Admiral CEO Attributes FTSE Giant’s Staff Retention to Share Awards Scheme
Admiral Group’s CEO Milena Mondini says the company’s share‑award plan – up to £3,600 ($4,500) in free shares per employee after one year – has been a key driver of its unusually high staff‑retention rates. Since its 2005 IPO the scheme has distributed roughly 20 million shares, now worth about £628 m ($785 m). The insurer posted a 16% rise in profit before tax to £958 m ($1.2 bn), with UK motor earnings topping £1 bn ($1.25 bn). Recent growth is also fueled by the £82.5 m ($103 m) RSA acquisition and expanding European operations, all run from a Wales‑based headquarters with no London office.
Global Employee Engagement Falls to 20% as Managers Disengage
Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace report shows global employee engagement has slipped to a historic low of 20%, marking the first back‑to‑back decline since 2020. The plunge is driven primarily by managers, whose engagement fell from 31% in...
HR Perspectives by John Dawber: “Adoption Improves Dramatically when AI Becomes Tangible in Daily Work Rather than an Abstract Future...
Novo Nordisk’s Global Business Services leader John Dawber stresses that AI adoption in pharma accelerates when it becomes a tangible part of everyday work rather than an abstract concept. He argues that hiring should focus on learning agility and growth...
HR Needs to Step up, but Don’t Expect a Neet Fix Anytime Soon
Youth unemployment in the UK has risen to 14.3% for 18‑24‑year‑olds, reversing recent overall gains. The government has rolled out a Youth Jobs Grant, expanded apprenticeship incentives and introduced new V‑Level qualifications, but the measures target only a fraction of...
New AI Lab Core Automation 'Nerdsniped' Researchers From Anthropic, Google DeepMind
Core Automation, an AI startup founded by former OpenAI vice president Jerry Tworek, announced its launch on X, branding itself as "the world's most automated AI lab." The company has quickly attracted top talent, including former Anthropic researcher Rohan Anil...
ASML Restructures Workforce, Lets Go 1700
ASML, the Dutch lithography giant, announced a restructuring that will eliminate roughly 1,700 positions, primarily senior technical and management roles. The plan includes a six‑week summer hiring freeze and a reduction of U.S. cuts from 300 to 185. Simultaneously, the...
Employee Who Quit During Paranoid Delusions Was Unfairly Dismissed
The Fair Work Commission overturned an unfair dismissal claim involving a Hutchison Ports stevedore who resigned while experiencing paranoid delusions. Colleagues raised concerns about his mental health, yet the employer did not verify his intent to quit and refused his...
The Conversation that Could Change a Founder’s Life
Burnout in startups often goes unnoticed until it threatens performance, with nearly half of people leaders reporting severe fatigue, according to Wiley Workplace Intelligence. As teams grow from five to fifty, informal support erodes and leaders become stretched across hiring,...
Vaibhav Raghuvanshi Joins Arvind as Head of HR CoEs-Talent, L&D, OD
Vaibhath Raghuvanshi has been appointed head of HR Centres of Excellence at Arvind, overseeing talent management, learning & development, and organisational development. He arrives from Aditya Birla Health Insurance, where he led talent and organisational effectiveness since 2025. Raghuvanshi’s career...
FDV Warning Signs Often Missed in the Workplace
Australian workplaces are struggling to support employees experiencing family and domestic violence (FDV) because many warning signs go unnoticed. Humans of Purpose Academy estimates 2.2 million women—about one in four—face FDV each year. Support specialist Melanie Greblo warns that managers and...
Domestic Workers Legally Recognised in Indonesia After '22-Year Struggle'
Indonesia’s parliament approved the Domestic Workers Protection Law, ending a 22‑year campaign for formal recognition. The legislation covers roughly 4.2 million domestic workers—about 90% of whom are women—granting them health insurance, paid rest days and pension rights. It also bans wage...
Magnificent Irony as Meta Staff Unhappy About Running Surveillance Software on Work PCs
Meta announced it will roll out a new internal tool called the Model Capability Initiative, which records keystrokes, mouse movements and occasional screenshots on employee workstations. The memo specifies monitoring of work‑related applications such as Gmail, GChat, VS Code and an...
Finder Cuts 54 Jobs in Latest Global Redundancy Round
Finder announced a third wave of global redundancies, cutting 54 jobs across multiple regions, including eight in Australia. The layoffs bring the company's headcount down to roughly 200 employees, down from a 2021 peak of over 500. The cuts are...
The Big Reveal: Meet the Finalists of the Employee Experience Awards 2026, Thailand
The Employee Experience Awards 2026 in Thailand have announced their finalists, covering 45 categories that highlight innovative people strategies and measurable business results. This third‑year programme, judged by senior HR leaders, underscores the shift of HR from a support role to...
Leaders Have Better Lives but Worse Days
Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace report finds that managers of managers—defined as leaders—are more likely to rate their lives as thriving and report higher work engagement than the employees they supervise. At the same time, these leaders experience...
Direct Recruitment System for Foreign Workers Still at Research Stage, Says KESUMA
Malaysia’s Ministry of Human Resources (KESUMA) clarified that a proposed digital platform for direct foreign‑worker recruitment is still in the research stage, with no decisions or contracts signed. The AI‑driven system would let employers source workers directly from source countries...
Lack of Salary Transparency a 'Deal-Breaker' For Jobseekers
A new Monster survey of over 1,000 workers shows salary transparency has become a decisive factor in job searches, with 60% refusing to apply for positions that omit pay ranges. Only 21% of employers consistently publish salary ranges, while 48%...
Performance Sacking Upheld as Fair Despite "Ambitious" PIP Targets
The Fair Work Commission ruled that a senior security analyst’s dismissal from National Australia Bank was fair, despite finding some performance‑improvement‑plan (PIP) targets “unreasonable or ambitious.” The employee, hired in 2023, was terminated in June 2023 after failing to meet...
Personal Trainer Who Raised Concerns Wins £150k at Tribunal
A personal trainer who reported an unsafe Ministry of Defence fitness test was awarded roughly $190,000 after an employment tribunal ruled her dismissal was automatically unfair. The tribunal ordered Nuffield Health to pay about $97,000 in lost wages, $47,000 for...
Why Leadership Traits Don’t Determine a Successful Leader
The piece argues that leadership success hinges on self‑awareness and context rather than a static list of traits. It highlights a Silicon Valley biotech CEO who, despite being praised for many classic traits, let them become blind spots, prompting senior...
Top Ten (+40) Best Places To Work In UK
The 2026 Best Places to Work in the UK list was compiled from thousands of Glassdoor reviews, filtered through a proprietary algorithm that weighs review quantity, quality, and consistency. The ranking excludes any pay‑to‑play or self‑nomination processes, ensuring an unbiased...
Why Menopause Support Belongs on Every Law Firm’s Agenda
Law firms face a hidden talent risk as women reach menopause during peak career years, coinciding with low representation at senior levels—55% of solicitors are women but only 35% become equity partners. Menopausal symptoms can impair performance, prompting the UK...
CEOs Downplay Staff Discontent, Leaving HR to Manage the Fallout
Global employee engagement has slipped to a five‑year low of 20% in 2025, according to Gallup, costing the world economy roughly $10 trillion in lost productivity. Yet the BCG CEO Insomnia Index shows only 38% of CEOs are highly concerned about...
Savills Narrows Gender Pay Gap as Female Representation Edges Up
Savills UK reported a modest narrowing of its gender pay gap in the 2025 disclosure, with the mean gap falling to 20.08% from 21.18% and the median to 16.99% from 17.82%. Women now represent 30% of the highest‑pay quartile, up...
McDonald’s Targets Jobless Gen Z with ‘UK’s Largest Work Experience Programme’
McDonald’s has launched the UK’s largest work‑experience scheme, offering 2,500 paid placements to people aged 16 and over. The initiative targets a record‑high 14.3% NEET rate among 18‑24‑year‑olds and the 34% of 16‑17‑year‑olds not in work or education. It comes...
HHS Seeks Employee Reassignments to Tackle Months-Long Reasonable Accommodation Backlog
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is confronting a backlog of over 9,000 reasonable accommodation requests from employees with disabilities. The backlog includes roughly 3,000 cases at the CDC, which accounts for a third of the total. HHS...
Some Senior Bureaucrats Earn More than $1 Million a Year. How Did We Get Here?
Senior Australian Public Service (APS) departmental secretaries are now earning more than A$1 million a year—roughly $660,000 USD—outpacing the prime minister’s salary of about A$622,000 (≈$410,000 USD). The disparity has ignited public debate about government compensation practices. In response, the independent...
Microsoft Expands Partnership with NABTU to Deliver AI Training for Skilled Trades Workforce
Microsoft and North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) have broadened their collaboration to deliver free AI literacy courses and an industry‑recognized credential to skilled‑trade workers across the United States and Canada. Building on a prior effort that trained 1,500 instructors,...
Trump Administration Tosses Degree Requirements for Federal IT Managers
The Office of Personnel Management announced that the federal 2210 IT management job series will no longer require a bachelor’s degree, shifting hiring to competency‑based assessments. The change is the first phase of OPM’s Federal Workforce Competency Initiative, which aims...
Ninth Circuit Upholds NLRB Ruling Against Union Buster
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a National Labor Relations Board order that found an employer engaged in illegal union‑busting conduct. The appellate court upheld the NLRB’s remedial measures, requiring the company to cease the unlawful...
Zara Workers Urge Fashion Chain to Stop Plan Cutting Local Wages
Inditex workers in A Coruña have asked Zara’s parent to stop the ARTE labour agreement that would standardise pay across Spain. The draft could slash new‑hire salaries by €5,000 ($5,875) a year and strip local bonuses and transport support. Employees argue...
Redefining Jobs for the Intelligent Age
A Kyndryl 2025 Readiness Report finds 87% of business leaders expect AI to reshape jobs within a year, yet only 29% feel their workforce is prepared. To bridge this gap, Kyndryl has partnered with Wayne State University to launch the...
Lawsuit Says Unilever Fired Forklift Worker After Workplace ER Visit
Unilever Manufacturing is being sued after it terminated forklift operator Zachariah Salazar three days after he left a night shift for emergency‑room treatment of a foot injury. The complaint alleges disability discrimination under the ADA, failure to accommodate his Type‑1...
Barista Accuses Compass Group's Canteen of Gender Bias, Retaliatory Layoff
Jessica Wallace, a Chicago-area barista at Compass Group USA’s Canteen, filed a Title VII lawsuit alleging gender‑biased remarks and a hostile work environment that culminated in her layoff. She says her supervisor told her the company “should have hired a man”...
Act Targets Bullying in the Workplace
Taiwan's Ministry of Labor announced a new workplace‑bullying chapter to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, slated for promulgation in July. The amendment defines bullying as verbal abuse, undue intervention, social isolation or excessive criticism that causes physical or psychological...
How Christine Barone Creates ‘Magic’ at Dutch Bros
Christine Barone, Dutch Bros' CEO, was honored as the 2026 Restaurant Leader of the Year. Since taking the helm in 2023, she has driven quarterly same‑store sales growth and lifted 2025 net income by roughly 80%. The company's stock has...
Alex Cooper’s Media Company Unwell Is Under Scrutiny After Allegations of a Toxic Work Culture
Alex Cooper’s media umbrella Unwell, founded in 2023 with husband Matt Kaplan, now employs roughly 100 staff and spans podcasts, live events, a beverage line, and a creative agency. Bloomberg reports that co‑CEO Kaplan has a reputation for yelling at...
FedEx Settles Charge It Denied Telework Accommodations to Workers with Disabilities
FedEx has agreed to pay $280,000 to settle an EEOC lawsuit alleging the company denied telework accommodations to disabled dispatchers in New York. The settlement also obligates FedEx to provide annual ADA training, report all accommodation requests to the EEOC,...
California Contractor Ordered to Pay $468K in Wage Theft Case
A California contractor, SCA General Contracting, was ordered to pay $468,505 in back wages and damages to 137 construction workers after a Department of Labor investigation uncovered minimum‑wage and overtime violations from November 2024 through November 2025. The consent judgment...
KPMG: AI Isn’t Replacing Staff, It’s Redefining Them
KPMG’s latest talent survey reveals that artificial intelligence is reshaping, not eliminating, professional roles. Firms report a 30% year‑over‑year increase in salaries for AI‑related skills and a surge in reskilling initiatives, with 70% of respondents launching dedicated programs. The study...
Virginia Governor’s Amended Collective Bargaining Bill Would Leave Workers’ Rights Optional and Large Public-Sector Pay Gap Unaddressed
Virginia’s General Assembly passed a landmark collective‑bargaining bill that would shift the state from a largely illegal framework to a required‑bargaining model, potentially narrowing the 26.7% public‑sector pay gap and easing shortages among teachers, first responders and health workers. Governor...
$90,000 Awarded for Constructive Dismissal of Restaurant Server
A British Columbia Supreme Court decision found that a high‑end Vancouver steakhouse constructively dismissed a server who had been approved for a six‑week vacation. The general manager pressured the employee to sign an exit form moments before his flight, violating...
We Almost Hired an AI Candidate. Here’s What Saved Us
CoHost nearly hired a candidate whose entire profile – résumé, references, and interview persona – was fabricated using AI deep‑fake tools. Over two months and seven interviews, the team noticed subtle red flags: overly polished technical answers, instant reference replies...
The DOL Is Rewriting the Rules of Independent Work
The U.S. Department of Labor has unveiled a proposed rule to overhaul how independent workers are classified, emphasizing the degree of employer control and a worker’s genuine profit‑or‑loss risk. After nearly two decades of litigation and policy swings, the rule...
Medium-Sized Nonprofits See Victory in Retreat(s)
Medium-sized nonprofits (50‑249 staff) rank among the best places to work, scoring 84% on employee fun—four points above the overall nonprofit average—while only 64% feel paid fairly, slightly below the sector norm. Leaders credit regular staff retreats and dedicated weeks...
HR Tech News From Cangrade, Curately
AI hiring platform Cangrade announced that its Jules Copilot now offers users a choice among three large language models—Anthropic, OpenAI and Google—with Anthropic set as the default to emphasize responsible AI. The move gives HR teams flexibility to select the...
Why Neurodiversity Is Driving a Compliance Crisis
Employers are confronting a surge in neurodiversity accommodations as more companies hire individuals on the autism spectrum, ADHD, dyslexia and related conditions. Recent amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act and EEOC guidance broaden the definition of reasonable accommodation, creating...
Bill Seeks to Align Workforce Development with Employer Needs
A bill to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) aims to better align training programs with employer needs, but its prospects are dim. Lawmakers face a narrow House majority and scant bipartisan enthusiasm, making passage unlikely. The proposal,...
7 Tips For Employers On Calif. Decision-Making Tech Rules
California’s new Automated Decision‑Making Technology (ADMT) rules require employers to overhaul how they use AI‑driven hiring, promotion and performance tools. The Law360 piece outlines seven practical steps, from conducting impact assessments to maintaining detailed audit logs, to help companies meet...
Joseph Lynett Discusses PWFA Enforcement Three Years After Law Went Into Effect
Joseph Lynett, a partner at Jackson Lewis, examined how the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) is being enforced three years after its 2023 enactment. He highlighted that many employers still deny basic accommodations, citing "significant operational difficulty" without clear standards....