HR Headlines: May-08 (Part-2)

How To Make Talent Stay
Rising attrition across sectors is the main area of pain for major corporates today. According to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), the attrition rate in India rose to 40 per cent in 2007 from 32 per cent in 2006. The companies are feeling the pinch but they believe that it is a vicious cycle. With rising competition and shrinking deadlines, there is hardly enough time and opportunities to develop talent. This, in turn, results in increased job mobility and employees taking away vital training and knowledge. Various HR heads suggest various means to combat attrition. They believe that increased engagement and empowerment of employees leads to deeper and better insights about employees. Also, surveys reveal that learning and professional development opportunities are more effective retention tools than higher salaries. In addition, out-of-the-box, non-conventional thinking manages to retain talent. Considering that for the next 15 to 20 years India will have the youngest workforce in the world, companies are looking for innovative practices that will appeal to the ‘here and now’ generation.
Source: 07-05-08 www.hindustantimes.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

40% Of BPO Jobs To Go To Tier-II Cities
According to a NASSCOM-AT Kearney study on ‘Location Roadmap for IT-BPO Growth’, second tier cities will account for about 40 per cent of the total projected IT-BPO jobs by 2018. Also, the Indian IT and BPO sector is expected to raise its existing workforce of two million to eight million by 2018. The study says that companies still prefer big cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, the National Capital Region (NCR) and Pune to set up an IT or a BPO company. These centres are closely followed by Ahmedabad, Kochi, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Indore, Jaipur, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Nagpur, Thiruvananthapuram, Vadodara, Tiruchirapalli and Visakhapatnam, it said. The study predicts that these non-leading cities could provide three million direct jobs, 40 per cent of the projected employment by 2018. Currently, the leading locations account for over 85 per cent of IT sector employment and over 90 per cent of the BPO employment in the country.
Source: 06-05-08 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Employers Hostile Towards Pregnant Job Seekers
Two recent studies in the US by George Mason University and Rice University professors reveal that pregnant women face a lot of discrimination and hostility while applying for jobs. In one study, it was found that employers were more judgmental toward pregnant women when they asked for ‘masculine’ roles (such as corporate lawyer, janitor etc) as compared to when they asked for ‘feminine’ jobs such as a maid, kindergarten teacher or pediatrician. In the second study, it was found that women wearing the pregnancy prosthesis were faced with significantly more interpersonal hostility than when the same women appeared as non-pregnant. Thus, both the studies suggest that pregnant women risk being discriminated against.
Source: 08-05-08 Hindustan Times Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Cabin Crew Against New DGCA Guidelines
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued new guidelines on the working hours of cabin crew of different airlines in India, commonly known as Civil Aviation Requirements (CARs). Members of the cabin crew of various airlines have expressed their disagreement over the new guidelines and are even mulling moving court, if required. The new guidelines include suggestions such as sanctioning dorms at airports where cabin crew can rest, split duties, increasing duty time on ultra long range operations, reducing the rest time prior to operating. While the cabin crew has termed the proposed CARs as inhuman and draconian, airline officials believe that a change is required to ensure proper functioning and matching international standards in terms of work.
Source: 09-05-08 Business India Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Monthly Salaries For Farmers?
In an effort to counter the problem of unending farmers' suicides, the Kerala Biodiversity Board has mooted the idea of paying salaries to farmers to make agriculture a viable option to attract a new generation of farmers. Board Chairman Mr V S Vijayan has proposed that the government should earmark a fund and farmers should be paid salaries like government employees. The proposition was part of the many suggestions in the 'Organic Farming Policy' prepared by the Board with a mission to gradually convert cultivation into the organic way.
Source: 08-05-08 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Gurgaon To Become Infosys KPO Hub
Infosys BPO is setting up a large centre in Gurgaon aiming to make it the hub for its KPO business. The new centre for 'knowledge services' is capable of accommodating 800-1,000 people and will be operational by the end of the current financial year. Infosys has already started recruiting people, including academicians, educators and researchers. Currently, Infosys has a team of about 200 people in Gurgaon. Infosys offers KPO services from three centres: Bangalore, Pune and Gurgaon.
Source: 08-05-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

LPOs Emerging As Lucrative Career Option For Law Graduates
Law Process Outsourcing or LPO is fast emerging as a hot career destination for law graduates in India. With handsome salaries and quick career growth, lawyers are keen to join the LPO vertical instead of traditional law firms. LPOs provide services in litigation support, legal research, analytics, contract review, patent and technical support services to clients, who include law firms and corporates across the globe. The starting salary at entry level in this industry could be as high as Rs 25,000 a month. According to Nasscom estimates, the LPO segment is poised to cross $6 billion turnover mark by 2010, and tower to $15-20 billion by 2015. This is certainly good news for 80,000 law graduates that India churns out every year.
Source: 08-05-08 www.dnaindia.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Employing Indians Illegally Costs UK Firms Dearly
UK government has taken punitive action against as many as 137 companies for employing illegal immigrants from India, Pakistan and other non-European Union countries. Several companies, including Indian restaurants, have been fined over pound 500,000 after a tougher law came into effect from February. In the past few months, Indian restaurants have been struggling to employ chefs and ended up employing staff illegally to undercut their competitors. The British police has come cracking down on such employers and they face a fine of pound 10,000 for each illegal immigrant they employ.
Source: 06-05-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Retail Boom Creating Soft Skills Factories
India’s booming retail sector is creating jobs in a big way but there are not enough trained and polished salespeople who could take up these jobs. Emerging from this demand and supply gap are training schools dedicated to polish up local talent that can be employed in this sector. One such training school is MIE (Making India Employable) that has set up training institutes in small towns like Rewari, Faridabad and Lucknow and is looking for local talent that can be groomed to fill positions in upcoming retail stores. According to Nasscom, India added about 3.2 million graduates last year but only a small proportion of them are employable. And in small towns and cities, the employability is as low as 10 to 15 per cent. Even Nasscom has initiated an assessment-cum-certification programme which aims to train final year students from smaller towns with analytical and keyboard skills.
Source: 06-05-08 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

160 Junior Level Employees Sacked At Sapient
Citing lack of experience and unsuitability to current operations as reasons, Sapient Corp, the US-based business and technology services consultant, has sacked 160 junior and entry level employees in India. The sacked employees were based across its Bangalore, Noida and Gurgaon centres. The 160 employees constituted 4% of its Indian workforce of 4,000. According to sources, the fired employees were asked to leave immediately and relieved without notice. However, Sapient has said that it would still continue hiring junior and experienced professionals that fit its business model.
Source: 09-05-08 www.dnaindia.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Merrill Lynch To Hire In India; Cut Jobs In US
The world’s leading wealth management, capital markets and advisory company Merrill Lynch expects to recruit more people in India while it cuts jobs in the US following its heavy losses in the U.S. credit markets. Identifying India as one of the most attractive places in the world for business today, Merrill Lynch plans to ramp up operations here. Merrill Lynch has offices in 38 countries and territories and total client assets of about $1.7 trillion.
Source: 08-05-08 Hindu Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Sutherland’s Global Campus Coming Up In Chennai
Business process outsourcing company Sutherland Global Services is setting up its first global campus in the ITeS/IT corridor of Chennai with an investment of around Rs. 200 crore over the next three years. The campus will have a capacity to occupy over 10,000 people. It will also house the ‘Sutherland Academy of Excellence,’ a best-in-class global training and development centre for all its employees. Sutherland has six facilities in Chennai and one each in Kochi and Mumbai. The company hired over 3,000 people in India in 2007, thus taking its India headcount to over 11,000 employees. Globally, Sutherland now has over 21,000 employees across its 22 delivery centres in India, the U.S., the Philippines, Canada, Eastern Europe and Mexico.
Source: 08-05-08 www.financialexpress.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Infosys HR Boss Is The Highest Paid Among Company Directors
Mr T V Mohandas Pai, Human Resources head at IT giant Infosys, receives the highest salary and bonus among all 15 board members including Chairperson Mr Nandan M Nilekani and Chief Executive Officer Mr S Gopalakrishnan. According to Infosys's recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr Pai received a salary of $82,033 and a bonus of $3,08,625 in a year. Mr Nilekani receives $51,414 salary and $1,22,841 as bonus while Mr Narayana Murthy does not take home any of them but 1,25,000 dollars in annual compensation. Other members of the board include Chief Operating Officer Mr S D Shibulal, Lead Independent Director Mr Deepak M Satwalekar, Head of Communication Design Group, Information Systems and Quality and Productivity, Mr K Dinesh and Head of Delivery Excellence Mr Srinath Batni.
Source: 04-05-08 www.dnaindia.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

5,500 Jobs To Be Trimmed At UBS
The Swiss wealth-management major UBS will cut 5,500 jobs in one of the biggest lay offs seen in the financial market crisis so far. These job cuts come on top of 1,500 already completed and represent a reduction of 18 per cent of the total headcount since mid-2007. UBS had a preliminary deal with US asset manager BlackRock Inc to sell a $15-billion portfolio of sub prime mortgages. Shares of the group fell 5 per cent as investors worried the crisis had ravaged UBS’ earnings power.
Source: 07-05-08 www.telegraphindia.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Australia's Jobless Rate at 4.2% In April
According to the Australian Bureau of statistics, Australia's unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent in April as against 4.1 percent in February. The number of employed people rose by 25,400 to 10.71 million in April. This is much above the market expectations that expected it to rise by only 10,000. Full-time employment increased by 19,000 to 7.66 million, while part-time employment rose 6,300 to 3.05 million. The number of unemployed people rose by 16,900 to 469,800, the ABS said. The number of people looking for full-time work increased by 17,300 to 330,500, while those looking for part-time work fell by 400 to 139,300.
Source: 07-05-08 www.forbes.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

BMW To Cut Thousands Of Jobs
BMW, the world’s largest premium carmaker, is aiming to cut 8,100 jobs worldwide, including 3,100 permanent staff in an effort to improve profitability. The company has said that several hundred permanent staff have agreed to redundancy packages though the exact number is not known. The job cuts are intended to generate annual savings of 500 million euros ($766.5 million) starting 2009.
Source: 09-05-08 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Further Changes In Wipro Management
Barely two weeks after the reshuffle in top management, India's third-largest software company, Wipro, has initiated a second round of major business and executive changes. In the last rejig, Mr Suresh Vaswani and Mr Girish Paranjpe were appointed as joint chief executive officers of Wipro Technologies. In the latest changes announced, Wipro BPO head, Mr T K Kurien has been given charge of a new initiative, the scope and functions of which will be outlined later. Mr Ashutosh Vaidya, who headed the computing business as vice-president of Wipro Infotech, will head Wipro BPO. Mr Anand Sankaran will lead Wipro Infotech. Mr Manoj Punja will serve as president of the company's operations for Americas and Europe following the resignation of Mr P R Chandrasekar.
Source: 03-05-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New Head At Citi India’s Credit Card Business
Citi India's Global Consumer Group has appointed Mr Sandeep Bhalla as Head of credit cards division for Citibank India. 38-year old Mr Bhalla has been with Citi for 6 years and has worked in the US in the cards business and in Asia across several consumer businesses. He holds a Masters degree in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Maine and an MBA from Drexel University.
Source: 06-05-08 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr Mallya Appointed New CMD For Bank Of Baroda
Mr M D Mallya has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Bank of Baroda. Prior to this, he was serving as the Chairman and Managing Director at Bank of Maharashtra.
Source: 08-05-08 www.in.reuters.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Management Rejig At Ma Foi
Mr Ajay Mallapurkar has been named as Chief Executive Officer, Ma Foi Consulting Services Ltd. (MCSL) by the Ma Foi Management Consultants. Prior to this, he was General Manager for the Western operations of Ma Foi Management Consultants. The company has also appointed Mr Rahul Goyal as Head – Europe, West Asia and Africa, Ma Foi.
Source: 07-05-08 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr Rick Bott Appointed Cairn (I) ED, COO
Cairn India, the Indian subsidiary of Scottish firm Cairn Energy Plc, has appointed Mr Rick Bott as Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the company. He joins Cairn from Devon Energy’s international division where he was vice president. In his new role, he would be responsible for developing and implementing Cairn India’s business growth and exploration strategy. He holds over 20 years experience, having served as president of Ocean Egypt Companies and president of Ocean Yemen Corporation. He has also served in a number of international management and technical positions with British Gas and Tanneco.
Source: 05-05-08 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New MD, Region Head At S&P
Mr R Ravimohan has been appointed as Managing Director and Region Head, South and Southeast Asia by Standard & Poor's, the world's leading provider of financial market intelligence. He joined S&P in August 2007, after working at CRISIL for 13 years as its MD and CEO. CRISIL is a subsidiary of S&P.
Source: 09-05-08 www.business-standard.com


Compiled by Amresh Anjan