Carriator buys out Keane to form a billion dollar company
Keane
- Saturday, March 03, 2007Tech Job Market In The US On Recovery Path
:After a long wait Information technology jobs are making a comeback, as staffing companies and recruiters said orders in that area surged in January. The demand from US companies for technology workers ranging from chief information officers, programmers, project managers and mechanical and electric engineers are high, according to the recruiting executives. “As corporate profits continue on the plus side and more and more companies are comfortable that earnings will continue to be strong, they have eased up on budgetary restraint and are prepared to invest more in technology,” said Mr Mark Polansky a senior client partner at executive recruiting from Korn/Ferry International.
The Hindu Business Line Delhi Edition, 14 Feb.'05
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- Wednesday, February 23, 2005 Global Joblessness Falls To 6.1pct:Global unemployment has fallen to 6.1pct (184.7 million) at the end of 2004 from 6.3 pct (185.2 million) in 2003. According ILO’s annual Global Employment Trends released in Geneva on Monday, the decline, though small, was a “significant development” as it was the “second time in the past decade that there was a year-over-year decline in total unemployment”. The sharpest decline in unemployment was seen in the Latin American and Caribbean countries, where it dropped from 9.3 pct to 8.6 pct. The rate has fallen to 6.4 pct in 2004 from 6.5 pct in 2003 in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. South Asia recorded a rate of 4.7 pct from 4.8 pct. But the rate remained unchanged in East Asia at 3.3 pct and in West Asia and North Africa at 11.7 pct. It said job growth was weak at 47.7 pct in 2004, a rise of only 1.7 pct in the total number of jobs worldwide.
The Financial Express New Delhi Edition, 15 Feb.'05
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- Wednesday, February 23, 2005Individual Performance Key To Salary Raise In IT Firms
:More than 80 pct of Indian IT organisations consider individual performance as the most important criteria for salary increments. According to the ‘Nasscom Hewitt Total Rewards Study, 2004’ released recently, an increasing number of organisations lay emphasis on variable pay and aligning rewards to business goals, with more than 85 pct organisations having a prevalence of variable pay. The study also revealed that the average accession rate in IT and ITES industries are higher than the attrition rate. However, attraction and retention of employees remains a key issue for IT and ITES organisations with the IT industry reporting an average attrition rate of 18 pct for 2003-04 and the ITES industry reporting a higher average attrition rate of 32 pct across levels. Other findings include that Bangalore continues to be the most expensive city in terms of compensation for IT, reporting 8 pct higher salaries compared to the national average. For ITES, Bangalore and National Capital! Region (NCR) were 1 pct higher than the National average.
The Hindu Delhi Edition, 16 Feb.'05
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- Wednesday, February 23, 2005Market Movers Ride Sensex To Fat Bonuses
:In capital markets, increments this financial year are in the range of 20-35%. The executives at foreign broking companies have received an average bonus of 200 pct of their annual salaries for 2004 that is up 75 pct over the previous year. To retain their employees foreign brokerages have been forced to hike the compensation structure. “This year we have seen quite a jump in bonus payouts because of a sharp surge in institutional volumes,” according to a senior HR consultant with a Mumbai-based firm. Institutional trading made up 60 pct of the total traded volumes on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange. The head of HR at a foreign brokerage said, “Equity markets have witnessed a spectacular run last year and employees have received handsome bonus packages this year. While the fixed compensation portion of salaries has jumped 24-40 pct, the bonus payouts range anywhere between 50 and 300 pct of their annual salaries.”
Business Standard New Delhi Edition, 17 Feb.'05
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- Wednesday, February 23, 2005Mobile Telephony Sector Jobs To Grow :The number of people employed by the Indian mobile telephony sector is set to grow by 30 pct over the next 12 months. According to a study commissioned by the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Association, this sector currently provides direct and indirect employment to over 3.6 million people. The study while highlighting the economic benefits from the mobile services industry in India, specifically examined the impact on GDP, employment and government revenue;it was released at the GSM World Congress being held at Cannes, France. The study shows there were 47 million mobile subscribers in India from a population of over 1 billion, with subscriber numbers growing by 87 pct in the last 12-15 months. Presently, less than 30 pct of the total population is in range of mobile coverage — and that is largely restricted to urban areas.
The Hindu Business Line Delhi Edition, 17 Feb.'05
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- Wednesday, February 23, 2005Indian Corporates Are Increasingly Opting For Temporary Staffing; Ma Foi Employment Survey :
Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd., the largest HR services provider in India conducted the Ma Foi Employment Survey (MEtS), India’s First Employment Survey launched in November 2004, this survey seeks to understand the employment trends in the organized sector for the first time in the Indian subcontinent. The survey provides the base for two unique indices Ma Foi Employment Index (MEI) and National Hiring Confidence Index (NHC). The study revealed that ‘Temporary staffing’ through Professional employer Organizations (PEO) is a trend fast catching on in India. The Ma Foi Employment Survey (MetS) revealed that temporary staff comprised nearly 11.8 pct of the employee base of the companies surveyed. The survey predicts an increase of 11.47 pct by the end of this quarter taking the employee base to 12.84 pct. The top ten sectors that would use flexi staffing in this quarter are Hospitality, Print, Media & Entertainment, Energy, Education, Training & Consultin! g, Telecommunications, IT, Chemical & Allied, BFSI, Pharma and Textile & Garments.MEI measures the pace of recruitment activity/hiring needs of the employers and indicates the prospective net percentage growth in employment over the present levels. NHC will capture the hiring confidence level of the employer and project hiring intentions across sectors. . HR Headlines, naukri.com, 19 Feb.'05
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- Wednesday, February 23, 2005US Brain Drain Leads To India's Gain: Study - The highly-skilled Indian born talent that had flocked to the USA to work are now beginning to come back to their native country, said “turning America’s brain drain into India’s brain gain,” a recently released report. The report also says that countries such India and China, through restructuring of their economies were dramatically increasing the skill sets of their work force, thereby posing a challenge to the US leadership in the technology domain. “This will only make India more competitive and alluring to investors and multinational companies,” according to AeA (formerly the American Electronic Association). The US is cutting R&D funding while foreign governments are creating public-private partnerships to invest in R&D projects. The Statesman, 17 Feb.'05
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- Wednesday, February 23, 2005No Sympathy For Re-employment: SC
:The courts should not decide the matter of reemployment of retrenched workers on the ground of “sympathy” the court ruled. A division bench comprising Justice Mr N Santosh Hegde and Justice Mr S B Sinha upheld the retrenchment of workers of Maruti Ltd, which was acquired by the government and rechristened as Maruti Udyog Ltd. The decision of Punjab and Haryana high court had directed re-employment of retrenched workers, the bench said that Maruti Udyog Ltd, now Maruti Suzuki, after its collaboration with Japanese company Suzuki, need not take them back. While giving reference to its previous judgements, the apex court said: “In a case of this nature, this court should not even exercise its jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution of India on misplaced sympathy (A Umarani VS Cooperative Societies and Others).”
The Financial Express , New Delhi Edition, 5 Feb.'05
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- Friday, February 18, 2005 Government Rules Out Equity Option For EPFO :The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is likely to consider implementation of a multi-pronged plan which includes parking funds in equities and postal deposits. The plan is expected to cover up for the estimated Rs 927 crore shortfall due to the EPF rate increase. However the government source denied any immediate plan to invest the workers’ money in equities. It may be noted that the government has already announced its decision to allow non-state PFs, superannuation and gratuity funds to invest up to 5% of their assets in equities and 10% in corporate debts and equity-oriented mutual funds from April 2005.
The Financial Express , New Delhi Edition, 5 Feb.'05
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- Friday, February 18, 2005 IT Now Employs More Than A Million
:The number of knowledge professionals employed in the IT sector has crossed yet another milestone as it crossed the one-million mark and is expected to close the 2004-05 financial year with a headcount of 10,45,000 people. Along with the rising number of employees, the revenue per employee too has increased during the period. “IT is clearly a career of choice. The IT services segment is amongst the highest paying. Even the Business Process Outsourcing industry has attractive salary levels, with a strong scope for professional growth compared to other sectors. Also the extent of training in technology, cultural skills, global negotiation skills and opportunity to pursue higher education while working makes the sector attractive,” Mr Sunil Mehta, vice-president of the Nasscom (National Association of Software and Service Companies) mentioned in a recently issued statement.
The Hindu Business Line , New Delhi Edition, 8 Feb.'05
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- Friday, February 18, 2005Indian Call Centre Professionals Are Better Taken Care Of Than In US :US, Call centre professionals in India are well taken care of by their employers, a lot better as compared to the US, where the workers were treated as a “commodity”. “The call centre environment in India is much better. In the US, the employers are not considerate about the workers. They treat people as a commodity,” said Mr Steve Tirza, president, CWA. Taking exception to the argument that many jobs are outsourced to India for cost-cutting purposes, he said that even while doing this, the salaries of CEOs in the US get fatter and fatter, negating the cost advantage.
The Financial Express , New Delhi Edition, 9 Feb.'05
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- Friday, February 18, 2005Scrutiny Of Directors’ Pay May Be Stiffer
:The draft company rules have proposed disclosing details of employees drawing remuneration above a certain level in the director’s report to Rs 12 lakh per annum and is expected to disclose a long list of employees in the bigger companies. The draft rules also specify that the audit committees constituted by the board of directors of the company would require to have at least two independent directors. In the existing Companies Act, there is no concept of independent directors. The existing Companies Act requires the board’s report to disclose details of those employees who take home at least Rs 24 lakh per annum.
The Business Standard , New Delhi Edition, 9 Feb.'05
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- Friday, February 18, 2005Bharti Revamps Business Structure :Bharti Televentures has announced a new business structure with the induction of four regional hub chiefs in the northern, southern, eastern and western parts of the country. The regional chiefs would also be part of the company’s mobility office and will be supported by circle and regional heads, with their respective teams. The eight member mobility board would be headed by Mr Manoj Kohli, president, mobility. The other members include Mr Jagdish Kini, executive director, (Southern region), Mr Vinod Sawhny, executive director, (Western region), Mr Sanjay Nandrajog, executive director (Northern region), Mr Rajan Swaroop, director, (Eastern region), Mr Atul Bindal, chief marketing officer and director, Mr Don Price, chief technical officer and director, and Mr Ashok Juneja, director - planning and special projects.
The Business Standard , New Delhi Edition, 10 Feb.'05
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- Friday, February 18, 2005Unilever Restructures Top Deck:The Unilever group has revealed a weak set of full-year results and has decided to abandon its 75-year old dual chairman-chief executive structure and launched management changes under pressure from investors after two years of sluggish sales and profit growth. Mr Patrick Cescau would be taking charge as chief executive, and former joint head Mr Antony Burgmans would become non-executive chairman. The number of executive board members has also been reduced to four from seven. An independent director will fill Mr Burgmans’ new role as non-executive chairman in 2007, the company sources said.
The Business Standard , New Delhi Edition, 11 Feb.'05
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- Friday, February 18, 2005Hike Spike: Indian Firms Pay Better Than MNCs:the 573 companies in 24 sectors surveyed had imposed a salary freeze in 2004, and just 0.7% are projected to do so in 2005. The survey also shows Indian firms are paying as well, if not better than the much-coveted multinationals. There’s an increased willingness to pay more for the best talent in India. While senior management is projected to get a 12.7% raise in 2005, those at the other professional/supervisor/technical level, with a 14.8% gain. Interestingly, 86% of the respondents agreed that salary should be linked to performance, rather than other factors like seniority. The Times of India, New Delhi Edition, 9 Feb.'05
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- Friday, February 18, 2005Gulf’s Poaching For Indian Staff, Leaves Engg Cos Floundering
:With a construction boom in the Gulf countries piggy-riding on robust oil prices, multinational giants have been on a massive recruitment binge of Indian engineers thus giving sleepless nights to engineering firms. It is not only Dubai which is witnessing frenetic activities on the construction front- but also the other emirates in the UAE as well as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait which are hiring Indian engineers at alluring pay-packets. According to industry observers, engineers from western countries are reluctant to take up job opportunities in many Gulf countries owing to the risks involved, forcing multi-nationals to go on a tremendous poaching exercise in countries like India. 11 Oct.'04, The Economic Times
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- Thursday, October 28, 2004Panel Suggests Flexi-Timings, Mid-Career Breaks For Women Scientists
:Identifying the factors that hamper Indian women from opting for science careers, a committee set up by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA)- a scientists’ body that promotes scientific knowledge in India- has suggested remedial measures such as providing flexible working hours, mid-career breaks and age relaxation in recruitment in order to facilitate the study and practice of science by women.The study revealed that only 13 pct scientists and 10 pct of students said they faced difficulty in finding the first job or placement and that problems cropped up after that. Gender insensitive organisational practices and workplace discrimination were few of the things which came in the way of such women’s career growth, the study maintained. 12 Oct.'04, Hindu Business Line
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- Thursday, October 28, 2004Google Founders Scout For Indian Talents
:Google founders Mr Larry Page and Mr Sergey Brin expressed their interest in enlarging their foray into India as far as their operations are concerned. The two patrons who met president Mr A P J Abdul Kalam on October11 during their India visit, said that India is dynamic and that there is a lot of construction happening and assured that the country would be one of Google’s larger operations. They further maintained that Google Hyderabad, second of Google’s offices in India - first being Bangalore- will be home to engineering, human resources, online sales and service functions. Engineers hired for the Google Hyderabad engineering centre will mirror the scope of work and hiring standards as in Google’s other engineering offices. The founders however assured that the operations would allow normal business hours for employees and not working to US working hours. 13 Oct.'04, The Business Standard
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- Thursday, October 28, 2004PFs, Pension Funds May Get To Invest in Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities:The finance ministry may show the green signal for pension and provident funds to invest in residential mortgage-backed securities of National Housing Bank. The ministry is also considering to treat such securities as eligible scrips under the Securities Contracts ( Regulation) Act, 1956, to create a liquid market for the papers. The move will benefit organisations like the Employees Provident Fund Organisations to park their investments in a market with increasing profits. It will also enable pension fund managers in the emerging pension market, to pick up a valuable stream of good quality long-term papers.
14 Oct.'04, The Economic Times
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- Thursday, October 28, 2004US Shelves Expensing Of Esops Till June:
The Financial Accounting Standards Board which sets the accounting guidelines has rejected in a meeting held on October 13, the plea of software firms and the US senators that employee stock option plans (Esops) should not be reflected in the profit and loss account. However, it has postponed its plan on making this exercise imperative from December 2004. US politicians had earlier tried to scuttle FASB’s proposal. However, the Stock Options Accounting Bill, that required only Esops awarded to the CEO and the next four highly-compensated employees to be expensed, was passed by the House, but faced some restraints at the Senate level. 15 Oct.'04, The Economic Times
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- Thursday, October 28, 2004Mr Miller Sees Silver Lining In US’ Tech Job Loss
:
The president of the IT Association of America, Mr Harris Miller feels if US IT jobs were offshored, jobs in other industries would gain by a total of 3,17, 367 by 2008, as compared to a net job addition of 90,264 in 2003. These industries include construction, manufacturing, wholesale, retail and transportation. The 2003 figures include a loss of about 24,860 IT jobs in 2003, while in 2008, about 50,000 IT jobs would be lost. Mr Miller pointed out the logic in the matter which lay in the fact that if IT jobs went offshore, it would boost efficiency and cost-control. However he asserted that all these gains would result only if IT jobs are offshored. 16 Oct.'04, The Hindu
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- Thursday, October 28, 2004Germany Reels In Job Losses :
Mounting competitive and cost pressures took their toll on corporate Germany on October 14 when General Motors of the US unveiled extensive job-cuts at Adam Opel, its largest European unit and Karstadt Quelle, the struggling retailer, secured a trade union pact on a wide-ranging rescue package. The declaration which indicates the loss of thousands of jobs, highlighted the speed at which German firms are restructuring in order to slash labour costs and revive competitiveness. General Motors plans to cut a third of its 32,000 German workforce to stem heavy losses in Europe. 16 Oct.'04, Business Standard
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- Thursday, October 28, 2004Spectramind Tops BPO Headcount Race :With a headcount of 13,330 at the end of the second quarter, Wipro Spectramind has emerged as the single largest BPO services provider in the country, as maintained by the chairman and managing director, Mr Raman Roy.The outfit which saw a sequential growth of 20 pct during the second quarter, added 2,264 members to its rolls. According to Mr Roy, the company signed up three new clients during the quarter. 16 Oct.'04, Hindu Business Line
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- Thursday, October 28, 2004`Best Places To Work’ In India Ratings
In the `Great Place to work’ survey was carried out by Grow Talent Company Ltd in collaboration with US-based Great Place To Work Institute. Texas Instruments, Federal Express and Johnson & Johnson have emerged as the top three companies in a first of its kind survey carried out among employees of over 120 companies in India. According to the survey, Eli Lilly, Philips Software, Godrej Consumer Products, Wipro Spectramind, Nokia, Birla Sun Life and Cadbury’s figure among the top 10 employers in India. The list aims to identify responses which point to a company that provides a healthy work environment for its employees and the ranking is primarily based on the opinions of employees who are asked to rate their workplace according to a series of qualitative criteria 23 Aug.'03, Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, September 01, 2003Cadence Best Employer: DQ-IDC Survey The local unit of electronic design automation tools giant, Cadence Design Systems, has overtaken Infosys Technologies as the numero uno in the ‘best employer’ category for the IT industry according to DQ-IDC Best Indian IT Employer Survey 2003. Cadence, Tata Consultancy Services, Hewlett Packard, Infosys Technologies and IBM have been ranked as the top five best employers in 2003. Although Infosys has slipped down the best employer rankings for the first time, it remains the dream company for IT employees in the country, the third DQ-IDC survey said. 23 Aug.'03, Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, September 01, 2003 Top Dogs’ Pay In Pvt Banks No Longer On A Leash:The RBI has lifted the controls on salaries of Pvt bank CEOs, and whole time directors, but has put a cap on the annual bonus or incentives they could receive. Till now private banks had to take RBI approval in clearing the pay structure of their chairman, CEO and senior officials like executive directors. While banks may no longer be required to consult the regulator on the issue, the maximum bonus they can give is 25% of their salaries or the average level of bonus paid to employees across the board, whichever is higher. 21 Aug.'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, September 01, 2003 PAN Outsourcing Faces Opposition From IT Unions:Income tax officers and gazetted officers are against the Finance ministry’s decision to outsource allotment of PAN cards to UTI Investors Services Ltd (UTIISL). They assessed the decision as being a precursor to privatisation and downsizing. Apart from outsourcing Allotment of PAN, the finance ministry has shortlisted six banks to function as authorised intermediaries for filing of electronic returns for salaried tax payers. “By outsourcing the allotment of PAN to UTIISL, assesses are being exposed to extortionists. It is illegal since the information collected by tax department is confidential in nature,” Income Tax Gazzeted Officers Association secretary general Ms Rajarshi Das Gupta said. 20 Aug.'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, September 01, 2003It's Boom Time For High-Skill Back-Office Jobs: The search for people with MBAs, insurance diplomas, and even Ph Ds is emerging as the latest trend in the country's back-office service sector. The back-office revolution started with humble call centre agents with affected US accents. Today there are many new fields that are becoming key to this profitable business viz securities research, project management, underwriting and demand forecasting. Back-office jobs in financial services rose to an estimated 24,000 in the year to March 2003 from 15,000 a year earlier, and revenues to $510 million from $300 million, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies. India has cornered 60% of the $16 billion offshore IT services market and the country is now set to dominate the next big sector: outsourcing of financial services. 16 Aug.'03, Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, September 01, 2003MNCs Discover Gender Diversity Makes Eminent Business Sense: With North American and European governments enforcing new regulations to promote diversity in corporates, MNC subsidiaries across the world are switching to diverse work place culture. Companies like Hindustan Lever Ltd, DuPont, are leading with a trend of hiring more `diversity' candidates. This is also triggered by the realisation that diversity in the form of race, religion, language, gender, colour, age, sexuality, style - make good business sense. Unilever, for instance, has been promoting women in its subsidiaries over the last ten years. HLL has also been working hard to change the `male bastion' image of the organisation on the B-school campuses. The process includes making special pitches for women candidates, where career paths are clearly etched out, and women-friendly policies on marriage, maternity and mobility are explained in detail. 15 Aug.'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, September 01, 2003India Will Meet 2008 IT Manpower Requirement
: Data compiled by Business Line show that India would be able to meet the demand for IT workforce quite comfortably. According to Human Resources Development Ministry, there are 1,058 engineering colleges in the country today (excluding IITs), which produce 2.71 lakh engineers annually. In addition to this, there are 1,231 diploma engineering colleges which churn out 2,20,947 engineers and 797 institutes providing MCA degrees to 37,005 people, Then there are six IITs. Ever since reports poured in about millions of jobs moving to India in about next 5-10 years, coupled with a now famous forecast of McKinsey on the need to create 2.2 million jobs in the IT industry by 2008, there were doubts expressed about India's IT talent's ability to meet the requisite demand. This puts to rest questions raised regarding the ability of India to meet the requirement on such a huge scale. . 12 Aug.'03, Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, September 01, 2003Supreme Court says Govt employees have no right to strike: Trade unions have described the Supreme Court ruling that government employees have no “fundamental, legal, moral or equitable right to go on strike” and hold the state machinery to ransom, as retrograde. On the other hand chambers of commerce and industry have cautiously welcomed the judgement. Union labour minister Mr Sahib Singh Verma felt that government employees should have some way of ventilating their legitimate grievances. Disposing of petitions pertaining to dismissal of nearly two lakh striking Tamil Nadu government employees for going on strike, the bench comprising Justice MB Shah and Justice AR Lakshmanan said the reinstated employees should take care to observe discipline in future as there was no fundamental or equitable right available to them to go on strike. 07 Aug.'03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, September 01, 2003New pension plan that lets you pick your scheme: Under the new pension plan to be launched in December, individuals will not only get to choose the scheme, but also pick the fund manager who is offering the best possible returns. The government is yet to decide the number of fund managers, who will be allowed to operate, but will review the earlier proposal of restricting the number at six. Besides, the fund managers may even be allowed to invest in overseas markets. 07 Aug.'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, September 01, 2003Independent directors limit raised to Rs 20,000: Accepting board positions as independent or non-executive director has become more attractive. There’s more money to be made from attending meetings regularly, although there is no word yet on exemption from civil and criminal liabilities.Directors of companies with paid-up capital and free reserves of Rs 10 crore or more or with turnover in excess of Rs 50 crore can be paid up to Rs 20,000 per meeting of the board and its committee. Directors of all other companies can be paid up to Rs 10,000 per meeting. 05 Aug.'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, September 01, 2003Attrition rates in IT companies goes up: The rate of attrition, which fell considerably in the last two years due to the IT slowdown, is again raising its ugly head once again, say industry experts. Growth in volumes and rapid scaling up of offshore development centres (ODC) by multi national companies has once again made attrition a key issue in the Indian information technology (IT) space. Companies such as Infosys and Wipro have seen their attrition rates go up during the last few quarters. Mid-sized companies have also seen attrition go up significantly. Polaris Software Lab has seen its attrition rates go up to 14 per cent, after the merger with OrbiTech Solutions. The most obvious way companies are dealing with the rising attrition rates is through salary hikes apart from others. 05 Aug.'03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, September 01, 2003Variable salary takes centre stage in IT companies: A variable component is becoming increasingly common in the salary structure of employees in IT companies. Stock options, which were once considered an attractive part of the salary component for IT employees, are no longer considered attractive, even when the stock market is currently on an upswing.Typically, IT companies like Infosys and Wipro till recently paid a large component of their salary in the form of stock options. This is now been replaced by cash, increasingly the total salary bill for most Indian IT companies. The salary cost for Infosys, for instance, went up by 1.5% in April – June ’03 quarter.The variable component can go up to 40% for the total salary. 23 July'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, September 01, 2003Zen and the art of CEO driving: The Japanese are thinking young. In a bid to keep up with the rest of the world, which is seeing younger CEOs at the helm, Japanese companies seem to be recognising the virtues of infusing young blood into the boardroom. There is a growing realisation that the traditional Japanese system of people graduating to top management levels around the age of 60 is a tremendous waste of human resources, not only for Japanese companies, but also for Japanese society as a whole. 23 July'03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, September 01, 2003Indians 2nd largest US immigrant group: A whopping one million people migrated to the US, legally in the last fiscal, with India contributing the second highest number of immigrants. A total of 1.06 million people were granted legal permanent residency in the 2002 fiscal year that ended September 30,2002, according to data released by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS. 20 July'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, September 01, 2003Microsoft becomes a benevolent dictator: It is finally time to holler a few cheers for one of the greatest industrial bullies of all time. Microsoft Corp., which dominates the personal computer business with its Windows operating system, has just shown it can use its monopoly for good. Microsoft said last week that it is eliminating stock options as a means of paying its employees and instead giving them shares of the company’s stock. 20 July'03, Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, September 01, 2003BPO jobs to grow at 32%: IDC Survey Total employment in the business process outsourcing industry is expected to reach 0.6 million by 2007, according to a research done by International Data Corporation (IDC) in association with the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry ( Assocham). 18 July'03, Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, September 01, 2003Immigration to US: India overtakes China:Indians hold their own among legal immigrants into the United States. For the second year running, India has overtaken China and the Philippines to take the second place among legal immigrants into the US, next only to neighbouring Mexico. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services granted legal permanent resident status(green cards) to 1.063 million during 2002, roughly the same figure as in 2001. 17 July'03, The Hindustan Times
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- Monday, August 04, 2003Entrepreneurship report ranks India at No.2: Finance Minister:India may be the second most entrepreneurial country after Thailand with a score of 17.9 per cent from among 37 surveyed countries, but it throws up some interesting paradoxes and differences, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report 2002. Globally, 460 million or 12 per cent of adult population is involved in entrepreneurial activities. In the domestic scene, this grew by over 50 per cent, defying the global trend where the average dropped by 25 per cent. 16 July'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, August 04, 2003Pension Scheme To Have Exit Option, Loan Provision: Finance Minister:Finance Minister Mr Jaswant Singh on Monday announced a few charges in the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana, including an exit option and a loan facility. Announced in the 2003-04 Budget, the scheme offers a minimum monthly pension of Rs 250 and a maximum of Rs 2,000. Mr Singh said at its launch here that the new insurance scheme, as originally envisaged, did not have an exit option and no provision for loan. 15 July '03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, August 04, 2003Outsourcing Debate Escalates In US:With the job outlook grim, outsourcing overseas is an increasingly thorny issue in the United States. Those opposed say it effectively means exporting work and jobs, a controversial strategy given that the overall number of people collecting unemployment benefits reached a 20 – year high last week. Those in favour say it enables US companies to compete globally. One thing is clear: The debate is escalating as the practice spreads. Forrester Research Inc predicts that American employers will move about 3.3 million white-collar service jobs and $136 billion in wages overseas in the next 15 years. 15 July '03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, August 04, 2003Tech Firms Tap Tier-II Institutes To Keep Attrition Levels Low :
Ask any top – notch information technology firm its recruitment strategy for entry – level professionals and you will get the usual sales pitch. Dig a deeper and you will find the firms just wont hire the best and the richest but also scout for candidates from second – tier institutes and other streams, who would be less likely to switch firms. Another strategy adopted by top firms is to recruit from second – tier institutes. The Regional Engineering colleges are favourite hunting grounds. 14 July '03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, August 04, 2003Move afoot in US Cong to eliminate H1- B visas:A quiet move is afoot in the US Congress to do away with the H1- B visa category that has benefited countries like India, particularly its software exports and IT professionals. A Republican Congressman from Colorado, Mr. Tom Tancredo, has introduced a 15- line bill proposing to eliminate all visas under the H1- B category, created in 1952 to provide the US economy with technically skilled foreign workers. The bill comes at a time of slump in the US economy and unemployment, resulting in an outcry against H1- B visas and tech jobs being shipped abroad, particularly to India, via outsourcing. 13 July '03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, August 04, 2003ESOPs Back In Favour: With the bounce-back in the equity markets, there is a sudden rush for employee stock option plans (ESOPS). Employees of both new and old economy companies are equally enthusiastic about the instrument. ESOPS of four frontline infotech firms evoked a good response in 2002-2003. Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Computers and Digital Global have reported an over 100 per cent rise in demand and allotments. 7 July '03, Business Standard
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- Monday, July 14, 2003New Norms Likely On Auditor Employment: A mandatory cooling –off period is to be prescribed by the Government for those persons engaged in employment of a company and keen to move over to the audit firm that is the statutory auditor of the same company. The department of Company Affairs intends to bring about modifications to the Companies Bill, 2003, especially to those provisions relating to disqualification for appointment as an auditor of a company. 5 July '03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, July 14, 2003A Passion For Work: Passion is central to the quality of human life. This is a clarion call to those who spend their lives working in jobs they dislike or hate. Every day, too many people spend more than half of their waking hours doing work for which they feel no passion. “Few people discover the work they love,” writes Mr Lance Secretan in his book, `Inspirational Leadership.’ This disengagement has profound implications for companies. Simply put, passion, or its absence, isn’t just a philosophical or psychological matter- it’s a business problem. Far too many companies lack employees who are passionate about their work, and they flounder, or just get by. But some companies instil passion and thrive as a result. Ask Mr Herb Kelleher, founder and chairman of Southwest Airlines, and he will tell you that passion means money in the bank for his company. Passion helps to engage an organisation. When people discover the work that they love, work becomes more than a job- it becomes a unique callin! g, a life’s mission. People with passion for their work engage each other and their customers. 4 July '03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, July 14, 200354,000 New BPO Jobs This Year: Despite intense lobbying in the US and several European countries against outsourcing infotech enabled services (ITES) and transferring infotech operations, around 54,000 new business outsourcing (BPO) jobs are slated to be created in India in the next six months. According to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), 65000 new BPO jobs happened in the six months from January to June and the growth will continue. 2 July '03, Business Standard
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- Monday, July 14, 2003Is there a nicer way to fire?: Most ways of sacking employees are unpleasant – though rarely as nasty as the method chosen by Accident Group. Accident Group’s 2,500 staff received a series of text messages on their mobile phones, telling them to call a number. There, a recorded message from the company’s insolvency administrators at Pricewaterhouse Coopers informed them that, “All staff who are being retained will be contacted today. If you have not been spoken to you are being redundant.” Is there a better way? Mr. Francis “Tom” Coleman, an American lawyer who recently wrote a book on “ending the employment relationship”, urges bosses to sack staff in private, doing it respectfully and preparing a script of what to say. He says bosses often panic, fearing that dismissed staff may steal valuable information if allowed to linger. In fact, brutally sacked staff may do more damage than those let go kindly. In America they may sue for the “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” 12 June'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, July 14, 2003UK to plug Indian IT inflow: Armed with a pile of scary statistics, Britain’s infotech industry is putting pressure on its government to police a legal loophole that allows hundreds of Indian workers to be imported into UK. Monday’s deliberations, focusing on the Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) scheme, is considered a sure –fire way for an Indian computer professional to get a UK work permit and enter Britain. Early last year , unemployed British computer consultants and contractors had forced the Blair government to end its fast-track visa system for Indian techies. 11 June'03, The Times of India
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- Monday, July 14, 2003Job – Luck Club for Indians seeking jobs in the West: Amidst the gloom and doom for Indians seeking jobs in the West, there are two offerings by the British council, which hold out some hope. These are the Association of British Scholars jobs club, launched last year which covers all UK qualified Indians, and British Overseas Placement Scheme (BOND) for high – flying professionals. Both the schemes facilitate linkages between industry and job seekers. The jobs-club while supporting efforts of Indian students from UK institutions to get back into the employment market also provides a talent pool of HR resources for companies that join as members.While the jobs club is restricted to alumni, the BOND scheme provides high-flying professionals from India with introductions to British industry through temporary job placements. Specially targeted at certain sectors like information technology, oil, gas and petrochem, power generation, telecom, automotive industry, healthcare and finance, the scheme provides an opportunity to successfu! l candidates to work in UK for a period of six to 12 months. 09 June'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, July 14, 2003Feeling unappreciated? Griping may make things worseFew people ever feel adequately rewarded and recognised for their work achievements. But how can you gripe about such mistreatment without being branded a whiner – and possibly sabotaging your job? Different grievance tactics might enhance your chances for greater rewards and job security. For starters, determine your manger’s performance measures, provide objective evidence of your relevant accomplishments and regularly confirm that your boss agrees you’re a star. “Make it easy for people to give you what you what you’re asking for, “and don’t expect”performance to speak for itself,” advises Mr. Deborah Kolb, a Simmons College management professor. 07 June'03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, July 14, 2003Corporates opt for customised management programmes to upscale managers:Adding a new dimension to on-the job learning is a new concept: customised management programmes. Several corporates are tieing up with management institutes to offer their staff customised MBA programmes. Corporate professionals believe that these MBA programmes can be used as a retention tool, besides helping in addressing some of the typical problems confronted by individual organisations. Providing a formal education to employees, they feel, would help in developing the skills of future managers, as well add value to the employees. The objective is to equip employees to move up the value chain much faster. 7 June'03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, July 14, 2003Human Capital Management: the new HR mantra:The era of human resource management is showing signs of waning. In its place is dawning the age of human capital management also called workforce management. Either ways, the reality is the same: companies are going to extract their pound of flesh, in terms of tangible results, for every penny they have invested in their people. Companies will have to deal with the ‘survivor syndrome,’ for one. The moment the upswing begins, companies will have to cope with trying to retain high-performing employees who are too valuable to be laid off, but have lost trust in the company and are just waiting to change jobs. Companies will also have to deal with a workforce that is much more heterogeneous in its composition then it was in the past. Perhaps the most important change will be the accountability that will be placed at the door of the human resource department. 6 June'03, Business Standard
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- Monday, July 14, 2003US backlash not to hit BPO: Gartner:Growing backlash against offshore service providers in the US would not effect the trend towards offshore BPO, US based research company Gartner said. Mr. Sujay Chohan, research Vice-President (offshore BPO), says: “The momentum is too large. There is disaggregation at functional level happening in corporates worldwide. Non core functions are being looked at (as) cost centres and corporates are looking at efficiency, productivity and lower costs.” “It will be difficult to convince a CEO of a company not to utilise offshore services as the business case for it is too compelling, especially in a downturn. ” Currently there are 150,000-200,000 people employed offshore in the call and contact centre business, predominantly in India, the Philippines, Ireland (to a lesser extent) and a host of emerging destinations across the world. 26 June'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, July 14, 2003US backlash not to hit BPO: Gartner:Growing backlash against offshore service providers in the US would not effect the trend towards offshore BPO, US based research company Gartner said. Mr. Sujay Chohan, research Vice-President (offshore BPO), says: “The momentum is too large. There is disaggregation at functional level happening in corporates worldwide. Non core functions are being looked at (as) cost centres and corporates are looking at efficiency, productivity and lower costs.” “It will be difficult to convince a CEO of a company not to utilise offshore services as the business case for it is too compelling, especially in a downturn. ” Currently there are 150,000-200,000 people employed offshore in the call and contact centre business, predominantly in India, the Philippines, Ireland (to a lesser extent) and a host of emerging destinations across the world. 26 June'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, July 14, 2003Big CEOs started out as trainees & soldiered on:Top performers and their employers are inseparable. And the view from the top: Cosy. If there’s a lesson in all this for kids out of B-school, its this: Don’t hop till you drop. Data compiled by ET Intelligence Group shows top executives in good companies have spent upward of 20 years with their employers. A study found an average tenure of about 23 years, among 125 executives from 20 large companies. 26 June'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, July 14, 2003Tighter US visa norms worry executives:There is both good and bad news for companies covered under the business express visa programme of the US embassy (now known as the business executive programme). The US embassy in New Delhi has clarified that the BE programme is not being scrapped. This will come as a major relief for Indian companies with strong business links in America. However, the new tighter US visa procedure now makes personal interview essential even for applicants under BE; obviously, that leads to longer queues. 21 June'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, July 14, 2003IIMs to train directors for firms:Soon you will have to enroll for a course at an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) or National Law School if you entertain thoughts of becoming an independent director of an Indian company. Department of company affairs officials said Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, has already initiated the process to train prospective directors and some other Indian Institutes of Management are in the process of doing so. The department of company affairs is also in talks with the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and the National Law School, Bangalore. The training will not be confined to classrooms. It will also be available online. 21 June'03, Business Standard
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- Monday, July 14, 2003Other side of pink slip: Pay packets get fatter: Employee costs in ’03 have risen 9% overall, based on the result of 1,893 companies that have declared their results so far. This could either mean that companies are hiring afresh or that existing employees are getting pay hikes. Either way, thats some good news for employees following years of pink slips, pay cuts and layoffs. It may still be premature to say goodbye to the pink slip syndrome, but its effects going forward could be less severe. 05 June'03, The Economic Times
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- Tuesday, June 24, 2003Knowledge Management can help you get a better grip on your business: Knowledge Management (KM) is in fashion. It has become a buzzword in modern business. The reason: It promises to convert information in to an intellectual asset. One that can reduce cost and improve bottom lines, besides helping you to take informed decisions. Km, it is a process followed by companies and individuals to generate value from their intellectual and information assests. In simple words, knowledge is a reservoir of information that can add value to your business, if managed properly. 03 June'03, The Financial Express
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- Tuesday, June 24, 2003ITES players remain unfazed by US anti-outsourcing bills: India could lose up to $450 million of the total $9 billion worth of software and services work being outsourced to India, if states in the US pass laws against outsourcing to developing countries. This is an estimate by neoIT, a consultancy firm that specialises in infotech (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITES) outsourcing. “If these states or even all the states in the US pass the bill as law, only the low-end IT-services work by the state and federal governments would be stalled. This work accounts for only 5 per cent of the total IT software and services work being outsourced to India by the US,” neoIT managing Director Mr. Avinash Vashisth said. 02 June'03, The Financial Express
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- Tuesday, June 24, 2003Job exchanges exist only for the babus: Employment offices are fast losing their significance. For most government jobs, an eligibility criterion is registration with employment exchange. This means obtaining forms, submitting them, and getting registered. But babus being babus, all this can get on one’s nerves. District employment officer Mr. D.C. Verma admits that employment exchanges are unable to provide jobs. But then, he adds, there are too few jobs and too many aspirants, something for which the exchanges cannot be held responsible. The situation is becoming worse with the passage of time. The 930-odd exchanges spread across the country account for 2 lakh placements a year, against an annual registration rate of 60 lakh; and the accumulated backlog is 4.20 crore. 02 June'03, The Financial Express
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- Tuesday, June 24, 2003Oriental MNCs seldom think local on honchos: Have you ever wondered why oriental companies have their own guy at the helm of affairs in the Indian subsidiaries while American and European MNCs are replacing their expat heads with local managers. The Koreans, Japanese and Chinese companies which include biggies like LG, Samsung, Hyundai, Sony, Honda, Toyota, Bridgestone. Hitachi and TCL are yet to pass on the baton to local guys. Says HR consultant, Mr. Sandeep Chaudhary, Director MapsnGrow Consulting, “While Korean management culture is based on suspicion and mistrust, Japanese pride themselves on their quality and process and don’t trust any non-Japanese for this. According to Mr. Anil Sachdev, CEO of Grow Talent, another HR consultancy: “ Korean companies are known to be aggressive and target driven, while Indian managers are considered complacent and risk averse.” 02 June'03, The Economic Times
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- Tuesday, June 24, 2003Insurance becomes a big agent of job creation: The insurance industry is creating more jobs than the banking sector with private life insurance companies in particular ramping up operations in hundreds of cities across the country to achieve a nation - wide presence. However, unlike banking where private companies recruited former bankers to man various positions, over 95% of the recruits in new private companies have never worked in an insurance firm. The industry along with telecom and BPO companies appear to be the only major job creators in the organised sector. According to Mr. Sanjay Teli of ESP Consultants, an HR firm that recruits for insurers, employment generation on account of insurance is at par with that of BPO. 31 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Tuesday, June 24, 2003One Day as the HR-head of Microsoft: In an interesting job swap, Ms. Lucy Kellaway a journalist, quit her profession for one day to become the senior manager-HR of Microsoft (UK). Arranged by the educational charity, Campaign For Learning, the job swap was an eye opener for Ms. Kellaway who started her day with a 8:30 am bonding breakfast, met headhunters and toured the impressive facilities in the Microsoft office which included dry-cleaning store, coffee bars, state-of-art gym and a well-being centre with a acupuncture unit and a electric massage chair. She also learnt that Microsoft has won many awards for being a great employer and only 5% of its employees leave every year. 28 May '03, Business Standard
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- Friday, June 06, 2003Managing a global workforce ia a HR challenge: Managing a global workforce is indeed the single biggest challenge that virtually every HR department of multinational organisations faces today. As the organisations grow across geographies, it is but inevitable that extended enterprises need to be managed. Facing a similar challenge Wipro Technologies has re-christened its human resource function as Talent Engagement and development (TED), to highlight the philosophy that would guide the management of diverse talent. The most important initiative of TED probably was to create channel (W), an integrated e-HR and employee communication architecture that serves as a common platform for over 10,000 employees across the globe, says Mr. Anupam Mukherjee of Wipro Technologies’s strategic marketing group. The web-based medium bonds all Wiporities through community, collaboration and care. 28 May '03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Friday, June 06, 2003Staff costs bear down on IT cos: Bogged down by lower billing rates and declining margins, the information technology sector appears to have the wage will as its latest nemesis. Indian IT companies are said to be witnessing increasing employee costs despite cost pressures and global economic slowdown. Most software company employees used to trade off their salary for stock options. However, in the current scenario and with valuations of tech stocks being severely beaten down, companies have to look at other incentives to sustain employee morale. It is not good for the company to keep salary levels unchanged,” a sector analyst said. 27 May '03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Friday, June 06, 2003Executive stress? Let robots take the strain: A technology race is underway to help international executives meet and schmooze from the comfort of their own offices. Fuelled by fear of terrorism, the high cost and inconvenience of business travel and now SARS, technology companies are experimenting with new – and sometimes bizarre – ways to make remote meetings more lifelike. Enter the BiReality machine, created in Hewlett-Packard’s Silicon Valley labs. A human-sized slab of blue plastic with four screens mounted on a cube where the head should be, the proto-robot waits at the site where a meeting is to take place. 27 May '03, Business Standard
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- Friday, June 06, 2003Shaw Wallace in HR revamp: Liquor major Shaw Wallace has initiated steps towards realignment of manpower within the company. Shaw Wallace is carrying out an intensive exercise for an HR revamp in collaboration with Mercer Consulting, the world’s largest human resource consulting group. The exercise is primarily aimed at developing a clean and efficient organisation and benchmark HR policies with the best in the market place. 26 May '03, The Financial Express
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- Friday, June 06, 2003Four American states plan law to ban data outsourcing: Four American states are considering legislation to ban outsourcing of state data processing contracts to developing nations even as dozens of household names, spanning insurance, banking, technology and telecoms, are transferring part of their white-collar administrative and customer-service work to Asia, particularly to India to cut costs. The US states considering the measures to curb flight of jobs are New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut and Washington, the Sunday Telegraph reported. The report also expressed concern about the future of UK call centres, a major industry employing about 5,00,000 people across 6,000 sites. 26 May '03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Friday, June 06, 2003UK removes Indian techies from priority visa list: The movement of software professionals from India is increasingly becoming more difficult as countries adopt various methods to prevent local jobs from being exported. The UK government has recently removed software professionals from the list of immigrant workers who were given visas on priority basis. Other professionals like nurses and teachers continue on this priority immigrant worker visa list. Dropping software professionals from the list of immigrant workers who are given priority has been done quietly without making any noise, industry sources claim. 26 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Friday, June 06, 2003Accepted VRS can’t be withdrawn: SC: The Supreme Court has held that once an employer accepts the voluntary retirement scheme application of an employee, the latter cannot withdraw from the scheme even if he continued in service beyond the cut off date due to lack of funds to settle his dues This ruling was given by a bench comprising Justice Shivaraj V Patil and Justice Arijit Pasayat while disposing of a batch of petitions concerning the VRS acceptance of certain employees of Andhra Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation (APSIDC). 24 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Friday, June 06, 2003Award for HR research in Asia: International human resources consultant, Mercer Human Resource Consulting, has announced the institution of an award for the most innovative and practical human resources (HR) research in Asia. The award, which will involve $10,000 in prize money, is targeted at students who live or work in Asia, including India. The award is part of the company’s efforts to foster the growth of HR ideas and practices in Asia and also to forge better links with the academic and business communities in the region. 24 May '03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Friday, June 06, 2003The making of the ‘best employer’: Ask your employees one simple question: what’s the feeling like in your organisation? And if the majority of the answers read “ there’s a sense that we sink or swim as one big family”, you are probably one of the best employers in the country. A substantial section of Indian corporations, however, have a different question to ask: What’s the payoff for becoming a “best employer?” Listen to what a Delhi-based midsized corporate CEO has to say: “ I have no quarrel with the concept of my employees having a sense of belonging. But does it pay?” The answer would be an emphatic yes, it does pay. According to research by Hewitt, the best companies invariably report a higher operating performance, better return on assets and higher research and development and capital expenditures, compared to those who are unable to make it to the list of best employers. 23 May '03, Business Standard
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- Friday, June 06, 2003US bill seeks to stop job transfers under L - 1 visa: A draft legislation in the US to protect local jobs, making it more difficult for Indian technology companies and their employees to work in the US, shows no signs of abating. Congressman Mr. John Mica of Florida, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to stop companies from outsourcing their L – 1 visaholder to client sites. The L – 1 visa allows companies, which have subsidiaries abroad to transfer employees from foreign countries to the US as intra-company transferees, subject to them having been employed with the company for at least six months. Once in the US, these L – 1visa holders can be outsourced to a third party, i.e local firms. L1visa holders are either specialists or managers. The new bill proposes stopping outsourcing to third parties. 22 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Friday, June 06, 2003India ranks 21st in scientific research: Though India has the third largest scientific and technical manpower community, its research output doesn’t match the claim. If research output is to be measured by the number of scientific papers then India has slipped to the 21st place this year, going by ISI essential science indicators. India ranked 13th in 2002. The lack of a general culture of research, the uneven spread of quality of technical education account largely for the state of research in the country. 20 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Sunday, June 01, 2003Challenges for HR in call centres: The first thing that strikes you as you move about in any typical call centre organisation is the youthfulness of people (not necessarily age related), the buoyancy of attitude, high levels of interaction, energy and self-confidence. It almost seems as if the ambience of a college canteen has been transplanted on to the business organisation. This charming appearance of the internal environment belies the daunting challenges that confront the HR manager. To begin with, he or she should be able to get and maintain the number and the type of staff required for a project. For the HR function this means that HR has to be at its creative best to devise new and more effective tactics to keep employees from jumping the ship. At a broader level, HR has to partner with the management at the top and the line departments to engender a culture that stresses traditional values such as loyalty and commitment alongside the contemporary values of productivity, efficiency and business contribution. 17 May '03, The Financial Express
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- Sunday, June 01, 2003Keeping people a problem for the BPO industry: Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies across India are contending with a growing style: how to retain people in a business where employees change their jobs virtually as often as they change shirts. Keeping people has been a problem for the BPO industry from day one. But it’s worse than ever this year because all the biggest companies are expanding swiftly and hoovering up talent. Exl Service.com, one of the country’s largest BPO companies reckons that most companies are loosing between 40 per cent and 45 per cent of their staff annually. Nasscom’s estimates show that the industry’s average attrition rates are between 30 per cent and 35 per cent. It’s even worse for smaller firms that lose half their staff every year. So the smart companies are throwing all their efforts into keeping people and they’re looking for every which way to lower attrition. Wipro Spectramind, for instance, is encouraging employees to sign up for university courses and finds this cuts staff l! oss dramatically. Daksh e-services has even gone greater lengths that sometimes start even before the candidate is hired. The BPO has tied the knot with NIIT subsidiary Planetworks, which provides training to borderline candidates who have been interviewed but not found up to scratch. Planetworks trains such candidates for three weeks and it’s paid for by Daksh. The industry, which has already employed over 150,000 people, expects to grow by over 60 per cent this year. That means it has a whopping 90,000 new people to hire which is an added reason why the new anti-poaching pact is unlikely to work. 17 May '03, Business Standard
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- Sunday, June 01, 2003You’ve high BP at 120/80 as US raises bar: The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of USA added 46 million Americans to the list of people who should worry about their blood pressure by defining a level of 120/80 as “ pre-hypertension”, although people do not need to take drugs until their levels reaches 140/90. These are the recommendations of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection and Treatment of high blood pressure- 1. Lose weight. Losing 20 pounds (10Kg) can lower blood pressure by 5 to 20 points. 2. Eat right. A diet rich in fruits, vegetables and using only low fat dairy products, low in saturated fat and salt, can reduce blood pressure. 3. Exercise. Walking briskly for 30 minutes most days of the week can lower blood pressure by 4 to 9 points. 4. Drink only moderately. Taking two drinks a day can keep blood pressure in control. 16 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Sunday, June 01, 2003Top guns in firing line: CEOs had it bad in ’02: Chief executives were forced out of their jobs last year at record levels all over the world, according to a survey of leadership turnover. Management and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton’s survey of the world’s 2,500 largest publicity traded companies found that 253 CEOs left their positions last year-a 10% rise over 2001. Of those, nearly 100 were forced out of their jobs because of poor performance-a 70% increase over the number fired in 2001. “Business leaders are enduring scrutiny and pressure unseen since the Great Depression” of the 1930s, Mr. Charles Lucier, Senior Vice-President emeritus of Booz Allen, said. “ The CEO mystique has all but evaporated and director activism has replaced crony capitalism in the boardroom. 14 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Friday, May 16, 2003Workplace discrimination rampant globally: ILO: Discrimination remains rampant in the workplace worldwide, depriving women, ethnic and religious minorities and migrants, of equal jobs or pay, a report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said. “While the most blatant types of discrimination were fading” subtle, less visible and more insidious forms’ had emerged, including pre-employment testing for HIV/ Aids, the report said. “Every day, around the world, discrimination at work is an unfortunate reality for hundreds of million people,” said the United Nations agency’s Director General Mr. Juan Somavia in an introduction to the report, titled Time For Equality At Work. 13 May '03, The Financial Express
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- Friday, May 16, 2003Our students in US are chalk to their cheese: It has become tougher for international students enroled in the MBA programmes in the US to secure internships and final placements. An increasing number of companies are opting to only hire US citizens and permanent residents, even if only for the summer. The fact is that with the US economy still facing a downturn, the job situation is tight. Add to that the stringent visa requirements in the post 9/11 scenario. Both these factors are making it more difficult for international students to land either summer internships or long-term jobs. 12 May '03, Economic Times
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- Friday, May 16, 2003Low enrolment of women in MBA courses: While management schools across the world split hairs over the low enrolment of women in their MBA courses, their Indian counterparts don’t seem to show the same concern. Roughly speaking, women represent between 11% and 15% of enrolment at the country’s premier management institutes, the IIMs; and about 20% at other top schools. In the US, at least, that figure stands at 30% for top institutes. In ’00, the University of Michigan and Catalyst Inc put together a research study called “women and the MBA: Gateway to Opportunity”. The survey cited lack of female role models; incompatibility of careers in business with work/life balance; lack of confidence in math skills; and lack of encouragement by employers, as barriers that steer women away from pursuing an MBA—not dissimilar to the Indian scenario—and suggested ways to alter this. 12 May '03, Economic Times
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- Friday, May 16, 2003The curious case of the fat pay cheque: This placement season the buzz in management campuses was not around who was doling out the fattest salaries but how much the recruits were getting. Ever since it was reported that financial services firm Capital One, the best paying global recruiter, had offered a starting salary of $82,000 to an Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad candidate but $130,000 to an IIM- Banagalore graduate, this mystery dominated campus talk. Things got more bizzare when it was heard that the best paying domestic recruiter, Triniti Corporation, offered Rs. 16 lakh at IIM-Kozhikode and Rs 14 lakh at IIM-Kolkata for similar job profiles. But here is a simple clue, use the 'cost to company' (CTC) that HR managers use to lure new talent, to solve the case. In a package that includes CTC, the money that a firm will spend on training you abroad, the office rental that it pays on a floor area basis and long term benefits like gratuity and ! pension get counted as 'salary'. Some institutes go to town with the CTC figures. That is how the Faculty of Management studies quotes a higher average salary than some of the IIMs. 9 May '03, Business World
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- Friday, May 16, 2003Meditation the best way to beat those blues: Organisations today, run and thrive on a performance-driven culture where deadlines are sacrosanct. In such a scenario it’s natural for a section of these employees to succumb to the demands of their super charged lives. So what do corporates do to keep their employees from falling on the bowling alley like nine pins? They organise special programmes for them, get expert speakers to hector about the matters of switching to a “stress free” lifestyle, or commission day long seminars on yoga and meditation, where long haired instructors share the secrets of ancient “yogic” exercises with them. The guiding philosophy behind this trend is take your employees more seriously, handle them with kid gloves, they are valuable assets. Look after them and in the process, keep them away from stress. The corporate motto is fairly simple. If you love your job, you will love your employee. . 8 May '03, The Hindustan Times
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- Friday, May 16, 2003Hardware majors to woo developers: Indian software developers are being constantly wooed by all the global majors, says Mr.Srikamt Rao, country head of BEA Software, an application server vendor. “The developer community is a very significant factor in influencing our sales revenues. Developers are software professionals who have had passion for keeping themselves up-to-date with the latest of developments in technologies. They also interact with each other exchanging information, hence becoming a very strong but informal network for creating brand awareness, addressing support issues and also for exchanging developmental approaches which were either successful or failures. As an application server vendor, the developer community in India becomes hugely important for the likes of BEA as it sells middleware and IT users in a company are rarely aware of its presence. 7 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Friday, May 16, 2003Indian software companies hiring globally in quest of profits: India's software companies have begun hiring sales and marketing executives globally. Companies like i-flex and Wipro have hired local executives for senior positions overseas. As India's IT companies spread their wings overseas, they’ve realised that they have to employ the best and the brightest men abroad. “ Its time for a reality check. We Indians are very good at all things software, but have to accept the fact that when it comes to marketing and getting $100 million–plus deals we do not have the requisite marketing bandwidth,” says the marketing head of a Bangalore based software company.Two developments are taking place. At a broad level, IT companies are hiring local staff when they set up a shop overseas. Secondly they are focussing on hiring the best marketing and sales skills available worldwide. Foreign nationals account for only about 2 percent of Infosys’ 15,000-plus workforce-but by June last foreigners comprised 36 per cent of its overseas sales and marketing team. 7 May '03, Business Standard
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- Friday, May 16, 2003How outsourcing impacts US jobs: While Indian information technology companies are optimistic about bagging offshore projects and have been recruiting students off campus during the current year, the job situation on the other side of the globe, particularly in the US appears sticky. The demand for tech workers is said to have touched an all-time low, with more positions being outsourced overseas. The ITAA’s telephone survey of 400 hiring mangers (selected at random) from the IT and non – IT companies revealed that he predicted demand for hiring IT workers was 4,93,000 positions, down from 1.6 million at the start of 2000 and less than one half of the predicted 1.1 million positions at the beginning of 2002. 7 May '03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Friday, May 16, 2003Desi vs phirang: It’s hard fight in software world
: In Bangalore, just about every one you meet knows someone who has just joined Accenture or is interviewing with them. Such is the furious pace at which the company is hiring-almost 200-250 people every month. All the evangelism for ‘offshore’ done within the $12 billion IT consulting company by the former Accenture India head, Mr. Sid Khanna, has obviously paid off. At rival IBM Global services, the scene repeats. It wants to add 1,800 more to its army of 3,500 developers. CapGemini Ernst & Young is also in the fray but on a smaller scale. Compared to the 10,000 plus employee strengths of the top-tier Indian IT services vendors, these numbers are still small. But very obviously they will rise rapidly. So far there hasn’t been a huge migration from the likes of Infosys or Wipro. HR managers with the Indian IT industry believe that their mid and senior professionals will not migrate to MNC firms for a few reasons: Limit! ed overseas travel opportunity, different work culture, being a remote, out of sight element of the company and the lack of job security. 7 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Friday, May 09, 2003Nasscom to focus on HR aspects of ITES industry: India’s hot and happening new industry IT Enabled Services (ITES), is finding it tough to handle the twenty-somethings, meet their aspirations and address the worries. Despite the salaries and facilities an ordinary graduate in India could never imagine at any other job, the average attrition rate in the ITES industry is quite high at 30-35 per cent. And it is estimated about 30 per cent of the people who quit, actually leave the ITES industry. Thus being an HR Manager at a call centre is an unenviable job these days. Apart from attrition, a whole host of issues stare at HR officials in ITES firms, varying from hiring the right people to providing them training to charting out their career options. The problem is so serious that Nasscom, the apex IT industry association, has decided to focus more on the HR aspects of the ITES industry this year. 7 May '03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Friday, May 09, 2003Organised sector sheds 4.2 lakhs jobs in a ‘01-02: In another confirmation of the shrinking number of organised sector jobs in India, new data shows that the organised sector employment has dipped by 4.2 lakhs in ‘01-02. It marks the 5th consecutive year in which organised sector jobs have fallen. More worrisome is that the reduction in jobs in ‘01-02 is larger than the combined decline in the previous 3 years. The biggest contributor to the reduction in organised sector jobs was the manufacturing sector. The organised manufacturing sector shed 4.6 lakh jobs between ’97 and ’01. During this period the services sector employment increased by 1.9 lakh, despite the decline in banking sector employment. 6 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Friday, May 09, 2003Hard days for software pros as companies target payroll costs: Software salaries that have already been under pressure during the slowdown over the past two years, could see the worst year ahead as wages are again on the radars of top companies looking to cut costs to align with declining margins. Sources say that the managements of top Indian IT services companies such as Infosys and Wipro Technologies have already started reworking their remuneration policies. On-site employees, who take away a major chunk of the company’s wage bill, will be worst hit as their salaries, allowances and perks are being scaled down to bring their remuneration near to the actual cost of living in foreign countries, sources said. 6 May '03, The Financial Express
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- Friday, May 09, 2003India only major country to have surplus work force by 2020: From back office operations to health care to engineering services to animation- growth of services exports from India is expected to be driven by declining birth rates in America, Europe and most of Asia. By 2020, India would be the only major country in the world to have a surplus workforce whilst other major countries including China, Asean countries and East European countries are projected to have shortage of labour. According to a study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), based on data generated by US Bureau of Census, by 2020 India will have surplus population of about 47 million while the US will face a deficit of 17 million workers and China over a million. 4 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Friday, May 09, 2003Wall Street set to ship research jobs to India: The stock markets have not been kind to financial analysts in India, in common with the rest of the world. The shrinking business available with stock brokers means that research analysts have fewer and fewer job opportunities . However, the lure of outsourcing from India is now creating new job opportunities for analysts. The same rationale which drove offshore out sourcing of IT services- attractive talent at lower salaries-is also driving the lower end of global research to India. Strategy consultancy firm Mc Kinsey was one of the first to realise the potential of using Indian talent for research. JP Morgan Chase also plans to set up a captive offshore research department in Mumbai. It plans to hire junior analysts and support staff in Mumbai, where salaries for business school graduates can be a fourth of those in New York or London. Merill Lynch is planning to setup a captive BPO centre in the country which is ex! pected to employ around 4-7 hundred people. 3 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Friday, May 09, 2003How job seekers can deal with ‘Problem Hire’ mantle
: Many workers leave their jobs under less-than ideal circumstances that can haunt them long afterwards. Finding a new position in spite of a “problem hire” label is one of the trickiest challenges job-seekers can face. So what should you do? First, recognise that depending on the circumstances, employers may well be legally limited in how much they can bad-mouth a former employee. “Most employers are concerned about litigation over termination and formally won’t say anything expect to confirm dates of employment,” says Mr. China Miner Gorman, president of Lee Hecht Harrison, a career-management-services company in Woodcliff Lake, N.J. The bad blood still could come up during a more informal, “off the record” reference-checking process, of course. So some counsellors suggest employees try to smooth things over with their former managers –assuming the relationship isn’t beyond repair-before or soon after they leave to ga! uge whether that person might provide a good reference. 3 May '03, The Financial Express
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- Friday, May 09, 2003Counsellors essential to deal with stressed employees: A look at the industrial scene presents a terrible sight- “Phasing out”, requests to take VRS followed by CRS, process of making the organisation lean, mergers and acquisitions are ever standing threats. More and more individuals in organisations are feeling anxious, alienated, estranged, helpless and victims of circumstances. Too much of stress, insecurity, competition, impersonal relationships in organisations are affecting employee’s emotional and physical life which in turn is taking toll of his professional effectiveness. It is at such a time a Professionally Trained Counsellor, (not a welfare officer) can provide uninterrupted, non-evaluative relaxed listening and an opportunity to get in touch with self. However the organisations do not need to train managers to become professional counsellors. All that needs to be done is to train managers to be more person oriented and be able to know the difference between “! the problem employee and the employee with the problem. 3 May '03, The Financial Express
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- Friday, May 09, 2003Labour ministry organises pensions for unorganised sector: Workers see provident fund and pension schemes as old age security. The Labour ministry sees them as turf-- to be protected from takeover by a marauding finance ministry. At a May Day press conference, labour minister Mr. Sahib Singh Verma announced his intention to cover unorganised sector workers with a social security blanket before the end of the year. A key element of the social security package would be a new pension scheme for unorganised sector workers, deriving its mandate from the unorganised sector workers bill that would be moved in Parliament next week. 2 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Friday, May 09, 2003IT companies raise the bar for compensation: It’s time for some good news in the IT industry at last. This year employees in the software services and the BPO sector can take a look forward to a wage hike. But the glorious days of across-the-board pay hikes are over. Most software firms are planning to continue with the variable compensation model they began adopting only recently. Taking the practice of linking pay rise to individual performance further, top tier domestic software exporters are adding two other elements to appraisals-group and company performance. “Competitive pressures and bleak economic conditions have forced companies to bring sanity in employee, compensation and this is resulting in innovative ways to reward employees” said the HR managers of software service companies. 2 May '03, The Economic Times
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- Friday, May 09, 2003ICICI to roll out initiatives to customise competencies: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd is now rolling out a host of Human Resource (HR) programmes. The aim would be to help the employees from diverse business sectors acquire a set of capabilities that are customised to meet the needs of the insurance business. Importantly, the organisation will also look at developing a crucial set of attitude among employees. This would be in addition to the skill-sets that these professionals would have to internalise. The company is also conducting workshops to usher in a measure of clarity in the various business interactions that the professionals conduct among themselves. 29 Apr.'03, The Financial Express
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- Friday, May 09, 2003Fostering good work when promotion isn’t in offing: Managers often stumble badly when they turn down requests for promotions. Many managers don’t explain why an employee isn’t being chosen. They will insist the staffer is better off in a current job, undermining his or her ambition. Employees who feel overlooked or stuck in one position for too long may soon become apathetic or seek a position at a rival company. Mr.Ian Basey, Director of marketing at Electronics marketing, an operating group of Phoenix based Avnet, a distributor of electronics parts, thinks managers should talk frequently to employees about their strengths and weaknesses. Doing so would give the employees realistic goals and expectations. The managers then won’t be put in the position of having to turn down unexpected requests for a promotion. 26 Apr.'03, The Financial Express
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- Friday, May 09, 2003Report Sees 40 Million extra jobs by 2020: India could generate an additional 40 million jobs and raise revenue worth $200 billion by 2020 because of the changing demographics of developed countries, Mr N.K Singh, member Planning Commission, said while releasing the report ,"India's new opportunities -2020 here today.The report said that India would be one of the countries with a population surplus in the 19-35 age group where even China was expected to have a deficit of 10 million as a fall out of its population control policies. 18 Apr.'03, Business Standard
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- Friday, May 09, 2003US citizens petition to end H1-B visa scheme: A US citizen , Mr Damon Scott , an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina is petitioning the US Congress to abolish the H-1B vis program completely.Mr Scott said that his petition has been sent to the speaker of the US Congress. According to Mr Scott, "The principal reason why the H-1B Visa Program should be abolished is that the Americans are definitely thrown into unemployment and underemployment,and at a truly massive scale,by this law.The rest of the world is twenty times the population of the United States.By laws of supply and demand, any industrialised nation's job markets would be devastated by a global supply being readily available to meet a demand that is only domestic." 17 Apr.'03, Economic Times
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- Friday, May 09, 2003Outsourcing remains IT industry's bright spot: Outsourcing has remained a bright spot in the U S amidst the generally dire conditions in the information technology industry, according to earnings reports on Monday from Accenture and Unisys. However both companies said they were cautious about the outlook for their outsourcing businesses, while they also continued to report weakness in their other operations. The continuing boom in outsourcing reflects efforts by companies to cut overall IT spending. The shift to outsourcing has weighed on the profit margins of technology companies. 16 Apr.'03, Business Standard
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- Friday, May 09, 2003India Inc in hiring mode: Hiring time is on for Corporate India if the Business Expectation Survey conducted by Dun & Bradstreet Information Services is to be believed. “Cutting across segments, firms in general expect to recruit more in the April-June 2003 quarter compared to the past. Neither war nor the economic impact of it has dented the hiring plans of Corporate India,” said the survey conducted in India for April-June 2003. 29% of the firms surveyed expect to add people while 64% expect no addition and only a marginal 5% plan to retrench. 16 Apr.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Friday, May 09, 2003US firms saved $8 bn via outsourcing: Outsourcing to India has helped the US cpmanies to save as much as $8 billion in the last four years,said a market research firm,inductis.Companies like the General Electric Corporation saves about $350 million per year through the 18,000 offshore employees it has in India. 16 Apr.'03, Business Standard
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- Friday, May 09, 2003US demand for jobless benefits falls: Demand for jobless benefits in the US fell last week at the fastest pace this year in a preliminary sign that the economy might be improving. The labour department said first time unemployment insurance claims fell last week to 405,000 below the 425,000 economists had expected the previous week. It was the biggest one –week drop since late December. 13 Apr.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Friday, May 09, 2003Watch out for more women on the board: Indian corporate boards may soon get a feminine touch if the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) has its way. In all likelihood, the proposed companies ( Amendment ) bill, 2003 will include a clause on the reservation of minimum number of professionally qualified women on a company’s board.. 13 Apr.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Friday, May 09, 2003Civil services to get performance linked promotion: The criticism that IAS officers are generalists will be addressed soon. Promotions within the IAS, IPS and the IFS will soon be linked to performance and will not depend entirely on seniority. Work allocation in the civil services will no longer be arbitrary and will depend on specialisation. The Surinder Nath committee, appointed by the government in December 2002 to suggest civil services reforms, is set to recommend a rational system of performance evaluation for the officers, a huge task considering that the centre and the states together employ over 8 million in the civil services and, according to independent estimates, spend almost 3.5 per cent of the GDP on them. 09 Apr.'03, Business Standard
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- Friday, May 02, 2003British women can keep tabs on male colleagues’ pay : The Blair Government has given British women the right to know how much male colleagues are paid for equivalent work. According to new employment rules that took effect on Sunday, women may submit a questionnaire to their employer to find out whether they are being paid the same salary, the Government’s Women and Equality Unit said on its website. 08 Apr.'03, The Hindu Business line
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- Friday, May 02, 2003Alignment is the basis of all management: Business heads of large or small companies, departments or sections or teams all have a common problem .How do I get my people to see what needs to be done and how to do it? Each person has different motivations, fears, energies, likes and dislikes. How does one get to pull together in productive ways? Alignment is really the key word here and many very senior executives, Mr. Fred Smith of FedEx among them, feel that alignment is the basis of all management.There are actually three components to strategy: profits, Customer and People. They are all interdependent and each is in a state of dynamic tension with every other.The challenge really is to focus on all of them at the same time. It’s like juggling three balls in the air. If even one is sent out of alignment, all three come tumbling down . 31 Mar.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Friday, May 02, 2003SC notice on sexual harassment: Taking note of the alarming rise in sexual harassment cases in professional institutions the Supreme Court has issued notices to a large number of bodies, including the UGC, to seek their views on enforcing stringent measures to stop the menace. The court had, on August 13, 1997, given a series of directions to deal with people sexually harassing their colleagues at the workplace . 30 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
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- Friday, May 02, 2003Ethics are important for top brass: How can you tell if the man you are hiring as CEO is honest? From his handshake and by asking him questions like 'how he plays golf'. If he cheats in a game of golf, you can be sure he is not entirely honest, said Mr. Joel Stern Managing Partner, Stern Stewart & Co., at the Business Today panel discussion on corporate governance presented by the Tata Group. “When people misbehave at the top, it becomes a contagious disease, so ethics are important,” he said . “But the question is not just an occasional violation of ethics- you cannot prevent people from cheating or stealing and in every generation there is someone out to make a quick buck the dishonest way,” he added. 30 Mar.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Friday, May 02, 2003At IIT a new phenomenon: Graduates without jobs: Much to their dismay, nearly 50 percent of the students are still jobless in the 2003 batch of IIT Powai, with campus placement officially closing in two weeks . Worse still, a handful of students from last year remain unemployed. "The situation is scary and dissappinting but after the bad job scenario last year, we were expecting this, says a sombre student. .30 Mar.'03, The Indian Express
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- Friday, April 25, 2003With unemployment rising, workers curtail sick days in US: The latest casualty of the worst employment market in a decade is the sick day. Given the grim job market right now, looking lazy is a bad idea. The unemployment rate is hovering just below 6% in USA, a level not seen since 1994. Last year, big employers laid off more than one million Americans. The sluggish economy has done wonders for the nation’s attendance record. This year, about 200,000 fewer employees per week are taking a day off for health, personal or medical reasons than they did in 2000, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. .29 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
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- Friday, April 25, 2003Screening norms eased for medicos trained abroad : There is good news for Indian medical students trained abroad. The cap on the number of attempts a student could make to clear these mandatory screening tests is all set to be lifted. In a bid to introduce a minimum level of competence among medical practitioners, the government had instituted a system of screening tests for all foreign trained doctors. Indian citizens with primary medical qualifications (that is a MBBS degree and a year of internship or equivalent training programme) acquired in any country other than India have to appear for this test.29 Mar.'03, The Economic Times
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- Friday, April 25, 2003HR Initiatives: Make 'reward & recognition' fun for employees :
'Work' and 'Play' are supposed to be direct opposites. The phrase 'reward and recognition's is usually associated in the workplace with the idea of financial reward or bonus. But if you can add some fun and play to a financial reward, then you can make the experience a much more long lasting one for your employees. Adding an element of fun and play to a reward and recognition program increases the likelihood of employee involvement and participation in the program and that is a key factor if the program is to continue to have an impact over time. 28 Mar.'03, The Economic Times
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- Thursday, April 03, 2003Telecom's out! Outsourcing's in :A few years ago, they followed the siren song of private telecom companies and waltzed off into the promised land, or so they thought. But a number of senior managers at telecom companies, many of whom were bought in at astronomical salaries, are now exploring the world of business process outsourcing (BPO) as alternate careers. "There is a huge churn taking place and many of these managers are asking themselves whether they want to be in the telecom industry at all. Many are even questioning the long-term viability of this industry , "says Toral Patel of Accord Search. 28 Mar.'03, The Economic Times
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- Thursday, April 03, 2003More flights, staff cuts on horizon in the global aviation sector :
Many major airlines are expected to cut flight schedules and jobs this week due to the slump in travel bookings because of the US Iraq war, analysts said. Some have begun to lay off workers or put them on temporary leave to cope with the worst crisis in aviation history. 25 Mar.'03, The Economic Times
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- Thursday, April 03, 2003Training Initiatives: 'HR Needs To Reinvent itself' :
HR professionals are not meant to be just fair-weather friends for contemporary businesses. In fact the role of HR becomes all the more crucial when businesses are confronting turbulence and downturn. These were the highlights of a round table on 'Linking HR with Business' that was hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Mumbai. HR should deploy appropriate training initiatives so that the professionals are adequately equipped to gather relevant insights and bring innovation to the table. 24 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
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- Thursday, April 03, 2003Hiring ’s back, big bucks aren’t: Corporates are flocking back to B school campuses in droves in India this year. Campuses across the country have seen an increase in the number of participating corporates as well as an increase in the number of offers. In fact, most campuses had more than one offer per student and many of them had corporates going back empty handed. Technology saw a revival after almost two years of lying low and was a run away success at some tech-heavy campuses. IIM Calcutta , for instance , had information technology and IT enabled services accounting for more than 30% of the total jobs on offer. Infotech was a big draw at IIT Bombay’s School of management, NITIE and Weligkar. 24 Mar.'03, The Economic Times
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- Thursday, April 03, 2003European Conference on HR BPO: We are holding the first European Conference on HR BPO in Brussels 6-7th May 2003. Contact me on 0046 8678 6040 for further details.
Patricia Galbraith <conferences@marcusevansse.com>
Stockholm, Sweden - Wednesday, March 26, 2003Low satisfaction levels with corporate training: Corporate training rides high on importance, but low on delivery- this is the inference of a recent study conducted by National Family Opinion (NFO) India Ltd. Majority opinion ruled in favour of ‘low satisfaction levels’ with corporate training. While lack of qualified trainers and budget allocation were seen as two major impediments for training, the methodologies chosen, timings and sequencing to some extent ‘content’ were seen as major pitfalls for effective execution of training. 21 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, March 24, 2003US High-tech industry loses more than half a million jobs: The battered US high tech industry lost more than half a million jobs from January 2001 to December 2002, putting 10%of its employees out of work 21 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, March 24, 2003War gains seen for Indian IT, ITES players: The Indian software and back office services companies need not worry much with the war breaking out between US and Iraq according to industry leaders. The war is expected to have a negative impact on an already recession ridden market and global companies will be under greater pressure to outsource their business processes to cut costs further. However, the conflict will have a short term adverse on outsourcing deals that are already in the pipeline as international travel and decision making process will slow down. 21 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, March 24, 2003Tata group's journey of transformation in human resource : The Rs 40,000 crore Tata group has accomplished nearly half its journey of transformation in human resource (HR) development, which it began in 2000. The process involved the group driving excellence and moving towards a younger appeal in 60 months. The transformation is half way to completion and according to Tata Sons Ltd executive vice -–president (group HR) Mr. Satish Pradhan, it is well on target. 17 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, March 24, 2003
Book puts CEOs on couch
: Michael Maccoby, a psychoanalyst, business coach and best selling author has authored a book delving into the different personality types of CEOs. The 'erotic' type of CEO is a sensitive co-dependent individual who thrives on the adulation of others. But as a rule erotics make lousy CEOs because they avoid taking a tough stands. The 'marketing' type meanwhile is a chameleon-like creature adept at changing with the times and spotting the latest trend. They make great salespeople and advertising executives. One of the pitfalls of marketing personalities; they often promote themselves. Then there's the 'obsessive' personality, a tradition-bound, detail oriented person who thrives on doing the same thing over and over but with increased efficiency. The last is the 'narcissist' who has a compelling vision that he or she truly believes will change the world, regardless of what everyone else may think. The narcissist is p! erhaps the prevalent CEO type these days. Maccoby says that the narcissist-obsessive combination makes for an ideal chief executive. 16 Mar.'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, March 24, 2003Indian professionals leave Malaysia: Dozens of Indian IT professionals are leaving Malaysia signalling a steady deterioration in bilateral ties following the arrests and harassment of nearly 300 software and other executives by Kuala Lumpur police for alleged visa irregularities.“ Thirty-two professionals, have left for India. I have spoken to others and many of them also want to leave the country as soon as possible,” says Mr. Veena Sikri, the Indian high commissioner in Kuala Lumpur. 16 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, March 24, 2003IT enabled services creating 200 jobs a day: India added 200 people to its booming infotech – enabled services sector every working day of 2002. As an average mid – sized call center employs around 200 people, this amounts to a call center mushrooming everyday of the year in the country. All told, the sector created 64,500 jobs during the year, says a survey by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom). At the end of 2002, the number of infotech – enabled Service professionals in the country stood at 171, 100. 15 Mar.'03, Business Standard
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- Monday, March 24, 2003Many newly unemployed people turn to consulting as a way to pay the bills during down times: And it isn’t uncommon for their old employers to ask them whether they would consider coming back in that capacity. In some ways, it can be a plus. Consultants who have been full timers know the company well and can hit the ground running. It also helps eliminate a potential black mark. “Consulting demonstrates a good relationship with a former employer and verifies that the layoff wasn’t due to incompetence,” says Ms. Barbara La Rock, a career coach. 15 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
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- Monday, March 24, 2003A good parent is a good Wiproite:
Wipro’s HR department is working on a new hunch: a better parent could mean a better employee. In its latest approach to get its 2,000 employees on an emotional high, Wipro Infotech has launched a personal growth programme – a workshop on Effective Parenting. According to Mr. Joseph George, Manager, Employee Development, Wipro Infotech's logic is “ When you are teaching your children to be independent, more decisive, and telling them to take initiative and not rest at boundaries, you yourself cannot be any different at work.” 15 Mar.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, March 24, 2003US unemployment rate hits 5.8 %; Companies cut 308,000 jobs in February:In one of the weakest economic reports in months, the Labor Department in US reported that the economy lost 308,000 non- agricultural jobs in February. That sharp drop which followed a 185,000 increase in January, was the steepest decline in payrolls since the month immediately following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Moreover, the job cuts were widespread, touching just every major industry. The nation’s unemployment rate, meanwhile rose one – tenth of a percentage point to 5.8%. The percentage of unemployed people who have been looking for work for 27 weeks or more rose to 22.1%. 09 March'03, Financial Express
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- Monday, March 24, 2003Tata Telecom gets HR award :
Tata Telecom Ltd, India’s leading enterprise end – to – end converged communication solutions provider, has been felicitated the 'Innovative HR Practices Award’ World HRD Congress 2003 held recently in Mumbai. The award was presented by Mr. K V Kamath, managing director, ICICI Ltd, to Mr. B N Jha, director – people excellence at Tata Telecom. The Innovative HR Practices Award recognises the global standards that Tata Telecom follows in its people excellence practices. 09 March'03, ET
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- Monday, March 24, 2003Most IIT graduates take up IT jobs:Software companies in India hire over 60 per cent of fresh engineering graduates as students from all branches of engineering are being lured by software firms which offered high wages compared to the 'old economy' firms. This trend may affect the growth of manufacturing sector and also the quality of teaching faculty in the long term, according to the study by The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) . 6 Mar.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Wednesday, March 12, 2003Goodlass Nerolac outlines CAT for people management:Goodlass Nerolac Paints Ltd (GNPL), has now constituted a team, termed CAT (Creative Analyst Team) which will sort out the “grey areas” that might be prevalent in people management. Says Mr. Vijay Deshpande, vice president, HR, Goodlass Nerolac Paints Ltd.: “We constituted CAT to make rapid strides in people management." 5 Mar.'03, Financial Express
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- Wednesday, March 12, 2003Green signal turns red on the German Infobahn:The German government has decided to stop issuing green cards to information technology (IT) professionals from July 31,’03. This is likely to be a big blow to Indian IT companies with operations in Germany, all of whom have ambitious plans for this market. As of January this year, 13,566 green cards have been issued, of which 3,262 have been given to Indians, making them the single largest group of green card holders in Germany. 5 Mar.'03, Economic Times
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- Wednesday, March 12, 2003CEOs make twice as much as deputies:Companies pay their chief executives more than twice what they pay their next-in command functional heads, says a compensation and benefits study of top management done by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. “There are two reasons for this. One, the CEO is responsible for delivering the results. The buck stops with him. And two, CEO talent is very scarce in the market”, Mercer HR Consulting (India) Pvt Ltd country head Mr. R Sankar said. 5 Mar.'03, Business Standard
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- Wednesday, March 12, 2003Outsourcing hate gang gaining numbers:The state legislature in the US State of Washington may soon consider a bill which will make outsourcing difficult. The bill claims its basic objective is to reduce layoffs, reallocations and terminations of employees. According to experts here, the bill will also affect outsourcing, especially to offshore locations like India, Philippines or Russia. This is because a large number of layoffs in the US can be traced to companies sending these jobs to other countries in a bid to increase competitiveness and cut costs . 4 Mar.'03, Economic Times
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- Wednesday, March 12, 2003BPO surge in India worries American Trade Unions:Technology sector labour unions in United States want the US Congress to study the “distributing trend” of outsourcing of work by US companies to India. The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech), an organisation of high tech workers formed to advocate improved benefits and workplace rights, is spearheading this campaign. The objective of WashTech, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America, is to provide a voice for IT professionals both in the public policy and in the workplace. 3 Mar.'03, Economic Times
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- Wednesday, March 12, 2003US CEOs get paid handsomely to stay at home, says study:While company fortunes took a nosedive, their CEOs departed with a plot of gold, reveals a new study. The exit packages of S&P 500 companies ranged from a potential high of more than $82 million for Mr. Robert Nardelli to leave Home Depot, down to $1,426,021 paid to Mr. Carl Yankowski when he left Palm, according to the two – part study. The study, by Mr. Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at the corporate library, revealed that during 2001 and 2002, departing CEOs received an average golden handshake of $16.5 million. 3 Mar.'03, Financial Express
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- Wednesday, March 12, 2003NASSCOM indicates rapid growth in employment in Indian IT sector:According to the NASSCOM annual industry survey, the IT and Software industry is projected to employ 650,000 IT professionals by March 2003. This reflects a growth of 24.4% from last year's employment of 522250. Of the total, almost 205,000 are working in the IT software exports industry, 160000 are employed in ITES industry, 25,000 in the domestic software market and over 260,000 in user organisations. 28 Feb.'03, Economic Times
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- Wednesday, March 05, 2003India to grab 70% of the call centre market: IDC:A study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) has said that India will be able to corner 70% of the call centre services market by the end of the year. The report further said that the advantage which India enjoys over the other countries will help it obtain a 73% market share by 2006. In contrast China-widely perceived to be India's biggest competitor in this business --will manage only 3% market share this year. The figure will move upto 4% in 2006. It is Philippines which will come closest to India, which is projected to grab 15% marketshare in 2003. 28 Feb.'03, Business Standard
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- Wednesday, March 05, 2003US companies in no mood to hire:Fewer US companies plan to hire in the second quarter 2003; the first drop in more than a year, said a survey. This is a sign that employers continue to face uncertainty in their businesses. With fears of war with Iraq and no clear signs of improvement in businesses, most employers plan to stay at the current staffing levels; said the Chairman and CEO of Manpower, the world's second largest employment agency. 25 Feb.'03, The Economic times
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- Wednesday, March 05, 2003Mixed bag on increments for CEOs:Increments for CEOs in the pharmaceutical & chemical and financial services sectors are predicted to be marginally better for 2003 – 4 over 2002 – 03. CEOs in engineering companies can expect slightly lower increases over 2001 – 03 while those who head consumer goods companies can expect substantially lower salary jumps, says a compensation and benefits study for top management done by Mercer Human Resources Consulting. 25 Feb.'03, Business Standard
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- Wednesday, March 05, 2003US IT Outsourcing to India to grow by 25 % in 2003: Report:Market research firm Giga Information Group is forecasting a boom in overseas outsourcing for the US information technology industry. The research firm predicts that outsourcing to India will grow by 25% this year, as companies seek to cut cost and improve quality. 24 Feb.'03, The Financial Express
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- Wednesday, March 05, 2003Hiring shows IT majors are upbeat on India:Despite jitters being caused by the New Jersey Bill opposing outsourcing of work to other countries and the possibility of other states in the US following suit, multinational companies, in the IT sector at least, are actively stepping up recruitment in India. Oracle, Sun, Accenture, Sapient, EMC, CSC, Ittiam, and i2 are on the lookout for talent in India. The companies are quick to point out that it is not just the cost factor that is attractive, but also the talent. When they happen to come together, it is a combination hard to resist, they say. 22 Feb.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Wednesday, March 05, 2003New HR trends in the banking industry:Of late the banking industry has undoubtedly been one of the most active sectors in terms of HR movements. While private banks are poaching from other private and nationalised banks, state-run banks are slowly starting lateral recruitment. While Bank of Baroda is looking for six general managers with salaries that match the market rate, Union Bank too is looking for skilled people to run its treasury operations.Mr. Anil Khandelwal is believed to be taking over as chairman and managing director of Kolkata-based Allahabad Bank soon. Mr. P.A Sethi, GM (international) of Bank Of Baroda taking over as the executive director of Vijaya Bank. 21 Feb.'03, Business India
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- Thursday, February 27, 2003Software jobs may come hard in US:If going to the US and getting a job there are tough for software engineers today, it may get tougher in the coming days. Expatriates taking up the jobs on lower salaries than Americans may come under scrutiny as job cuts and unemployment levels are rising in the US, according to Mr. Jerry A. Greenberg, co-chairman and co-CEO of Sapient, a business and technical consultancy company. 15 Feb.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Thursday, February 27, 2003"Managers not good judges of employee motivation":Research conducted by Stanford Associate Professor Chip Heath suggests that managers are not as good at judging employee motivation as they think they are. A common finding through Heath's work is what he calls extrinsic incentive bias. That term refers to our tendency to assume that others are more driven than we are for external rewards for work (like pay and job security) and less by intrinsic motivators like desire to learn new skills or contribute to an organisation. Heath's research shows that this widely held assumption is false. 14 Feb.'03, Economic Times
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- Thursday, February 27, 2003Reinventing the role of HR Managers:Being a human resources manager is never an easy job, specially in turbulent times like these. The last few years have witnessed the metamorphosis of the archetypal HR department thanks to the inrush of technology. Reinventing the role of HR seems to be the biggest challenge that HR practitioners face today. Explains Mr. Patrick David, HR Director of the Ford Motor Company, "One of the biggest shifts in mindset has been that HR now plays an integral part of strategic decision making and the facilitation of moving a business in the right direction." 14 Feb.'03, Economic Times
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- Thursday, February 27, 2003UK to ease visa norms:UK is easing visa norms to allow more Infotch professionals into the country. The British government will soon open offices in the four metros as well as Bangalore, Chandigarh, Hydrabad, Jalandhar and Ahmedabad to smoothen the visa processes. The relaxation in the visa norms comes at a time when the US, the largest foreign workplace for Indian Infotech professionals,is becoming more stringent in issuing H1B work permit visas. 13 Feb.'03, Business Standard
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- Thursday, February 27, 2003Expat, bank CEOs just dough it: Getting to the ‘crore’ of the matter, ET asked a whole lot of human resource consultants about how many CEOs in India, of all ilk, were getting above a crore in annual salary package.
The consensus was 100-150. The drift that came in during various discussions with HR gurus was that while the banking sector paid the most to its CEOs, it was the expat CEOs who were really raking it in.
Even though the banking sector paid the most to CEOs in absolute terms, the highest annual raise for CEOs came in the IT and IT-enabled services sector, which are both high-growth sectors.
As far as expats are concerned, in whichever sector they operate, they generally get as much as 30% more than their Indian counterparts in an equivalent company.
To get an idea of how the CEO’s salary in India is structured, one has to take a peek into a very detailed study conducted by HR consultants, Mercer.
The study points to the pre-eminence of the CEO in a corporation, saying that the salary of CEOs is still around twice that of other functional heads in the company. But the guaranteed part of the big man’s salary package is down to 50%, with incentives and bonuses making up the other half.
In terms of overall salary, the Indian CEO is getting even with his counterparts in Asia, or even in the US. Says Ma Foi managing director, K Pandia Rajan, “In India, while top management salaries are still rising, the salaries of senior management in the US and the UK are falling.” Hewitt Associates’ South Asia MD Ravi Virmani says that around 300 Indian CEOs are earning salaries of around $200,000, which is what CEOs in mid-sized US companies earn.
However, according to R Sankar, India head of Mercer, “Straight like-to-like comparisons of the salary levels between Indian CEOs and those in the US or Europe will be very difficult. Remuneration packages depend on various factors, scope and magnitude of the job, and will vary from sector to sector and industry to industry.”
The most interesting aspect of the Mercer study is the increasing importance of variable pay in the CEO’s package, which now takes up as much as 50% of the total CEO salary. The study says that increasingly companies are defining financial and non-financial parameters for gauging the success of the CEO. Usually, the ratio of financial and non-financial parameters is 70:30.
Common financial parameters are profit, revenue, cost control, while non-financial parameters include things like customer satisfaction.
Stock options are still one of the most popular methods of long-term incentive plans offered to the top executives.
A majority of the companies offer stock options to all the middle, senior and top management, says the Mercer study. The interesting fact is that the eligibility for offering stock options to employees is typically grade-based.
The size of the options offered to a CEO is usually 40% to 60% of the guaranteed cash salary that he earns annually.
20 Feb.'03, The Economic Times
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- Thursday, February 20, 2003Employees cannot be sacked for disability rules SC: Standing by physiacally challenged persons, the Supreme court of India has said that a government employee cannot be rendered jobless if he /she becomes disabled during service. 14 Feb.'03, The Times of India
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- Thursday, February 20, 2003"Who wants to be a CEO? Not me!"
: Everybody no longer wants to be a CEO. In the post – Welch era, the life of the CEO has become tougher, even in India. The average tenure of Indian CEOs has shrunk from six to four years over the last few years, and is headed down. The practice of sacking CEOs by the board on the grounds of performance is becoming far more common. Says Mr. Ronesh Puri, executive search firm Executive Access’ India MD, “It’s the first time in my eight year career as a HR professional that I am finding many vice-presidents in companies confide in me that they don’t want to be CEOs. 6 Feb.'03, Economic Times
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- Thursday, February 13, 2003Variable pay is the new HR mantra: Study: Variable compensation method for rewarding employees has become more common than ever before, if the findings of a recent study conducted by Quadrangle Consulting, an HR consulting firm, are any indication. As per the survey report, large FMCG multinational organisations tend to have a global qualifier philosophy which is based on relative ranking and performance on a year – on – year basis rather than a standard cut – off. The lack of clear-cut point raises issues of transparency and credibility. Which is perhaps why most Indian organisation define the cut off percentage at the onset. 6 Feb.'03, Business Standard
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- Thursday, February 13, 2003Cap Gemini Ernst & Young deploys leadership programme: In an effort to consolidate a new leadership talent pool for its Indian practice, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young has now deployed a programme termed 'Leaders of Tomorrow.' In line with this initiative, the firm plans to send top management professionals from India for leadership orientation programmes at a corporate university that it has set up in Paris. 4Feb.'03, The Financial Express
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- Thursday, February 13, 2003VRS in banks may be linked to wage pact: The second round of voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for public sector bank employees is expected to be delayed for a while, with the government planning to link it to the wage settlement negotiations. Some bankers are of the opinion that the pension bill will outstrip their wage bills over the next 5-6 years. 3 Feb.'03, The Business Standard
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- Thursday, February 13, 2003HLL to leverage on experienced hands: Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) is actively looking to be more than the breeding ground for young talent. Popularly known as super business school of Corporate India, the company has decided that it will actively scout and hire mid career employees for its new ventures. Mid-career recruitment are expected to occur at all levels, specifically at the senior management levels. This could be considered an interesting trend, considering that HLL is known for creating ‘Leverites’ from scratch. 1 Feb.'03, Financial Express
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- Thursday, February 13, 2003 IT Companies use ‘Benched’ staff of other firms to complete projects
: Indian IT companies have begun resorting to strategic sub – contracting, a process whereby professionals from middle – rung IT companies who are on the bench or even body shoppers are roped in to deliver a fixed price time bound project. Infosys Technologies and Mphasis are prominent software companies, which have resorted to this strategy. “Sub – contracting takes place only if we do not possess specific skill – sets. People recruited for this purpose are replaced by our permanent staff and we are constantly working on the same through our internal training,” a spokesperson for Infosys Technologies said. 30 Jan.'03, The Economic times
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- Thursday, February 06, 2003 CEOs tone down expectations for a 2003 recovery: Technology executives scrambled to tone down expectations for 2003 this week after hard earned lessons that their customers cannot predict the future. From Mr. Bill Gates to Mr. Michael Dell, few were prepared to predict a recovery in global demand after the internet bubble burst. "There is no big uptick," Mr. Gates told the World Economic Forum. 28 Jan.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Thursday, February 06, 2003 Placement fair in TN for second rung B-schools”: Tamil Nadu is organising a placement fair with a difference. There are fifty jobs on offer from the who's-who of corporate India. But, the takers are not the usual IIMs or the other top 10 B-schools. The fair has been specially designed for some 40-odd ‘not so popular’ B-schools of Tamil Nadu. CII Tamil Nadu council chairman Mr. PK Mohapatra said that “ the attempt of the fair is to bring industry and academia together to market these B-schools which are not so visible on the corporate India’s recruitment radar.” 27 Jan.'03, Economic Times
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- Thursday, February 06, 2003“HR must be customised for a country and industry”: Mr. Joseph Wayne Brockbank, the clinical professor of business at the University of Michigan Business School and an acknowledged expert on HR concepts and its application says that HR must be customised for country and industry though the industry has more impact than the country. If you take consumer goods in Europe and those in Mexico-both will have to be fast moving. But how you create a fast moving organisation in Mexico will be different from how you create in Europe. How you hire and train people will be different in Mexico and Europe but the outcome will remain the same. 25 Jan.'03, Financial Express
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- Thursday, February 06, 2003India may get 30-40% of global BPO pie: About 30-40% of the global BPO pie with an estimated value of $550-700 billion, could be in the hands of the rapidly growing Indian business process outsourcing sector over the next five years, according to Mr. Michael F Corbett, ace consultant on IT sourcing and BPO. 24 Jan.'03, Economic Times
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- Wednesday, January 29, 2003IIM students head overseas through exchange programs: In a year when foreign offers have dipped, the student exchange programs have grown significantly at the country's top business schools. Close to 200 IIM students are participating in exchange programs this year. The program has registered an increase of almost 30% over the total number of students that participated last year. Student exchange is one of the most popular programs on the B-school campuses. As IIM-C's Mr. Munish Saini puts it: 'participation in global management education, awareness of cultures different from one's own and exposure to foreign markets would help shape better global managers." 24 Jan.'03, Economic Times
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- Wednesday, January 29, 2003Salaries to rise 10% next year: Hewitt: Salaries will rise 10.1% on average, inclusive of inflation in 2003-04, according to survey conducted by global consulting firm Hewitt Associates. The study also reveals that the projected increase in pay, adjusted for inflation and other parameters will be the highest in the infotech enabled services sector (12.7%) followed by software development (12.3%) and infotech solutions (11.3%) 24 Jan.'03, Business Standard
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- Wednesday, January 29, 2003Vision India 2020: Create 200 m jobs: India will have to generate 200 million new jobs or at least 10 million new jobs each year in the next 18 years if the country hopes to achieve full employment by 2020, India Vision 2020 has said. The document prepared by a panel chaired by the Planning Commission member Mr. SP Gupta has also suggested that access to employment be a constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human right. 23 Jan.'03, Economic Times
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- Wednesday, January 29, 2003GDP growth doesn’t mean jobs: The employment elasticity of output growth is declining in India. The elasticity has fallen from 0.52 during 1983-94 to 0.16 during 1993-2000. This defies the conventional economic principle that suggests higher output growth, accelerates employment generation rate and vice versa. However higher output growth in India was not accompanied by higher employment growth. Employment growth, in fact, declined during the nineties when output grew at a higher rate. A fall in employment elasticity of output growth generally indicates a rise in labour productivity and or a shift in favour of capital-intensive technology. 20 Jan.'03, Economic Times
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- Wednesday, January 29, 2003The emerging challenges in corporate leadership: What do companies like GE, Wal-Mart, Intel, Fedex, Cisco and Microsoft have in common? They have been ranked amongst the world's most admired companies by Fortune magazine in 2002. They are also led by leaders who have taken bold moves to achieve business success. But how would one define a leader? The Ernst and Young (E&Y) India Leadership Survey 2002 covering 26 reputed organisations across various sectors has come up with some interesting revelations. The most valued competencies in leaders were seen to be customer focus, developing self and others and strategic planning and implementation. Others in order were result oriented, change leadership and visioning, personal effectiveness, problem solving, decision making, communication and interpersonal skills. Surprisingly, teamwork came last. 18 Jan.'03, Financial Express
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- Wednesday, January 29, 2003US techies getting wary of Indians: The American scientists, computer programmers and other 'techies' are getting worried of the overseas dominance in the field of science and technology in the US job markets. Some US professionals have also grouped under a website called ZanZona.com and have urged the US Congress to take a serious look at the existing provisions of the Immigration Act which grants visas to foreign citizens every year into the limited job market of US scientists, engineers and computer programmers. 17 Jan.'03, The Economic Times
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- Wednesday, January 29, 2003Coke taps employees for referrals: `OK 4 KO': Coca-Cola India has chosen this unusual name for one of its HR programmes. OK 4 KO is actually the company's employee referral programme which enables employees to be partners in the company's recruitment process. Says Mr. Adil Malia, director HRD: 'this programme enables our employees to earn money when the person referred by them is selected by the company. The cost of recruitment has come down dramatically after the programme was introduced." 16 Jan.'03, The Financial Express
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- Wednesday, January 29, 2003Hewitt Associates launches study on best employers
: Hewitt Associates, global outsourcing and consulting firm has announced the launch of its study on the 'Best Employers in India in 2003.' The study aims at identifying the country's finest organisations and providing insights into how cutting edge human resource systems could meet employee needs and drive business results. The study is open to all organisations in India that have been established for a minimum of three years and employ not less than 100 white collar employees. Organisations with an interest in participating in the study, can either contact Hewitt Associates, or submit their application through the official website at www.BestEmployersIndia.com. 15 Jan.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Wednesday, January 29, 2003Corporates shun headhunters: Foreign companies who are seeking to cut costs, are giving less business to recruiters and simply doing their own hiring. The trend explains the sluggish financial performance of some large recruiters. But more than that its shaking up recruiting and hiring practices. Where outside recruiters handled almost all managerial searches at most large companies until recently, now companies are hiring and training internal recruiting staff, relying more heavily on funneling candidates through their corporate websites and stressing employee referral programmes like never before. 15 Jan.'03, The Economic Times
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- Wednesday, January 29, 2003Tata rope in HR guru to marry HR functions with Financials: Tata Group is in for a transformation which will see its HR function being aligned to increased financial performance. Towards this the Tata Group has roped in Dr Wayne Brockbank, clinical professor of business at the University of Michigan Business School, an HR guru who has been instrumental at bringing about similar transformations at Unilever, GE, Motorola, Citicorp, General Motors, Ford, Hewlett Packard among others. 15 Jan.'03, The Financial Express
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- Wednesday, January 29, 2003Job losses blot US economic scene: US payrolls unexpectedly fell by 101,000 in December and the unemployment rate stayed at 6 per cent, capping the first back to back years of job losses since the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s. The decline in jobs last month was the most since February and followed a revised 88,000 drop in November, the Labour Department said. It’s a jobless and joyless recovery,” said Mr Stuart Hoffman, Chief Economist at PNC Financial Group in Pittsburgh. 12 Jan.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Wednesday, January 29, 2003All VRS spend eligible for tax deduction: Companies are entitled to full income tax exemptions on the VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme) amount, the income tax appellate tribunal (ITAT) has ruled recently. The ITAT decision will apply to all companies which have made VRS payments before 2000-1, enabling them to claim tax exemptions. The tribunal took in account certain cases, including that of Machinery Manufacturing Corporation Ltd, where it was held that compensation to induce workmen to retire prematurely is an item of expenditure incurred by the company. 2 Jan.'03, The Economic Times
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- Monday, January 06, 2003Cost cutters displace empire builders in CEO suites: Cost cutters are in. Empire builders are out. That’s why so many European chief executives got the heave this year. Three years ago, the CEOs of European phone companies, banks and insurers were like Mr. Christopher Gent at Vodaphone and Mr. Rolf Breuer at Deutsche Bank. They expanded their businesses through acquisitions and planned internet services that would let Mom and Pop trade stocks on their mobile phones. Today's CEOs look more like Mr. Thierry Breton, the new man at France Telecom SA. He combines imagination--he has written science fiction and helped create a theme park, Futuroscope--with experience more attuned to a bear market: he sliced debt and losses at Thomson Multimedia and Bull SA in the 1990s. 1 Jan.'03, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, January 06, 2003"'Tracmail' initiates training effectiveness programme: Tracmail Ltd., a company operating in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) space , has now embarked on a host of programmes to enhance the training effectiveness in the organisation. Alongside, the company has also initiated a people-profiling exercise to get the right job-candidate fit during recruitments. Elaborating on the company's training effectiveness programme, says Tracmail CEO Mr. Arjun Vaznaik, "the effectiveness of the training at each stage is calibrated through a team of trainers and specialists. They closely work with the candidate through all stages of the training process until execution. 31 Dec. '02, Financial Express
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- Monday, January 06, 2003"Top 100 Indian American firms log $2.26-b revenue in 2001": The top 100 Indian American companies in the US together generated $2.26 billion in revenue in 2001, according to a survey published in the New York weekly, News India-Times. The survey said that the top 100 firms together employed 18,438 full-time workers in 2001. Satya Akula's AC technologies Inc. which provide a wide range of management and IT services and solutions to government agencies and companies across the US, topped the list of fastest growing Indian American firms. 31 Dec. '02,Economic Times
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- Monday, January 06, 2003Study says employee motivation not high: It is common for corporates to talk of employee recognition being one of the important tools for motivation. But in actual practice it is not widely prevalent in the corporate work environment. These are the initial inferences of a survey conducted by the Ahmedabad based consultant for Organisational Solutions. Very few corporates have the conviction to make acknowledgement and recognition an integral part of employee motivation. This is partly because there are a lot of power equations and cultural barriers among the top management that leads to hassles in implementing HR initiatives that acknowledge employee commitment. The other major challenge is ineffective reward management initiatives in the organisation thereby hindering such programmes. 30 Dec. '02,Financial Express
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- Monday, January 06, 2003If you're out of work, become an adventurer! Lots of people spending this holiday season contemplating how to start over. They have been laid off from companies downsizing in the recession and they have to find new employment in one of the worst job markets in decades. When you find yourself in such a position, its easy to panic. But just don’t grab the first job opportunity that comes along. Successful career changers typically require a transition period, during which you should explore a number of options. Ms. Gail Blanke, CEO of Lifedesigns, a New York executive coaching and corporate consultant urges clients who have lost their jobs to let go of old titles, old views of themselves and all the things that they think they've messed up on. She tells them to make a list of everything that may be undermining their confidence and holding them from finding a new path: self deprecating thoughts habits and even people who aren't supportive. 28 Dec. '02,Financial Express
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- Monday, January 06, 2003BPO companies to keep up surging growth rates:Indian Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms are expected to maintain their surging growth rates through 2003, as orders continue to flow from foreign companies wishing to outsource their costly operations to India. Industry watchers and experts say the availability of managerial talent, stronger processes and deep customer relationships – something which software service companies took long to acquire – could provide the necessary edge for the BPO industries to maintain a lead over its software cousins. Analysts argue that unbelievable high growth rates demonstrated by BPO firms seem unusual only if they are compared to those achieved by software service firms and not if they are compared against the performance of the BPO firms a year ago. 27 Dec.'02, The Economic Times
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- Monday, December 30, 2002Recruiters yet to cast Net for top managers:Online recruitment is yet to make a substantial impact on recruitment of top management at the level of CEO, MD, president, chairman etc., according to Mr. Stuart McKelvy, group president, Asia Pacific, TMP Worldwide. He said HR consultants spend heavily, often up to a third of the candidates final salary, just to get them interested in a job. According to him most HR consultants and head hunters preferred to be 100% certain of the candidates abilities and background, before making a final offer. Limited proliferation of the internet has restricted the growth of online recruitment, Mr. McKelvy said. However he added that the online recruitment market in India is fairly competitive, with portals such as Naukri.com, Jobshead and Jobstreet, giving applicants a reasonable choice. 25 Dec.'02, The Economic Times
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- Monday, December 30, 2002No work for India, but Indians can work in New Jersey:US State New Jersey’s legislative body, the Senate, has cleared the bill which will prevent outsourcing any work from the public sector enterprise to India. The bill planned that only citizens of United States and legal resident aliens in the United States shall be employed in performance of services under any contract from state enterprises. This means that Indians on H-1B visas will be allowed to work on state projects, but Indian firms or even US firms will not be able to send work offshore to India. Therefore, this work can be done onsite by Indians who have gone on valid work visas but cannot be sent offshore to India. It is unclear whether Indians on other visas like L-1A or L-1B will be allowed to work on the same projects. 24 Dec.'02, The Economic Times
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- Monday, December 30, 2002Big names, huge pays luring away ITES staff:The HR woes of the ITES industry, which has an unenviable average attrition rate of 26 percent, have only become worse with entry of new players in the field. Companies are now losing employees to competitors who are paying more. AOL, which has taken up 80,000 sq. ft. space in ITPL, Bangalore has been maintaining a very low profile about its activities. Industry sources say that the company was recruiting heavily till last month. AOL has reportedly been hiring large numbers and offering higher salaries, taking people away from other ITES players. In ITPL alone, there are six players in the space, with AOL and First American being the latest. It was the danger of “poaching”, for want of a better term, which lead the industry to form an HR association a year and a half ago. “We had an informal understanding that we would not touch one another’s people,” said Mr. Achar, AVP, HR , FirstRing, who also initiated the association. 24 Dec.'02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, December 30, 2002Call centres seen as 15% over-staffed:The call centre sector in India is currently overstaffed by around 15%, calling for an immediate reduction in workforce to bring overheads to a realistic level. This is over and above the 40% attrition rate that most of the companies face. One of the biggest problems that the Indian call centre companies face is the inability to predict call traffic and as a result of this the companies tend to hire more agents. Mr. Umesh Vyas, consulting partner QAI India, a firm that assists Indian call centre companies achieve global standards, says that high attrition rate is the main reason for the high rate of hiring. The companies also find it difficult to plan call handling shifts, which leads to over-hiring, and deploying more people than required. 23 Dec.'02, Business Standard
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- Monday, December 30, 2002Job security, terrorism worry consumers :Do you know what worries Indian consumers the most? Job security and terrorism. The good news is that economic worries are receding. These are some of the findings of the latest ACNielsen Asia Pacific Consumer Confidence Poll survey. The survey is based on 9,800 consumers in 13 markets across Asia-Pacific between November 20 and December 3. In India 531 respondents participated in the survey. 39% of Indians are concerned about job security, 22% are concerned about terrorism and only 21% are worried about a worsening economy. Indians also seem to be most optimistic about a recovery within the next year compared to other countries in the region. 23 Dec.'02, Business Standard
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- Monday, December 30, 2002How good is your TQ?Your IQ, EQ, FQ (fashion quotient), scores are pretty impressive. But you may still find yourself being rejected for that much desired job. Then its time to check your TQ (Training Quotient). Very soon, companies in India, will start considering this factor while recruitment. In fact the British Psychological Society, has developed a test for selection and training, which will be brought to India by Team Value Profiling Services, a Bangalore based HR consulting firm. According to Mr. Prahlad Rao, Managing Partner, TVPS, "this determines your ability to move from zero to full speed a significant factor in a leadership role." In other words TQ is the ability to respond to training. 22 Dec.'02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, December 30, 2002Companies reject Dress Code: As many as 84 per cent of HR managers and 60 per cent of employees rejected the proposition of companies adopting a dress code as a policy.This was revealed by a survey conducted by NFO-MBL India and HT careers among the varied sectors with and without a uniform policy. Although 61 per cent HR managers felt that a formal dress code promotes discipline,the impact on productivity and company image was minimal.In contrast 71 per cent of the employees felt that a uniform does positively impact productivity levels. 19 Dec.'02, Business Standard
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- Tuesday, December 24, 2002BPO's fighting escalating costs: Contrary to popular belief that costs associated with recruitment,training,retraining of manpower incurred by business process outsourcing (BPO) firms in metros are astronomical,non metros are now proving to be a costlier option. Most metros provide a cosmopolitan and westernised culture due to which the training requirements are significantly lower, entailing an overall decrease in training costs. Cities particularly Delhi,Mumbai and Bangalore benefit from lower indirect manpower costs,despite having higher direct costs in terms of salaries.Even recruitment costs in metros are lower as there are several avenues available.Infosys BPO subsidiary Progeon's Mr Sumanth Chirambi says rising manpower costs without commensurate increase in value could make India an unviable option for BPO business compared to counterparts in other countries. 18 Dec.'02, Economic Times
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- Tuesday, December 24, 2002How good are Indian companies at people management ? The conventional notion is that,in a business milieu dominated by traditional family owned conglomerates,there is a long way to go .This is broadly true,but benchmarked against their peers in Asia Pacific,it turns out that Indian corporations have made some unexpected progress in several areas.In a sample of 12 countries from the region(excluding Japan),India weighed in third behind Australia and New Zealand. Mr Sailesh Shah, managing director of Watson Wyatt India says, 'Most Indian family owned companies are beginning to worry about WTO and are making sure the right skills and competencies are being recruited.' The broad conclusion from the study is the same:that great people management equals great shareholder value.'One of the remarkable things about this whole study is just how common some of these best practices are across the globe,says Mr Paul Loof,Asia Pacific human capital group practice director and managin! g director,Watson Wyatt ,New Zealand. 17 Dec.'02, Business Standard
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- Tuesday, December 24, 2002Only companies with great leadership survive bad times: What makes modern businesses and people leaders in this contemporary era? Simplicity, speed, borderless universe and global learning. These were the outlines of GE India president and chief executive officer Mr Scott Bayman's talk during his recent visit to the SP Jain Institute of Management Studies and Research in Mumbai. Dwelling on the other dimension of winning leadership, Mr. Bayman said, "successful leadership is also about enforcing integrity. And integrity is not just about doing things in the right way, it is also the ability to speak one's mind freely, as also the ability to discern between whether one is serving personal or the company's interest." He further added that only companies with great leadership survive bad times. "A leader must see change as an opportunity," he said. 16 Dec.'02, Financial Express
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- Tuesday, December 24, 2002Pay packets to swell less next year: Salaries (net of inflation) in India Inc. will go up by an average of 4.5% during the coming financial year, 2003-04 according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting. This will be smaller than the average hike of 6% the corporate world took home at the beginning of the current financial year. However the consulting firm is yet to give its verdict on which sectors will see better than average pay hikes and which will not. It is also working out the details of segment-wise pay hike in each industry group. Still the salary hikes in India will be better than the hike of 1-3.5% above inflation that employees in most other countries can expect to get. 16 Dec.'02, Business Standard
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- Tuesday, December 24, 2002External 'mentor' is the trend: The 'mentoring' concept in the corporate world is the outcome of innovative HR initiatives that the new age companies boast of. In this situation, the role of the external mentor is slowly gaining an edge over the patronising character of the internal godfather. And when CEOs and senior executives need mentoring help, they would rather seek external mentors to hone their personal skills and competencies. This is also because revealing a chink in their personalities to an insider creates more problems than necessary. Mr. Ramesh Batavia, a Bangalore-based professional who has mentored over 400 people says, 'in my mentoring experience I find that the most common psychological problem among people in the corporate world is the lack of confidence." All of them lack the basic skills needed for the job resulting in the high level of insecurity. In a mentoring model the mentor works closely with his protégé for a specified d! uration of time. "This is predetermined based on the participant's need." During the programme, the mentor and the protégé meet once a week for an hour to thrash out all the issues plaguing the latter's mind. 16 Dec.'02, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 24, 2002"Introverts get more tired at work": Introverts have a higher chance of becoming tired than their extrovert colleagues while working, a study into the influence of personality on tiredness has revealed. The report was published in a newsletter by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. The report said that the degree to which people experience their workload was a significant factor while the manner in which they cope with problems does not influence tiredness. A typical extrovert person generally does not think much before involving himself into something whereas an introvert would think a lot before doing anything, he said. Introverts are more likely to become tired at work as they do a lot of mental work besides the physical work. 16 Dec.'02, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 24, 2002Wipro woos back ex-employees with operation 'Reverse Swing': During the last six months 12 employee's have returned to Wipro Infotech's fold. Some of them had left the company as long as five years ago. While it may not seem unusual for employees to return to the same oragnisation, Wipro Infotech, the domestic and AsiaPacific IT arm of $715 million Wipro Ltd., literally pines for the talented employees which have left it. So when a highly valued employee leaves Wipro Infotech, 'operation reverse swing' is immediately deployed to woo him back to the fold. " If an employee leaves an organisation, we don’t consider him a villain.," says Wipro Infotech HR GM, Mr. Shabbir Merchant. The employee, as in most companies, faces an exit interview. "But we take these exit interviews very seriously. Because the feedback we get goes towards removing glitches in our HR policies which in turn helps us in retention of talent. "It is extremely important to know what was the thought process behin! d an employee's decision to resign. Once that is taken care of , the 'operation reverse swing' comes into force after taking into consideration whether the employee is worth being wooed back. 16 Dec.'02, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 24, 2002Thinking of Job Training? First, do your homework: The notion that people leave college and embark on a career without visiting a classroom again has already faded in recent years. Amid a punishing job market, many workers feel even more urgency to gain new skills and certifications that they hope will open the door to a new career or provide job security in their current position. But the key, as it is in all successful job quests, is detailed research into what the demands and expectations are for workers in your chosen field. Mr. Pat Galagan, MD of content for the American Society for Training and Development, Alexandria, Va., advises employees and job seekers alike to devise a 'continual learning plan.' Your chart should include an evaluation of skills that will be most in demand in your industry or region in the long term, along with the steps you'll need to take along the way. You also must figure out whether to attend classes in person or over the internet say! s Ms. Bernadette Kenny, an executive V-P of Lee Hecht Harrison, a global career services company based in Woodcliff Lake. 14 Dec.'02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 24, 2002ITes sector faces bad English hiccup: The hype over people advantage for ITes (IT eabled services) industry in India notwithstanding, the quality of graduates in the country are a major worry as far as employability in this sector is concerned. According to McKinsey, apart from Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, the quality of graduates applying for jobs in the IteS industry, specially in contact services like call centres, left much to be desired. “Even though the country churns out nearly one lakh graduates every year (excluding engineers), the quality goes down when we move from these three places. On an average, out of 100 people interviewed for the IteS job only six qualify in these three cities. If we move out to any other place, this is not even two,” Mr. Pramath Sinha, principal, McKinsey, said in Kolkata. 13 Dec.'02, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 24, 200223 Lakh jobs for IT personnel by end of 10th plan: As per Nasscom estimates, 23.67 lakh jobs are estimated to be created for trained information technology personnel by the end of the 10th five-year plan. About 5.2 lakh jobs have been created by the IT industry, minister of state for communications and information technology Mr. Sanjay Paswan said in a written reply.Mr Paswan added that 50,000 IT professionals are extimated to have been employed abroad as per Nasscom estimates. 13 Dec.'02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 24, 2002Internet affects employee productivity positively:A Harvard economist, Mr Richard B. Freeman, has said that Internet's impact on the workplace is substantial--and mostly for the better. Using Government data from 1998 through 2001, Mr. Freeman found that workers who used internet on the job worked five percent longer hours than those who didn’t, other things being equal. That doesn’t include the extra time that people spend checking into work from home over the internet. In 2001, 41% workers between 18-65 used the net, compared with 17% in 1997. Mr Freeman also predicts that the internet will allow more cross-border connections between job seekers and job offerers. "A person in Russia or India has the same access to job listings as a person in Detroit." 11 Dec. '02, The Times of India, Ascent
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 17, 2002Companies need to respect emotions for profits and productivity:A book called "Follow this path: How the world's greatest organisations drive growth by unleashing human potential,' by The Gallup Organisation Path Leaders, Mr. Curt Coffman, Mr. Gabriel Gonzalez-Molina and Mr. Ashok Gopal, shows how companies have improved their revenue growth and their earnings growth rate by managing customer and employee engagement, the real drivers of sustainable growth. The book says that great companies recognise that people are driven first by emotions and therefore must become emotionally engaged with a company to either work for it or buy from it. This new order is termed the 'emotional economy.' In it, the companies and those who run them must learn to recognise their employees strengths and use the workers to connect with their customer at an emotional level. 11 Dec. '02, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 17, 2002Training initiatives: Bharti Mobile ties up with IIM-B:In a bid to enhance the overall orientation of its employees, Bharti Mobile Ltd. has now initiated a strategic development programme. Accordingly, the company has tied up with IIM-Bangalore to conduct these programmes that form a part of its initiatives in training and development. Says Bharti Mobile CEO (South Central region) Mr. Jagdish Kini: " All these initiatives are being carried out with a view to enhancing the capabilities of fast-track employees in the establishment." 11 Dec. '02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 17, 2002CII HR team to visit Malaysia and Singapore:A delegation of senior HR managers representing Indian industry is leaving for a four day mission, to Malaysia and Singapore to share best practices in HR with their counterparts in these countries. The objective of the mission is to benchmark best practices in strategic HR planning, performance management, training and development, compensation and retention. 10 Dec. '02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 17, 2002Workshop highlights sexual harassment impact on corporates:A day-long workshop on 'Sexual harassment in the workplace: towards organisational preparedness' organised by the Birla Institute of Management Technology (Bim-Tech) looked at this issue more closely with participants agreeing that with the 1997 Supreme Court guidelines, (known as the Vishakha judgement) having set the tone, now its for organisations to take the fight forward. But till that stage, organisations need to do a lot to ensure a safe working environment for women. In-service and induction training and better quality of recruitment could be helpful. 10 Dec. '02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 17, 2002BEL gets award for 'best employer of disabled':Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) has for the third time received the National Award for Outstanding Performance as Employer of Persons with Disabilities. The award is in recognition of the defence PSU's track record in offering placement and good work environment for the physically challenged. 7 Dec. '02, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 17, 2002Companies chant the health mantra for more productivity:'Only a healthy body has a healthy mind,' seems the new corporate mantra. While companies such as Indian Oil, Infosys, Coca-Cola, Wipro and McKinsey have set up health centres to keep their employees fit, CEOs including Reliance Industries vice-chairman Mr. Anil Ambani and UB group's chairman Mr. Vijay Mallya have installed personal gyms to keep themselves healthy. Stressing on the importance of healthy life-style in knowledge industry, Infosys spokesman says, "at Infosys we believe that a healthy Infoscian is a happy Infoscian and a happy Infoscian is a more productive Infoscian." In addition to the gyms, most development centres have adequate infrastructure for sports like basketball, tennis etc. 7 Dec. '02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 17, 2002Demand for information chiefs picks up:There is a glimmer of hope for chief information officers who have been unsuccessfully looking for work recently. Companies are once again approaching placement agencies about finding chief information officers. 'Many had been unwilling to spend money on hiring information-technology professionals since early 2001. But in the last six months, we've booked three great assignments for CIO people,' says Mr Craig Randall, Managing Director of DHR,a Chicago search firm. However, in the current belt tightening environment, companies are looking for information chiefs who know not just technology but also understand business and what affects the bottom line. 7 Dec. '02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 17, 2002Workplace bullying can lead to more stress related illness:Workplace psycho-terror, as distinct from violent intimidation or sexual harassment, is hard to detect because it involves subtle techniques such as deliberately ignoring or excluding someone, but the effect can be devastating. Victims take sick leave to avoid intensely painful, humiliating situations, some develop stress-related illnesses and in the most extreme cases it can lead to suicide. Mr. Mark Pearson, president of the European Human Resources Forum, said that clear-cut cases of the problem had to be dealt with in a tough manner. "Very few employers know how to handle this," when the bullying is not obvious he said. "you can teach managing diversity well, but not how to handle what are fundamentally destructive impulses in the work force. 7 Dec. '02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 17, 2002Perk for jobless yuppies: great deals on yoga class:Thousands of laid-off white-collar workers are enjoying a yuppie brand of charity. In little acts of kindness, local fitness centres, yoga teachers, professional associations and many others are coming up with laid-off discounts so that jobless can continue their favourites hobbies and activities. In Massachusetts, a software firm named SolidWorks Corp in March began offering unemployed design engineers six months of free access to its software, as well as discount for training on the product. The exclusive discounts aren't motivated entirely by altruism. Gyms and networking associations, among other white collar bastions, are hurting so badly for business in the economic downturn that many are willing to extend steep concessions to keep customers and attract new ones. Often the special rates are doled out on a case-by-case basis. 7 Dec. '02, Indian Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 17, 2002Million dollar round table to have more Indians :India's representation on the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), now exceeds one per cent of the total world-wide membership following the opening up of the insurance sector to private competition. MDRT is the premier global association of financial professionals who deliver high levels of performance. Till last year, India's representation was negligible among the then 25,000 strong MDRT members. Today with the entry of new players and the incentives offered to their insurance advisors, the number of Indian representatives has more than doubled from 144 in March 2001, to 297 in March 2002. Globally the number of MDRT members has risen to 28,000.Founded in 1927, MDRT has representations from 74 nations world-wide. MDRT membership is available on an annual basis to agents meeting a high level of performance (currently earnings of Rs 4,97,500 in eligible commissions or Rs. 1,492,500 in premiums. 6 Dec. '02, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, December 17, 2002Inventive employees in UK may get royalties: Employees who dream up lucrative inventions could share in their employers' profits under government plans to radically change patent laws. The move would be the biggest patents shake-up for a quarter of a century. The department of Trade and Industry is considering ways for inventors to share the fruits of their research, such as awarding them a percentage of royalty payments. 5 Dec.'02,Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, December 11, 2002Tech executives feel shakeout isn't over yet: Information Technology, telecommunications and media companies are bracing for further industry fallout and doing intense soul searching after more than two years into the tech bust, according to a study released. Executives surveyed expect bankruptcies and restructuring to continue as adoption rates of new technologies, such as e-commerce, wireless and high speed internet services fail to live up to earlier forecasts. 5 Dec.'02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, December 11, 2002Indian employees score high on loyalty: Indian employees are more loyal to both their jobs and the companies they work for than their international counterparts, according to Global Employee Commitment 2002 Report released by Taylor Nelson Sofres Mode. While 54% of Indian employees show a high commitment to their jobs as well as the companies, globally only 44% of the employees do so. Only 29% Indians exhibit a low level of commitment to their jobs as well as their companies. This however is better than the global average of 35%. 4 Dec.'02, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, December 11, 2002BPO forays may create HR issues for companies: Indian IT companies entering the BPO segment may face a HR problem: how to manage the heterogenous mix of personnel when it comes to working out remuneration or recruitment. The IT majors have so far been recruiting from the best engineering and management schools. Said Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) executive director, Mr. Ambarish Dasgupta, "normally the companies should have a separate entity with a different set of rules, remuneration, training programme and working environment. This is for the companies which are doing simple backend jobs like data processing for US clients. But sophisticated ITeS services like remote management activities require employees with engineering background." According to CTS chief knowledge officer, Mr. R Rajkumar, major Indian IT companies entering the BPO business should have an "outside-the-box" approach in HR management as they cannot afford to have a high attrition rate. "I know! that a BPO entity of at least one IT service company has employed a chief fun officer to keep its BPO employees happy." 4 Dec.'02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, December 11, 2002Wipro inducts 'Appreciative Inquiry' for better team work: In an effort to institutionalise strong team dynamics within the organisation, Wipro Ltd. is now deploying 'Appreciative Inquiry' as a part of HR initiative. Says Mr. Rajesh Sharma, manager-talent engagement & development and Head HR (Finance Solutions) Wipro Technologies Ltd. "the initiative is aimed at enabling the teams in moving towards adopting a solution-centric approach to solving business puzzles." 2 Dec.'02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, December 11, 2002Call Centre may get wake-up call over Shops Act: Call centre operators beware! If you are not following the provisions of the Delhi Shops and Establishments Act of 1954, or not seeking exemptions under it, you may be prosecuted. According to the provisions of the Act, women employees are not allowed to work overnight and also those working on holidays are entitled to double wages and compensatory leave. "Any call centre in Delhi not complying with these provisions of the Act or having not applied for exemptions from them is likely to be prosecuted, says Mr. MK Gaur, chief inspector of shops and establishments in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. 2 Dec.'02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, December 11, 2002Dress Code? Forget it! survey conducted by NFO MBL India among HR managers and employees on whether companies should, as a matter of policy, adopt uniforms or company dress codes has revealed that 84% of managers and 60% of employees have rejected the proposition. According to Mr. Gautam Nath, Director Corporate Services, NFO MBL India, " uniforms are perceived as monotonous, regimental and restrictive. The true concept of flaunting company credo and colours is yet to seep in." The survey was conducted among varied sectors, with and without a common dress code policy. While 61% of the HR managers were of a view that a formal dress code did promote discipline, they felt that its impact on productivity and the company's image was minimal. But about 71% of the employees surveyed felt that uniforms do positively impact productivity levels. 1 Dec.'02, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, December 11, 2002Jobless & American? Blame H-1B:Public and political opinion in the US is getting clouded against keeping the H-1B visa cap at the current 1.95 lakh level. Politicians are questioning the impact of H-1B visas on the American jobs. Two Democrat senators have recently asked the US federal accounting Office to conduct a study into the impact of H-1B visas on US jobs. The report is due next year, and could be a critical input to the US Congress debate on letting the H-1B visa cap lapse to 65,000 from the current 1.95 lakh level. 30 Nov.'02, Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, December 11, 2002Leading the show :Hughes BPO's Aadesh Goyal and HCL E Serve's Sujit Baksi are uncommon
occupants of the corner offices in their organisations. Both these
executives spent their career in human resources till as recently as
six months ago.
But today they're busy making sales pitches to clients, trying to
meet revenue forecasts and charting the future of their companies.
They aren't the only ones to do so either. In the year gone by, many
executives have managed to make the dramatic leap from head of human
resources to chief executive of a corporation - and quite
successfully too.
The HR chiefs of late are being considered for the top job, given
the growing clout of HR in the corporations of tomorrow.
The back-room boys from HR, who used to be treated like stepchildren
when compared to their counterparts from the more 'glamorous'
marketing, sales and finance departments, have started leading their
organisations. Things are expected to get even better in the coming
years as more of these 'HR-CEOs' take centrestage.
If you don't believe us, here are some high-profile moves: Raman
Madhok, CEO, Jindal Iron and Steel; Vineet Chhabra, managing
director, Global Green, the agriculture business of BILT; Ashok
Lahiri, MD, ABP group, formerly head of HR for Unilever UK, and
Pepsi's former HR director Mahendra Swarup, who currently heads
Times Internet, a subsidiary of the Times of India group.
Other, earlier examples include MRR Nair, CEO of Steel Authority of
India and Ravi Bhoothalingam, CEO of Vazir Sultan Tobacco (a
subsidiary of BAT). An important factor boosting the chances for HR
heads is the fact that, globally, companies are asking potential
CEOs to do a stint in HR as head of that function.
Even in India, there are executives like Keki Dadiseth, former
chairman of HLL, and K Ramachandran, managing director and chief
executive of Philips India, who served as heads of HR before going
on to become the top men in their organisations.
Says Ramachandran: "I owe my success to those five years I spent as
HR head. Today, if I had to groom a potential CEO, I'd make sure he
spent some time as head of HR."
Their biggest ally in this change has been the changing face of
their function. It's no longer the textbook HR of the 70s and 80s,
with its emphasis on industrial relations, and mandate to
provide 'support' to the company by training, retaining and firing
employees. It's all about being a business partner who can bring
value to the business through human capital initiatives.
Says Sujit Baksi, chief executive, HCL E Serve: "Things changed in
the last five years. Earlier, HR was more a service function, so its
people weren't seen capable of leading the business."
There are now a few in India who have managed to put a foot in the
door, though mainly in the services sector. Says NS Rajan, national
director, HR Advisory Services, Ernst & Young India: "It's happening
in telecom, IT and services - basically the people-intensive
sectors. Within IT, it's mainly in BPO operations, which are more
people intensive, than technology intensive."
Another one who's gained in stature and importance within the Rs
27,000-crore Aditya Birla Group is Santrupt Misra, director of the
Birla Management Corporation. "It's happening in sectors where
service element is a dominant revenue earner, such as healthcare,
call centres and cellular telephony," explains Misra.
The fact that there are exceptions to the sector focus - Jindal's
Madhok and BILT's Chhabra - can only mean well for the HR
fraternity, since it indicates that even in the old economy, the
candidate's ability to take the business forward is taking
precedence over other considerations. Explains Chhabra: "Look at two
aspects: the initiative and drive the person has, and the exposure
he's had through the years."
There are two dominant factors at play here. For one, HR heads gain
attention when they can demonstrate `business acumen', and not just
soft skills. Today, it's all about partnering business through human
capital initiatives.
Says Hugh Bucknall, a Singapore-based consultant with Mercer
Consulting: "It appears that heads of HR who align themselves with
the process of running the business as a business partner, are more
likely to be considered for the position of the CEO in the long run,
than those who run the HR function as it was traditionally meant to
be run."
Secondly, HR chiefs are increasingly using more quantitative
approaches and assessing the impact of human initiatives on
business, thereby enhancing the credibility and effectiveness as a
senior player. As HR heads bring more numbers than narrative to the
management of HR, the business community can see for itself the
value delivered by better HR chiefs - and this, in turn, encourages
boards to look at them as potential CEOs, both internally through
succession and from outside.
Technology is enabling HR to get out of its payroll-administration-
and-benefits mindset. The administrative part of HR is either
getting outsourced, or is vanishing totally, leaving its proponents
with time to play a more strategic and facilitating role. And that's
giving them a voice on the strategy table and the board.
Also, as HR chiefs become more confident about their knowledge of
business and ability to take it forward, they will not feel
inhibited about their capabilities to become CEOs.
"HR people are extremely comfortable in their cocoon. Their own
imagination limits them," says Madhok. The aspiration to be CEO has
played a big role in the past, since most HR chiefs didn't even
think it likely, and did not venture out of their own world. Says
Aadesh Goyal, vice president, Hughes Software Systems, and head of
its BPO division: "HR people have a much better idea about business
today than they did ten years ago."
History indicates that HR's time has come. When manufacturing was
driving value through automation, and reductions in cycle time and
cost, manufacturing executives became CEOs. Next, when value was
being driven by shrewd financial management - such as IPOs and M&As -
it was the CFO who rose to the top role.
Today, we are constantly being reminded about the value of our human
capital. As people become increasingly prominent drivers of
shareholder value, HR heads might have their turn at the top. For
now, the HR-CEOs have a big responsibility, because they are the
front-runners whose innings at the top will decide whether others
like them will get a chance to be part of the elite club. 29 Nov.'02, Economic Times' Corporate Dossier
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, December 04, 2002BPO Companies grapple with manpower optimisation:Maintaining an optimum level of manpower utilisation in BPO(business process outsourcing)outfits is proving to be difficult. If it was longer sales cycles earlier,its lack of strong customer references,marketing expertise and a front end in the international markets that is preventing BPO firms from maintaining healthy manpower utilisation levels of 70% and up. Costs associated with the human resource account for roughly 30% of the total cost in a BPO outfit and with the current rate of attrition hovering around 40%,companies would have to utilise their manpower efficiently if they have to be competitive.The unbelieveably high growth rates reported by most BPO firms are not likely to last. Analysts say the increased competition and inability to utilise available manpower and capacity could impact revenues per seat. 29 Nov.'02, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, November 30, 2002India ranks 3rd in Asia-Pacific Human Resources:India has been ranked third in terms of human capital resources, practices and developments among 12 Asia-Pacific countries, according to global management consulting firm Watson Wyatt. Over 500 companies, including 119 firms from India participated in the consultancy firm’s first ever Asia-Pacific HCI survey, spanning 12 countries in the region, sans Japan. 23 Nov.'02, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Saturday, November 24, 2002Winners of the DMA- Watson Wyatt “Award for Excellence in Innovative HR Practice”:Delhi Management Association (DMA) and Watson Wyatt announced the winners of the “Award for Excellence in Innovative HR Practice”. J. K. Corp. was judged the winner, while the first runner up was Spectramind and the second runner up Samtel Group. The awards were adjudicated on October 12, 2002 in Delhi where the 10 short-listed companies made their final presentations. The short-listed companies included Gillette India, Escotel, Pharmacia, JKCorp, LG Electronics, HCL, Spectramind, Samtel, Xansa, Larsen and Toubro. 22 Nov.'02, DMA-Watson Wyatt Press Release
: Team at humanlinks
-Saturday, November 23, 2002Software, ITES bring in more jobs for women:Software and IT- enabled services(ITES) has broadened the job prospects for women, as a result ,women in Asian and Latin American countries hold more than 20 per cent of professional jobs in software services according to an E-commerce and development report 2002 of UNCTAD. The major ICT (Information Communication Technology) markets have serious shortage of IT skills at present and the gap between demand and supply is likely to reach 28 per cent by 2004. The implications are promising for women, whose labour force participation rates have been rising in developing countries. This means the internet has the potential to ensure a level playing field for women and men. 21 Nov.'02, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, November 22, 2002US services to lose 3.3 million jobs to India, China:Over the next 15 years,3.3 million US services jobs and $136 billion in wages will move offshore to countries such as India and China. Forrester research group director Mr John McCarthy said the numbers could easily double when the rest of G-7 countries such as Japan, U.K and Germany are included. 21 Nov.'02, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, November 22, 2002Women - Slow going for the top jobs:Women are climbing the corporate ladder rung by rung but the ascent to equality in the upper echelons of corporate America remains a daunting one, a new study shows. Women hold 15.7 per cent of the corporate officer positions in the Fortune 500 companies, according to Catalyst (a non profit research and advisory organisation). That 15.7 per cent - or 2140 out of 13673 corporate officer positions - is up from 12.5 per cent in 2000 and 8.7 per cent in 1995. 20 Nov.'02, The Times Of India
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, November 21, 2002India has lowest percentage of professional women: UNCTAD:India has one of the lowest percentage of female professional and technical workers at 20.5% as compared to several Asian and African countries, according to the E-commerce and Development Report 2002 released by UNCTAD. While China has 45.1% of women as professional and technical workers as a percentage of total, Philippines has 65.1% in the Asian region and on a global scale Lithuania has the maximum of 67.5%, says the report. 19 Nov.'02, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, November 20, 2002HR firms booming as job market picks up:Roles are being reversed in the headhunting business. Business is booming for the economy’s headhunters and inevitably so is the need for experienced personnel. Thus it is the HR consultants, who are being hunted now, receiving a barrage of job offers. Says Mr. Tarun Bali, CEO, ABC Consultants, “By far I think we’ve had our best year yet with the IT industry and software companies which are hiring big time.” Adding new expertise has also helped HR firms. Filling one or two jobs can be short-term assignments. But throwing in consultancy services means that HR firms build a more long-term relationship with their clients. According to estimates, a firm that offers both recruitment and consultancy as a package fetches close to 30% margins from the clients. As a result, today consultancy accounts for almost 40% of business in most search firms. 18 Nov.'02, The Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, November 19, 2002 Companies use innovative 360-degrees-reference checks in hiring:The 360-degree form of evaluation has conventionally been used by corporates to evaluate employee performance. However corporates are now using a 360-degrees-process even in the process of recruitment. Termed as the “360-degrees-reference checks” this system of evaluation entails that before inducting new talent into the organization, corporates go back to the previous employees of the candidate and obtain a feedback from the peers, bosses and subordinates from that establishment on a host of parameters. “In fact this system of feedback is used to re-validate some of the attributes on which we may need some more substantiation, before the person is recruited in the organization.” Says Mr. Pervez Jokhi, National Manager Human Resources, AFL Ltd. 16 Nov.'02, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Sunday, November 17, 2002 When bad bosses happen to good people:Why do talented employees leave despite a top salary? The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called First Break All the Rules. It came up with this surprising finding: if you are losing good people, look to their immediate supervisor. More than any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he’s the reason why they quit, taking their knowledge, experience and contacts with them. Often straight to the competition. “People leave managers not companies,” write the authors Mr Marcus Buckingham and Mr Curt Coffman. ‘ So much money has been thrown at the challenge of keeping good people—in the form of better pay, better perks and better training—when in the end the turnover is mostly a manager issue.” If you have a turnover problem look first to y! our managers. Are they driving people away? Beyond a point an employee’s primary need has less to do with money and more to do with how he’s treated and how valued he feels. Much of it depends directly on the immediate manager. Of all the workplace stresses a bad boss is possibly the worst, directly impacting the emotional health and productivity of employees. 16 Nov.'02, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Sunday, November 17, 2002Springing to life:
If there is one factor common to the Q2 results of the three job sites, we contacted for this survey, it is this: there is a revival yes, but only in some sectors; and there is an anticipation of a revival in some more. Here are a few trends outlined by the spokespersons of three leading Indian jobsites: naukri.com, monsterindia.com, humanlinks.com.
The number of resume postings on the sites have increased
“Resume registrations on naukri.com have seen a 50 per cent increase in the last quarter. At the end of JQ, we were getting 2000 new registrations; and nearly 2500 people were modifying their CVs on our site per day. But now, by the end of the September quarter, site registrations have increased to almost 3000 and CV postings have also jumped by 30-40 per cent over the previous quarter,” says Hitesh Oberoi, Director (Sales & Marketing), naukri.com.
Arun Tadanki, Country Manager, monsterindia.com says, “We are growing at the rate of 1200-1500 resumes a day,” while Kalpana Padhi, Director, humanlinks.com adds, “In the AMJ quarter of 2000, we received nearly 3750 resumes. In the JAS quarter, there was a perceptible increase of 10 per cent.”
Vacancy postings have increased
According to Oberoi, “The trend that we have observed is that the big companies have begun to hire, while the midsize companies are showing signs of recovery. At the beginning of the quarter, we had 13,000 job listings at any given point of time. But, by the end of September, that number grew to 18,000 listings.”
“The absolute number of job postings has gone up substantially on our site, indicating that the hiring sentiment is definitely on the upswing,” asserts Tadanki.
Padhi adds, “The number of vacancies on our site have gone up by 18 per cent.”
Has it resulted in more hirings?
“Yes,” maintains Oberoi. “We would have helped place some 25,000-odd people through our site over the last quarter.”
“We did not record the transactions, but, approaching this issue from another angle, the high percentage of membership renewals at our site indicates that corporates and recruitment consultants are hiring, although we cannot put a specific figure to it,” says Tadanki. Padhi refutes this, “From the feedback that we have received from our candidates, there is not much of a difference in the actual hiring rate, except in a few sectors. Maybe, the job postings are merely to build up the pipeline of appropriate resumes in anticipation of a revival.”
What she means is that since it takes a while for recruiters to zero in on the right profile, what they have been doing over the last few months is building up their databases for some positions, hoping to cash in on any business revival anticipated in the near future.
What sectors are in revival mode?
All three online placement consultants agree that Information Technology has begun to do well again. “IT, IT Enabled Services, Telecom and Insurance are picking up. The Bangalore market is also doing pretty well,” remarks Oberoi. “Pharmaceuticals and ITES are doing well,” says Padhi. And, going by functional preferences, “We are surprised that there are more jobs in the Human Resource department than in the traditional Advertising/ Marketing segment,” says Tadanki.
“Biotechnology as a category has begun to contribute 2 per cent to our total job postings,” he adds. However, the bad news is that outside the segments mentioned above, the market response is still not very optimistic. “There is no perceptible improvement in the FMCG and Manufacturing sectors. These may take another 6-8 months to recover,” says Oberoi.
Any change in the employee profile?
“More than 90 per cent of the recruiters have begun to demand people with at least two-three years experience. The only exceptions are the ITES and BPO categories,” asserts Tadanki.
“One thing is obvious,” says Padhi. “The recruiters, particularly in IT, are being more selective and the 'CV generated to Hiring' ratio is much higher now than it was during the boom time.” In other words recruiters are testing the waters more closely now. They are, beginning to give more credence to competency rather than the number of years put in a particular sector.
Any change in the compensation?
“At the entry level there is a significant (20-30 per cent) drop in compensation. Mid-career benchmarks have either stayed put or grown marginally as the demand for more experienced people has increased sharply in comparison to entry-level people. Senior executive compensation has also taken a drop as the unrealistic benchmarks of the dotcom era, are no longer valid,” says Tadanki.
“In a way it is a pure demand and supply game. Two years ago, there was a shortage of IT professionals, today; it is the other way round. Therefore, the bargaining power has slipped back into the hands of the companies. At the same time, big companies have not cut down on their salary structures. All they have done is become more choosy. In non-IT sectors employees at the junior and middle level do not have any bargaining power. They are willing to trade a lower salary for greater job security,” Oberoi explains.
Padhi does not want to comment on the salary issue. “It is too early to say,” she says, “If any revision in compensation is happening, it is very company specific,” she adds.
The upshot?
We are there, but not quite there yet. Open the champagne later!
The Big Recruiters
IT: Wipro, Satyam, Techspan, Samsung Infotech, Geometric Software Services
Telecom: Bharati Cellular, Motorola, Hutchison Essar Telecom, Reliance Infocom, BPL
Mobile Communications
IT Enabled services: Daksh, Spectramind, eServe International, EXL Services, Tracmail, Epicenter Technologies
Insurance: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, AVIVA Life Insurance, TATA AIG, Birla Sun Life Insurance, Max New York Life, Om Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance
Pharma: Panacea Biotech, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson Professional Products, Bipac India Corporation 07 Nov.'02, HT Careers
: Humanlinks team
- Thursday, November 14, 2002Look out for bigger hikes next year: The salary increments in 2003 - -04 will be better than the increments handed out by companies at the beginning of the current financial year, according to the global outsourcing and consulting firm, Hewitt Associates, thus pointing at a better corporate performance this year as compared to last year. The firm has projected that salaries will improve 11.1 per cent on average during 2003-04, as compared to a rise of 9.9 per cent in 2002 – 03. 08 Nov.'02, The Business Standard
: The humanlinks team
- Sunday, November 10, 2002Companies back in hiring mode: After a traumatic year, search firms now have something to smile about. Whether it’s manufacturing, FMCG, retail, the insatiable IT-enabled services sector, automobiles or pharma, almost everyone’s back to hiring mode. Last year’s hot pick -investment banking – is no longer sizzling, but other sectors are on a roll. Retail appears to be a sector whose time has come. Says Ms. Purnima Das of Kelly Services India: “Almost all big international retailers are camping at the foreign investment promotion board offices waiting for clearance. They all have plans for India and will be on the lookout for talent. The issue is not that of opportunities, but of the availability of the right people.” Don’t believe us, hear this-a conglomerate with mega retail plans has hired a HR head at Rs. 1 crore per annum. The scramble for talent is so pronounced that companies are pulling out all stops to retain their star performers. 08 Nov.'02, The Economic Times
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- Sunday, November 10, 2002Internet as a tool for job hunting!: The arrival of the net heralded a new method for job seekers, and by mid-2000, one in four unemployed job seekers in the US was using the net to find an employer; and one in ten employed persons regularly looked for other jobs online. Mr. Peter Kuhn of the University of California and Mr. Mikal Skuterad of Statistics Canada have written a paper titled, “Internet Job Search and Unemployment durations.” The paper tries to understand the processes by which job seekers choose to use Internet methods to look for work and to estimate the effect of incorporating the Internet in the job search strategy. The authors write that net job seekers are better educated and have previously worked in occupations with lower unemployment rates, They are also “more likely to be employed one year after their search methods are observed than are other unemployed workers.” Interestingly, unemployed workers who look for work online were ‘more likely, not less likely, to use traditional job search methods than others who do not look towards online for work.” This shows that the job hunters on the net put in an overall greater investment in their search for jobs. 06 Nov.'02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Sunday, November 10, 2002US relaxes H-1B rules for doctors, IT professionals: It is now official, On November 2, President George W Bush signed the department of Justice Authorization Bill that will make extension for H1B visas easier. It will also make it possible for more Indian doctors to live and work in the US once their academic programme is over. The extension of H1B visas will particularly benefit the tech sector. This is good news for Indian H 1B-visa holders, as nearly 50% of them are working in the high tech sector. Industry too will benefit, since there will be fewer instances of project disruption from the loss of key employees. 06 Nov.'02, The Economic Times
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- Sunday, November 10, 2002ICICI rolls out new initiative of peer review: ICICI Bank Ltd. has deployed a new initiative termed 180-degree feedback. The endeavor is termed 180-degree feedback because the bank will be culling out the development needs of employees only from peers and subordinates and not from the immediate superior of the individual concerned unlike the traditional feedback system. Says ICICI Bank’s General Manager Mr. K Ramkumar: "We have developed the new initiative to tackle the gap of power equation that the coventional feedback system often confronts." 06 Nov.'02, The Financial Express
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- Sunday, November 10, 2002Clear link between HR practices and financial performance: Groom your people to grow your business – this seems to be the conclusion of the Asia Pacific Human Capital Index Survey conducted by Watson Wyatt, an HR Consulting firm that specializes in human capital strategy. According to the study, there is a clear link between people practices and superior financial performance of a corporate enterprise. Watson Wyatt India Pvt. Ltd. Managing Director Mr. Shailesh Shah said, “the Asia Pacific HCI survey clearly indicates that more than anything else a company’s best prospects for sustainable competitive advantage lies in the innovation, capability and teamwork of its professionals.” 04 Nov.'02, The Financial Express
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- Sunday, November 10, 2002Pink slip showing, IIM grads say home’s where worth is: significant number of recent Indian Institute of Management graduates who had landed the hottest campus offers on foreign shores in the financial sector, are slowly heading home. The pink slip syndrome that has gripped the financial sector has left many of these professionals with few options to choose from. With investment banking reportedly in its worst recession since the mid – 1970s, major players such as Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan, and CSFB have pruned staff. In fact, investment banks and brokerages are reported to have cut 61,000 jobs since the end of 2000. And the ranks of IIM grads among them is swelling. This is probably the first time that IIM grads are facing a situation where the only choice is to look for jobs back home. ”My Chartered Accountant and MBA qualification would at least ensure that I can get a decent opening in India, “ said one of the IIM graduates. 04 Nov.'02, The Economic Times
: The humanlinks team
- Sunday, November 10, 2002Indian IT companies have more growth in employees than revenue: The Indian IT software businesses are dependent on employees-both on their numbers and their skills. The more the merrier, is typically the stance that most companies have taken, since the dawn of the industry. But in the quarter ending September 2002, it looks like an increase in employee strength has not necessarily resulted in as much merriment, viz -net profits, for some companies. Interestingly, by the end of the year, the industry could see even more recruitment. Operating profit margins have been hit, all right. Another way of looking at the picture is to see how efficiently companies have used employees for generating revenues and profits. It is clear that some companies have turned in lesser net profits per employee. So employee growth has transcended revenue growth. However, Mr. Ahuja, an analyst with Deutsche Securities says that “recruitment for larger companies will continue to be strong as volume has picked-up and utilization is close to optimal levels (high 70s)”. He adds that in terms of numbers it does mean many more jobs as these companies will need to add significant number of people to maintain growth. 03 Nov.'02, The Hindu Business Line
: The humanlinks team
- Sunday, November 10, 2002Multimedia opens up new job opportunities: Increasing use of multimedia in entertainment, video games and the Internet has opened up new career opportunities in related service industries such as advertising, new media and animation companies, according to Mr. Sudhir Mathur, Head– Arena Multimedia.The current size of the entertainment industry is approximately Rs.9,600 crore and is projected to grow to an estimated Rs.28,600 crore by the year 2005 and the industry will be among the biggest employers. A proper and precise training in multimedia can ensure better career prospects in India and abroad. Multimedia is now adopted in a growing range of applications across business, education, entertainment and information sectors. The global digital animation industry is poised to grow from the current $25 billion to $70 billion by the year 2005. 02 Nov.'02, The Hindu Business Line
: The humanlinks team
- Sunday, November 10, 2002Wipro Infotech gets ‘people CMM’ certification: Wipro Infotech has announced that it has got the PCMM (version 2) level 5 across its organisation of 2000 employees, spread over 29 offices. PCMM, or people CMM, is a model developed by the SEI to improve the maturity of people processes in companies. “We have to position IT not just by cost, but also by quality and the most important thing in an IT company is people.” said Mr. Ranjan Acharya, Vice President, HR. PCMM helps in implementing meritocracy and defining what those merits are, he said. 02 Nov.'02, The Hindu Business Line
: The humanlinks team
- Sunday, November 10, 2002MNCs choose to keep core business processes:While the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) boom may have brought some cheer to Indian ITES (IT Enabled Services), MNCs tapping the Indian market by setting up their own infrastructure for process outsourcing, may not outsource to third party BPOs. Over the past few months, players like Dell and GE (which were among the first few big players to get into BPO in India) have set up multi-million dollar company-owned infrastructure across the country. Dell, for instance, has over 1000 people at its international services centre besides outsourcing to other vendors too. HSBC is also all set to start a 4000 people-processing centre and does not plan to outsource any work. Standard Chartered is looking to make India one of its biggest BPO centres in the Asia Pacific region (APAC) and Hewlett Packard has a 900 people operation. ISP major AOL is yet another new entrant with its 1000 people centre in Bangalore. One noticeable feature is that all these multinational players prefer to retain control over their core processes. 1 Nov.'02, The Financial Express
: Humanlinks team
- Thursday, November 07, 2002Attrition rate haunts the booming BPO sector:The biggest problem for India’s most buoyant industry is not competition from Philippines, or the anger of laid off American and British workers. It’s ‘amma and appa’! It’s the midnight shifts! It’s boredom! Within the Infotech sector, BPO is the rising star. While mainline IT firms grew at a healthy 22 per cent in this year of international turmoil, India’s BPO Sector expanded at an astounding 67 per cent helping western customers with everything from credit card payments to starting a newly bought computer. However, BPO’s most critical resource- “people” -are in very short supply. According to estimates gathered by the Indian Express, Bangalore alone needs more than 8,000-call centre and other executives every month but what’s available is no more than 2000. Indeed, the attrition rate in Bangalore BPOs nears 30 per cent, though many companies’ report 60 per cent new workforce every year. While raw graduates need to be expertly trained--changed accents and names are just the start--the high pressure environment, repetitiveness, night shifts and cultural dislocation has become a cause for concern. Mr. Isaac, CEO of the PeopleOne Consulting, which is funded by JP Morgan Ventures, suggests fun-at-work programmes, continuing education unrelated to call centre work. He also stresses the importance of job enrichment, which implies introducing employees to decision making and leadership roles. 1 Nov.'02, The Financial Express
: Humanlinks team
- Thursday, November 07, 2002"White collar jobs will vanish in 15 years ":Mr. Tom Peters has turned 172 degrees since the time he authored ‘In Search of Excellence’ about 20 years back. In a ‘Strategy Summit’ organised at the capital recently, he confidently predicted that about 90% of the ‘white-collar jobs’ would disappear in the next 15 years, courtesy the pace of technological change. “We live in a white collar world today. These jobs will undergo similar transformation that blue-collar jobs went through a few years back. Just as some of the jobs got digitalised, the white-collar jobs will be replaced by intelligent robots,” says Mr. Peters. According to him the World Wide Web is not about technology, but about the fundamental redistribution of power in an enterprise. 31 Oct.'02, The Hindu Business Line
: Humanlinks team
- Thursday, November 07, 2002Pull out your CVs, IT unleashes recruitment drive:Big IT majors such as TCS, Infosys, Daksh, Wipro, Microsoft, Samsung and EXL are on the hunt again. And the good news is that demand is not restricted to the low-end call centre agents. Says Infosys CEO, Mr. Nandan Nilekani: “Corporations abroad have undertaken strategic outsourcing programmes to implement significant reduction in their IT spend. Therefore, outsourcing initiatives seem to be on the rise.” Bangalore based Infy, which hired 2065 people in the last quarter, may take in 1000 more over the next two quarters. Its rival across town, Wipro isn’t lagging behind. It recruited 2300 people in the first two quarters and hopes to continue the pace in the next two. TCS will also be taking in more than 1,500 people in the next six months. Domestic majors apart, the buzz is that India has once again caught the fancy of MNC giants like Microsoft for R&D. Microsoft is not just hiring developers but also beefing up its c! onsultancy division. There’s plenty of action in the IT enabled services too with GE Caps, EXL and Daksh etc. on a recruitment drive. 31 Oct.'02, HT
: Humanlinks team
- Thursday, November 07, 2002Unemployment: Asia’s stealthy growth damper:A syndrome once alien to Asia, the fear of job loss and financial insecurity, is now gnawing at consumers and weakening the region’s new found engine of domestic growth. Unemployment in Taiwan and Hong Kong hit a record high this year.In Hong Kong retail sales have fallen for six months, while in Singapore they have fallen in all but one month this year. Even in two of the strongest and more developed economies of the region, South Korea and Australia, consumer sentiment is at its lowest in almost a year. With no signs of a recovery in external demand, economists say the predominantly export driven region will feel more pain as cushy state jobs disappear and the lack of state support or welfare systems in some countries is exposed. 29 Oct.'02, HT Business
: Humanlinks team
- Thursday, November 07, 2002Mauritius plans $1 bn IT exports and 20,000 jobs, with Indian help:With Infosys set to be the first major Indian IT company to invest in Mauritius, the island country is gearing up to create close to 20,000 jobs in ICT (Information and communications technology) and achieve its target of $ 1 billion in exports and services from the ICT sector within the next five years. Plans are afoot to initiate investments in sectors like higher and technical education to support Indian ICT professionals working in Mauritius and a direct flight (jointly with Air India) connecting Bangalore with the island nation by end 2002 to support the connectivity. Interestingly, Mauritius is also pitching for Indian BPO (business process outsourcing) players to set up their disaster recovery centres in Mauritius and utilize Mauritius as a base for French language capability. 29 Oct.'02, The Financial Express
: Humanlinks team
- Thursday, November 07, 2002Overseas universities providing foreign degrees in India:The desire for a foreign degree is definitely on the rise, especially in areas such as management. But pursuing a course abroad is not always possible; the expense involved being a major obstacle. Since there aren’t as many scholarships as aspirants, the foreign education, often an entry point into the West, remains a dream. Realizing the huge market potential, foreign institutes are entering into partnerships with Indian institutes or companies. Now Indian students can choose a management degree from a host of foreign universities. On offer are degrees from University of Wales (courtesy TASMAC) or from Western International University (Institute of Management Technology) and a host of degrees / diplomas from University of Northumbria (Rai Foundation colleges), vocational education diplomas from Wigan & Leigh, UK (partnered with Mr. Vinay Pasricha and Mr. S R Duggal), IT degree from ITT Educational Services (NIIT) to name a few. What makes the offer more attractive is that all these degrees can be had at a fraction of the cost of studying abroad. 29 Oct. '02, The Economic Times
: Humanlinks team
- Thursday, November 07, 2002US job market opening up for Indian healthcare professionals:As the United States faces a crunch of trained doctors and nurses, entry restrictions on foreign professionals may have to be eased. Today, America has over 1,25,000 nursing vacancies. The American Hospital Association estimates that 11% of nursing positions lie vacant while the US Bureau of Labor Statistics stated in its November ’01 Monthly Labor Review that more than a million new nurses will be needed by ’10. A new immigration legislation to ease the healthcare worker shortage has been proposed. 'Futurescan 2002: A forecast of Healthcare trends (2002-2006)' by Mr. Russell Coile warns of a derailment of the health industry’s expansion in the decade ahead due to shortages of nurses, pharmacists, technicians and therapists who are all in short supply currently. This forecasted shortage will have a profound impact on the Indian medical workers looking to US shores. 28 Oct. '02, The Economic Times
: Humanlinks team
- Thursday, November 07, 2002Indian CEOs to take the lead in the next decade:The Director General of CII, Mr. Tarun Das says that India has an amazing human resource pool. And, as we look forward to the next decade, we see a changing composition in the population of the world. The West even Japan, will have aging populations while India will have a young population. Clearly in this age of technology, knowledge and IT, India will have a huge edge on its human resource asset. Both in numbers and in quality. The challenge of globalization, the challenge of competition and the challenge of slowdown are bringing out the creativity and courage of Indian CEOs who are at par with the best in the world. And more and more young people are taking up leadership positions, learning, falling, making mistakes, getting up and getting on with the job. The great news coming out of India, specially the corporate sector, is that as the global economy integrates and becomes more complex, those Indian companies which have focussed strongly and clearly on their mission, are emerging as winners. 27 Oct. '02, The Economic Times
: Humanlinks team
- Thursday, November 07, 2002IT spending outsourced from India by US corporations is likely to double next year :According a recent survey of US corporations conducted by Merrill Lynch, India is likely to account for 6% of the total IT budget of these corporations against 3% this year. The survey covered 50 chief information officers (CIO) from major US organizations. The survey says that outsourcing from Indian companies is rising the fastest among all outside service categories that include traditional out sourcing companies (IBM,EDS,CSC),business continuity disaster recovery firms,traditional consulting firms(Accenture,KPMG,Deloitte) and other business process outsourcers. 26 Oct. '02, The Economic Times
: Humanlinks team
- Thursday, November 07, 2002Wage floor level raised by Rs 5 :The minimum floor level wage has been increased by Rs 5 at the national level, to Rs 50 per day with effect from September 1. Labour Minister Mr. Sahib Singh Verma has written to all state governments to ensure that no worker was paid less than Rs. 50 per day as the minimum wage in scheduled employment, official sources said here today. Under the minimum wages act,the appropriate governments are required to revise the minimum wages in all scheduled employment under their jurisdiction at an interval not exceeding five years. 26 Oct. '02, The Economic Times
: Humanlinks team
- Thursday, November 07, 2002Tata Chemicals Ltd., goes in for E-HR: Tata Chemicals Ltd (TCL) is in the process of establishing E-HR (electronic – Human Resources) in the company. “By putting information related to HR on our website for example, and being open about our policies. We ensure that all our employees have access to any information they require. They can access their tax returns, investments etc. easily and even find out about simple things like vacancies in the company”. 25 Oct. '02, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, October 28, 2002Should companies depend on non-compete clauses to stop HR 'poaching'?: Competition for valuable human resources is acquiring a sharper edge. It’s becoming common for managers to join competitors and take with them a big chunk of the business. So what can the erstwhile employer do? Answer: start incorporating ‘non-compete’ clauses in the employment contracts which do not allow an employee to join a competitor for a certain period of time (usually between six months to one year). Non-compete clauses are normally incorporated in the employment agreements on a very selective basis-for very senior people or for employees who may be in a position to obtain proprietary or sensitive information. Most legal and HR experts, however say that such non-compete clauses are seldom enforceable. Employees would have to be compensated for giving up their right to join a competing firm, says Mr. Ulhas Deshpande, head HR IDBI bank. Without a consideration, the legal enforceability may become questionable, Mr. Deshpande says. 25 Oct. '02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, October 28, 2002ERP professionals top recruitment demand in IT job market: According to a research done by National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) to ascertain manpower skill requirements in the Indian software sector, ERP skills top recruitment demand with 35 per cent job openings for ERP professionals. The demand of enterprise resources planning (ERP) skills, which was at its peak three years back in 1998, has again reached on top of the list of software skills that are in vogue nowadays. ERP professionals, who were recruited for fresh application implementation earlier, are now in demand for fine-tuning and integration of already deployed ERP applications to maximize return-on-investment (Rol) of the user companies. 24 Oct. '02, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, October 28, 2002Change a must to survive, both for companies and employees: Companies and employees that resist change will simply not survive. Development, by and large, is the result of change. Controlled, guided and monitored change could be termed as surgical/revolutionary. The change left to itself could be termed natural/evolutionary--these changes can only be witnessed. Under induced and propelled evolution we could DRAW the route of choice. Under this, people need to continuously DEVELOP new skills as required by the market place and emerging trends, irrespective of whether their organisation is providing extra support or not. Organisations will have to work towards RETAINING their best talent lest they become gems in someone else’s crown. Organisations and people will have to work towards AVOIDING obsolescence of people and their skills by planning before reaching the end. And finally, companies will have to WEED out, on a continuos basis, the mismatch elements-systems, processes, infrastructure, habits and people, before they become a problem. By now, there is no questioning the need for change. Then why is the change resisted? The reasons may vary from the shift in power, need to learn new skills, the stress of dealing with a new team or the fear of dealing with new customers/market base. To help business integrate change, a change facilitator/agent must guide employees to change them selves and become part of a larger change process. This process may take weeks, even months, but it is worth it. 23 Oct. '02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, October 28, 2002Non English European languages set to capture larger chunk of ITES industry: Nasscom: Foreign languages, other than English would account for almost $570 million (upto 10 per cent) of the total IT enabled services (ITES) market by 2005, according to industry experts. At present, almost 100 per cent of the Indian ITES activities pegged at over $ 1.4 billion (Rs. 7,100 crore) are in English. As a result of requests from its 16-odd clients, Mumbai-based Infowavz is in the process of partnering with a North American call centre skilled in Spanish and other European languages.The company already has three partnerships with international call centres for international languages including Italian, Spanish, French and German. 23 Oct. '02, The Financial Express
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- Monday, October 28, 2002A passport to enhance employee competency: In an effort to enhance the employability and skill sets of insurance professionals, Max New York Life Insurance Company Ltd (MNYL), has deployed an initiative termed “training passports”. Says Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd. director (HR) Mr. Rajit Mehta: “The concept of training passports has evolved due to the need felt by the organisation to establish a minimum learning or knowledge benchmark for each unique position in the organisation and clearly articulate a training map.” As a part of the deployment programme, Mr. Mehta affirms that the company will be mapping each role with the knowledge, skill and competencies required for that position, thereby identifying the training agenda for the organization as a whole. “This also helps each employee to calibrate the learning and training required for him / her to perform at an optimal level”, he adds. However, commenting on the initiative, says Learner India Ltd senior partner Mr. Rajul Mukadam, a Mumbai based HR professional, “any initiative in planning a training programme should also incorporate tools to measure the extent to which it has enhanced the performance levels of employees. Unless that is not initiated such frameworks may not necessarily justify the cost and resources deployed by the organisation”. 21 Oct. '02, The Financial Express
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- Monday, October 28, 2002BPO fuels hiring in infotech sector: It seems like a sign of better times to come for IT companies, Employee additions have risen sharply during the quarter ended September ’02 and a large chunk of them have come from business process outsourcing (BPO) initiatives. Infosys Technologies, the trendsetter, saw record quarterly employee additions in the September ’02 quarter. “We have added a gross number of 2,085 employees and a net 1,806 employees for the quarter. Wipro Spectramind, a prominent BPO firm, added 460 employees during the September ’02 quarter, taking the total staff strength to 3,198. Mphasis BPO subsidiary Msource added 539 persons to its rolls during the September ’02 quarter, raising the total number of employees to 1,635. 21 Oct. '02, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, October 28, 2002Indian firms need ethics consultants: As more companies leverage the internet, it is becoming extremely important for them to understand how to conduct business without stepping on the privacy of their clients or employees. Last month, a Bangalore based software company’s HR official came across a rather unusual issue raised by an employee in his appraisal report. It related to the monitoring of his internet habits by the company and how it was affecting his efficiency levels. “When my performance is based on how fast I write the code and how much better I find a solution, is there any reason why the company should keep a tab on my internet usage?” The employee wrote in his appraisal report. The HR official believes the Indian employee raised a valid issue and Indian companies, like in the US, need ethics consultants to advise them regularly. So what does an ethics consultant do? An ethics consultant works closely with company executives in setting ethical standards for day-to-day business practices. He/She regularly interacts with employees and conducts workshops and meetings to monitor the success of the guidelines. The ethics consultant needs to have excellent communication skills, training in HR practices and should be very perceptive. It helps to have business knowledge because companies are in the business of making money. UK based Logica, an IT solutions company with an office in Bangalore, says that they have devised a simple solution for addressing employees’ problems. “We have staff consultants who are trained to act as guides or mentors for the employees”, says Mr. Arun Raja, Manager for corporate communications with Logica. These staff consultants undergo a periodic training programme conducted by their UK parent on how to address employee issues fairly and firmly. “They act as their guide and mentor and are reachable at any time”, Mr. Raja said. 21 Oct. '02, Business Standard
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- Monday, October 28, 2002ITES breaks new ground in cross-industry recruitment: Gurgaon, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore—The golden quadrangle of India’s next big hope, the $1.5 billion IT-enabled services industry is tipped to grow to $21 billion by 2008. More significant than the revenue projections is the fact that this nascent industry is breaking new ground in ushering in an aggressive era of cross-industry recruitment. While the recruitment frenzy is evident at the entry level, it is in middle management that traditional recruitment practices are being turned on their head. The evolution of companies towards specialised, high-value service offerings is beginning to take recruiters to industries apparently far removed from ITES---banks, insurance, retail, pharma, healthcare firms, even academic institutions. At present, Indian ITES firms are largely customer interaction outfits or call centers. Hotels, airlines and travel companies are prime poaching grounds both at the entry and middle management levels. The shift in focus comes into play at the stage, when a call center company begins to move up the value chain into BPO (business process outsourcing) services. The most unlikely skills can make for ideal requirements in a BPO job. Mumbai based call center company Transworks, for instance, is currently in the middle of transitioning to BPO services. The company has just acquired an insurance claim-processing client and has picked up managers from a leading insurance company to head this process. Says Mr Prakash Gurbaxani, CEO of Transworks, “this is a function which requires people with domain expertise in the insurance industry, so the logical thing is to recruit from there.” The recruitment boom has given ITES its own set of problems. Turnover or attrition rates are higher than anywhere else. HR managers admit that people quit as fast as they come. “A good company would have an attrition rate of 25%, while a bad company would have 40%,” says Mr. Laxmikanth. In ITES, it is not unusual to change three jobs in two years and manage a 50-100% hike in salary each time.. 21 Oct. '02, The Economic Times
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- Monday, October 28, 2002Don’t wait for the pink slip to start plans of a layoff: The ugly truth is that few people walk away from a layoff feeling good about the experience or financially secure. But by keeping a cool head and evaluating your options before you sign any layoff agreement, you may be able to take some of the fear and financial uncertainty out of the equation. To get some idea of what your severance paycheck might look like, check with your employee-benefits department to determine how many months of pay, if any, you may be entitled to during a layoff. Then plug these numbers along with any remaining sick leave or vacation days you may have coming to you. Severance packages come sometimes with strings attached as well. Most commonly, companies will ask that you sign a contract agreeing to a severance package, to ensure that they won’t be sued later for any alleged malfeasance. You may also be asked to sign a contract that prohibits you from working with a competing company, in return for a handsome lump sum, of course. Before agreeing to sign this kind of contract ask yourself whether you’ll be able to find work in a non-competing field that would offer you a comparable paycheck and benefits. If the answer is no, you may want to consult an attorney to help you determine whether it’s a good idea to sign the severance agreement. 19 Oct. '02, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, October 28, 2002Companies cutting costs where it hurts: In a further effort to cut costs, companies of all sizes and in a broad range of industries are cutting employee pay. For some employers these pay-cuts are the latest effort to rein in costs. Since early 2001 many companies have eliminated bonuses, conducted several rounds of payoffs, and frozen and cut salaries. But with the economy showing few signs of improving, employers in professional services, airlines, and telecommunications are once again announcing substantial salary cuts. Some companies are reducing pay as an alternative to slashing jobs. Deloitte Consulting, (a unit of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu) reduced the salaries of most of its employees by an average of 8% this summer. “I think salary cuts are a more optimistic approach and demonstrate more of a commitment to your people,” says Mr. Peter Horowitz, global director of public relations. “Its not as destructive as watching your colleagues leave.” Still, deciding on the right cost saving measure is ‘fairly complicated’ says Ms Laura Sejen, practice director for strategic rewards at compensation and human resources consultant Watson Wyatt Worldwide, in New York. “Employers are under a lot of pressure and there are a limited number of (money saving) tools and tactics. The challenge is to find the right balance. Although most workers would prefer a salary cut to losing a job, it is nevertheless a morale-crusher to suddenly take home less pay. Many employees feel powerless to complain. Given the tight job market, they can’t easily quit in protest.’ Inevitably, pay cuts lead to the reduced spending by employees, and taken en masse, that contributes to slowing demand for consumer goods. That can result in still more pay and job cuts and fewer openings for those laid off. 19 Oct. '02, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, October 28, 2002 Indian companies take fancy to foreign interns: Ms Milanie, a German MBA student and Ms Chulgi Hong, a Korean student, are among the 30 young foreigners who are helping Indian companies market products in the countries of their origin. Aiding Indian corporate to expand their business through this cost-effective model of global market research is AIESEC, an international student exchange body. Last year it brought in about 200 foreign graduates to work for the Indian corporate sector.Kshema Technologies, TVS Motors, Tata Elxi and Nextlinx are some Indian companies, which have found this scheme useful. Mr. Suresh Raghavendra, Head HR, Tarang Software, says that all their four foreign interns were hired for web marketing . These interns are expected to do the initial ground breaking in their individual countries for this banking products company. “All they do is introduce us to the prospective client and we do the sales pitch,” he explains. Providing a list of probable clients and introducing them to the host company is the job description of this internship programme. 19 Oct. '02, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, October 28, 2002INFOSYS recruits highest number of employees: Infosys Technologies today said that it added the highest number of employees to its rolls during the second quarter. The company added a total of 2065 employees, of which nearly 328 were laterals. “This is the highest ever at Infosys in terms of people addition,” said the company CEO, Mr. Nanadan Nilekani. 11 Oct.'02, The Hindu Business Line
: Humanlinks Team
- Thursday, October 17, 2002Information flow is the key to business continuity: In today's cutting edge business environment, it won’t entirely be wrong to say that most companies are in same business " the business of information exchange". And the moment the information flow chokes, the business begins to take its final gasps. It is often quoted that most businesses cease to exist within three years of a catastrophic loss of data, though this time is shrinking fast as data flow becomes faster and more critical to a business operations. The cost of data unavailability alone can be in the range of Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 50 crore for every hour of system downtime.Bottomline is, Business needs reliable access to mission-critical information residing across various applications for their success and growth. Simply because, in the event of a disastrous happening, if they can keep the information flow going, they can keep their business going too. 10 Oct.'02, The Economic Times
: Humanlinks Team
- Thursday, October 17, 2002Helping executives cope with stress: APART from work, what is driving everyone in India Inc is insecurity”, says peak performance trainer, Mr. Rakesh Dewan, who heads Star Academy, an institution that he has formed in association with Mr. Jack Canfield, author of "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series. Focussing on corporates in India for the past six months and taking one-to-one sessions with executives, Mr. Dewan has noticed that globalization and organizational transition are having an adverse fall out on the morale and psyche of employees. While the older ones suffer from the fear of being outdated and dispensable, the younger ones, who are just two three years into the job, are pressured beyond comprehension. Now a group of academics are researching the impact of such pressured living. Focussing on the UK, US, India and a few other relevant countries are researchers Ms Rhona Rapport (Director, Institute of Family and Environmental research, London), Ms Suzan Lewis and Ms Janet Smithson (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK), Ms Richenda Gambles and Dr Tripti Pande Desai who heads the Institute for Integrated Learning in Management (IILM), New Delhi. They are in the process of developing working practices to support work -personal life integration and enhance organisational performance. They suggest that if companies introduce flexi-time and pursue HR policies that consider each individual, this would help more than pursuing generalized HR policies. Job sharing should also be considered as it would solve the employment problem and not affect bottomlines. Schools should also be made to recognise the ‘Work–Life Integration’ problem of parents and come forward and help. So should companies. 9 Oct.'02, The Hindu Business Line
: Humanlinks Team
- Thursday, October 17, 2002Rewards to top performers should be relative to others: A study by Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow, the human resources consultancy, which looked at the development and rewards of business leaders, found a correlation between higher rewards for top performance and better business results. However, it is not a linear relationship. 40 per cent of the top performing companies paid high performers “significantly” more than average performers, but the majority of the best companies paid only moderately or slightly more. The implication is that though the top people should be generously rewarded: the gap with the others should not be too great, and fairness remains important. “There are some people who, by dint of their capability, are worth more to the organisation than others, and to pretend that these people do not exist is folly”, says Mr Neville Osrin, leadership specialist at Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow. But managing high performers can be even more difficult than managing poor performers, because it is “less clear what needs to be done”, says Mr Osrin. Everyone is part of a team, in the wider scheme of things. As Mr Duncan Brown, a pay expert, reminds us in his book ‘Reward Strategies’, the mistake is to pretend that pay is about formulae and systems. In reality it’s about good and fair management. 9 Oct.'02, The Times of India
: Humanlinks Team
- Thursday, October 17, 2002Why CEOs need mentors: Mentoring is a process of enabling and supporting sometimes triggering a major change in the life and work of a person. A management writer has defined it as “off line help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work, or thinking.” When chief executives want to improve their personal competence, in order to address a wide range of issues that surface every now and then (and before they become critical) they need a mentor. Jobs at the top involve enormous pressure – on time, to demonstrate performance, and to meet the conflicting demands of different stakeholders. CEOs seek an external mentor when they identify the need to confront a challenge, for which the help and assistance available inside the organization is, in their perception, inadequate. Further, admitting a lack of confidence, or confessing to a lacuna of staying power (in meeting a crisis) to someone inside the same organization can be delicate, may be imprudent, even dangerous and detrimental. A competent mentor is independent and uninvolved, and will give honest feedback on the CEO’s plans to tackle a problem. He will have the courage and conviction to expose the pitfalls and shortcomings arising out of the CEO’s actions, which his colleagues may be reluctant to discuss due to politeness, fear embarrassment, or even malice. The role and responsibility of a mentor cannot be better described than in the words of Mr John Ruskin, when he wrote in 1856, perhaps in a different context; “The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and to tell what it saw in a plain way. “ Hundreds of people can talk, but only one can think. And for every thousand people who can think, only one can see. The job of a mentor is to see, and to perceive, and communicate his perception faithfully to his protégé, so as to make him better than before. 8 Oct.'02, The Hindu
: Humanlinks Team
- Thursday, October 17, 2002Insurers find untapped potential in child policies: Children’s risk products may not be on the top of insurers’ minds in developed nations, but looking at how new private players in India are coming out with such products, there could be a huge market developing here. Its a market that consists of around four per cent of Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC) total policies sold. This means over 10 lakh children policies sold in 2001-02 by the state insurer alone. The payments are structured at fixed intervals, as a percentage of the sum assured in order to help the child when he needs monetary support the most, starting from the time he enters college till he attains the age of 21-25. 5 Oct.'02, Business Standard
: Humanlinks Team
- Thursday, October 17, 2002Summer placements for MBA students: Upbeat Mood: It’s once again time for corporates to return to management campuses to select students for summer training. And this year, beating the downcast mood of last year, companies and students are upbeat again. For Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), the proportion of foreign placements has definitely looked up in comparison to the year gone by. Some of the corporates that arrived for foreign internships included Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro London, HSBC London and UBS Warburg, says Prof Ravindra Dholakia, Faculty Placement coordinator, IIM-A. The mood is upbeat at Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), New Delhi, too, where its batch of 76 students have received a record 94 offers from 32 companies during this year’s summer placements. Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and banking companies came in a big way for summer recruitment at NITIE, Mumbai. Says Prof. Ashok Pundhir, Professor Incharge-Training, Placement and Programmes Development, NITIE: “For the first time, we also had HSBC joining the list of summer recruiters clearly denoting an uptrend in recruitment in the bank sector along with FMCG's”. 5 Oct.'02, Financial Express
: Humanlinks Team
- Thursday, October 17, 2002IIM-A Ropes in US experts for leadership courses: In a bid to create leadership acumen amongst the campus trainees, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has now roped in the Seattle-based consultants, Mr. Joel Levey and Ms Michelle Levey, as faculties to conduct a course called "High Performance Leadership and Resilince (HPLR)". According to the institute, the consultants are conducting the course exclusively for the students of IIM-A in India-for the first time. Mr. Sriharsha Pappu, student, postgraduate Programme from the class of 2003 says, "The course will be an attempt to enhance our orientations in renewing organizational cultures whereby team spirit, community participation, creative intelligence, life-work balance, and inspired leadership can thrive." 5 Oct.'02, Financial Express
: Humanlinks Team
- Thursday, October 17, 2002Silicon Valley hit by unemployment, VC famine: Silicon Valley is clearly in trouble. As venture capital dries up and R&D spending falls, America’s once-booming technology heartland is adjusting to an uncertain future. Since the end of 2000, the Bay Area has lost more than 110,000 jobs. Santa Clara country, the heart of Silicon Valley, now has an unemployment rate 7.6 per cent, the highest of any urban county in California. It is not just the unique pool of skilled labour that is dissipating. Venture capital investment has collapsed, tumbling 48 per cent during the first six months of this year, reports PwC. And according to data compiled by the Financial Times, corporate research and development is also falling – down 5 per cent year on year in the same period. 5 Oct.'02, Business Standard
: Humanlinks Team
- Thursday, October 17, 2002 Apply control and common sense to executive compensation:Many Corporations paid in excess of $15 million in recent years to hire a new CEO away from another company, with more executives being compensated for stock options and grants they forfeited by leaving their old jobs, a corporate governance group reported on Wednesday. New CEOs also received hefty salaries on top of the $15 million "golden hellos" - or payments to get the new executive on board - said the report from The Corporate Library. "The practice of compensating executives for income they have, and should have, forfeited, is one more symptom of the lack of control and common sense applied to executive compensation," wrote Mr Paul Hodgson, a senior research associate at The Corporate Library.The largest amount was $45 million that insurance company Conseco Inc forked out to hire then General Electric Co executive Mr Gary Wendt. Excessive pay packages for head honchos have come into the spotlight after a series of corporate scandals in recent months where executives walked away with millions. 19 Sept. '02, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Saturday, September 21, 2002 In the Spotlight:Are Indian CEOs overpaid? Is there too high a salary gap between the top man (or women) and the No. 2? Do issues of corporate governance in the US really matter for India Inc? A statement by CII-that Indian CEO should introspect about their emolument structure-has sparked off a debate that is doing the rounds of corporate circles. What did CII’s Mr. Tarun Das actually say? "Indian CEOs cannot pay themselves too much. We must not follow the US model of paying the CEOs excessive amounts. Indian CEOs should have some limit in mind in terms of personal emoluments structure", Mr. Das said. And, a cross section of human resource professionals insist that Indian CEOs are paid less than their global counterparts. "The performance environment of the Indian CEOs are more or less the same as that of global CEOs. Indian CEOs should be paid more", says Ms Preety Kumar, managing partner of an executive search firm. Astronomical salaries for top CEOs has come in for sharp criticism in the US. There, it was seen that the worst-performing companies paid their CEOs the best. 18 Sept. '02, The Times of India
: Team at humanlinks
- Saturday, September 21, 2002 On the job, riding radio waves:In the crowded job market, it always pays to be innovative. Whether it’s the employer wooing the employee or vice versa, it’s creativity that picks the winner. And the IT industry has always come up with new channels for exploration headhunters, online recruitment, and telephonic interviews. i-flex solutions has embarked on the latest version: Recruitment ads on Radio City, a Bangalore based FM channel, Says Mr. R. Vidyasagar, Vice-President, HR I-flex Solutions, "We have always looked at multi channels for our recruitment ads and we said, why not this new medium?" 17 Sept. '02, The Hindu Business line
: Team at humanlinks
- Saturday, September 21, 2002 Totus unveils new HR tool:Totus Consulting, the Chennai based HR solutions provider has introduced a new ‘employee sensing’ solution. Branded Essence, the new offering combines qualitative research with HR domain knowledge to obtain a deeper understanding of employee thinking. Mr. Ganesh Chella, the company’s founder, told Business Line the effort with Essence is to provide clients with an alternative to employee satisfaction surveys. "It helps organisations to explore issues in greater depth and develop a better understanding of what their people are thinking," he said. 17 Sept. '02, The Hindu Business line
: Team at humanlinks
- Saturday, September 21, 2002 Small firms freed from hiring secretaries:The government today said that it has decided to exempt corporate with registered offices and works in rural areas and those companies with paid up capital of below Rs. 5 crore from the mandatory hiring of company secretaries. The Department of Company Affairs (DCA) is also notifying the norms for disqualification of directors of companies that had defaulted in repayment of deposits and interest or failed to redeem debentures or pay dividends for more than ayear after the due date. It will be the responsibility of the auditors to certify and also the companies' boards to make a declaration regarding the eligibility of the directors. A further proposed change would apply to seeking government approval for appointment of relatives of directors and senior managers on salaries above Rs 50,000 per month. 17 Sept. '02, The Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Saturday, September 21, 2002 US firms face problem in employment:Despite the slowing economy and higher unemployment rate, attracting and retaining talent continues to be a major problem for companies in the US, according to a recent study. Ninety per cent of the 109 HR executives surveyed said they were having trouble getting and keeping the best people for their organisation, citing corporate turmoil and limited career opportunities as key reasons for unwanted turnover. The study was conducted by the Conference Board, a non-profit business organisation. 16 Sept. '02, The Times of India
: Team at humanlinks
- Saturday, September 21, 2002 Relax, boss!:Stressed British bosses should eat more fruit, drink more water and play squash with clients to resist the ravages of long working hours, Abbey National Bank has suggested. The recommendations, which also included cutting out chocolate and crisps and learning to delegate, were part of a 10-step plan the bank issued to help bosses relax and improve their health. The move followed a survey that found 56 per cent of bosses felt stress was making their personal or family life difficult, while more than one in ten said their health was deteriorating. "We found that senior staff often work 70 - hour weeks and are then too stressed to unwind properly. This is taking a heavy toll - our work is put before our health," said Mr. Gary Hockey-Morley, director of Abbey National business. 15 Sept. '02, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Saturday, September 21, 2002‘Growth in IT sector holds prospects for more jobs’:The IT enabled services (ITES) alone is likely to create new employment opportunities for around 12 lakh qualified youth in the country, and the Nasscom McKinsey projection for 2010 has put the total IT revenues of India at over $ 70 billion, of which around $ 24 billion will be in the ITES sector. 13 Sept.'02, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Sunday, September 15, 2002Social security net may cover VRS- optees also:The Union government is likely to widen the social security net for employees opting for the voluntary retirement schemes (VRS) recommended by the second report of the National Commission of Labour (NCL), which was released on September 7. "We are working on the final details of a new package of social security like medical, lay off compensation amongst others in the post-retirement period for the VRS-opting employees", Union minister of state for Labour Ashok Pradhan told FE on Wednesday. 13 Sept.'02, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Sunday, September 15, 2002IT companies prefer experience, not freshers:As IT companies are stepping up their recruitment, they are not running to the campus but are hiring from other companies. Campus recruitments have dropped 2-16 percent of total manpower requirement for the year, according to a recent Nasscom-Hewitt study. These were as high as 60 percent till three years back, says the study. The scenario gets even worse for non-engineering institutes - almost half (47 percent) of organisations source their recruits from engineering institutes only, although 88 percent visit engineering campuses. "As the industry matures, the need to have more experienced people is being increasingly felt. At the same time, experienced software professionals are also available," says Mr. Sunil Mehta, head (research), Nasscom. Recruitment budgets range between 0.33% and 5% of revenues and 90% organisations have a formal budget for recruitment. Another interesting trend is the ratio of acceptances to offers which is now 8:9 as compared with 6:8 a couple of years back. 11 Sept.'02, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Sunday, September 15, 2002Labour Commission report suggests retrenchment, layoffs:The government has released the long-awaited report of the Second Labour Commission. Among its recommendationss are no prior permission necessary for lay-offs, retrenchment in establishment of any employment size; no need for any wage board, statutory or otherwise, for fixing wage rates for workers in any industry; restricting holidays to three national holidays and two more, besides 10 restricted ones a year; contract labour shall not be engaged for core production / services / activities, setting up of a Grievance Redressal Committee for organisations employing 20 or more persons. 08 Sept.'02, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Sunday, September 15, 2002Infosys ranked best IT employer :For the second time in a row, Infosys has been ranked as India’s best IT employer, followed by Cadence Design and Wipro while HP, HCL Technology have slipped in rankings, according to the latest Dataquest-IDC India report. In the case of Infosys, employee satisfaction has slipped while in case of HP (post merger) overall employee satisfaction is still high. The report added that smaller, sub-1000 employee companies are gaining ground. 07 Sept.'02, The Hindustan Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Sunday, September 15, 2002Women covering up most of private job space:It’s all about women power in the post reforms job market. More and more women are finding space in the private sector job market even as there is a decline in their presence in government jobs. As per the labour ministry’s latest data till 2000, employment of women in the manufacturing segment, one of the bulk job providers, has grown 7 percent annually in the previous 10 years in the private sector while it shrank at the rate of 1.2 percent in the case of public sector jobs. 5 Sept.'02, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 09, 2002British Firms to test resident skills first:Things just got worse for the IT professional looking for an opening in the UK. With effect from September 2, British firms are being required to advertise all information technology posts at home before considering overseas applications. Moreover, appointment of overseas personnel requires employers to prove they have tested the resident labour market and found no qualified workers for the job in question. Around 10,000 Indian information technology professionals have been leaving every year to seek jobs in the UK. The British government's move means that an Indian professional will not be treated on par with a resident national of the European economic area. The job will come to him only if the company fails to find a professional in the European market. "Such non-tariff barriers in the world of globalization do not send the right signals. This will have an impact on the Indian job market. The effect on the companies will be minimal because the regulations do not apply for (to) inter-company job transfers", Mr Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), told Business Standard. 4 Sept.'02, The Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 09, 2002Promising job potential in food sector :A study conducted by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) states that an investment of Rs. 1,000 crore in the food processing sector will result in 54,000 additional employment generation (jobs). The study advocated setting up of large-scale agro - processing plants with the help of private sector and suggested that Madhya Pradesh is the ideal state for investment. The growth in the food-processing sector will, thereby, push the growth in employment by 2.61 per cent. 30 August '02, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 09, 2002Placement agencies to be regulated : The governement yesterday unvieled a two-pronged plan to monitor and regulate employment of skilled labour. To cultivate skills among prospreptive employees, 1000 new Industrial Training Institutes(ITIs) would be set up countrywide. Private placement agencies would be brought under the purview of a new policy regulating their operations, complete with strict penalty codes for duping those seeking employment. 6 Sept. 2002, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, September 06, 2002Technology to Tap Campus Talent :Hyderabad, August 6, 2002
Prof. Udai Pareek, an internationally famous academician and researcher, and a pioneer in organizational behaviour and HR development, said here today that two contradictory trends were simultaneously visible in India's job market. One was the unemployability of most students of the present day education system, which did not make allowance for innate talents. The other was growing unemployment despite there being many highly talented students.
He observed that the solution lay in introduction of employment enhancing education and radical departure from traditional mores in the recruitment process. In this connection, he commended the project launched by Globarena, that integrates both these measures for the first time in India to spot talented students even while they are still on the campus.
Professor Pareek, elaborating on the competencies required for the growth of entrepreneurship, said they included motivation of even those not inclined towards it in to the field. He illustrated his thesis by reference to how Professor Mc Lelland identified entrepreneurs in Kakinada through competency measurements, at a time when there was no tendency among the agriculturally affluent people of that city to launch any enterprise.
These competencies according to Professor Pareek, should percolate down to the level of college students for them to become eligible for suitable jobs.
Technology can not only create jobs, as currently believed, but also rectify a disequilibrium in the talent evaluation process which has so far been overlooked, according to Dr. Sreerama Murthy, an expert in artificial intelligence and data mining.
Addressing a seminar organized here this evening by Hyderabad based firm Globarena, on the "Role of Technology in Sourcing Talent", he added that the present criteria for recruitment, particularly campus recruitment, were not adequate. He illustrated his thesis with example of the limited ability of prospective employers to judge within a matter of hours whether a student fulfills all the ideal criteria, such as meeting deadlines and managing crisis.
It is only through a logical application of technology that prospective employers can gauge the potential even of those students who may have done very well in their academic field.
According to Dr. Sreerama Murthy, what is now required and is going to be required is not merely what a student has achieved but also what he/she is capable of achieving. To determine that latent ability, technology can prove a boon. He demonstrated the technologies developed by Globarena that are being currently adopted by hundreds of colleges all over India for campus recruitment. He explained how these technologies will help in identifying the most suitable candidates for a wide variety of jobs.
Dr. Dakshinamurthy, later informed HR executives who attended the seminar that Globarena had already used an amalgam of technological and psychometric techniques in campus recruitment in over 600 colleges in India.
Dr. Sudha Iyer welcomed the participants, mostly HR executives from leading companies. Dr. Dakshinamurthy proposed a vote of thanks.
Posted by Ajay Chandra <ajay@globarena.com>
Hyderabad, - Monday, September 02, 2002Overtime sans incentives: More people are doing unpaid overtime work in Japan, official figures show, as companies flaunt national laws and place increasing pressure on their employees in a bid to reverse falling profits. The number of firms where employees work for free or earn minimal allowances while doing overtime last year more than doubled from three years ago according to the labour ministry. "The official work hours are from nine to five-thirty but everybody turns up at least by eight," said Mr. Komaki Matsui, the 26-year-old editor of a magazine for accountants. 26 Aug. '02, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 02, 200255,000 infotech engineers yet to get jobs: The slowdown in growth of software exports has created a scenario where up to 55,000 fresh engineers from government recognized colleges are yet to get jobs. According to a Merrill Lynch study, the IT industry employed 3,27,000 engineers as on March 31, 2002. Of these, 190,000 engineers were employed abroad, while around 1,37,000 were employed with the domestic industry. The excess supply of 55,000 engineers is largely on account of 80,000 fresh engineers, who graduated during 2001-02, the study said, adding as many as 23,000 fresh graduates were employed abroad, while 12,000 secured jobs in the domestic industry. The excess supply is expected to correct itself by 2003-4 when demand is expected to exceed supply with a gap of 44,000 engineers. 22 Aug. '02, The Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 02, 2002Polaris hires experts to rework HR plans: Chennai based banking and finance Product Company Polaris Software Labs is planning to hike salaries of its employees to match those of Citicorp-owned Orbitech Solutions, which is merging with itself. Polaris has also appointed human resource consultants such as Mercer, Gallop and Grow Talent to draw up a new human resource strategy that will be common for the merged entity. Their report is expected in about a month. 21 Aug.'02, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, August 27, 2002MNC software companies drive job market: Most of the MNCs are currently in the job market looking for more talent. EDS is planning to expand its Indian operations five to eight times over the next three years. Cap-Gemini, plans to hike its manpower strength from less than a thousand to over 5,000 in three years. The UK-based Xansa has announced that it would grow to recruit 10,000 professionals in a 5 year period. Sapient and Syntel, also have large recruitment plans. Oracle has announced its plan to take in 1,800 people. The India - centric US companies - Cognizant and Covansys - are also talking about increasing their global staff strength to over 5,000. Cognizant will cross this mark by this year end, while Covansys aims to do the same in the next two years. "Following the shake-out in the IT sector, the small and medium software firms have begun to tighten their belts by cutting their staff strength", said one of the persons polled by ET. 20 Aug.'02, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, August 27, 2002US anticipates slowdown in hiring:According to a survey, corporates in the US anticipate a slowdown in the hiring of information technology professionals in the fourth quarter of 2002. The Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index says that 11 per cent of the 1400 CIOs (chief information officers) of various companies surveyed plan to expand their IT departments in the coming months and 3 per cent anticipate staff cutbacks. 84 pct expect no change in hiring activity. 19 Aug.'02, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, August 27, 200282 percent jobseekers find the Internet convenient: In their quest for their next move in the employment market the Jobseekers are becoming more and more reliant on the progress of online recruitment with a 55 per cent application success rate through the internet, according to a new research from the UK’s leading internet recruitment service. 82 per cent of jobseekers considered the Internet to be simplest way to source new job opportunities, 84 per cent listed the Internet as the easiest way to apply for jobs, with 55 per cent listing the Net as the route to enjoying the most success for job applications. 19 Aug.'02, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, August 27, 2002"Overwork, faulty computers and irritating workmates - main cause of office rage":According to a survey commissioned by the British recruitment agency Pertemps, half of Britain’s stressed-out office workers say they have come close to punching a colleague. Overwork, faulty computers and annoying workmates were the main cause of "office rage" - and women are more likely to snap than men. "Our research shows that common occurrences such as broken computers and interruptions can push people over the edge", said Mr. Tim Watts, chairman of Pertemps. The report found 51 percent of women had nearly punched a colleague, compared to 39 percent of the men questioned. Three - quarters of workers felt they worked less productively in a bad mood. Pertemps said employees can cut tension by avoiding gossip, talking to managers and not disturbing colleagues. Bosses should defuse conflicts early, listen to staff complaints, avoid overcrowding and set realistic workloads and deadlines. 17 Aug. '02, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, August 26, 2002The ten-volume report of the Expenditure Reforms Commission (ERC) is yielding initial results. The Union government, according to top officials in the department of expenditure, has been able to abolish about 9000 posts, reluctance of the respective ministries / departments notwithstanding. The commission headed by former finance secretary Mr. K P Geethakrishanan has suggested abolition of about 25,000 posts in the central government. There are about seven lakh employees who man the elaborate Union government machinery. 16 Aug. '02, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, August 26, 2002"Job Security A Major Concern For Indians, Slump hits consumer spending": Fears of job security and worsening of the economy have forced consumers to defer major investment decisions and purchases over the last six months, according to an AC Nielsen consumer confidence poll conducted across 13 Asia -Pacific markets. Job security surfaced as one of the major concerns for 33pct of Indian consumers polled, followed by worries about the economy at 27percent. Major investments and purchases deferred include cars, stocks and shares and extended holidays. The good news is that Indians were more upbeat about a recovery than other nationalities, with over 73 pct believing that a recovery would happen in 12 months. 16 Aug. '02, The Economics Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, August 26, 2002Germany eases job rules for students: The German government has made some changes in the work rules for foreign students. The changes, which are expected to come into effect from the beginning of next year, will enable international students to work for a longer period of time during their study than they are currently allowed to. 16 Aug. '02, The Economics Times
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- Monday, August 26, 2002Companies in SEZs allowed to pay higher remuneration :
Companies established in the special economic zones (SEZs) of the country can now pay a higher managerial remuneration than what has been stipulated under the Companies Act. The Department of Company Affairs (DCA) has placed a ceiling of Rs. 2.4 crore per annum for such companies. "For managerial remunerations, SEZs have been asking for a higher ceiling than what has been prescribed. With the existing limits they were unable to draw and retain the best of the talents", official sources told Business Line. 15 August '02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, August 26, 2002 Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) is stepping up recruitment of women managers, especially at mid-management levels, where the ratio currently is low. The FMCG major is of the view that business segments like colour cosmetics, skin care, hair care, herbal health and beauty, culinary and Aviance can benefit if their marketing is handled by women. "It makes more sense to have women in key marketing jobs in these businesses, as they tend to use more of such products", says Mr. Prem J Kamath, HLL’s Head of Management Resources, India. Women account for 12.5 pct of HLL's managers against a 25pct representation among graduates, including the IIMs. 14 August '02, The Economics Times
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- Saturday, August 17, 2002"Uncle Sam gets stingy with H - 1B visas": The slowdown in the US economy has resulted in a sharp decline in the number of temporary H1B work visas issued to foreign workers, including Indians, according to the immigration and naturalization Service (INS). The INS issued about 60,500 H-1b visas from October ’01 to June ’02, posting a 54 percent decline from 130,700 visas issued during the same period the previous fiscal, the latest INS data shows. The US government issues H1B work visas, which are valid for six years, under a special programme intended to help companies out with extra workers when there are not enough qualified US workers to fill the jobs. About half of all H-1B workers are employed by the computer industry, which use the visas to import computer engineers, many from India and China, as well as other professionals. 14 August '02, The Economics Times
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- Saturday, August 17, 2002"Regard staff as stakeholders": Corporations must view their employees as stakeholders, let them sit on their boards of directors and give them a say in how pension plans are directed, an MIT business school professor said on Sunday. "They should know what is happening to their pension plan and have a voice " Mr Thomas A Kochan, the George M Bunker Professor of Work & Employment Research at MIT Sloan School of Management, told the Academy of Management annual meeting in Denver at a special panel set up to address corporate scandals. Another panelist urged business schools to do a better job of teaching ethics, saying the lack of focus on ethics has some MBA programs "turning out some very skilled criminals". A rash of corporate scandals has turned investors against Wall Street, decimated some pension plans, moving the term "perp walk" from the police blotter to the business page of newspapers. 13 August '02, The Economics Times
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- Saturday, August 17, 2002"Hire hopes": Executives are more optimistic about adding to pay rolls over the next four months than they were in January, says the recent study by the Broadmoor Group, a Dallas - based global executive search firm. That response is encouraging, given the slather of corporate scandals that have rocked the public’s faith in Big Business and depressed the stock market. Some 22 percent of executives expect to increase hiring within the next six months, 67percent anticipate maintaining current staffing levels, and 11percent expect hiring to decline, according to the study conducted by email in June. In a similar survey last January, only 19percent of execs responded that they might be hiring in the near future, though a smaller number only 8percent predicted a decrease in hiring. "In spite of (the accounting scandals), Corporate America seems to be still fairly optimistic," says Mr. Randall Neal, the Broadmoor Group’s managing director. 12 August '02, The Economics Times
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- Saturday, August 17, 2002"Job Outlook to remain somber": The Federation of Indian Chambers of commerce and Industry’s Business Confidence Survey of July 2002 shows that the outlook for employment is likely to remain sombre. While the majority of those surveyed, almost 67 per cent, expected the current levels of employment to be maintained, 18 per cent expected it to further decline and only 15 percent expected higher employment. However, it is reassuring that no major downsizing is imminent, Dr. Amit Mitra, Secretary-General FICCI said. 12 August '02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Saturday, August 17, 2002Japanese are wooing Indian software talent to work in Japan: A Japanese company is looking to recruit at least 100 software professionals this fiscal from Pune to work in Japan at levels ranging from programmer to project manager in telecom and engineering companies. i-POC Corporation (Indian IT engineer Placement and Offshore Development Company) promoted by C Cube, related to the Japanese giant NTT, and two other Japanese companies, will offer a six month training course to IT professionals here. It will recruit and train them in language skills and in simulated Japanese work situations. 12 August '02, The Economics Times
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- Saturday, August 17, 2002Infotech jobs on the rise : With multinational companies and banks expanding their back office operations in the country, the demand for jobs in the infotech-related sector has started showing an uptrend. According to market information, many of the big Indian and foreign companies have already started recruiting software professionals with emphasis on those with proven skills. Examples of this are the new centre opened by HSBC and inauguration of a technology park set up by Oracle, both in Bangalore in August. 10 August '02, The Statesman
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- Saturday, August 17, 2002ISRO tackles attrition with post-graduates : What could a Government-owned space research organisation do when its plum talent gets plucked by new-age tech companies? One is to inject some patriotic spirit and play the feel-good trump about working for a prestigious organisation such as ISRO. The other is to zero in on talent that is serious about a long haul in space research. According to Mr. E.K.Kutty, HR Director, ISRO now has a revamped recruitment system and "we see a drastic reduction in outward mobility." It could also be the insecurity post 9/11 and a consequent freeze in the job market. But what is interesting is the strategy that ISRO adopted. The space research organisation is now targeting M Techs and MEs for recruitment rather than BEs, because, he says, the former lot are more serious about a ‘research career’. The BEs are more often than not waiting for better jobs. In fact, the first batch of M Techs had its orientation training in June. "It’s difficult to get a M Tech or an ME, but once we acquire them, it’s easier to retain them," he says. For the IT companies, on the other hand, it has worked well to recruit and retain plain graduates and diploma holders. 10 August '02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Saturday, August 17, 2002National HRD Network inviting nominations for Awards in HRD Excellence: The National HRD Network announced that it is inviting nominations for Awards in HRD Excellence. These awards will be in recognition of outstanding contributions in promotion of Human Resource Development. There will be 2 categories. 1. For Individuals and 2. For Organizations. The Awards Committee includes: Shri K. V. Kamath (ICICI), Dr. T. V. Rao (TVRLS), Dr. Madhukar Shukla (XLRI), Dr. Santrupt Misra (National President), Mr Arvind Agrawal (RPG Group), Mr S. Chandrasekhar (Ex. L&T, Chennai) and Mr Sanjoy Narayan (Business Today). The last date for receipt of nominations is August 17, 2002. The awards ceremony for Organisations and Individuals will be held at the National Conference of the National HRD Network on October 3 - 5, 2002 in Mumbai. For further details, please contact: Mr G. P. Rao, National Secretary, NHRDN, C/o Birla VXL Ltd. ECE House, 28-A, K G Marg, New Delhi - 110 001 Email: gprhrd@rediffmail.com
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- Tuesday, August 13, 2002 Indian software giants that offered jobs to fresh graduates two years ago have finally started taking them on board as business slowly picks up. Indian firms, which typically made job offers a year before expected joining dates, have started hiring once again after a period of muted lay-offs, even as global technology majors continue to slash staff in a turbulent market. 09 August '02, The Financial Express
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- Tuesday, August 13, 2002"Bank, finance companies to give smaller salary hikes this fiscal ": According to the Hewitt salary survey for the banking and financial sectors, the salary hike for senior management in banks is expected to fall from 9.9 percent in fiscal 2002 to 7.4 percent in fiscal 2003. For mid level managers, the salary hike will fall from 8.7 percent to 7 percent. In the financial services sector, the fall in senior management salary hikes will be a little less steep from 10.8 percent to 7.4 percent. For mid-level managers, the salary hike will fall from 9.5 percent to 8.7 percent. Interestingly, the study points out how variable pay component is slowly but steadily creeping up in the overall salary composition of both banks and other financial services companies. 08 August '02, The Economic Times
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- Tuesday, August 13, 2002Treat call centre jobs like career:If IT-Enabled services has to become a viable industry in the country, then youngsters should think in terms of working in a call centres as a career and not just a job. This came out as a major thrust area for IT-enabled services companies, as industry honchos discussed various industry trends at the Nasscom IT - enabled services forum in Delhi today. They also added that the growth opportunity for youngsters was terrific in IT enabled services. Those who participated include Spectramind's Mr Raman Roy, daksh.com CEO, Mr S. Aggarwal, Transverse head Mr Prakash Gurbaxani, British Telecom's Mr Arun Seth and Nasscom's Mr Kiran Karnik. 08 August '02, The Economic Times
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- Tuesday, August 13, 2002US job cuts dip :Job cuts announced at US firms fell in July to their lowest level in 14 months, a report showed on Monday, but concerns over a fragile and jobless economic recovery persisted. US firms announced 80,966 layoffs in July, down from 94,766 in June, a 15 per cent drop, employment research firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said. "While it is a positive sign that job cuts have slowed so significantly, the news is weakened by the fact that the economy seems to be in a no-growth state," said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger Gray. 06 August '02, The Business Standard
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- Tuesday, August 13, 2002Work culture crucial :Sharing his views on management and work culture in today's world, renowned keynote speaker Mr. Shiv Khera said "creating a culture is very crucial because it gives an employee the feeling of being a part of the organisation. Trusting and a cooperative environment in tune with clear benchmarks synthesise a good work culture. This kind of environment is achievable if the organisation conducts induction, orientation and training programmes on a regular basis. An employee should be working within the framework of his company’s policies. He can add to the productivity of the company if he feels he is a part of the organisation. If somebody causes a disturbance to the integrity of the environment, he should be fired immediately." 05 August '02, The Times of India
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- Tuesday, August 13, 2002Executives made $3.3 bn in biggest US collapses: Top Executives and directors of the biggest US business collapses amassed billions in salary and share sales while the stock market was still booming, according to a Financial Times survey. In just three years, they grossed about $3.3 billion before their companies went bust, having wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars of shareholder value and nearly 100,000 jobs. The survey backs the words of Mr. Alan Greenspan, US Federal Reserve chairman, who two weeks ago attacked the "infectious greed" that distorted American capitalism during the late 1990s, an era in which achieving long term corporate success was not necessary for managers to reap vast personal rewards. 01 August '02, The Business Standard
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- Monday, August 05, 2002Spectramind becomes the first Indian Company to be COPC Certified using the Six Sigma platform : Spectramind, India’s leading Business Process Outsourcing and Customer Interaction Service provider, today announced that it has received a conditional certification status from COPC, the world’s leading authority on customer contact centers. The certification was provided for the Technical helpdesk processes after a three day end to end assessment of both inbound voice and E-mail processes at Spectramind’s facility in New Delhi. The company is said to have achieved this status at an amazing pace alongwith its explosive growth. Spectramind is India’s largest third party provider of BPO services with a wide range of processes in production (both voice and non-voice based) and offers end-to-end solutions to organizations across a wide range of industries. Spectramind has offices in India and in the US. It has two state-of-the-art production facilities in New Delhi and Mumbai with a combined capacity that can accommodate over 5000 people. US-Based COPC is the leading global authority on customer intensive operations, as typified by customer contact centers and fulfillment services. COPC is authorized to issue certification to the COPC-2000® Standard, a comprehensive operations performance standard that specifies minimum operational requirements in critical functional areas. COPC services clients on a worldwide basis, and has representatives in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Singapore, India, Japan and the United States.
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- Monday, August 05, 2002BEWARE! Woamen at work! With the Phaneesh Murthy development at Infosys, men in the Indian corporate world are quickly turning the pages of the rulebooks that guide their behaviour at work. According to one Bangalore based HR executive of a software company, several of her male colleagues were apprehensively enquiring about the don’ts that could land them in trouble. According to Mr. R. Vidyasagar, Vice President, HR, i-flex solutions, Companies in India are finally waking up to this issue. The Indian Government is also coming out very strongly against gender harassment." At i-flex, sexual harassment issues are taken very seriously. Forget making distasteful remarks, even sending such e-mail messages is prohibited here." Agrees Mr. Joydeep Bose, General Manager, Corporate HR, Wipro Ltd., "employees should be educated on the cultural innuendoes that come up during work abroad." 27 July '02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, August 05, 2002Cheesed off? Try some chicken soup :Last year, Spencer Johnson's Who Moved My Cheese? sold a million copies over the Net. Creating a simple fable of two mice (Sniff and Scurry) and their human counterparts (Hem and Haw), the book purported to change the way the world looked at change.
Just what is it about motivational literature that appeals to the human psyche? HT Careers spoke to five top management gurus for their take on inspirational books and this is what they had to say:
“It is natural for people to seek reassurances on their strategic roadmap during crisis time. Motivational literature that promises a return to clearer, fundamental frameworks — often philosophical framework - helps because it goes beyond the routine of daily life in tapping profound sources of wisdom. In Who Moved… change is reacknowledged as a universal constant in an attempt to reconcile us and our agendas, something which is easily ignored during good economic times,” says Dipak C. Jain, Dean, Kellogg School of Management, USA. Read the full story HERE. 26 July '02, The Hindustan Times
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- Saturday, July 27, 2002Companies reluctant to match profits with salary increases:Net Profits surged upto 31.2 percent post-liberalisation but wages rise only 15.8 percent. Liberalisation didn’t seem to do much good for employees. Even as net profits of companies grew by 31.2 percent in the first five year of liberalisation, wages grew by half that pace, at 15.8 percent. This is in direct contrast to the three years prior to liberalisation when growth in profits and wages were evenly matched at 12 percent and 10 percent respectively. A year-on-year analysis shows that during the pre-liberalisation period, the rate of growth in profits touched 28.5 percent in 1989 - 90 while it fell to - 2.6 percent in 1990 - 91. 23 July '02, The Economic Times
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- Saturday, July 27, 2002Fewer Strikes, lockouts :Strikes and lockouts have been on a declining trend. However, this may possibly be one of the fallouts of a dull job market as opposed to an improvement in the industrial relations scenario. According to available figures, the number of strikes and lockouts has declined by 16.6 per cent and eight percent respectively during January - September 2001. The number of workers involved in these strikes and lockouts has also dropped by 32 per cent. But these numbers do not necessarily point to a qualitative change in industrial relations in the country. "These figures should be seen as a reflection of a rather dull job market," says the Regional Labour Commissioner, Mumbai. 19 July '02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, July 22, 2002Coke to regard stock options as wages:Coca-Cola Co. will begin treating future stock option grants as employee compensation, a key accounting change that advocates contend offers a fairer assessment of the company’s performance. The gesture by such a prominent member of the business community could set the stage for other major companies to follow suit as investors and government clamour for more transparency in U.S. accounting practices. 16 July '02, The Hindu
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- Monday, July 22, 2002India Inc has designs on employee behaviour:As a matter of survival in today’s harsh competitive environment, corporate India is catching up with the rest of the world in acknowledging the importance of employees' behavioural pattern. While measuring intelligence and skills is an age-old practice for improving productivity, assessment of behaviour of late has gained immense importance. Thomas Profiling, the global behavioural profiling tool for measuring the natural bahavioural style, which is used by 300 Fortune 500 companies in 52 countries, has seen its clientele growing by 20% in India. "The profiling is based on the fact that while intelligence and skills can be measured, behaviour, which critically impacts performance, is not easy to assess. Improper or incomplete assessment of behaviour can result in companies losing employees because of behavioural weaknesses, or hiring the wrong kind of people, Indian companies have started acknowledging the importance of this. Our turnover, is growing by 40%," said Mr. Prahlad Rao, one of the promoters of Team Value Profiling Services (TVPS). 16 July '02, The Economic Times
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- Monday, July 22, 2002HP Designs Workshops on "mirror exchange":A group of Hewlett-Packard Co. and former Compaq Computer Corp. employees gathered together recently for an intensive two-day get-to-know-you session. Among the weighty questions pondered: Did the Compaq group resemble a pack of downhill ski racers? Or were they more akin to an ice-hockey team? The sports chatter was all part and parcel of a new employee workshop, dubbed "Fast Start," that H - P recently began rolling out to its 150,000 staffers worldwide. The exercise, knows as "mirror exchange," was designed to get H-P and former Compaq workers to understand one another better through the use of sports analogies. 15 July '02, The Financial Express
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- Monday, July 22, 2002According to global HR consultancy firm Watson and Wyatt’s survey on retrenchment practices amongst Indian corporates, VRS packages are decided very arbitrarily in India and cost-cutting is most often the reason for VRSs. Following are some of the recommendations made by The Watson and Wyatt survey for retrenchment communication: 1) Explain the reasons for workforce reduction. 2) Emphasise that it is a business decision. 3) Stress that the programme is intended to be fair and consistent. 4) Listen attentively to the employees concerns, opinions and questions. 5) Demonstrate attentiveness through body language. 6) Act in a straightforward and professional manner. 7) By acting in a compassionate manner, you help the employee in getting over his shock. Retrenchment is a sensitive issue and the survey stresses that the lasting impact on the employees should be good, as it is not only about throwing money at departing employees, but maintaining a humane approach towards them. Bottomline: Companies that retrench employees in a human manner win respect all around. 14 July '02, The Financial Express
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- Monday, July 22, 2002"Whatever it is, I’m against it!" :An employee whose ideas are always getting shot down by management may feel the boss has borrowed an old line from comedian Groucho Marx: "Whatever it is, I’m against it!" To get your ideas accepted at work, it might be wise to take some advice from an expert on the subject, organisational change maven Mr. Rick Maurer of Arlington, Virginia, author of Why Don’t You Want What I Want? Mr. Maurer says there are three basic reasons that ideas get bounced: firstly "I don’t get it!" based on the idea’s content; secondly "I don’t like it!" based on the emotion surrounding it; and lastly "I don’t like you!" based on your track record or standing in the company. Too often, people just walk into a conference room, set up their power point software, "and just talk and talk and talk", Mr. Maurer said. In the excitement over their brainstorm, they forget that their relationship with the audience" is as important as the idea". If your idea is turned down, "You’ve got to take a hard look in the mirror and ask why," he said. "It could be as simple as a timing issue, lack of budget, or perhaps people didn’t understand what you said". 12 July '02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, July 22, 2002Your job can drill you to your death, really:The researchers at the University of Texas School of Public Health found that workers who spent their lives in undemanding jobs with little control over their work were 35% more likely to die during a 10 year period than workers in challenging jobs with lots of decision making responsibilities. The team’s findings were reported in the latest issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. On one extreme were low-stress jobs with little decision making responsibilities. Prof. Amick said. At the other extreme were jobs with lots of demands and lots of freedom to make decisions, precisely the kind of jobs that people typically think can shorten your life span. Apparently those high-pressure, high control jobs don’t kill you - or at least not as quickly as boring jobs, these findings suggest. "This alienating work could result in social disengagement and / or adopting of high-risk behaviors that lead to a higher risk of death", such as eating, drinking or smoking too much, Prof. Amick wrote. 10 July '02, The Indian Express
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- Friday, July 12, 2002Work 40 hours a week and live long:According to a new Anglo-Japanese study, working long hours & getting little sleep or time off is a sure-fire shortcut to an early grave. "Working 60 or more hours a week, and regularly not getting much sleep, may double the risk of having a heart attack," said the study published on Wednesday in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine. "An average night’s sleep of five or fewer hours, for two nights of the working week, was associated with a doubling and even tripling of the risk," it added. The study, conducted between 1996 and 1998, looked at 260 men aged between 40 and 79 who had survived a first heart attack and matched them against 445 comparable men with no history of cardiac arrest. The study found that while all participants had similar lifestyles and medical conditions, the heart attack group worked far longer hours, hardly relaxed and slept less than five hours a night significantly more ! often than the other group. The authors, Suminori Kono of Kyushu University in Japan and David Snashall of Guy’s and St. Thomas’s NHS Trust in London, said sleep deprivation led to raised blood pressure while chronic stress caused heart function abnormalities. Both of these were potential triggers for a heart attack. The authors concluded that the optimal working week was a maximum 40 hours, and advised those working longer to get more sleep and take longer breaks. 10 July '02, The Tribune
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- Friday, July 12, 2002EPF net to broadened, pink slip insurance likely :Call Centres, cell phone operators, medical transcriptions and a host of new generation services are set to be brought under the EPF net with the government proposing amendments to the EPF & MP Act 1952. These amendments, along with a few others to reduce the threshold for EPF coverage from 20 to 10 employees, delinking pension contributions from provident fund and introduce an employer funded insurance scheme to provide a one-year safety net through an insurance scheme to cover involuntary unemployment - are set to be taken up by the central board of trustees of the EPF tomorrow. At present, under the provisions of the EPF & MP Act, 1952, the labour ministry notifies industries and establishments which are covered by EPF. All employers employing more than 20 employees in the notified sector have to deduct EPF and remit it to the government (or the exempt trusts) along with the employer’s contributions. 09 July '02, The Economic Times
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- Friday, July 12, 2002FMCG may take pay cake but there's something for everyone : A microbiologist actually earning more than a FMCG salesman? Quite possible, if trends in compensation packages are anything to go by.
If there's still any doubt on this, let it be put to rest: selling soap, toothpaste and shampoo has been and still is the most lucrative career you can have in India. the entire story at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=15676356 Click here for industry-wise salary levels 12 July '02, The Economic Times
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- Friday, July 12, 2002Take a double-digit hike in ’02 :Employees across the country can expect some decent pay hikes this year. News has slowly started filtering in of improvements in several economic indicators.
At the same time, the Corporate Dossier Watson Wyatt compensation and benefits survey also indicates that the expectation across industry is of a double-digit rise in benefits during 2002.
The survey was conducted across five broad sectors comprising engineering, pharmaceuticals, financial services, consumer and high tech covering three managerial levels. As far as actual pay rises are concerned., the consumer sector comprising mainly fast moving consumer good companies has witnessed the highest rise of 16.7% in benefits during 2001.
If you are looking to increase your pay rapidly then the consumer sector is the place to be, compared to, say, the pharmaceuticals sector where salaries are conservative.
Over the years, too, the consumer sector has shown a consistent rise. It displaced the high-tech sector from the top spot in 2001. The cup of woes for high tech overflowed as the pay rise slumped to 13% after experiencing a major boom with a rise in excess of 20 % per year since the mid-nineties. Changing industries is a common tactic to increase one’s salary. But this might not be financially rewarding unless you get the move right.
For example, if you move up to the senior management level, try to ensure you’re in the high-tech sector — this can yield a cool Rs 25 lakh plus. But a very important consideration is also the right functional area.
The sales and marketing function, expectedly, will give the biggest benefits in the consumer sector but what may be surprising is that it’s the same at the senior management level in other sectors like financial services and high tech.
There is something for everyone as pharma and engineering sectors would enable you to enjoy both fixed as well as variable bonus compared to the financial services or the high-tech sector where bonus is linked more with performance. 12 July '02, The Economic Times
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- Friday, July 12, 2002Salary hikes are back! :Close on the heels of friendly rival across town Wipro Ltd. announcing that it was giving a raise in salary to its employees, Infosys on Wednesday said that this quarter it was planning a similar exercise.
Speaking at a post earning announcement conference call with ana-lysts today, K Dinesh, director and head of human resources at Infosys said that the variable compensation paid to employees will be hiked this quarter. This will be linked to two parameters: company performance and individual performance, he said. 11 July '02, the Economic Times
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- Thursday, July 11, 2002DCA tightens pay rules for ally family members of listed companies :Listed companies will have to disclose the proportion of their total annual turnover being paid as remuneration to their promoter families. This disclosure is mandatory to obtain statutory clearances for managerial remuneration and appointments from the government. DCA has issued a fresh, more stringent set of internal guidelines to be followed by its officials for approving the appointment of whole-time directors and managing directors from the promoters’ families. The guidelines focus mainly on listed companies which are not closely held, a senior DCA official told. "We do not wish to be as strict with closely-held companies. They may distribute their profits to their promoter-employees. The idea is to protect the small investors in companies where promoters corner up to 30% of the turnover in a year of losses", he added. 5 July'02, The Economic Times
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- Tuesday, July 09, 2002Employer to take care of documents for perks:The Finance Ministry has decided to place the responsibility of documentation required for the valuation of perks, on the employer. Detailed documentation requirements were prescribed last year for availing of tax exemption (i.e., when the motor car, club expenses or credit cards are used for business purpose). The rules would be simpler now with the former Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, clearing the Revenue Department’s proposal to place the onus on the employer, officials said. 5 July'02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Tuesday, July 09, 2002Morning prayers to turn EPF officers punctual, more efficient:The familiar prayer "Itni shakti hame dena daata, man ka vishwas kamjor ho na, hum chale nek rashte par humse bhool kar bhi koi bhool ho na" resounds the rooms and corridors of the provident fund offices sharp at 9.40 am. Fed up with employees arriving late for work, officials of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation have found a novel method of dealing with the problem. Morning prayers, much the same way they are held in schools, are now being held at Provident Fund offices across the city. Employees working in various capacities assemble in the gallery or in an open space and recite the prayer. After that they listen to spiritual speeches or a ‘thought of the day’, followed by clapping "which vibrates energy in the body". If senior officials are to be believed, the practice has actually improved the work culture in the offices and employees have started arriving on time. Regional Commissioner Mr. A Mahendra Raju said "The prayer has helped the employees concentrate more on their work and has also created peaceful working conditions." 4 July'02, The Pioneer
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- Tuesday, July 09, 2002A report on Tuesday said Layoff announcements by US firms rose 12 per cent in June, led by further job losses in the troubled telecommunications industry, the report suggested the labour market remains weak. Job cuts announced in June totalled 94,766, up from 84, 978 in May, the employment outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas said on Tuesday. But there were 24 per cent fewer job cut announcements compared with June 2001, and job cuts during Q2 fell 34 per cent compared with Q1. 3 July'02, The Times of India
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- Tuesday, July 09, 2002" Problem child in the office" :New study findings suggest that some of the most outgoing employees are also the biggest troublemakers. Generally, these so-called extroverts have been seen as energetic, assertive types who often excel at work, particularly in jobs requiring lots of interaction with others. But not all research into personality and job performance has found extroversion to predict good job performance. And, the combination of being highly outgoing but less-than conscientious may make for the most counterproductive of employees, the findings indicate. " We sometimes call them 'high -maintenance'," said study author Mr. Alan Witt. So researchers are looking at the combinations of personality traits that may better predict a job candidate's odds of being a prized employee - or, as Mr. Witt said, a "problem child". 2 July'02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Tuesday, July 09, 2002HRD Ministry plans to impose gurudakshina :The Ministry of human resource development plans to do-make employers across the board deposit the equivalent of the first salary of their new recruits into a kitty called the Bharat Shiksha Kosh as gurudakshina, in return for measly tax benefits. Preposterous? UGC acting Chairman Mr. Arun Nigvekar considers it "perfectly justified". "The hiring institutions owe the skills of their employees to the government which has provided them education", he explains. "It should therefore be obligatory for employers - private or government - to pay back this debt by contributing to the Bharat Shiksha Kosh. I would suggest employees, too, contribute their first salary to the Kosh as a token of their commitment". 30 June '02, The Times of India
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- Tuesday, July 09, 2002The second National Labour Commission has opposed introduction of a hire and fire policy :The second National Labour Commission has opposed introduction of a hire and fire policy and also not favoured the proposal to make closures and retrenchments easier by raising the number of workers for mandatory prior permission of the government from 100 to 1,000. The commission has suggested that it could be raised to 200 to 300. On hire and fire policy, the commission said there was absence of a social security system and without provision for a judicial review, it would also be against the constitutional guarantee of the right to seek justice. 30 June '02, The Financial Express
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- Tuesday, July 09, 2002Govt. muses over capital risk cover for EPF :For the first time, the government is thinking of creating a capital risk cover for the employees provident fund. In its recent missive to the labour ministry, the finance ministry has shot down the Central Board of Trustees’ proposal for a 9.5% rate of return to the members of the EPF on grounds that some reserve would be necessary to guard against the possibility of investments going sour. 29 June '02, The Economic Times
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- Tuesday, July 09, 2002Delhi, Mumbai among cheapest cities in world :
The latest Worldwide Cost of Living survey of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) reveals that Indian cities are amongst the cheapest in the world.
Among 131 cities covered by the survey, New Delhi is the third cheapest and Mumbai is the fourth cheapest city in the world, with a cost of living that’s less than one-third of that in Tokyo and Osaka - the two costliest cities.
This bi-annual survey carried out by the EIU attempts to provide a guide to companies for calculating allowances for executives and their families being sent overseas.
The latest survey results places Hong Kong as the third costliest city after the two Japanese cities. 5 July '02, The Economic Times
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- Friday, July 05, 2002'Retail sector poised to be major employer’: According to a Retail study on human resources by the Images magazine , with over Rs 3,500 crore worth of retail business getting into the organised fold every year, the sector has the potential of employing over 5,00,000 skilled people by the end of this decade. According to the study, the total requirement of trained manpower is over 50,000 a year for the next five-year-period, against the availability of a few thousand retail trade-trained personnel each year. 25 June '02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Saturday, June 29, 2002Recruitment time for IT firms: It is recruitment time for Indian software makers, though with caution, after recovering from a global downturn in tech spending and adverse developments back home. Analysts say the blue-chip software companies, which nearly applied a break on recruitment last year due to a slowdown, have begun a hiring drive but are being selective about quality. "Things have started to look up as far as recruitment by IT companies are now making a calculated decision to bolster their workforce," said Ms. Deepanjali Bagai, an IT analyst with ICRA Ltd. As global customers look for ways to prune spending and increase outsourcing, the Indian companies are getting ready to hire again, anticipating new demands from clients. "But the companies are not likely to go for aggressive recruitment as we have seen in the past few years because the overall environment is still very competitive. They will adopt a circumspect attitude towards recruitment," Ms. Bagai told IANS. 25 June '02, The Tribune
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- Saturday, June 29, 2002More and more MNCs Replacing Expat CEOs with locals: A look at MNCs around the country shows an overwhelming number of them have now plumped for Indian CEOs. According to HR consultants, the trend of expat CEOs being gradually replaced by locals has already been witnessed in Singapore and Hong Kong and is now repeating itself in India. Alstom India MD Mr. K K Moradian made way for Mr. Krishna Pillai, Cadbury’s Mr. Mathew Cadbury relinquished the India head position for Mr. Bharat Puri. Coke’s long-term India Chief Mr. Alex Von Behr is also widely seen to be being replaced with Mr. Sanjiv Gupta. P&G India replaced its expat CEO Mr. Gary Cofer with Mr. Shantanu Khosla. This trend is there in every sector of the economy. 25 June '02, The Economic Times
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- Saturday, June 29, 2002Institutions draw up blueprint to tackle corporate greed: The plan by a group of powerful pension funds from around the world will put pressure on companies to limit the payment of stock options and cash bonuses to top executives. The International Corporate Governance Network, whose members control $10,000 billion of assets, wants to lay down corporate governance standards on pay that can be applied across countries. Its move is the latest sign of shareholder activism over pay in the wake of scandals such as the collapse of Enron. 25 June '02, The Business Standard
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- Saturday, June 29, 2002Companies Now Opting for "Pay for performance": In a fast-paced reformation drive, Old Economy corporates in Bangalore are also increasingly introducing performance-linked salary structures across the board, as in the case of IT companies. BPL Ltd., ABB India Ltd. and Tanishq are some of the key players that have taken the lead here. "Currently this system has already been introduced in most marketing departments, but before we roll it out on a large scale, we want to set things right based on our restructuring process. But moving to a performance-linked payscale is a industry-wide trend that is gaining importance," says Mr. LH Bhatia, COO, Home Appliances, BPL Ltd. 25 June '02, The Financial Express
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- Saturday, June 29, 2002INGAF To Teach HR to Govt. Officials: Keeping in step with the times, govt. departments are beginning to recognise the importance of HR training. The Institute of Govt. Accounts & Finance (INGAF) for one has begun conducting HR training workshops for senior level govt. officers across various ministries. This is the first time the institute is looking at areas beyond its domain of public finance. It has since its inception in 1992 been conducting training in areas like finance, budgeting, accounting, internal auditing and expenditure management, for group A, B and C officers in various government departments. 25 June '02, The Financial Express
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- Saturday, June 29, 2002Women fight for ending disparities in pay :The latest statistics show that women earn on average 18 per cent less per hour than men across all professions. For City (of London) women, the disparity can be even greater. Those on six-figure salaries earn an average of almost 60 per cent less than their male counterparts. Last week, in what could be a landmark case, Ms Louise Barton, a former City analyst, sued her employer for alleged sexual bias. Ms Barton resigned from Investec Henderson Croths-waite after discovering that two male colleagues, one of whom she had hired, were earning about double the amount she was being paid. Hearings in the case will start next week. In a separate case,the tribunal awarded Ms. Julie Bower $2.1m compensation last year after finding that the investment bank, Schroder Securities had paid her a bonus of pound 25,000, later increased to pound 50,000, in order to force her out of the company. "It is hard to conceive a process more lacking in transparency," it said of Schroders' method of allocating bonuses. 24 June '02, The Business Standard
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- Saturday, June 29, 2002ITES Ready For Job Boom :Despite hiccups like economic slowdown, 9/11 and the Indo-Pak war threat, the IT enabled services (ITES) continues to be a promising sector not only in terms of revenue generation but also in terms of huge employment opportunities. The sector is likely to employ 1,59,000 people by March 2003, almost a 50 per cent increase from the present level of 1,06,000 employees, according to Nasscom Vice President Ms. Sangeeta Gupta. ITES training and consulting from Hero Mindmine expects the sector to offer job opportunities to 1,70,000 people. "In spite of temporary road-blocks, the target of 1.1 million jobs in ITES by 2008 seems achievable," a spokesperson of Daksh.com eServices Private Limited said. 21 June '02, The Financial Express
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- Monday, June 24, 2002Singapore losing jobs to cheaper Asian rivals :The city state’s umbrella labour union organisation said that Singapore is fast losing jobs, mostly to China and other cheaper Asian countries, in sectors that used to be its economic pillars. Collating data from unions at some 18 companies that carried out large layoffs between January 1997 and May 2002, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) said in its weekly newsletter that 42,464 jobs were gone for good. Hardest hit was the disk drive sector with some 9,000 worker shed, making up 21% of the total retrenchment toll. "A worker in Singapore will cost S$1,000 (US$559) per month or more, but there is a bountiful stream of workers in China who will gladly work for S$100 per month," manpower ministry Lim Boon Heng told the Sunday Times newspaper. "Once the factories relocate, these jobs are gone. That is why we should lower our wage costs, to slow down the pace of relocation, keep the jobs for as long as we can." A government survey has showed that despite an easing of unemployment in the first quarter this year to 4,857 people job creation remains weak. 18 June '02, The Economic Times
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- Monday, June 24, 2002Life is tougher for CEO's in Europe :A study of 2,500 of the world’s largest listed companies found that European chief executives who left office in the four years researched 1995, 1998, 2000 and 2001 spent an average of only 6.5 years in the job. Departing North American chief executives had spent an average of 9.5 years in their posts, according to the study by Booz Allen Hamilton, the management consultants. Departing chief executives in the Asia-Pacific region had held their positions for an average of 6.8 years but were less likely than Europeans to be forced out by their boards or shareholders. Chief executives worldwide were now more likely to be forced out than to die while in office or leave of their own accord. "Today’s chief executives are like professionals athletes young people with short, well-compensated careers that continue only as long as they perform at exceptional levels," the study said. The average age at which chief executives are appointed has fallen to 49 in Europe and North America. 18 June '02, The Business Standard
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- Monday, June 24, 2002British Economy Picking Up :The number of Britons claiming unemployment benefit fell to its lowest since 1975 as of Friday, adding to evidence that Europe‘s second largest economy is picking up. Some economists said the figures, which also showed an acceleration in wage growth, provided the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee with further cause to raise interest rates from the current 38 year low of 4.0 percent. 15 June '02, The Business Standard
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- Monday, June 24, 2002US sees growth in May, unemployment rate dipped down to 5.8%: Labor department on Friday reported that non-farm pay-rolls grew a meager 41,000 jobs in May, after three months of virtually no movement, signalling gradual turn. The creation of new jobs helped drive down the unemployment rate to 5.8% from an eight-year high of 6% in April, surprising many analysts who had expected the rate to deteriorate somewhat. The labour market has been lagging behind the rest of the economy, with businesses holding off on hiring workers until profits rebounded. 11 June'02, The Economic Times
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- Monday, June 17, 2002IT jobs are here to stay’: According to top IT practitioners, academicians, employers and IT gurus Information Technology careers are here to stay with a bright future and there is no need to worry, they said participating in a unique interaction here over the week-end. Titled ‘Futures’, this interaction on the future of technology careers sought to allay the fear of the student community regarding the future of IT. Experts who participated in the event included Mr. Rajiv Kaul, Managing Director, Microsoft India, Mr. Rajesh Uppal, General Manager, IT, Maruti Udyog Ltd., Dr Sugata Mitra, Head, Centre for Research and Cognitive Systems and Ms C Jayanti, Editor, Education Times. Mr. Rajiv Kaul Managing Director, Microsoft India, said, "India has made a big brand name for itself in IT the worldover, so we need to be at the forefront of getting all the right technological inputs everyday so that we are able to increase our efficiencies going forward! ." 10 June'02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, June 17, 2002Desk work a risky business : Working at an office all day can be a real pain. Says Ms. Margareta Nordin, program director of ergonomics and biomechanics at New York University. “It’s a very common problem. Anyone who has work that forces them to sit continuously without changing posture sooner or later will experience some from of discomfort, a precursor to developing pain," she says. Studies show that among people who sit all day at their jobs, one of every three will suffer pain at least once a week, with neck and hand / arm pain the most common. One can prevent these problems with some simple changes in the habits. 1) Sit in the most natural position possible. 2) Office chair should support your lower back. Feet should touch the ground with your knees bent at a 90-degree angle. 3) Before your start work, you can do some simple stretching exercises to get your blood circulating. 4) When you sit down at your desk, sit up straight. 5) Get up, get a drink of water, go talk to a colleague, Nordin says: "It’s not so bad to have to get up and get something from the printer." 10 June'02, The Hindustan Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, June 17, 2002Japanese economy on the path to recovery : The Japanese government claimed that the world’s second biggest economy was on the road to recovery yesterday after new figures showed output had bounced out of its longest and deepest slump since the second world war. There were signs of recovery, too, from the US, with unemployment falling from 6% to 5.8% last month. Analysts were concerned, however, that the rate of job creation was lower than expected and argued that the recovery was not strong enough to warrant a rise in interest rates. 10 June'02, The Hindustan Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, June 17, 2002Infosys - 1st Asian Co. to win "Corporate Education Award" : Infosys Technologies has received the Corporate University Xchange Excellence Award for 2002 for ‘Aligning Corporate Learning to Business Strategies, and for demonstrating innovation and excellence in corporate education and training. Infosys is the first organisation founded in Asia to win this celebrated award, said a company press release. 8 June'02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Monday, June 17, 2002VRS may result in freeze of recruitment by Central Govt. for five years: The proposed rightsizing programme at the centre through VRS is likely to be "painful" and result in a freeze on fresh recruitment for five years. While government was drawing up plans for VRS on the basis of a report by the K P Geethakrishnan committee on expenditure reforms, the Planning Commission has maintained serious reservations on centre’s downsizing strategy for cutting flab by 10 percent in five years. "The process of downsizing the central government is not going to be as painless as is believed presently, and difficult decisions will have to be taken," the commission said in a technical report, which is being examined by the finance ministry. 3 June '02, The Pioneer
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- Wednesday, June 12, 2002E-recruitment and Staff referrals latest for recruitment: With the economic slowdown, the HR practices too have changed - recruitment has become lateral, campus recruits are far and few and referrals are playing a decisive role.Mr. Laxman Badiga, Chief Executive, Talent recruitment, Wipro Technologies, told Business Line that in a highly competitive recruitment environment, it was essential to use an optimal mix of sources to ensure lesser sourcing cost, reduced hiring time and higher joining rates. Employee referrals and e-recruitment contribute significantly towards achieving these objectives in Wipro Technologies. 4 June '02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Wednesday, June 12, 2002Airlines go on hiring mode. Expansion is New Buzz word: After a pause of several years, airlines based in India are getting into hiring mode. They plan to recruit pilots, engineers, cabin crew and support staff to execute their expansion plans. Leading the pack is Air India with a list of 150 pilots, 100 cabin crew, 140 technicians and 60 engineers. This is the first time since 1995 that the national carrier is hiring cabin crew. The mood is upbeat now in view of Air-India's expansion plans and a similar scene is happening at Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Air Sahara too. Ironically, the positive outlook and growth in the domestic aviation sector comes at a time when leading carriers of the world are on a downsizing spree to contain the impact of 9/11 terrorist attacks. 6 June '02, The Economic Times
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- Wednesday, June 12, 2002Pink slips? Blame it on power cuts: Shortage of power was the reason behind 31% of the lay-offs in 1999. The second most important reason - making up for 27% of lay-offs - was lack of demand for products, says an annual labour ministry survey released here. Most industrial units were closed due to a hike in excise duty in 1999. Financial stringency was the other factor mentioned in the survey. 6 June '02, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, June 12, 2002Study reports that the problem is low-quality employment, not joblessness: According to a study, unemployment rates are not high in India. The rate is around six per cent. The real nature of unemployment problem in the country is not that people are employed in some activity but that large number of those classified as employed are engaged in low-quality employment which does not provide adequate income to keep a family above the poverty line, Prof. S. Mehendra Dev, Director of the Centre for Economic, and Social Studies (CESS), states in his working paper on ‘Pro-poor growth in India: What do we know about the employment effects of growth 1980 - 2000?’ 6 June '02, The Hindu Business Line
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- Wednesday, June 12, 2002At a time when recruitments have decreased drastically in the software services sector, call centres in Bangalore are on a hiring spree : Employment forecasts have gone totally astray if one goes by the situation on the ground, as follows: Customer Asset: A two-year-old Bangalore based contact centre, is doubling its manpower in the next three months, by adding 800 call agents. 24/7 Consumer: The only COPC-certified company in the country is adding over 800 agents in the next ten months, making it a 1,400 people organisation. iSeva: The Bangalore-based call centre will be adding 500 call agents during this year, taking the tally to 1,000 people. GE Capital: The world’s most admired company, GE, which pioneered the call centre concept in India, is setting up a 2,000 seat unit in Bangalore, Eventually it will create over 4,000 jobs. TransWorks: Presently Mumbai - based, is coming to Bangalore to establish a 500 seat facility with an investment of $5 million. MsourcE: Part of the software services major, Mphasis - BFL, MsourcE is increasing its base in Bangalore by hiking capacity to 2000 seats. IBackOffice: Global Technology Venture-backed call centre is setting up a 20 acre campus with a built-up area of a 1,20,000 sq ft in Mangalore in addition to its 6,000 sq ft centre in Bangalore. 7 June '02, The Times of India
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, June 12, 2002
