HR Headlines: Oct-08 (Part-2)

Wipro Staff, All Set To Work From Home
The popular concept 'Teleworking' is now catching up in the Indian corporate scenario. Wipro, an IT engineering service provider, is expecting that 30 percent of its employees shall prefer working from home in the near future. This would mean a reduction in the use of office resources, like office space, power and water which are spent during the office hours of an employee. The company has been positive about this system since a long time, whereby 1, 100 of its employees are teleworking in Bangalore while in Chennai it touches 100. However, there are challenges in the execution of this model, as the mindset of the employees is yet to be moulded to achieve better co-ordination and without any apprehension regarding the salary factor. Also, the effectiveness of the system has to be proved to the clients, to ensure permission from them for those working on customer projects as security-related issues are to be handled. But the company is positive as Mr. Laxman K Badiga, Wipro’s Chief Information Office said, "At present, there is a secured virtual private network. People working in service functions like administration, accounting and HR are allowed to work from home. The right technology should alienate customers' concern on security with regard to their projects."
Source: 04-09-08 Siliconindia.com news Compiled by Amresh Anjan

The Naukri.com Job Fair Comes To Bangalore Once Again
After a series of successful job fairs in the recent past, Naukri.com, India’s No. 1 Jobsite is organizing a job fair in Bangalore on 13th and14th Sept 2008. The companies participating in the fair offer job opportunities across industries such as Manufacturing, Pharma, Electronics, Automation, Telecom, Training, IT, ITES, Insurance, Engineering, Retail and many more. Jobs span from entry level to middle level positions, across functional areas and years of experience. Over 45 companies are participating in the fair. The lists of the sponsors include Bosch as the Lead sponsor, Moog, Toyota and CGI as the Platinum sponsors, Ingersoll Rand, SKF and Reliance Communications as the Gold sponsors and New Indian Express as the exclusive Print Partner. Other key participants are Dell, Max NewYork, CMC Ltd, Vertex, HR – One, Star and many more. Last year, the job fair in Bangalore received an overwhelming response with a footfall of over 35, 000 people. Companies short-listed approximately 4000 candidates and jobseekers got on the spot offers as well. For more details, log on to www.naukri.com/jobfair
Source: 08-09-08 Naukri.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Villagers Being Trained To Get Jobs in Retail, BPO and Security Services
A venture of the Indian Institute Technology, Madras, eJeevika is training villagers for employment in retail, business process outsourcing and security services, to bridge the urban-rural divide. “If you take any industry, companies are always looking for people. Considering that majority of the population lives in rural India, we realized that they can be trained and brought to the same level as those in urban centres—and employed,” says Ms Richa Pandey Mishra, founder and chief executive officer of eJeevika HR Pvt. Ltd, a start-up incubated by IIT-M. Till now, it has developed training modules for security services, retail and business process outsourcing and would develop modules for other sectors depending on client requirements. “India requires innovations like these,” said Mr. Ravi Narayan, managing director at Mentor Partners that works closely with start-ups.
Source: 05-09-08 livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Talent Nurturing – The New Corporate Mantra
Human Resource was always considered a back office maintenance operation. But over the years, Indian companies have realised that to beat the competition, its employees are the only sustainable core competency. As a result, HR has taken centrestage and has started reshaping business strategy. The business strategy which revolved around improving bottomlines has now started to address more important issues. One of such important issues is talent development. Talent has been in short supply across industry verticals. And these days, having a highly talented pool of workers is a promising proposition for companies. In India, many companies have taken the initiative towards developing talents. Infosys has Infosys Leadership Institute in Mysore to prepare people for leadership roles. They also have a Corporate Training Centre for training fresh recruits. Wipro has a full fledged Talent Transformation Centre with full time in-house consultants. IBM has recently launched a ’IBM Drona’ programme under which they are providing training to faculty members of select engineering colleges. The idea is to train faculty members for the latest IT platform and technologies, who in turn will train the students (prospective employees). This way, the companies expect to nurture the best talent to work in the best manner.
Source: 04-09-08 Merinews.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

NPS Trusts Appoints Former Deputy CAG As CEO
Finance Minister, Mr. P Chidambaram has allowed the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to open up the New Pension Scheme (NPS), without waiting for the PFRDA Bill to get through Parliamentary clearances. Even as the PFRDA gears up to fulfill the fresh mandate, the trustees for the NPS appointed a Chief Executive Officer, Mr. NR Rayalu, former Deputy Comptroller. It is learnt that Mr. Rayalu, who has also been inducted as a trustee has already taken charge of his new role where he is expected to look after the interests of the trust and the stakeholders it represents.
Source: 03-09-08 The Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

B-school Offers Inclined Towards Variable Pay
As the companies are taking recourse to cost-cutting to weather downward pressure, variable pay is seen as the new mantra in the pre-placement offers at business schools this season. In March this year, a student received an offer of Rs 25 lakh per annum. A promising package for a fresher, but for the fact that only Rs 5 lakh of it was guaranteed annually, as fixed pay. The rest, an enormous amount of Rs 20 lakh, would depend on the student’s performance in that company, and the performance of that company itself. The pre-placement offer season generally starts in July, and offers are made on the basis of the projects handled by a student during summer internship. Mr. Subhro Bhaduri, executive vice-president, human resources, Kotak Mahindra Bank says that variable pay could stand undelivered in case the employee fails to perform to expectations or if the company’s margins decline. Unlike the fixed component, the variable component is linked to the performance, of the employee as well as the company. Bosses have always believed that variable pay is a way of inducing a sense of competition among employees. But HR experts say it is actually intended at reducing employee costs.
Source: 03-09-08 DNA Money Compiled by Amresh Anjan

MTNL Gets A New Executive Director
Mr. S.M. Talwar, Chief General Manager (South) of MTNL Delhi is now Executive Director of the Delhi Circle of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited. He has an extensive experience in managing large telecom networks in rural and urban India.
Source: 02-09-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Unilever Hires Nestle’s Mr. Paul Polman
Unilever has hired Mr. Paul Polman from Nestle to succeed its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Patrick Cescau. Mr. Polman said in an interview that it will be a ‘great challenge and an honour’ to run a 78-year-old company. He was earlier working with Nestle as the Chief Financial Officer. “Polman is probably the best candidate in the world to become CEO,” said Mr. James Amoroso, a food industry consultant at Amoroso in Walchwil, Switzerland.
Source: 05-09-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

SecondSpace Names Mr. Satbir Khanuja As Its CEO
The board of directors of SecondSpace, Inc., the leading global online marketplace for second homes and recreational retreats, has named, Mr. Satbir Khanuja as the company’s President and CEO. Mr. Khanuja has also been elected to the company's board of directors. Prior to this, he served as SecondSpace's senior vice president of marketing and business development, responsible for the company's partnership, traffic-building and revenue-generating initiatives.
Source: 03-09-08 marketwatch.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Dewan Housing Appoints Mr. Anil Sachidanand
Mr Anil Sachidanand has joined Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited, as CEO of the company.
Source: 03-09-08 The Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr. Keki Mistry Joins Shrenuj’s Board
Shrenuj & Co Limited has appointed Mr. Keki M Mistry as its independent director. Prior to this, he served as Vice Chairman and Managing Director of HDFC.
Source: 03-09-08 The Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Alcatel Announces New CEO And Chairman
Alcatel-Lucent has appointed former British Telecom, Chief Executive and industry veteran Mr. Ben Verwaayen as the CEo and Mr. Philippe Camus as Non-Executive Chairman.
Source: 02-09-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

StanChart Names A New Regional Head – Human Resources
Standard Chartered Bank has announced the appointment of Ms Madhavi Lall as regional head-human resources for its Indian and South Asian operations.
Source: 02-09-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

L&T Infotech Appoints A New CEO
Larsen & Tourbo Infotech has appointed Mr. Sudip Banerjee as its CEO. He has moved from Wipro Technologies where he was President-Enterprise Solutions. Mr. Banerjee would report to L&T Director, Mr. V.K. Magapu and would operate from Mumbai and Bangalore.
Source: 03-09-08 The Hindu Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Ms Vaishali Cooper Joins Komli Media
Komli Media has announced the appointment of Ms Vaishali Cooper as its Chief Financial Officer. Prior to this, Ms Vaishali Cooper was CFO and head of strategy at eBay India. In her new role, Ms Vaishali Cooper will spearhead Komli’s overall finance, strategy and mergers and acquisitions. The ad network company has also appointed Mr. Amit Bhartiya as Business Head - Lead Generation. Before joining Komli, Mr. Bhartiya was Director of eBay India Motors where he led the online marketplace for used vehicle.
Source: 05-09-08 alootechie.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr. Kunal Sachdev Quits Hidesign
Mr. Kunal R Sachdev, who was instrumental in building the Hidesign leather brand and played a key role in taking it international, has quit as the CEO to set up his own venture in the retail space. Mr. Sachdev is currently in talks with venture capitalists for raising funds to float the retail start-up with some of his like-minded past associates and old friends in the field of retail, branding and design.
Source: 01-09-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Ramakrishnan Laxman To Head New Media At MCCS
Mr. Ramakrishnan Laxman has joined Media Content & Communications Services India as head of new media. MCCS, a joint venture between ABP TV and Star Group, runs three news channels - Star News, Star Ananda and Star Majha. Prior to joining MCSS, Mr. Ramakrishnan Laxman was Vice President, business development and media assets at Publicitas Digital. Prior to that, he was Director, online marketing, Blue Haze Marketing Services in Singapore. He has also worked at Ananda Bazar Patrika Group and Mid-Day as head of internet.
Source: 03-09-08 alootechie.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr. Uttam Kumar Basu Joins MRPL
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry has appointed Mr. Uttam Kumar Basu, as the new Managing Director of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL). He has taken over from outgoing Managing Director, Mr. R. Rajamani.
Source: 01-09-08 The Hindu Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Dreams Of Ground Pilots Grounded
The demand for pilots has reduced, especially those holding commercial pilot licences (CPL), thanks to the tumbling traffic and aircraft utilization. Until last year, demand was outsripping supply in the aviation sector. Over the last 8-9 months, airlines have been shedding capacity to cope with the falling demand. Rising aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices have pushed up airfares so much that air travelers are shifting to other modes of travel such as rail and bus. Mr. J S Dhillon, Executive Vice President – flight operations, Spice Jet said their aircraft utilization has dropped 10% since last month. “As the plane utilization falls, there is a corresponding dip in the demand for pilots,” he reasoned.
Source: 04-09-08 DNA Money Compiled by Amresh Anjan