Nokia: puts a support package in place for workers laid off after mass redundancies
As expected, Nokia’s acquisition of Franco-American rival Alcatel-Lucent has had significant social consequences. Although the Finnish group did not provide any global figures beyond 1,300 job...
Great Britain: McDonald’s backs an employers’ campaign to promote employee soft skills
British employers are campaigning for soft skills to be taken seriously as business success factors. They estimate soft skills to be worth 88 million GBP (113.5 million euros) to the British...
Corporate Practice: Daimler calls its pensioners back into service for special missions.
In Daimler they are called the ‘Space Cowboys’. Like with the Clint Eastwood film where 4 elderly retired astronauts are called back into service for a crucial mission (to save the earth)...
Corporate Practice: how the German family run company VILSA-Brunnen helps its older staff take up, for the first time, professional vocational training
Can we go back to school after more than 20 years spent in a factory filling bottles. What are the benefits and challenges of such an approach for both the employee and the employer? During the...
When HR learns from hackathon
Challenging its employees to solve a problem in 48 hours: that’s the hackathon, a marathon that used to be reserved for workers in computing firms.  More and more managers from all industries are...
Lloyds Group wants to have 40 percent of senior roles filled by women
By 2020, Lloyds Banking Group wants to have 40 percent of senior roles filled by women. It’s the first time such a big company sets out such a big target. The Cameron administration is hoping that...
6 February 2014
France: transfer of skills at the center of the ‘generation contract’ agreements negotiated at company levels
A campaign promise of candidate Hollande, the “generation contract” enforced by the national cross-industry agreement of October 19, 2012, has 3 objectives: permanent recruitment for young people;...
BASF inaugurates the largest work-life balance center in Germany, a sign that German firms are taking to this theme
In early November, BASF, a pioneer company in the field of work-life balance, inaugurated “LuMit,” which is the biggest work-life balance management center in the country.  This achievement, which...
Interview of Denis Pennel, the author of, “Working for yourself: what future for labor at the time of the individualist revolution?”
Individuals’ yearning for fulfilling work matching their life choices implies that the social partners and politicians rethink the social contract, explains Denis Pennel, who wrote a book called...
A quarter of the global workforce would welcome an expatriate assignment
“Mobilising Talent: The Global Mobility Challenge” is the first survey conducted by Ipsos and sponsored by BDO on the international mobile employees’ profile and views. Generous compensation does...
Spain: recent trends in corporate volunteering
Corporate volunteering is not new. Traditionally, it has been conceived as a Corporate Social Responsibility practice. However, businesses are progressively integrating employee community...
Renault: HR agencies for employee-customers
Renault made a small revolution at the end of 2011 in the HR organization of its engineering and service undertakings in the Paris area (16,900 employees).  Employees and managers used to complain...
11 July 2013
Corporate practices: Mapfre’s talent management program uses international benchmarking to develop innovation
Since 1984, MAPFRE, the leading insurance company in Spain, has been steadily expanding its business at the worldwide scale. In response to this internationalization process, the company agreed to...
Great Britain: more and more businesses provide their employees with vocational qualifications
The major high street retailer, the John Lewis Partnership, has announced plans to establish a ‘University of John Lewis’ as part of its expanding range of internal vocational qualifications for...
Faurecia banks on career development for employees with key positions to ensure business success
The French automotive group Faurecia decided to implement the “supervisors and UAP managers program” in 2010, as part of its Excellence System. Unlike a program aimed at “high potentials”, the...
Europe: serious games and mobile learning on the rise in vocational training
The latest survey of the Cegos Observatory on widespread vocational training practices in France, Germany, the UK, Spain and Italy, published on March 27, shows that e-learning is on increasing...
Most viewed articles of the month on mind HR
What readers clicked on the most last month.
What readers clicked on the most last month.
1
Germany: legal battle at Tesla ahead of works council election
The Frankfurt/Oder labour court has postponed a mid-November hearing in the case between the IG Metall union and Michaela Schmitz, employee representative and head of the works council at the...
2
Netherlands: ING cites AI as it plans to cut around 950 jobs
Dutch bank ING has informed the employment agency UWV that it may cut around 950 jobs by 31 December 2026. In its notification on 20 October, the lender said the planned reductions stem partly...
30 October 2025
3
AI-driven job cuts on the rise in tech sector
As leading tech companies ramp up investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and roll out transformation plans to boost its development, layoffs across the sector are increasing. But are the job...
7 October 2025
4
France: generative AI and older workers central to BPCE’s skills management strategy
On 17 July 2025, BPCE and its trade unions signed a second agreement on jobs and career management within the banking group. The text places generative artificial intelligence at the core of its...
5
France: austerity measures proposed in social security financing bill for 2026
Limits on sick leave, the end of social security exemptions for apprentices, and the introduction of additional birth leave: the 2026 social security financing bill, presented to parliament on 14...
16 October 2025
6
Carrefour and UNI Global Union renew global agreement on promoting social dialogue and diversity
On 17 October, Carrefour, one of the world’s largest retailers, with nearly 500,000 employees worldwide, and global union federation UNI Global Union renewed their global agreement on...