HR Headlines: March, 08(Part-3)

IT Companies Tightening Hiring Process To Tackle Fake CVs
Faced with false claims by candidates at entry level, top Indian IT companies have woken up to the need to fine tune their recruitment processes. The IT industry is widely afflicted with fake CVs and employees exaggerating their work experience in entry and mid-level jobs. Most of the times, companies make inadequate background checks and it is difficult to get the accurate picture of an employee at the time of recruitment. This leads to low-quality hires which deplete the value of the company. Companies like Wipro have already started taking measures to tackle this problem. Instead of a single HR head, the company has appointed Mr Pradeep Bahirwani and Mr Satish Krishnan to take charge of recruitment who in turn will make headhunters accountable for every employee that they recommend. Also, IT companies are looking at outsourcing recruitment processes.
Source: 10-03-08 Hindustan Times Compiled By Amresh Anjan

Let Your Employees Blog To Bond Better
Gone are the days when social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook used to give nightmares to the HR department of a company. With the changing face of work culture, many corporate managers are allowing their employees to browse social networking sites. The new age managers believe that blogging and socializing online lets co-workers bond better. In fact, at some places, such social media has emerged as a vital office communication tool. For instance, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is trying to leverage online social networking for knowledge creation across its 110,000 employees. In another instance, employees at Webchutney are on G-chat as a rule. Employees even chat with the CEO online.
Source: 08-03-08 Hindustan Times Compiled By Amresh Anjan

ESOPs Bonanza For 20,000 Rcom Employees
Over 20,000 eligible employees of Reliance Communications will receive employee stock options as the company’s ESOPs committee has approved the grant of 17.5 million options for employees based on a specified criterion. Each option would be exercisable into equal number of fully paid-up equity shares of the company. As prescribed in the exercise schedule, the options will start vesting at one year from the date of grant and shall be eligible for exercise up to a period of nine years.
Source: 09-03-08 Business Standard Compiled By Amresh Anjan

B-school Grads Increasingly Taking The Entrepreneurial Route
More and more students at various reputed business schools are opting out of the placement to start their own entrepreneurial ventures. For instance, at IIM-Ahmedabad, 11 students decided to don the entrepreneurial hat, while at IIM-Bangalore, the number stands at four and at IIM-Kozhikode, five students decided to kick-start their own venture. In fact, to abet the entrepreneurial spirit of the students, a few institutes also brought policy changes this year. S P Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai allows any candidate who opts out of the placement process to pursue entrepreneurial interests to sit in the placement process for the next two years. Similar policies are being followed at IIM-A and IIM-Indore. The Indian School of Business is planning to institute a scholarship for students who opt out of placements to set up their own companies.
Source: 12-03-08 www.rediff.com Compiled By Amresh Anjan

It’s Raining Jobs In The Insurance Sector
For jobseekers hunting jobs in the insurance sector, it is boom time. Employment generation is moving at a brisk pace in this sector with private insurance companies such as ICICI Prudential Life, Bajaj Allianz and HDFC Standard Life having almost doubled their employee strength in the past one year. ICICI Prudential raised its staff strength from 16,000 to 30,000 last year while Bajaj Allianz, with current strength of 28,000 employees, plans to add a minimum 10,000 more in the next fiscal. However, with a lack of a ready talent pool, insurance companies are looking to tie up with academic institutes to offer post graduate diploma courses in insurance and management for freshers.
Source: 12-03-08 Hindu Business Line Compiled By Amresh Anjan

Despite Hurdles, Good Times Ahead For The PR Industry
According to a study by Assocham, the Public Relations sector in India is booming and is unlikely to be fazed by high rates of attrition (40%). The study predicts an annual growth rate of 32% for the sector which would double its size to over $6 billion by 2010 from over $3 billion presently. There is an increasing need among corporates to rely on PR Brand building and image management. Currently, the Indian PR industry comprises 1200-1500 agencies with manpower strength of 30,000 to 40,000. However, with a boom in business, skills shortage and rising attrition have become major concerns. Competent workers are continuously being lured by better pay masters.
Source: 10-03-08 www.livemint.com Compiled By Amresh Anjan

President Doles Out Benefits For Women Scientists
Indian President Ms Pratibha Devisingh Patil believes that women scientists can initiate significant social change by working at the grassroots level for women’s empowerment. She exhorted more women to pursue science courses. In accordance with her views, the Government has announced that all Department of Science and Technology aided institutions would provide flexible working hours for women scientists having children up to the age of three years and allocate financial aid to establish a crèche facility in all institutions.
Source: 30-11-99 Hindustan Times Compiled By Amresh Anjan

Tata Group Announces Internship Programme For Women Professionals
For those talented women professionals who took a career break after some initial years of work, the Tata Group has announced the ‘second career internship programme’. The programme is open to women who have taken a career break of less than eight years. It will target women with qualification in management, accountancy, law or engineering. The programme will not only provide a well-deserved opportunity to these women but also explore their expertise.
Source: 11-03-08 The Financial Express Compiled By Amresh Anjan

Satyam HR Job Going To Tier II & III BPOs
GramIT, the tier-II and tier-III BPO centres promoted by Satyam Computers will undertake a portion of human resources management activity of Satyam Computer Services. The company plans to virtualise repetitive HR functions like filing, documentation and other paper-based administrative work to let HR professionals focus on their core job - managing people. The employees in these small town and rural BPOs are from the same or nearby villages. The company claims that its main aim is to give a source of livelihood to youngsters in rural India.
Source: 09-03-08 Hindu Business Line Compiled By Amresh Anjan

India To Bag Bulk Of 1,000 Jobs Outsourced By Nortel Networks
In a bid to save costs and return to profitability, telecom equipment vendor Nortel Networks Corp. is moving a majority of 1,000 jobs from countries such as the US and the UK to India by end-2009. The company will eliminate 2,100 jobs in the US and the UK and move an additional 1,000 jobs to low-cost, high-growth locations such as India, China and Mexico. Currently, Nortel’s $2.1 billion global services business employs nearly 10,000 employees globally.
Source: 12-03-08 www.livemint.com Compiled By Amresh Anjan

Datacraft Appoints New CFO
Southeast Asia’s largest computer data network builder, Datacraft Asia has appointed Mr Stanley Ip as company’s Chief financial Officer. Prior to this, he was Senior Finance Director (Asia Pacific) at Sun Microsystems. At Datacraft, he replaces Mr Philip Chu.
Source: 11-03-08 Hindu Business Line Compiled By Amresh Anjan

Office Communication Tool Turns The Office Timewaster
According to a study by researchers in the UK, office e-mails are taking up huge amounts of work time and are lowering productivity at the workplace. The study reveals than an average employee now spends an estimated 9 minutes to two hours a day in reading and replying to e-mails. Most of these e-mails are spam and junk mails. Currently, the worldwide e-mail traffic is around 196 billion messages a day and it is estimated to reach 374 billion per day by 2011.
Source: 10-03-08 The Financial Express Compiled By Amresh Anjan

Debate Raging In The US Over Work Visas
The number of H-1B visas issued to workers of Indian outsourcing firms has become a topic of hot debate in the US. The program was originally set up to allow US companies to import the highly-skilled workers who are in short supply in America. However, federal government data shows that Indian outsourcing firms such as Infosys and Wipro dominate the list of companies awarded H-1B visas in 2007 with 4,559 and 2,567 approved visa petitions, respectively. They account for nearly 80% of the visa petitions approved last year. Detractors in the US believe that this amounts to abuse of the program as outsourcing firms train low-cost workers in the offices of US clients, and then send them back home to provide tech support and other services from abroad. This leads to undermining the American economy by wiping out jobs, critics have alleged.
Source: 10-03-08 www.rediff.com Compiled By Amresh Anjan

Internet Bank Egg Boss Quits
Mr Ian Kerr, the boss of internet bank Egg, owned by Citigroup, has resigned. His resignation follows the controversy over the bank's decision to withdraw 161,000 credit cards, a move that angered many customers and consumer groups. Mr Kerr was at the helm of things since November 2006. He will be replaced by Mr Bert Pijls, Citigroup's country manager for the Czech Republic.
Source: 11-03-08 news.bbc.co.uk Compiled By Amresh Anjan

US Panel Slams Fat Pay of Sub-Prime CEOs
The House of Representatives Oversight and Government Operations Committee in the US has criticized the hefty pay packages of three US CEOs whose companies were badly hit by the widening mortgage crisis. The three firms- Countrywide Financial Corp, Merrill Lynch & Citigroup- lost more than $20 billion on investments in sub prime and other mortgages. Despite this, their respective CEOs took home fortunes. The panel blamed them of skimming selfish benefits at a time when thousands were losing jobs and home foreclosures were soaring and
Source: 09-03-08 Hindustan Times Compiled By Amresh Anjan

Job Cuts To Follow Google’s Acquisition Of DoubleClick
Following its $3.1 billion acquisition of the advertising technology company DoubleClick Inc, Google is set to reduce the headcount at latter. The immediate task at hand for Google is to match and align DoubleClick employees with its organizational plan for the business. The job cuts will take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well. DoubleClick has 1,500 employees.
Source: 11-03-08 news.yahoo.com Compiled By Amresh Anjan

Bleak Hiring Outlook In The US For 2nd Quarter
According to the global employment services provider Manpower Inc, there has been a gradual slowdown in the US net employment outlook. U.S. employers are less optimistic about hiring in the next three months than they were in the first quarter or a year ago. The outlook fell to 14 for the second quarter as compared with 17 in the first quarter and 18 during most of 2007. Manpower believes that the US sub-prime mortgage crisis is working its way through the system and the poor job index is only an indicator of the lagging economy.
Source: 11-03-08 news.yahoo.com Compiled By Amresh Anjan

New Chief Executive For Reliance Power
Mr J. P. Chalasani has been appointed as the new Chief Executive of ADAG owned Reliance Power. Prior to this, Mr. Chalasani aws on the board of Reliance Energy, whre he has tendered his resignation now. He has also been a former whole-time Director (Business Development) of Reliance Energy and has worked with National Thermal Power Corporation before joining the Reliance Industries group in 1995.
Source: 09-03-08 www.thehindu.com Compiled By Amresh Anjan

Yahoo! India Appoints Mr Gopal Krishna As Audience Head
Mr Gopal Krishna has joined Yahoo India as head of audience. In this role, he will be responsible for all consumer-facing products in India including Communities and Communications, Media and Entertainment, Front Doors and Yahoo India Search. He will also look after marketing and business development for Yahoo India. Before joining Yahoo, he was setting up a venture capital fund focused on internet and mobile startups in India.
Source: 12-03-08 www.alootechie.net Compiled By Amresh Anjan

Mr Aditya Ray Appointed CEO Of LastMinuteInventory.com
Dentsu India has appointed Mr Aditya Ray as Chief Executive Officer and chief evangelist of its online media inventory trading portal LastMinuteInventory.com. The portal is expected to go live in the beta testing stage in the next week and will allow exchange and sales of TV, print and radio advertising inventory between media houses and advertisers. Prior to this, Mr Ray was with Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd as Vice President, Response. at (The Times of India Group). He has also held senior positions at MTV Channel, Sri Lanka and at Zee Telefilms.
Source: 12-03-08 www.alootechie.net Compiled By Amresh Anjan