Hello and thank you for joining us for our February newsletter. We’re on the homestretch towards spring and having lighter evenings again! This month, in our roundup of employment related news stories we’ve seen AI deepfake videos targeting firms, a rise in neurodiversity discrimination claims, and in our lighter side of the news, a strange way to carry out personality tests.
For those of you that missed our January newsletter you can find it here.
PJH Law Annual Employment Law Update Seminar 2024
Are you ready for the latest updates in UK employment law taking effect in the new tax year? Join PJH Law for an exclusive Employment Law Seminar on 12th March 2024.
This seminar is FREE to attend and is designed to equip HR professionals and business owners with essential knowledge and insights to navigate the evolving landscape of employment law.
Seminar Topics Include:
- Calculating Holiday Pay: Dive into the intricacies of holiday pay calculations and ensure compliance with legal requirements under UK employment law.
- Changes to Sexual Harassment Legislation: Stay informed about recent changes to sexual harassment legislation and learn best practices for creating a safe and respectful workplace environment.
- Changes to Flexible Working Requests: Understand the latest updates to flexible working regulations and how they impact employers and employees alike.
- Menopause at Work: Gain insights into supporting employees experiencing menopause and promoting inclusivity and well-being in the workplace.
- Amendments to TUPE Regulations: Explore recent amendments to TUPE regulations and their implications for employee transfers and business operations.
This seminar is free to attend, but spaces are limited. Reserve your spot now by registering here.
Deepfake Video with Chief Financial Officer
Deepfake videos are not only causing problems for celebrities such as Taylor Swift. A recent story reported a finance employee at a multinational firm was tricked into paying out $25 million to fraudsters using the AI technology.
For those of you not aware, deepfake videos are extremely convincing videos of a person in which their face or body has been digitally altered so they appear to be someone else. In this case, fraudsters used the technology to pose as the company’s chief financial offer in a video call, whereby the worker was tricked into joining the call with who he thought were several other members of staff but were actually deepfake recreations!
The worker was dubious after receiving a message from what looked like the company’s U.K. chief financial officer, which he suspected was a phishing email as it asked him to carry out the classic ‘secret transaction’. However, he (no doubt regrettably) put those doubts aside as the people on the video call looked and sounded exactly like his colleagues. This led him to believe the people on the call were real so he agreed to send a total of $25.6 million to the fraudsters. The scam was only discovered after the employee later checked with the company’s head office.
It is reported that AI deepfakes are using people’s lost or stolen identity cards to create the videos, make loan applications, and even trick facial recognition programs.
The cybersecurity risk to companies has just got a lot more sophisticated than a phishing email to buy some gift cards!
Neurodiversity in the Workplace
Employment Tribunals have alleged there were more than 100 neurodiversity discrimination claims in 2022 that cited dyslexia, autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, and Asperger’s. Neurodiversity describes the different ways people’s brains process information.
Workplace disputes can arise when neurodivergent employees feel their performance or behaviour is being rated unfairly for reasons relating to their condition. If an employee is underperforming it becomes a capability issue. For neurodivergent employees this can often be avoided if workplace adjustments are implemented.
It’s important to understand if people who are neurodiverse in your workplace are having their needs met, or if more support can be offered. People who are neurodiverse do not always identify as being disabled so there’s often a gap in their needs being disclosed.
Flexibility and reasonable adjustments can go a long way in supporting your neurodiverse employees such as offering different equipment and quieter workspaces. Mandatory networking which involves heavy socialising can be overwhelming and cause anxiety. It’s important to create an open workplace culture, provide regular training to promote understanding, and have specific policies in place. Ask your neurodiverse employees what they need, listen to them, and take it on board.
Lighter Side of the News – “Man I just want a dishwasher job”.
Personality quizzes have been a thing for a while now and is a method used to evaluate someone’s personality which is usually grouped into: listener, mediator, thinker, defender, campaigner, or energizer.
A new Paradox.ai personality test has gone viral recently because of its long and bizarre scenarios it interactively places job candidates in as a blue humanoid alien that represents the job candidate. In each image it asks the candidate to “answer honestly and go with your gut” by clicking ‘Me’ if the image generally describes them or ‘Not Me’ if it does not. The answers are used to rank the applicant in terms of “agreeableness” and “emotional stability”. The characters are created to be race, age, and gender neutral.
Scenarios have included applicants for food and customer service roles being shouted at with the caption “not much bothers me” or showing the applicant walking out of the office at 17:06 and waving to a colleague with the caption “No Overtime”.
Big names such as McDonalds and FedEx are using the personality test, with one applicant for a software role at FedEx withdrawing his application because he was so offended by the Paradox quiz. Another applicant had more than 80 scenarios to respond to for a job as a bartender!
Applying for jobs can be time-consuming and subjecting your applicants to tedious and confusing application processes that include strange personality quizzes is a sure way to produce inaccurate results and make candidates lose interest!
Feedback of the Week
Kyle received some lovely feedback this week.
H S said:
“Thank you for providing a prompt and efficient service when I needed it. Kyle took the time to ensure I understood what I was being offered by my employer. He provided an assessment of terms vs. industry norms and respected my views of what to negotiate over. He supported me to make fact based decisions at stressful and emotional time. Thank you.”
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