The latest podcast episode provides a preview of content in the August digital edition of FM. To focus on the edition’s overall theme of sustainability, FM editor-in-chief Oliver Rowe and podcast host Neil Amato are joined for the episode by Jeremy Osborn, FCMA, CGMA, FCPA (Australia), global head of sustainability at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants.

Rowe summarises articles on topics such as change fatigue, circular business models, Excel Compatibility Versions, and landing a finance job in the era of AI-enabled hiring. Osborn focuses on the state of adoption of global sustainability standards and how the standards will affect the role of finance and accounting professionals.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

· Highlights of the August digital edition cover an article on change fatigue.

· Osborn’s assessment of the “accelerating” global adoption of IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 sustainability standards.

· How the UK’s sustainability standards differ slightly from the IFRS standards.

· A definition and examples of circularity in business.

· Other highlights from the FM digital edition, including an article on Excel Compatibility Versions.

Jamie Gruman, Ph.D., professor of organisational behaviour at the University of Guelph in Canada, discusses some of the ways technology is distancing us from other people and how this can harm employees.

Gruman explains why this era of urgency and efficiency, aided by technological advancements, threatens to further dehumanise and objectify workforces and describes ways this is happening in businesses.

He talks about the research he and Alan Saks, Ph.D., professor of organisational behaviour and human resources management at the University of Toronto Scarborough), have done. That research concludes that work cultures focused on care are necessary for good management and satisfied employees. Gruman also highlights one commonly held “naive belief” preventing the development of more compassionate practices in the workplace.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

§ Different ways technology can dehumanise and objectify employees at work.

§ Why creating a caring work environment should be simple.

§ One shared falsehood that stops organisations from implementing caring cultures.

§ The role of leadership in demonstrating and rewarding care.

§ The interplay between work culture and employees’ relationship with technology.

§ How employees are resisting algorithms that threaten their autonomy.

Ben Schwencke, chief psychologist at Test Partnership, a psychometric assessment and pre-employment testing service provider in the UK, joined the FM podcast to discuss common recruitment challenges facing employers, what psychometric testing entails and how it's implemented, and the use of artificial intelligence in recruitment practices.

In an earlier FM episode, an expert discussed how businesses are eager to embark on AI initiatives despite remaining wary of its pitfalls.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

• Why an assessment of recruitment challenges in a business depends on who you talk to in the organisation.
  An explanation of psychometric testing and common concerns companies may have in using such testing.
• Why Schwencke considers it beneficial for job candidates to be allowed to take a practice test version of a psychometric assessment.
• The “two sides” to the use of AI in the recruitment process.
• Why recruitment methods should include tools that both incorporate AI and are resistant to it, according to Schwencke.