As the coronavirus pandemic has shined a spotlight on the health and well-being of workers, the role of chief people officers has taken on greater urgency. So reports Workforce.

In the midst of a pandemic, the physical and mental health of employees will be the primary concern for many businesses that have struggled during the shutdown and that have operated with a depleted workforce. “The health and well-being of employees for many companies was seen as a nice-to-have,” says Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post and founder and CEO of Thrive Global. Huffington's behavior change tech company has collaborated with HR leaders during the pandemic.

“Now more than ever, [employee health and well-being] is essential for the success of an organization, and that’s why HR leaders have such a critical role to play,” she adds.

Stress will be a real issue as more and more employees return to work. Ellyn Shook, chief leadership and human resources officer at Accenture, says HR leaders have an opportunity to go beyond what was considered “normal.”

“For modern HR leaders, this has been an accelerant to create a blueprint for the future of work, rethink the social contract and drive even greater value for our people, businesses and communities,” Shook said. “And, for those HR leaders who are less progressive, it’s an important catalyst to begin to create a resilient organization that is prepared for whatever the future holds.“

Read the full article from Workforce.

The launch of Portland Street Response, an initiative aimed at keeping police away from mental health and homelessness calls in Portland, Oregon, is being postponed until at least February next year with human resources being blamed for the delay. So reports KGW8.

The program was set to start this fall, but a spokesman for Portland Fire and Rescue said the delay is due to a “hold up in HR.” That’s because the city still needs to recruit crisis counselors, which would be a first.

Hiring crisis counselors is “going to take about four to five months for us to do the market research and really understand what's entailed with that,” said Robyn Burek, project manager. “And then of course the training will also entail de-escalation techniques and managing aggressive behavior and cultural sensitivity.”

Training is expected to last another four or five months, Burek added.

Read the full article from KGW8.

A former worker at global restaurant chain Pret A Manger alleges that her fellow employees “created and fostered a discriminatory and hostile work environment” directed at her in several of the company’s New York City eateries where she had worked. So reports Eater.

Shaquana Battle alleges in her lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court of New York, Bronx County, that her coworkers and manager regularly used the N-word while addressing her. Battle approached the store manager about this and he told her, “People don’t mean anything by it. We all grew up in the ‘hood,’” the lawsuit notes.

After her complaint, the manager did not direct employees to stop using the slur and also continued using it himself, according to Battle’s suit.

Battle reached out in March 2018 to Glenda Greogira, an HR employee at Pret A Manger’s corporate office. After Greogira spoke with the employees, she allegedly told Battle to “try to go about her business and avoid drama," the lawsuit notes. Later, Greogira confirmed that “inappropriate language” was used and that it was a hostile work environment, according to the lawsuit.

Pret A Manger has 500+ stores globally, including 85 in New York City.

Read the full article from Eater. 

Two leading industry groups representing chief human resources officers and chief legal officers have joined up to tackle racism in the workplace. So reports Law.com.

The first-ever partnership between the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) joins leading C-suite officers in both professions to work jointly on policies that foster greater inclusivity in the workplace.

“When it comes to the types of societal issues that corporations are facing, both looking within and looking out to how they can influence their communities, the two executives who are both most equipped to carry that forward would be the chief human resources officer and chief legal officer,” said Veta T. Richardson, president and CEO of ACC. “That’s why this alliance was such a natural one.”

Last month, ACC and SHRM co-hosted a two-part webinar series dealing with workplace race relations. SHRM CEO Johnny Taylor noted that “racism is still rampant in America’s workplaces [and that] it has never stopped.”

“I am not talking about ‘microaggressions,’ or unconscious bias in hiring and promotion,” Taylor said. “Routine abuse, threats and racial epithets are still happening with depressing regularity in the workplace. Organizations need to put more resources into their inclusion and diversity efforts and it is not the job of the chief diversity officer alone. CHROs and general counsels have an important role to play.”

Read the full article from Law.com.

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.”

Starting a new job at online retailer Zappos means recruits get to work for four weeks before deciding if they want the job. And if the company decides the new hire is not a good fit or the recruit decides they don’t want the job, the company will pay them for the month and wish them well.

While this way of onboarding new hires is not the norm, Zappos has found this approach to be successful in attracting and retaining recruits, Hollie Delaney, head of human resources at Zappos.com tells Business Insider.

When Delaney came to interview at the firm more than a dozen years ago, she remembered the person interviewing her saying that one of the firm’s core values is to ‘create fun and a little weirdness.’

While a small number of new hires do decide they don’t want to stay after four weeks, “we’ve found that it’s actually cost effective, because we’re not just hiring people,” Delaney said. “We’re hiring the right people. People who have a service-first mindset,” she said. “People who want to be here because we fit them, too, and who, in most cases, are going to stick around for the long haul… and hopefully make our company better for the hard work we all put in early on.”

Read the full article from Business Insider.

Leaders or those aspiring to lead can help their own development by learning how and when to forgive those who have wrong them. So reports Northwest Indiana Times.

Shawne Duperon, founder of The Project Forgive Foundation, spoke to a recent gathering of the Northwest Indiana Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management last month.

"There's the notion of giving an apology and there's the notion of receiving an apology," Duperon says. "There's distinction between, 'I hear that I really hurt you. I'm so sorry I hurt you' versus 'You're upset. I'm sorry.'"

Duperon also suggests that business leaders learn "how to accept apologies they'll never receive" in order to create peace with people they don't agree with or who they don't like.

Read the full article from Northwest Indiana Times

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.