As traditional ways of engaging employees prove insufficient post-pandemic, some human resources teams are looking at so-called agile methodology to improve employee wellbeing. So reports Human Resource Online.

The goal of agile methodology is to join people, processes, connectivity and technology, time and place in a way that creates the most effective way to accomplish a specific task. It seeks to encourage work teams to home in on fewer and more crucial responsibilities.

“As a result, teams identify and work on tasks that are more important, streamlining activities, and cutting out unnecessary tasks,” Human Resource Online reports. “This not only increases the organisation’s efficiency, but also helps in creating a better employee experience and work-life balance for employees.”

Read the full article from Human Resource Online.

A dozen Activision Blizzard workers started a group to address sex and gender discrimination at the company despite a recent settlement over similar concerns. So reports The Washington Post.

The anti-discrimination committee is targeting its employer because more action is necessary, according to the employees. Activision Blizzard settled a September 2021 sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit initiated by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“My hope in joining the committee is that we don’t let the fervor die down until there is meaningful, long-lasting change,” says Emily Knief, a senior motion graphic designer at Blizzard. “At the end of the day, I would like to go into work and not have to think about anything but my work. But based on everything that has been happening, even well before it broke through the headlines, it has been taking up a sizable portion of my day, having to think about the inaction of leadership.”

Among the committee’s demands listed in a four-page letter last month is for human resources to cease undocumented chats and to stop retaliating against workers who file complaints. “We appreciate that these employees want to join with us to further build a better Activision Blizzard and continue the progress we have already made,” Activision Blizzard spokesperson Jessica Taylor said in a statement. “We have, for example, already upgraded our lactation facilities, waived arbitration, hired new DEI and EEO leaders, and collaborated with employees to make our policies and processes more Trans inclusive, just to name a few issues the letter raises.”

Last August, Activision Blizzard confirmed that the executive who ran its Blizzard Entertainment unit and its senior human resources executive had left the California-based video gaming giant as it contended with a gender bias lawsuit.

Read the full article from The Washington Post. 

Salesforce is facing major pressure from thousands of its employees to sever its business ties with the National Rifle Association following the deadly Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting. So reports SF Gate.

The employees sent an open letter titled “Ending our customer relationship with the NRA” to Salesforce co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor, CFO Amy Weaver, and CMO Sarah Franklin late last month. SF Gate saw the letter, which appeared on the company’s internal Slack platform.

The shooting left 19 children and two adults dead. “It’s not in our power to get background checks or other gun control measures passed by Congress—but we can effect change by ending our commercial relationship with our customer, the National Rifle Association,” the open letter notes.

The letter goes on to make clear how the NRA benefits from the company’s customer relationship management software. “The NRA uses Salesforce products to drive their marketing and fundraising efforts,” the letter reads. “It is unconscionable to consider their use of Marketing Cloud to capitalize on mass shootings.”

Read the full article from the SF Gate.

The National Women's Soccer League Players Association has teamed up with UKG, a national payroll provider, to address the enormous gender wage gap. So reports Employee Benefit News.

The NWSL estimates that three-quarters of its players earn $31,000 or less versus their male counterparts in the Major Soccer League who earn an average of almost $400,000. UKG is donating more than $1 million to NWSL as a way to increase the winnings of female players competing in the NWSL Challenge Cup. UKG is sponsoring that tournament.

The 2023 UKG NWSL Challenge Cup is being touted as the first women’s professional soccer tournament that will ensure female players reach pay equity. For this year’s Challenge Cup, the UKG’s donation lifted each winning players’ earnings from $1,000 to $10,000.

Separately, the NWSL boosted its players’ minimum salary from $22,000 to $35,000 and inked the organization’s first collective bargaining agreement this year.

Read the full article from Employee Benefit News.

Employers need to be ready to attract and keep upskilled workers or risk losing them to competitors that offer more lucrative career opportunities. So reports Human Resource Executive.

“It’s the individuals who innovate and activate every piece of technology [inside an organization],” EY consultant Mike Bertolino said in his Upskilling the Adaptive Workforce keynote address at a recent conference. “Until computers become synthesized and work on their own, they will always need humans to use them.”

Upskilling programs can help employers bolster their recruitment and retention efforts at a time when it’s especially challenging for many firms to be properly staffed. But companies need to also go beyond and make sure they create opportunities within for ambitious employees who want more or risk losing them, Bertolino said.

“We live in an age of hyper-disruption and every company must transform or they will die on the vine,” he said. “Instead of asking, ‘How do I train my people?’ we [need to] ask instead, ‘How can I create an adaptive workforce?’”

Read the full article from Human Resource Executive.

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.”

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.