International Employment: What are you reading this Summer?

Our 2024/25 Horizon Scanning report is jam-packed with topical and timely content, highlighting the main challenges and opportunities on the horizon for your business and helping you to navigate the constantly changing employment landscape.

In the report, we discuss:

• the 12 key trends influencing the global HR and employment law agenda in the months to come, which we have summarised below;
• EU regulatory developments in our feature article;
• a country-by country guide to the upcoming changes across EMEA and Asia-Pacific, with practical guidance and a ‘traffic light’ code to help you prioritise the key issues; and
• sector specific commentary to identify commercial trends affecting your business.

What are the key global trends influencing your business?

The global employment and HR environment is constantly evolving, and employers face a complex landscape to navigate when managing their workforce in the coming months. In our latest report, we take a deep dive into the following 12 key trends that we believe will affect your business and impact on workplaces across the globe:

1. The return-to-office debate continues: The optimal hybrid working model that balances business needs and employee preferences continues to be a defining and evolving workplace trend. We discuss the global shift towards greater office attendance, which brings workplace challenges for employers including managing office and desk space, tech set-up, and dealing with multiple flexible working requests. Employers are having to balance those issues with talent attraction and retention and workplace values, with employees ranking flexibility over salary.
2. Advancement of AI is reshaping workforce opportunity: Many employers are very much at the start of their AI journey within the workplace. However, we are starting to see many AI-related trends and issues on the business agenda, including businesses adopting AI strategies, new C-Suite roles to oversee AI policy, ethics and training, investment in education and training, and engagement strategies with employees and employee representative bodies to manage the uncertainties around the impact of AI on the workforce.
3. Conflict resolution challenges continue to evolve: Employers are dealing with more complex internal investigations, driven by the growth of a ‘speak-up’ culture and a shift towards promoting open communication within the workplace. This has led to an uptick in businesses seeking specialist skills, technology and overflow resources from external independent investigators. We are also seeing an increase in cross-cultural and cross-jurisdictional incidents, which brings added challenges for global businesses.
4. The shifting DEI landscape: The global DEI landscape is evolving at a fast pace bringing new challenges for any international business seeking to develop meaningful global DEI strategies. Developments in many key jurisdictions will require businesses to remain alive to their DEI and ESG agenda, including for example, the EU Pay Transparency Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which will require more transparency and accountability. Employers also need to address emerging topics, such as the cultural shift in attitudes to salary transparency, social mobility, neurodiversity, and diversity in recruitment strategies.
5. Collective labour pressures: the rise of the union: Following a growth in collective labour pressures across many countries, we are seeing an uptick in trade unions becoming more influential and active in traditionally non-unionised sectors, such as tech and gaming. There is also a wave of new unions focusing on broader issues such as technology and AI, climate change, sustainability, gender and equal pay issues, and harassment at work. We expect to see businesses start to work with, rather than against, unions to address such matters in a collaborative way.
6. Workforce activism as a force for good: Employees are increasingly using their voice to influence their employer's policies and practices on global and social issues, such as climate change, sustainability, and return to office mandates. Workplace activism is starting to take many forms (strikes, protests, internal working groups and forums), and employers will need to place activism on their strategical and risk management agenda to engage and address the potential reputational and legal risks.
7. Global shift away from non-competes: Non-compete restrictions remain a global hot topic with regulatory developments on the horizon in the US. Global employers with US-based workers need to keep a watching brief on these developments and be ready to amend policies and contracts if needed and monitor whether this momentum could be followed elsewhere across the globe.
8. Wellbeing takes centre stage: Employee burnout and the prevalence of technostress remain widespread issues, exacerbated by the blurring of boundaries between work and home life and the need to be digitally accessible 24/7. As a result, we are seeing a more holistic approach to employee wellbeing and a greater emphasis on people-centred solutions with employers addressing these issues through engagement, listening, and action-driven initiatives, such as wellbeing areas, digital free zones, and coaching.
9. HR Data developments: New local and regional legislation, regulation and guidance continues to have implications for HR data and the data-related activities of HR teams, including data subject access requests, employee monitoring (both in terms of office attendance and productivity) and data collection and analysis to advance DEI initiatives.
10. The age of digital borders and eVisas: Immigration authorities are embracing digital transformation through eVisas and digital borders to streamline processes and enhance security. Whilst this promises efficiency, it also presents challenges, such as technical issues, delays, and refusals of entry. Employers need to be equipped with knowledge and implement a support system for their employees who travel across borders.
11. A reset of the employment relationship: We continue to see flexible, contingent workers becoming a more crucial element of global workforces. The growing trend is towards a larger flexible and agile pool of contingent workers to supplement or replace full-time employees, as they offer scalability, specialist skills, and flexibility. Employers will need to effectively manage this contingent workforce and fully harness the benefits of this key resource.
12. Focus on long-term workforce planning: Employers are facing rapid technological advances that will transform job roles and lead to an increasingly automated workplace. Organisational structures will need to shift in response and businesses need to consider longer term workforce planning and skills development to future-proof their business and stay nimble and flexible in the face of an uncertain future.

To receive a free copy of our report, please click the link below or email [email protected]. Alternatively, please get in touch with your usual Bird & Bird contact if you have any questions or would like to discuss any of the topics covered in the report.

Happy reading and enjoy your Summer!