A Chinese technology firm has infuriated its employees after they learned that a so-called ‘smart’ cushion was being used to let human resources know when workers were not at their desks. So reports the South China Morning Post.

The staff at Hebo Technology in Hangzhou, China, originally were fine with the smart cushions after their employer told them they were for monitoring vital health signs. On top of angry staff, the firm also may have legal troubles to deal with, a lawyer noted.

One worker with the surname Wang posted about her experience online, with internet users chiming in and scolding the company to “butt out” of tracking its employees’ whereabouts.

“The data collected–such as when you are at your seat, when you are not, when you become emotional–is all in the hands of your boss,” Wang posted. “What’s more, the human resources department will check this data. Does it mean that our work performance will be assessed based on this information too?”

The firm denied it used the cushions to monitor its employees’ behavior. But Yang Wenzhan, an attorney from the Beijing Zhongdun Law Office, said that the company may have acted illegally in sharing data with other employees, namely the HR department.

“If the company has informed the workers about the testing and has obtained their consent, the testing programme is legal,” Yang said. “But these documents are both in English. Can it guarantee that the employees are clearly aware of the content [in the documents]?”

Yang also noted that data provided to HR violates “the company’s initial promise that it would keep the data secret.”

Read the full article from the South China Morning Post.

When Richie Coladarci launched his “A Friend in HR” platform to connect individuals with human resources professionals for free, he saw it quickly take off in other states. So reports NH Business Review.

The HR strategist at Merchants Fleet in Hooksett, NH, debuted his free online resource as a soft launch in December with about six participating volunteer HR professionals mainly from the state. He has since seen it grow to about 30 HR professionals nationwide.

“It’s the power of how quickly an idea has spread,” Coladarci said. “There are people wanting to give back and help.”

The HR volunteers have an average of 20 years of experience and are spread out over a number of states. Coladarci came up with the idea when he heard from friends and acquaintances asking for advice after the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their jobs. Users have sought HR help ranging from mock interviews and putting a resume together to employee rights under the CARES Act and understanding the most recent federal stimulus bill.

“Our focus has been trying to reach an audience of people who don’t have as many resources or someone to turn to,” Coladarci said. “Our mission is to level the playing field.”

Read the full article from the NH Business Review.

The pandemic tested human resources in ways many never imagined with quarantine, COVID-19 testing and round-the-clock Zoom calls becoming new workplace norms in 2020. Now those experiences are shaping trends for the New Year.

“COVID-19 proved that people and organizations are capable of tremendous growth under the pressure of a crisis,” the 2021 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report notes. “The challenge for many will be to sustain that momentum to discover new ways to thrive in the long term, even as disruption constantly resets the path forward.”

In putting together its report, Deloitte posed the question, “How can organizations position themselves to thrive when they are focused on making the changes necessary to survive?”

Of the 6,000 business professionals surveyed in 99 countries and across all industries, 44% were HR executives, with respondents asked how the pandemic shaped their view of organizational preparedness and challenges and opportunities confronting them moving ahead.

One trend will be to shift away from a work-life balance approach to one that places more emphasis on well-being, writes Jen Fisher, Deloitte US chief well-being officer. “While executives have long recognized that well-being is important, the COVID-19 pandemic brought home how significant it really is,” Fisher notes. “Organizations suddenly found themselves called upon to prioritize workers’ physical and mental well-being as a matter of survival, as protecting their health and alleviating their stress became critical to operations.”

Another lesson from last year that is relevant moving forward is how workers proved they could quickly adapt to new roles/responsibilities to handle critical issues that did not always have to do with their specific job. For example, automotive workers tapped “3D scanners and computer simulations to retool their assembly lines to manufacture ventilators for Covid-19 patients,” according to the report.

“Workforce potential is not about what workers were recruited to do, or what they are certified to do, or even what organizations or leaders want them to do next,” Deloitte notes. “It’s about giving workers more freedom to choose how they can best help tackle critical business problems as organizations and ecosystems evolve.”

One potentially disturbing trend for employees is the increasing frequency of their bosses to track and monitor their staff, as evidenced with the rise of employee monitoring software, HR Trend Institute reports. “Positively the trend can be called ‘Continuous Listening,’ but we should watch out for ‘Continuous Tracking,’ writes Tom Haak, founder and director of HR Trend Institute.

There also is the risk of increasing detachment among employees/employers as many businesses have adjusted to having their staff work from remote locations. “Keeping employees engaged while they are working remote requires a conscious effort,” Haak writes. While Zoom and other video meetings may help, it won’t be enough to offset this risk, he adds.

Another new normal that took off last year by necessity--remote hiring--will likely stick around this year as employers are more likely to maintain the remote working arrangements from 2020, The Enterprisers Project reports. Recruiting for remote workers will make it easier for employers seeking to increase their workforce diversity as this outreach approach will appeal to a larger pool of talent.

“From the applicant’s perspective, top talent will look for companies that offer remote work, flexible policies that enable more family time and a lower cost of living, and excellent health coverage,” writes Vijay Sundaram, chief strategy officer at Zoho Perks. “Perks like gourmet cafeterias, gyms, game rooms, nap pods, and unlimited free snacks will lose their appeal.”

Four human resources leaders joined forces to help connect workers displaced due to the coronavirus with high-demand employers having a hard time finding enough talent to fill open positions. So reports Forbes.

The chief human resources officers with Accenture, Lincoln Financial Group, ServiceNow and Verizon created People + Work Connect, which allows companies to link up with other companies to address job shortages at no cost to the employers. More than 265 companies in 95 countries with 400,000+ job listings are part of the platform.

"When we decided to own the unemployment numbers as a collective problem and not just focus on our own workforce needs that is when something important shifted,” said Christy Pambianchi, Verizon's executive vice president and CHRO.

Read the full article from Forbes.

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.

As tense as the leadup to the November 3 election has been, there’s unlikely to be an immediate let up afterwards.

Employers will welcome more than 100 million Americans back to work after November 3 and human resources teams will need to prepare for what most certainly will be an uncomfortable environment, Harvard Business Review reports. If the election results between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are close, the tension could extend for weeks or more.

A Monmouth University Poll conducted last month found that 38% of 758 registered voters believe it is very likely that the Trump campaign will try to cheat if they see it as necessary to win, with 14% saying it is somewhat likely. A quarter of these registered voters say it is very likely that the Biden campaign will cheat to win, while 14% say it is somewhat likely. Of these voters, 64% believe it is at least probable that Russia’s government is trying to meddle in the election, while 57% say the same of China’s government.

“Even in the best-case scenario, in which the race is clearly decided on election night, lingering bitterness and resentments will likely spill into the workplace,” Bob Feldman, vice chair of ICF Next, a global marketing, communications, and digital transformation agency, writes for Harvard Business Review. “But if, as many experts predict, the counting of mail-in ballots continues well beyond November 3, attended by cries of fraud, lawsuits, and possibly even dueling slates of electors (i.e., members of the Electoral College), companies will face the potential of a roiled workplace for weeks and possibly even months.”

Companies cannot afford to wait until after November 3 if they hope to maintain a certain amount of civility in their workplaces, Feldman notes. But he points to some efforts by U.S. corporations to foster positive change.

One of those efforts is the Better Arguments Project started by the Aspen Institute in partnership with Allstate and Facing History and Ourselves, a worldwide education program. The effort gathers participants in cities to hear from speakers on hot button issues, but they must pledge to five principles, including:

• Taking winning off the table
• Being present and listening
• Connecting and being respectful
• Being forthright and embracing honesty from other participants
• Being open to new ideas

General Mills’ Courageous Conversations series has started its fifth year where they bring their employees together to listen to speakers discuss tough issues and then break up the employees into tables of 10 people to discuss. In its first year, there were 30 participants and that is now up to 3,000 employees with conversations done online.

Employers can take the lead in acknowledging the elephant in the room and encouraging civil communication after the election with the expectation that these discussions will be difficult, Feldman notes. They also can encourage employees to actively listen, have senior leaders model good behavior, and show empathy.

Companies will run into trouble if they think they can ignore potential negative fallout in the workplace post-election because their staff works from home, Sidney Bruce, head of customer success and HR at Eversee, a payroll company, writes for Forbes.

When home, “employees may feel they have more time to discuss these issues and feel even more pressure from the uncertainty and challenges presented by the pandemic,” Bruce writes. “With more time at home, workers may be making more of these comments. When employees are friends on social platforms outside of work, there’s no policy that can intervene when potentially offensive things are said.”

Gartner, a research and advisory company, noted in February that 78% of employees talked about politics at work, and 47% said the presidential election interfered with getting their work done. One-third of employees said they spent more time scouring for political news at work and 36% said they stopped talking or working with a co-worker due to political views. Gartner surveyed 500 employees in the U.S.

While some private employers may be tempted to bar political talk at work, which they are legally allowed to do, they need to assess the potential fallout on their business and employee morale, according to employment law firm Fisher Phillips.

“Restrictive workplace rules on politics and social discourse could turn off customers or lead to a boycott,” according to the firm. “In our highly political and digital age where people are ready to take a stand against a company based on political, social, and moral issues, you might need to collaborate with company decision makers at all levels to determine what’s right for your organization.”

Company CEOs “need to lean heavily on the skills of HR professionals trained to have difficult conversations and to facilitate them,” Johnny Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, president and chief executive officer, writes for Chief Executive. He too encourages that companies avoid trying to shut down political speech, especially in today’s climate where social and racial justice have taken center stage.

“Our human instinct—and the way many of us were taught—is to be conflict avoiders,” Taylor writes. “But the 21st century workplace demands that you manage conflict, not avoid it—that you force people to be uncomfortable to get to a better, more authentic place.”

LinkedIn has embraced virtual interviews for all its job openings as coronavirus sidelines traditional in-person recruiting. So reports The Verge.

Job candidates were told by the firm that they could do an interview virtually or postpone for a future date, according to an email from LinkedIn’s staffing team.

“In light of the recent coronavirus outbreak and with everyone’s health being LinkedIn’s #1 priority at the moment, all candidates who are scheduled to come onsite are being given the option to either complete their entire interview virtually via BlueJeans video conference, or cancel their current schedule and hold off on rescheduling until coming onsite is possible,” LinkedIn noted in its email, which The Verge had seen.

The LinkedIn email also noted that “neither option will harm nor effect your candidacy here at LinkedIn.”

Google also noted similar plans to conduct all job interviews virtually in an email last month, while Facebook noted it would cancel most live job interviews. Amazon had announced that all in-person interviews would be on hold indefinitely.

Read the full article from The Verge.

Human resources departments and employers are stepping up defensive and protective measures abroad and at home amid the growing coronavirus threat.

The market continues to convulse and a growing number of cities and states are going into lockdown mode amid increasing fears about the virus and its ballooning infection numbers. The potential damage that the virus could cause to businesses was noted in 27 earnings calls at the end of January from S&P Composite 1,500 firms, including Apple, Starbucks and McDonalds, CNBC reports. Some recent reports paint an even more ominous picture about the financial and human impact of the pandemic. 

Many firms that are able to have already instituted plans fo move the majority of their workforces to full-time remote for the time being. Other firms have had to lay off large portions of their workers due to mandated business closures. Still other managers are communicating regularly with their teams and are generally trying to help inform their workers and calm their fears.

Against this backdrop, the Society for Human Resource Management has devoted a whole page to coronavirus with information on infectious-disease plans, workplace concerns and what employers need to know. That page also features FAQs about the virus, including questions around the Family and Medical Leave Act for sick employees or their family members; paying workers’ compensation to sick employees, and whether the Americans with Disabilities Act restricts how an employer can engage with employees because of the virus.

“The ADA protects employees with disabilities, but during a global health emergency, as recently declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), employees can be required to be medically examined to determine if they have contracted the disease when an employer has a reasonable belief that employees will pose a direct threat due to a medical condition,” the SHRM notes in its FAQs.

HR teams would be wise to review their sick and employee leave polices and to make clear to their sick employees to stay home. “From an HR perspective, you may also want to proactively consider how you will address racist tropes that may occur in the workplace,” Lars Schmidt, founder of HR executive search and consulting firm, Amplify, writes for Fast Company. “As xenophobia and racist incidents against Asians are on the rise, companies must remain vigilant about harassment in the workplace. The World Health Organization has a guide for addressing stigma with examples and tips on actions to counter these attitudes.”

SHRM’s chief executive Johnny Taylor says the coronavirus scare may prompt U.S. firms to improve their paid sick leave policies, The Financial Times reports. This latest crisis also may lead firms to pay more attention to some basic, core issues within their overall organizations that have been ignored, says Peter Cappelli, director of the Wharton business school’s Center for Human Resources.

These companies “literally did not know how many employees they had [or] where they were distributed across locations,” Cappelli says. With more firms paying more attention to disaster planning that might move “them toward better accounting on those simple matters, which then [make] it easier to do all kinds of things like planning.”

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.