HR Headlines: June-08 (Part-2)

Hiring Intentions Best In India
According to a survey conducted by the global staffing services firm Manpower, India is the most optimistic nation in terms of hiring intentions across the world. However, despite the optimism, the US slowdown is showing its impact slowly but surely. India is reported to have the most upbeat hiring plans in the July-September period, followed by Singapore and Peru. The survey questioned 5,636 employers across seven industry sectors -- finance/ insurance and real estate; manufacturing; mining and construction; public administration and education; services; transportation and utilities; wholesale and retail trade. Of this, 45 per cent expect an increase in hiring activity in the third quarter of 2008, an increase of 6 per cent on a quarterly basis and 7 per cent on a year-on-year basis. The other top 10 most confident nations worldwide include Poland (29 per cent), Costarica (27 per cent), Romania (26 per cent), Hong Kong (26 per cent), Argentina (25 per cent), Taiwan (24 per cent), and Australia (23 per cent). At the other end, China reported the weakest hiring outlook in the region for the fourth consecutive quarter.
Source: 10-06-08 Hindustan Times Compiled by Amresh Anjan

How To Tackle Inflation Woes Of Your Employees
To counter the effect of rising inflation on employees, companies should consider the option of tele-commuting, or working from home, suggests Mr Samhita Rao, MD of Grass Roots Indian, a Gurgaon-based performance management company. This would help to curb transportation inflation, besides letting employees spend scarce quality time with the family. This is relevant for many knowledge industries like insurance, media, finance, training and instructional design, public relations, sales, marketing and many other sectors. Recently, employees of many IT companies in Noida and Gurgaon have demanded a revision in monthly conveyance billing by 10-15 per cent after the increase in fuel prices last week. To save on fuel costs, some companies are allowing some of their employees to work from home while allowing others flexi-timing.
Source: 09-06-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

China May Soon Overtake India In Talent Pool
A lot of business processes are outsourced to India on the conventional presumption that India has an abundance of skilled labour. However, that may soon change as China poses a serious threat to India's position as the world's largest talent supplier. According to a report by leading manpower consulting firm Watson Wyatt, China is poised to have twice as much skilled labour as India shortly. The consulting firm has identified three reasons that attribute to this growth. Firstly, the participation rate of the Chinese women in the workforce is twice as high as of the Indian women. Thus, China enjoys an advantage despite higher skill level among Indian women. Secondly, in China, the percentage of people attending universities is growing at a fast pace with a number of universities coming up in the past few years. India lags behind on this front too. Thirdly, the most popular areas of study in Chinese universities also tend to be the most in demand, such as engineering, management and science, unlike India where the quality of education in the country's mushrooming private institutions is a matter of concern. However, India is ahead of China in terms of mobility of talent in India, good English skills and the pace at which Indian students are returning home after higher studies abroad. China still needs to do a lot of catching up in these areas.
Source: 12-06-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Reliance Retail To Generate Over Five Lakh Jobs
With its expanding retail business, Mr Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries is expected to create more than half a million direct jobs in the next five years. This was recently announced by Mr Ambani during the annual general meeting in Mumbai. Currently, Reliance Industries has nearly 700 stores, comprising fourteen distinct formats, across 60 towns and cities. The company is looking to hire top talent from premier technology and management institutions besides nurturing home-grown talent. In a bid to retain talent, the company has introduced a performance oriented employee stock option plan and is also working with educational institutions to help build more robust and industry oriented programmes.
Source: 12-06-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Wanted Chiefs For Aviation, Airports Regulator
Government has short listed as many as a dozen candidates to head India's airports regulator the Airports Authority Of India (AAI). The authority also runs state-run airports in the country. The current chairman of the organization Mr K. Ramalingam will retire later this year. Those in the reckoning include two members of the AAI board, three Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers and senior executives with public sector undertakings. The aviation ministry is also looking for a candidate to head aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The current Director General, Mr Kanu Gohain, is slated to retire by end of this month after having two extensions already.
Source: 08-06-08 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Praful Patel Assures A-I Employees of No Wage Cut
Civil Aviation Minister Mr Praful Patel has brushed aside reports that Air India was considering a 25 per cent wage cut for employees. After PM Mr Manmohan Singh’s austerity call combined with aviation industry’s financial crisis, speculations were rife that India’s biggest airline could affect a wage and other incentives cut. He categorically assured the employees and disregarded the rumours as a ploy to create disharmony.
Source: 10-06-08 www.ibnlive.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Nasscom Charts Out Path To Develop Talent For BPOs
At the end of the two-day Nasscom BPO summit, industry leaders have tried to identify a path to follow to develop and nurture talent for the BPOs. The participants agreed that gaps existed in the training for fresh recruits in BPOs. In an effort to address this concern, Nasscom, in association with almost 300 colleges and universities in Tamil Nadu, has taken an initiative to have classes which prepare students for BPO jobs by explaining what employers and clients would expect.
Source: 11-06-08 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

No Plan To Retrench Employees At JLR: Tata To British MPs
Tata Group Chairman Mr Ratan Tata has assured British MPs from the West Midmands that Jaguar-Land Rover jobs at the research centres at Whitley and Gaydon were secure at least until 2012, after which a fresh business plan will be drawn up. He said that there were no plans to bring work in Jaguar-Land Rover to India. As of now, there is a possibility of employing more workers at the two centres.
Source: 10-06-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Financial Services Sector Largest Employer In Small Cities
Leaving behind Information Technology, the financial services sector has emerged as the top job provider in Tier II and Tier III cities, according to a study by Assocham. Financial services aced the list of 30 lead sectors that provided maximum jobs to young aspirants between Jan-March 2008 in small cities. For Jan- March quarter, the financial services sector provided maximum employment opportunities of 26.35 per cent. The job creation was propelled by the stock market, brokerage houses, mutual funds, insurance sector and banking sector. The study was conducted over 60 cities comprising Tier I, Tier II and Tier III cities. The second largest job creator was the IT sector, which generated an employment of 17 per cent in tier II cities and 17.5 per cent in tier III cities.
Source: 09-06-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Lehman Demotes Its CFO And COO
Following its first-ever loss as a public company and a 65 percent slide in its shares this year, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc has demoted its Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Ms Erin Callan has been replaced as CFO and Mr Joseph Gregory as COO. The current co-Chief Administrative Officer Mr Ian Lowitt will be the new CFO and Mr Herbert (Bart) McDade, global head of equities, will be Chief Operating Officer and President. Ms Callan will remain at Lehman, rejoining its investment bank while Mr Gregory will remain with the company in an unspecified role.
Source: 12-06-08 news.yahoo.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

350 Research Jobs To Be Trimmed At Glaxo
GlaxoSmithKline Plc plans to cut around 350 jobs in research and development as part of an ongoing restructuring programme. The cutbacks represent some two per cent of the group's worldwide R&D workforce of 17,000. Scientists and administrative staff at research sites in Europe and the United States have been informed of the headcount reductions.
Source: 11-06-08 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

UK Unemployment Rises
According to the Office for National Statistics, unemployment in the UK went up by 38,000 to 1.64 million in the three months to April, thus pushing the unemployment rate to 5.3% from the previous rate of 5.2%. The number claiming unemployment benefit rose by 9,000 in May to 819,300, the fourth consecutive rise. Despite rising food and fuel prices, the rate of increase of average earnings slowed to 3.8% between February and April, down from 4%. The financial and construction industries saw the highest number of job losses, according to the Institute for Employment Studies (IES).
Source: 11-06-08 news.bbc.co.uk Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Microsoft India’s MD To Join HP
Ms Neelam Dhawan, Managing Director at Microsoft India, is set to join HP India in the same capacity. Joining Microsoft India in March, 2005, she has been associated with the company for three and a half years. Her resignation will be effective June 30, 2008. At Microsoft, she was in-charge of the sales and marketing efforts in India. She possesses 22-years of experience in the IT field. Prior to Microsoft, she has worked with IBM, HCL and HP.
Source: 09-05-08 www.topnews.in Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Nokia’s Business Mobility Business Gets A New Chief
Nokia India has appointed Mr Suresh Vedula as head of its Business Mobility business. Mr. Vedula will be based in Delhi and will be responsible for the overall operations of enterprise solutions group in India that includes a broad range of business-focused products and solutions, including security infrastructure, software and services. He brings to the table over 18 years of work experience in the IT and telecom space. Prior to this, he was heading British Telecom’s Business Development business in India.
Source: 09-06-08 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

TVS Motor Leadership Revamped
TVS Motor Company has appointed Mr H. S. Goindi, Senior Vice-President as the Head of Sales, Service and Marketing, replacing Mr R. Chandramouli. In his new role, Mr. Goindi will be responsible for sales, service and marketing of two-wheelers in India along with his existing responsibilities.
Source: 12-06-08 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Time Magazine Appoints Ms Jyoti Thottam As S Asia Bureau Chief
Time magazine's senior editor, India-born Ms Jyoti Thottam, has been re-designated as the magazine's South Asia bureau chief. Ms Thottam will soon relocate to New Delhi from New York. She joined Time from On magazine/Time Digital. Prior to that, she was a newspaper reporter in Queens and in Jacksonville, Florida. She has co-authored the play ‘Interrogations’. She started as an intern at the Wall Street Journal and her writing has also appeared in the Believer and the Village Voice.
Source: 11-06-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr Shunichi Senda Appointed As Director ICP At Canon
Digital imaging company Canon India Pvt has appointed Mr Shunichi Senda as Director, imaging communication products (ICP) division of the company. In his new role, he would head ICP sales and marketing activities in the country. Canon India Pvt Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon Singapore Pvt Ltd.
Source: 10-06-08 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr Sachin Mohite Joins Miditech
Mr Sachin Mohite has been hired as Creative Director, fiction at Miditech, a television production company. In his new role, he is expected to bring his expertise to running popular shows like ‘Parivaar’ on Zee TV and ‘Chhoona Hai Aasmaan’ on Star One. Earlier, he has been associated with successful television productions like Tara, Umeed and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki. He has also been creative head with Endemol India.
Source: 09-06-08 www.livemint.com


Compiled by Amresh Anjan