHS chief human capital officer, noted that it is unusual for agency heads to give their staff administrative leave as a reward for their hard work. “It is common practice to grant a few hours around holidays, but to the best of my knowledge, DHS is the first agency to do so as a recognition for a workforce that works incredible long and hard hours,” Bailey said. “Especially for the workforce that doesn’t get to enjoy the traditional holidays so that we remain safe as a nation”

Read the full article from Federal News Network.

So-called deepfake technology is a rising concern for businesses at risk of being conned into sharing sensitive information with a work colleague, client or manager who is actually an imposter. So reports Society For Human Resource Management.

The technology taps artificial intelligence software to create believable impersonations of voices, images and videos, SHRM reports.

“The use of AI to generate deepfakes is causing concern because the results are increasingly realistic, rapidly created, and cheaply made with freely available software and the ability to rent processing power through cloud computing,” says Kelley M. Sayler, an analyst in advanced technology and global security at the Congressional Research Service in Washington, D.C.

“Thus, even unskilled operators could download the requisite software tools and, using publicly available data, create increasingly convincing counterfeit content,” she adds.

Read the full article from SHRM. 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is citing his company’s own research to warn that white-collar workers may be laboring late at night to the detriment of their health. So reports Employee Benefit News.

That Microsoft research, which evaluated keyboard activity, showed that about 33% of white-collar workers have a ‘third peak’ of productivity that extends late into the night. Nadella spoke last month at the Wharton Future of Work Conference and urged that managers need to establish clear expectations for their employees so they don’t feel pressure to respond to their emails way past office hours.

“We think about productivity through collaboration and output metrics, but well-being is one of the most important pieces of productivity,” Nadella said. “We know what stress does to workers. We need to learn the soft skills, good old-fashioned management practices, so people have their wellbeing taken care of. I can set that expectation, that our people can get an email from the CEO on the weekend and not feel that they have to respond.”

Read the full article from Employee Benefit News. 

Human resources continues to contend with huge workplace challenges two years into the COVID-19 pandemic and one of the most serious is the mental well-being of employees.

“Mental health conditions may not always be apparent and may be mistaken for performance-related issues,” Rose Nicole Eichberger, Jessica Guarrancino and Atoyia Harris, attorneys for Proskauer Rose, write for JD Supra. “Given increased public awareness surrounding mental health and the corresponding legal trends, employers may want to evaluate their current infrastructure, including, but not limited to, providing support for employees with mental health conditions and reviewing processes and policies to address any claims raised.”

Employers need to be proactive about removing any stigmas that might exist in their workplace around mental health, and may want consider implementing a disability affinity group. Creating policies that ensure reluctant employees that it is OK to talk about a mental disability and making sure these efforts are well-publicized also is a good idea. Employers should also do their due diligence and a cost analysis to evaluate special work accommodations to see if such accommodations would really impact business operations.

“With regard to an employee's request to work remotely, the EEOC has advised that employers are not required to grant such an accommodation request simply because the employer previously closed its offices and allowed employees to work from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” writes Eichberger, Guarrancino and Harris. “However, an employee may point to their success teleworking during the pandemic to support that the accommodation is reasonable.”

Another complication for companies is the failure of many health plans and insurance carriers to prioritize mental health coverage versus physical health issues even as the pandemic is seen as a mental health crisis, MarketWatch notes, citing a recent government report.

The Department of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury Department in their report note that mental health services may be harder to obtain. One health plan, for example, had excluded methadone and naltrexone as treatment options for substance abuse, while an insurance company for two health plans covered nutritional counseling for diseases such as diabetes, but not for anorexia, bulimia and binge eating, according to the report. Three health plans had no therapy coverage for autism.

The “findings clearly indicate that health plans and insurance companies are falling short of providing parity in mental health and substance-use disorder benefits, at a time when those benefits are needed like never before,” Labor Department Secretary Marty Walsh said in a statement.

A recent survey by WTW (formerly Willis Towers Watson) found that 86% of employers have made their employees’ mental health, stress and burnout a top priority this year. Still, 49% of survey participants have not formalize their approach to reach these goals. A quarter of respondents have adopted mental well-being programs.

“As we move into 2022, employers struggling with recruitment and retention will look to make their wellbeing programs a differentiator to attract and engage top talent,” said Regina Ihrke, senior director, health and benefits at WTW. “For years, employers have used financial rewards to encourage employees to take action for their own well-being; however, as those incentives have often failed to change employee behavior, employers are seeking new avenues to engage and incent employees to take charge of their own well-being.”

The WTW surveyed more than 300 employers who managed a total of 5.3 million workers.

The Total Brain Mental Health Index for the final quarter of 2021 found that 25% of U.S. workers screened positive for post-traumatic stress disorder, which was up 54% from the prior three months and 136% higher compared with the pre-pandemic period. Depression soared 87% from last fall to the end of the year and was 63% higher than prior to the pandemic.

Companies are being urged to play a more proactive role in tackling workplace issues with their Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) employees as that population faces increasing violence in the U.S.

In one of the latest acts of violence, Atlanta police charged Robert Aaron Long, 21, with eight counts of murder and homicide last month, alleging that he killed eight people, including six Asian women, in what many have called a hate crime, The Washington Post reports.

Hate crimes reported against AAPIs in the U.S. shot up 150% last year even as overall hate crimes dropped, Korn Ferry reports. And while these acts of violence have occurred outside the workplace, diversity and inclusion experts say it is long past due for employers to take action on the challenges AAPI workers encounter at their companies.

From not locking down high-profile assignments and not asking for their opinions, to facing questions about their cultural background and being asked to repeat themselves as they don’t have an “American accent,” AAPIs face these and other hurdles at work, Korn Ferry notes. While employers may be powerless to stop violence committed against AAPIs outside the workplace, they can improve their corporate environments to help these employees feel more valued and respected, Korn Ferry chief diversity officer JT Saunders says. “Everyone should be able to learn, stretch, and grow.” 

AAPIs also have to contend with the negative consequences of being labeled the so-called model minority (intelligent, hardworking and quiet). This trope frustrates many AAPI employees with Jaya Pathak, an associate principal in Korn Ferry’s Assessment and Succession practice, noting that “because of that broad stereotype, we don’t get to have our voices heard.”

Michelle Kim, CEO of the diversity training provider Awaken, says employers should feel obligated to recognize the anti-AAPI violence happening outside their workplaces and the damage it may be causing to their employees, CNBC reports. Kim also concurs that employers are doing their AAPI employees a big disservice by subscribing to the model minority perception and how they may not see AAPIs as victims of racism.

“Part of the myth is that we stay quiet, we’re apolitical, that issues we’re experiencing are not valid or are not attached to our race,” Kim says. “There’s a continual investment in upholding this myth, and we need to question who benefits from it, because it’s not us or other marginalized people.”

Andrés Tapia, Korn Ferry’s global diversity and inclusion strategist, points out that the model minority stereotype can hurt AAPIs’ careers as companies may deem it “fine to have them, but just in technical roles, not in a management role.” AAPIs comprise just 2.5% of Fortune 500 CEOs, just a bit higher than the number of Black CEOs. However, AAPIs make up 5.6% of the U.S. population.

“If you haven’t gone out to your employees to show your commitment and support to them, you need to do it today,” says Sunny Wang, consultant, diversity, equity and inclusion for Korn Ferry.

AAPI employees who may have been impacted by the violence against their communities outside the workplace are not getting sufficient support from their employers, advocates tell CNBC. Many employers also are failing to acknowledge their own anti-AAPI discrimination at work. “First and foremost, you should absolutely have these conversations with your employees,” says Kim Tran, a consultant and author. “I don’t think enough people have conversations about what’s happening in real life and how that impacts your ability to do your job.”

A year ago as the pandemic started to gain momentum, Society For Human Resource Management noted how AAPIs were being blamed for COVID-19 and how they were experiencing this bigotry in the workplace.

Melissa Peters and Alka Ramchandani-Raj of law firm Littler Mendelson say that “when [employers] hear things in the workplace that may seem to target those members of a specific protected class… [they must] take proper action, including reiterating and reviewing its anti-discrimination, harassment, bullying and retaliation policies and conducting investigations where needed.”

Companies are being urged to play a more proactive role in tackling workplace issues with their Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) employees as that population faces increasing violence in the U.S.

In one of the latest acts of violence, Atlanta police charged Robert Aaron Long, 21, with eight counts of murder and homicide last month, alleging that he killed eight people, including six Asian women, in what many have called a hate crime, The Washington Post reports.

Hate crimes reported against AAPIs in the U.S. shot up 150% last year even as overall hate crimes dropped, Korn Ferry reports. And while these acts of violence have occurred outside the workplace, diversity and inclusion experts say it is long past due for employers to take action on the challenges AAPI workers encounter at their companies.

From not locking down high-profile assignments and not asking for their opinions, to facing questions about their cultural background and being asked to repeat themselves as they don’t have an “American accent,” AAPIs face these and other hurdles at work, Korn Ferry notes. While employers may be powerless to stop violence committed against AAPIs outside the workplace, they can improve their corporate environments to help these employees feel more valued and respected, Korn Ferry chief diversity officer JT Saunders says. “Everyone should be able to learn, stretch, and grow.” 

AAPIs also have to contend with the negative consequences of being labeled the so-called model minority (intelligent, hardworking and quiet). This trope frustrates many AAPI employees with Jaya Pathak, an associate principal in Korn Ferry’s Assessment and Succession practice, noting that “because of that broad stereotype, we don’t get to have our voices heard.”

Michelle Kim, CEO of the diversity training provider Awaken, says employers should feel obligated to recognize the anti-AAPI violence happening outside their workplaces and the damage it may be causing to their employees, CNBC reports. Kim also concurs that employers are doing their AAPI employees a big disservice by subscribing to the model minority perception and how they may not see AAPIs as victims of racism.

“Part of the myth is that we stay quiet, we’re apolitical, that issues we’re experiencing are not valid or are not attached to our race,” Kim says. “There’s a continual investment in upholding this myth, and we need to question who benefits from it, because it’s not us or other marginalized people.”

Andrés Tapia, Korn Ferry’s global diversity and inclusion strategist, points out that the model minority stereotype can hurt AAPIs’ careers as companies may deem it “fine to have them, but just in technical roles, not in a management role.” AAPIs comprise just 2.5% of Fortune 500 CEOs, just a bit higher than the number of Black CEOs. However, AAPIs make up 5.6% of the U.S. population.

“If you haven’t gone out to your employees to show your commitment and support to them, you need to do it today,” says Sunny Wang, consultant, diversity, equity and inclusion for Korn Ferry.

AAPI employees who may have been impacted by the violence against their communities outside the workplace are not getting sufficient support from their employers, advocates tell CNBC. Many employers also are failing to acknowledge their own anti-AAPI discrimination at work. “First and foremost, you should absolutely have these conversations with your employees,” says Kim Tran, a consultant and author. “I don’t think enough people have conversations about what’s happening in real life and how that impacts your ability to do your job.”

A year ago as the pandemic started to gain momentum, Society For Human Resource Management noted how AAPIs were being blamed for COVID-19 and how they were experiencing this bigotry in the workplace.

Melissa Peters and Alka Ramchandani-Raj of law firm Littler Mendelson say that “when [employers] hear things in the workplace that may seem to target those members of a specific protected class… [they must] take proper action, including reiterating and reviewing its anti-discrimination, harassment, bullying and retaliation policies and conducting investigations where needed.”

A Trump Administration executive order that took aim at some corporate efforts to promote diversity is likely to be rescinded after President-elect Joe Biden assumes office January 20.

Donald Trump released his executive order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping September 22 in part to “combat offensive and anti-American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating…”

“Instructors and materials teaching that men and members of certain races, as well as our most venerable institutions, are inherently sexist and racist are appearing in workplace diversity trainings across the country, even in components of the Federal Government and among Federal contractors,” the order reads.

Trump’s executive order impacts government agencies, Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, nonprofits and others entities that tap federal contracts or plan to, USA Today reports. The Biden campaign could not be reached for comment, but “it’s highly probable that this executive order will be rescinded in fairly short order,” Franklin Turner, partner with law firm McCarter & English, tells USA Today.

Civil rights groups wasted no time in filing a lawsuit in late October alleging the order violates free speech rights in an "extraordinary and unprecedented act by the Trump administration to undermine efforts to foster diversity and inclusion in the workplace.”

The White House in a September memo targeted diversity training material and suggested eliminating keywords including "white privilege," "systemic racism," "intersectionality" and "unconscious bias.”

Microsoft and Wells Fargo are among the corporations that have seen their diversity initiatives questioned by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs as potentially violating federal laws that bar discrimination stemming from race. In both instances, these initiatives look to double the number the Black managers and executives over the next five years. “I suspect that a future President Biden would be more inclined to issue orders and/or to adopt policies that cultivate and encourage a diverse and inclusive American workforce that is fully informed by relevant, accurate information," Turner said.

The executive order also united many organizations in rejecting the measure, ranging from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, The Washington Post reports. The American Hospital Association, in an October 14 letter to Trump, wrote that “prohibiting federal agencies from conducting and funding trainings that promote racial reconciliation is counterproductive to addressing racism.” The group represents almost 5,000 hospitals and health systems.

Jason Oxman, president of the Information Technology Industry Council, blasted the executive order. His group represents software and tech giants including Apple, Samsung and Amazon, which all co-signed a letter noting concerns about businesses’ First Amendment rights. “The federal government should not be in the business of dictating to companies how to talk to their employees about important societal issues and should certainly not be dissuading employees from endeavoring to address issues of systemic racism and racial discrimination,” Oxman said.

Jeff Neal, who runs the blog ChiefHRO.com, called the executive order one of five that Biden should immediately cancel once he officially becomes president January 20. Neal had earlier served as the chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security and the chief human resources officer at the Defense Logistics Agency. Neal called the order “a hyperpartisan appeal to President Donald Trump’s base…”

“It denies the realities of systemic racism, using inflammatory language and, ironically, stereotyping the views of proponents of diversity and inclusion training,” Neal wrote. “It interferes with the ability of agencies and contractors to promote diversity and inclusion. Given the substantial research that demonstrates the benefits of a diverse workplace and the measurable effects of systemic racism, this EO is a significant step backwards. It should be rescinded and any actions taken to implement it reversed.”

David J. Goldstein, co-chair of Littler Mendelson P.C.’s office of federal contract compliance programs practice group, writes in Bloomberg Law that while the executive order is likely to be rescinded quickly under the Biden Administration, its issuance has likely caused damage. “Unfortunately, even after rescission, there will likely be some repercussions, as at least some employees continue to feel empowered to disrupt or resist training as a result of the rhetoric in and surrounding the order,” Goldstein writes.

Australian employers and human resources departments are facing new worker compensation challenges as they contend with major workplace disruptions from the coronavirus. So reports Insurance Business Australia.

“As the Australian business community faces the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, business owners, managers, and human resources (HR) teams are also tackling the ongoing responsibilities to workers and protecting our workplaces,” according to the workplace risk team at insurance broker Gallagher Australia. “Even with new arrangements to work off site, employers must still comply with relevant work, health, and safety (WHS) and workers’ compensation (WC) legislation.”

One immediate challenge is how companies and HR leaders successfully convey how their employees can file a Covid-19 compensation claim for an injury or illness when they are working remotely, according to the article.

While it may be hard for a worker to prove they contracted the virus based on their working conditions at a remote location, “as an employer you still have an obligation to provide safe work duties, so you need a management plan that enables this in terms of working from home and performing appropriate tasks,” Gallagher Australia notes.

Read the full article from Insurance Business Australia.

Costco Australia is handing out an A$750 (US$478) bonus to 4,000 employees who have worked during the coronavirus pandemic. So reports Human Resources Director.

The bonus payments are happening as supermarket chains in the country rush to recruit thousands of workers to deal with the tremendous demand for groceries now. Costco also has provided a temporary pay boost of A$3 per hour for all employees who worked from March 2 to April 5.

“Costco’s action sets an example for the others,” says Gerard Dwyer, retail union SDA’s national secretary. “It is an acknowledgement of the service Costco workers are providing–an acknowledgement of the risks they are taking to keep the community fed and healthy.”

Read the full article from Human Resources Director.

Human resources teams in Asia Pacific cited their management's ability to oversee crisis and to implement business continuity plans as their top concerns in a Covid-19 world, according to a recent survey. So reports Human Resources Online.

Aon’s APAC Pulse Survey is entitled “Navigating the impact of COVID-19 on workplace and rewards practices.” Nearly 70% of the 304 companies surveyed cited management's ablity to oversee the crisis and business continuity as their biggest challenges. The survey included companies in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, China, Japan, Korea and the Pacific region.

Actions taken by firms to deal with the pandemic include holding off on hiring and freezing pay and promotions as well as having more employees work remotely and providing them with financial help. Overseeing flexible work arrangements and boosting employee awareness were cited by 63.5% and 55.6%, respectively, as challenges HR are tackling. About 13% noted inadequate employee medical insurance as a problem.

Just over 42% of companies gave their respective HR departments a three rating (scale of 1 to 5) for being properly trained, equipped and ready to handle challenges from the pandemic, while 27.6% gave their HR teams a four rating.

Read the full article from Human Resources Online.

A number of Indian companies are providing their employees with online/virtual tools to keep their children entertained as they work from home. So reports The Economic Times.

Genpact, Accenture, Deloitte, AMD and other firms have introduced programs intended to keep their employees’ children occupied so their parents can get in a few hours of relatively uninterrupted work. Daycare centers in India, as in other parts of the world, are not an option as these facilities are shut down, meaning parents and their children are together the whole day.

Employees can tap into parenting communities online to get tips on how to keep their children engaged, set up virtual playdates with kids of their colleagues, have them participate in virtual summer camps and offer online classes on coding. “Employee engagement has now assumed new dimensions to include family engagement as well,” says SV Nathan, chief talent officer at Deloitte India. That firm provides parents with webinars on how to do activities, including crafts and cooking, with their kids.

Meanwhile, IBM India notes that 99% of it workforce is now able to work from home. So reports Business Standard. “What has been different in the past few months is embracing this approach at scale, not just among our sizeable employee population in India, but around the world,” says Sandip Patel, managing director, IBM India and general manager for India/South Asia region.

“Our information technology (IT), human resources, business units, crisis management, legal, government relations, corporate social responsibility, operations and security teams have quickly come together to make (work-from-home) a reality for over 99% of IBM India employees,” Patel adds. “The remaining 1% of our people are focused on critical assignments and we are taking every possible precaution to ensure their safety.”

Rolls-Royce, a manufacturer of aero engines, has decided to eliminate more than 4,000 jobs that will include human resources, finance and purchasing positions. So reports The Guardian.

The goal is to boost profits by cutting out mid-management jobs.

"We are proposing to move to a considerably simplified staff structure, with fewer layers and greater spans of control across the group," a company spokesman said.

The company is expected to cut 4,600 positions globally, HRM Asia reports, with one-third of those cuts expected to be carried out by year-end. The firm has a global workforce of 55,000, with 26,000 in the UK.

The former CEO of France Telecom and six other executives will face trial over allegations that they had a role in at least 19 employee suicides. So reports BBC News.

The executives are accused of "moral harassment." Former CEO Didier Lombard and the other executives deny that restructuring efforts they undertook in 2006 led to the suicides. Lombard had tried to eliminate 22,000 jobs and retrain at least 10,000 workers.

"I'll get them out one way or another, through the window or through the door," Lombard was quoted telling senior managers in 2007. Starting in 2008, at least 19 workers killed themselves,12 attempted suicide and eight suffered depression. Guilty verdicts could result in two years in prison and $35,000 in fines.

France Telecom, a multinational telecommunications corporation, became Orange in 2013. "As it has always said, Orange rejects the accusations and will make its case during the public hearing which will be scheduled in the coming months," an Orange spokesman said.

Read the full article from BBC News. 

A London court sentenced a UK financial analyst to 16-weeks in jail in May for harassing a colleague and posting porn photos purporting to be her. So reports CPS.

Davide Buccheri, 25, was convicted of harassment stemming from actions that lasted eight-months long from September 2016 to May last year. The harassment began after the colleague refused to go on a date with him.

Buccheri then uploaded photos of the woman he took from her social media site onto an adult porn website alongside actual pornographic photos. Actresses in those pornographic images resembled the coworker.  

Buccheri then reached out to managers at his firm, M&G Investments, and reported the photos in an effort to get the woman in trouble.

"This was a sustained campaign of harassment against a young woman beginning her career in the financial services industry," says Aimee Emby, from the Crown Prosecution Service. "Not only did Buccheri's actions cause this victim considerable distress and anxiety, his denial of guilt forced her to relive her ordeal."

Buccheri also was ordered to fork over US$6,705 in compensation to the woman.

Read the full article from CPS. 

Breakfast cereal giant Kellogg's is allowing the 420 workers at its Salford headquarters to clock out of work by noon on Fridays this summer as long as they finish their work. So reports Metro.

The summer hours are designed to improve productivity and give workers more flexibility with a longer weekend.

"Flexible working is something we take very seriously and we encourage all our UK office-based employees to make the most of the summer hour scheme," says Sue Platt, Kellogg's UK human resources director. "Summer hours is part of a package we offer to ensure we provide work-life balance opportunities to all employees."

Read the full article from Metro.