HR Headlines: March, 08(Part-2)

Chefs Will Be Luckier Than IT Professionals In 2008
According to a latest survey by HR consultancy firm Ma Foi, the hospitality sector will generate the largest number of jobs in 2008 leaving behind the IT and ITES sectors. Education and Health will be the other two big job creating sectors. The hospitality sector is pegged to create 4,30,000 more jobs from 6.16 million in 2007 to 6.59 million in 2008. The health sector will follow adding 2,90,000 more people from 3.32 million in 2007 to 3.62 million in 2008. The education sector is expected to add 1,66,000 employees in 2008. In contrast, the IT and ITES sector will add only 1,30,000 jobs taking the employee strength to 1.93 million in 2008 from 1.8 million last year. Overall, the survey predicts creation of one million jobs across various sectors within one year. The survey was done across 22 different sectors. The survey also suggests that the appreciation in value of the rupee has hit new job creations in sectors like IT and textiles.
Source: 06-03-08 Business Standard Compiled By: Amresh Anjan

Good And Not So Good News For Working Women
A new report “Global Employment Trends for Women- March 2008” by International Labour Organisation (ILO) says that there is a surge in the number of working women and more women are working now than ever before. However, on the flip side, women are still more likely than men to get low productivity, low-paid and vulnerable jobs, with no social protection, basic rights nor any say at work. The number of working women touched 1.2 billion in 2007 compared to 1.8 billion men. During the same period, the number of unemployed women also grew from 70.2 to 81.6 million over the same period. Also, the service sector has overtaken agriculture as the prime employer of women over the past decade.
Source: 07-03-08 The Hindu Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Big Leap For IIM (A) Grads In Salary Offers
It is undoubtedly boom time for the 2006-08 batch of management students at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. They have witnessed a considerable jump in job and salary offers. The average salary offered this year went up from Rs16.2 lakh last year to Rs18.3 lakh this year. This year, the number of students eligible for lateral placements at IIM-A was 112 as compared to 89 last year. The highest domestic salary offered was Rs 35 lakh plus and international salary was around $1,30,000.
Source: 04-03-08 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Rising Wages & Attrition May Ring The Death Knell Of Indian Outsourcing
If rising wages and growing attrition is anything to go by, the Indian outsourcing boom may soon be headed towards doom. The cost advantage for offshoring to India once stood at 1:6. However, today, it has come down to 1:3. Also, rising attrition and low employee loyalty have reached scary heights. More importantly, India's tech industry is primarily a services industry and not one that is inventing new technology products of its own. Thus, India's $30 billion IT/ITES services industry is slowly but surely losing its competitive advantage. If the cost advantage keeps depleting, it will soon become inefficient to use Indian labor. Already, for many Europeans, Eastern Europe has already become more compelling than India.
Source: 03-03-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Job Growth In Tier-II Cities Faster Than Old Employment Hubs
The Ma Foi job survey says that Tier II cities like Hyderabad, Pune and Bhubaneshwar are creating more employment opportunities than cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The cyber city of Hyderabad is the fastest growing and has created nearly two jobs for every job created in Delhi this year. Even, cities like Aurangabad and Nagpur have picked up. The smaller cities in the west zone created the most jobs.
Source: 06-03-08 Hindustan Times Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Babus May Get To Work With India Inc
The Sixth Pay Commission is likely to recommend that bureaucrats may be allowed to serve significant stints outside of government in private sector companies. This allows mid-career officers to pick up new skills. This practice may be institutionalised in administrative rules. The private sector stints could be compensatory as government salaries lag behind private sector compensation. The recommendations of Sixth Pay Commission are likely to create a fiscal impact of around Rs 21,000 crore (Rs 210 billion) on account of the award.
Source: 04-03-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

HR Summit on Leveraging Technology for Excellence in HR
Delhi Management Association, in collaboration with AIMA, is organizing ‘National HR Summit on Leveraging Technology for Excellence in HR’ on 14th March 2008 in New Delhi at Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre. The principal sponsor of the event is SAP India and co-sponsors are Adrenalin E Systems and ONGC. The summit will focus on how sophisticated technical tools can be leveraged by HR to analyze and address the issues of culture and skill deployment, which were traditionally regarded as ‘soft issues’. For further details/registrations, please contact:
Rajan Pandhi, Assistant Director (Mob: 9810877615)
Delhi Management Association, India Habitat Centre, Core 6 A
1st Floor, Lodhi Road New Delhi 110003
Tel: 24629555,24649552 Fax: 24649553
E-mail: dmadelhi@sify.com or dmadelhi@ndb.vsnl.net.in
Website: dmadelhi.org

Source: 05-03-08 DMA Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Background Screening Firms To Form An Association
With the importance of background screening continuously rising, the firms in this business have decided to form an association to be called the Indian Association of Professional Background Screeners (IAPBS). These services mainly include checks on the educational qualifications, employment details and criminal records of prospective candidates of a company. The association will help tackle the issues that are typical to this industry, like legitimacy of background screening firms, protecting the interests of both the candidates and the clients, establishing best practices, and introducing certification programmes for the screening companies.
Source: 08-03-08 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Govt Will Not Recommend Minimum Wage For Indian Workers Abroad
The Indian government has clarified that it will not prescribe a minimum wage for Indian workers abroad, particularly in Bahrain. Some time ago, the Indian embassy in Bahrain had issued a notification fixing the minimum monthly wage limit for unskilled Indian workers at 100 Bahraini Dinars ($266) from March 01. However, the notification was put on hold pending clarification from New Delhi. This led to widespread confusion and even strikes by Indian workers in Bahrain. Now, the government has made it clear the power was given to Indian ambassadors in various countries to prescribe the minimum wage only for women workers between $300 and $350 based on local conditions. For labourers of general categories, protected under local laws, the salaries were to be driven by market forces.
Source: 03-03-08 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

L&T Intensifying Efforts To Curb Attrition
Reeling under a talent crunch and high attrition among its skilled workforce, the engineering and construction giant, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has hired global consulting firm Accenture to define talent strategies, including new talent pools. L&T has also sought the services of Gallup Consulting to refurbish its employee engagement programme. L&T is taking a hard look at the compensation for its staff, including ESOPs to improve retention. The company has an attrition rate of 12-14 percent.
Source: 08-03-08 The Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Sri Lankan Airlines Pilots Up for Grabs For Indian Carriers
Over 28 pilots of Sri Lankan Airlines are available to be picked by Indian carriers. Their contracts are nearing an end and they are not interested to renew them after the Dubai-based carrier Emirates pulled out its 43 per cent equity stake from Sri Lankan Airline. Thus skilled and experienced pilots from Sri Lankan Airlines flying wide-body aircraft are more than welcome at the airlines in India looking to expand internationally. In fact, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, have already reportedly hired from the Sri Lankan carrier. With shortage of skilled pilots in India, this comes as a blessing. Even carriers in West Asia are eyeing the pilot booty.
Source: 04-03-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Citigroup To Augment Commodities Staff In Asia
As global raw material prices rise to record highs, Citigroup Inc plans to hire more commodities staff in Asia in the coming two years. Currently, the company has 17 people in energy and commodities in Asia. Going forward, the bank expects to offer more risk management and investment products in coal, freight, emissions and agriculture.
Source: 07-03-08 The Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

British Manufacturers Looking To India To Meet Skills Shortage
An industry survey in England has revealed that more than half of the manufacturers in the region are looking outside the UK to hire skilled people they need to expand their businesses. To plug the widening technical skills gap, nearly 60 per cent manufacturers are recruiting talent from Eastern Europe and India. The survey respondents also believe that this skills shortage is driving up the real-term cost of recruitment.
Source: 03-03-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Infosys Mentor To Join Global HSBC Board
Mr N R Narayana Murthy, chief mentor of Infosys, is set to join the board of global banking giant HSBC in May. He will be an independent non-executive director at HSBC. He will be paid an annual remuneration of 65,000 pounds (about Rs 52 lakh) in his new position. His appointment shall be for an initial three-year term, expiring at the conclusion of the 2011 Annual General Meeting.
Source: 03-03-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

CFO Of Hexaware Resigns
Mr Rajesh Ghonasgi has resigned as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Hexaware Technologies. Mr Ghonasgi was surrounded with controversy ever since the company faced the recent forex mess causing a loss of Rs 103 crore. He had joined Hexaware in July 2002 from Wipro, where he worked as Finance Manager. Until a new recruitment is made, Mr P K Sridharan, Executive Director and Chief Mentor, will be the acting CFO.
Source: 07-03-08 Hindu Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Aztecsoft Gets New Senior V-P
Software Engineering Services Company, Aztecsoft has appointed Mr Satish Venkatachaliah as the Senior Vice-President for their Global HR and Recruiting. Formerly, Mr Venkatachaliah was working with SAP Labs, India as Vice-President, HR and a member of the Board of Directors. He brings to the table over 14 years of experience in HR.
Source: 05-03-08 Hindu Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr Rajeev Rastogi Joins Yahoo! R&D Lab In India
Yahoo! has launched a new research and development lab in Bangalore and has appointed Mr Rajeev Rastogi as Vice-President and head of the lab. Mr Rastogi was the founding director of Bell Labs India. Currently, he is on the editorial board of Communications for the Association for Computing Machinery (CACM). The R&D lab is aimed to be a centre of excellence for next generation search and advertising technologies.
Source: 04-03-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New CEO Of Reliance Capital
Reliance Capital, the financial services arm of Anil Ambani group, has appointed Mr Sam Ghosh as the new CEO. He replaces Mr Amitabh Chaturvedi. Mr Ghosh played a key role in ramping up German insurer Allianz’s Indian insurance ventures. He has reportedly put in his papers at Allianz.
Source: 07-03-08 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Merrill To Trim 650 Jobs
Merrill Lynch & Co is set to cut down 650 jobs as it stops making sub-prime mortgages through its First Franklin Financial Corp Unit. Lending was halted due to the deteriorating market for home loans. Recently, Merrill faced a huge Q4 loss of $9.83 billion, the worst ever in its 94-year history.
Source: 06-03-08 Hindu Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan

US Workers Napping On The Job
In a latest American survey, roughly one-third of the respondents said they had fallen asleep or become very sleepy at work in the past month. There has been a recent debate on the issue after security guards at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were videotaped sleeping on the job. The respondents admitted six hour forty minutes of average weekday sleep pattern, which means at least forty minutes estimated shortfall in sleep. Workers felt stressed as they were staying up on account of work and were trying to squeeze in more time for themselves and their families.
Source: 05-03-08 Hindustan Times Business




Compiled by Amresh Anjan