HR Headlines: Jan-09 (Part-5)

IT Companies Taking A Hit On The Quality Front
After the frenzied recruitment drives, the IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) companies are now feeling a hit on the quality front. Companies are being forced to rethink their hiring strategies considering that there is a widespread lack of sufficient technical skills for high-end jobs with a basic absence of soft skills. There is an industry-wide concern over the gap between academics and industry needs. The existing syllabus seems outdated and obsolete compared to the global IT standards while the industry demands newer and enhanced skills and competencies.
Source: 07-08-08 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Attrition Goes Down With The Economic Slowdown
While the economic slowdown is wreaking havoc on the revenues of the companies, it is also a blessing in disguise, when it comes to attrition. According to HR analysts, the economic slowdown is expected to clamp down the attrition rates across industries, at least for the next two quarters. The attrition rates were very high in some industries such as financial services and retail, as companies were on a hiring spree. However, now with the economic slowdown, jobs are not coming easy and many companies have frozen recruitment, leading to lower attrition rates across industry.
Source: 04-08-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Infosys Invests Rs. 750 crore In Fresh Recruits’ Training
Complaining that existing engineering colleges do not churn out candidates with required skills, Infosys Director Mr T. V. Mohandas Pai has informed that Infosys Technologies spends Rs. 750 crore a year on training fresh recruits. The company added 3,192 staff in the first quarter of 2008-09. This amounts to Rs. 2.50 lakh spent on each potential new employee during a 16-week training period. The training has successfully helped in containing attrition at around 13.7 per cent against the industry average of 17 per cent. Infosys runs its own on-campus job skills programme, Campus Connect that covers 510 engineering colleges in several regions.
Source: 03-08-08 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Bharti Enterprises Restructures Top Level
Distributing responsibilities for its various businesses, Bharti Airtel has announced a strategic restructuring at its corporate level. As per the new structure, Mr Rajan Mittal, younger brother of group chairman Mr Sunil Mittal, has been promoted to be the Vice-Chairman. He will look after the Group’s retail, cash and carry, and realty businesses. Mr Akhil Gupta is the new Deputy Group CEO and MD and would be responsible for tower infrastructure unit—Bharti Infratel, and also lead the financial services and software businesses. Mr Gupta would remain Non-Executive Director on the company board. Mr Manoj Kohli has been designated as the CEO and Joint Managing Director. Also, the board has approved the appointment of Mr Quah Kung Yang as an Additional Director and accepted the resignation tendered by Mr Francis Heng.
Source: 05-08-08 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Global Financial Firms Reducing Headcount In India
Global financial powerhouses such as Lehman and Merrill reducing their employee headcounts in India owing to the US sub-prime shakeout. Lehman Brothers is shutting down its mortgage capital division in Mumbai dismissing 28 people in Mumbai and 17 in their Chennai office. Merrill Lynch, which announced a $5.7 billion bad debt write-down earlier this week, is reportedly cutting down 45 jobs in India giving substandard performance of employees as the reason. JP Morgan Chase has cut down its Indian workforce by 10. Several other US banks have already stopped recruitments in India while others have put on hold their expansion plans. There are also reports that Citi Group is in the process of selling its Indian back office operations, where it employs over 5,000 people.
Source: 03-08-08 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

LG Innovates 5-yr Career Growth Plan For Its Staff
In a bid to beat attrition, LG Electronics India has started a 5-year programme to enhance the career of its white-collared employees. The programme that was started last month has been made mandatory for its white-collared employees that number about 1,900. Under the programme, all eligible employees will undergo an assessment by experts to help them identify their weak points. While the senior employees will be assessed on the basis of their vision and leadership abilities, young people will be assessed as per their functional capabilities. On an average, the company makes about 300-400 new recruitments a year in various departments and has managed to keep its attrition rate at 6 per cent.
Source: 03-08-08 www.ndtvprofit.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

PwC To Hire 5,000 People In 3-4 Years
Auditing and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is looking to double its headcount in the next three to four years. Its technology centre in India is being projected as a global outsourcing hub for the group. Currently, the firm has 5,000 professionals. PwC has three 'Centre of Excellence' on technology, e-governance and government practises.
Source: 06-08-08 The Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Wage Hikes To Moderate At Wipro
According to Wipro Ltd Executive Vice-President – Human Resources Mr Pratik Kumar, the company expects salary hikes to moderate in 2008-09 as per industry standards. The company is also hiring more cautiously. For April-June, Wipro’s employee utilization for its IT services business edged up 50 basis points.
Source: 08-08-08 Hindu Business Line Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Over Half Of India's Programmers Work On Sun Micro
According to Sun Microsystems Vice-President and Managing Director Mr Anil Valluri, the company has around 7.40 lakh developers working mainly on Solaris and Java platforms in India. This amounts to over half of the total developer population in India. The company has around 700,000 developers in China and around 600,000 in the US. Thus, India has retained its position of being the largest developer location for the company.
Source: 07-08-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Sebi Allows Grant Of Esops To Nominee-Directors
The Securities and Exchange Board of India has made an amendment, which now makes directors nominated by financial institutions eligible for employee stock options, if the director and nominating institutions sign an agreement on this and a copy of it is given to the company. The amendment was made after the board received several cases after a grey area in the regulation led to institutions forbidding nominee-directors from receiving Esops. However companies such as Life Insurance Corporation and General Insurance Corporation may not allow nominee-directors to accept Esops since they were government-owned bodies. Earlier, as per the Employee Stock Option Scheme and Employee Stock Purchase Scheme guidelines, 1999, Esops were meant for whole-time directors, employees and officers of an organisation. Exempt categories were promoters or directors with over 10 per cent holding in the company.
Source: 06-08-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

From Public To Private: No Easy Road For PSU Executives
For top level public sector executives, it would now be not easy to join private firms after retirement or resignation. As per a circular issued by the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, they would have to get a go-ahead from the government. If they fail to do this, they may have to pay damages to the government for violation as per the bond or agreement signed with the department concerned. The decision was prompted by case of some senior officials of finance, petroleum and other ministries who joined the private sector, and were later allegedly involved in lobbying for their new employers.
Source: 04-08-08 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Capgemini And HCL On A Hiring Spree In Kolkata
Capgemini and HCL Infosystems are looking to ramp up headcount in the city of Kolkata. While Capgemini plans to increase its headcount to 2,000 by the end of 2009, HCL Infosystems is looking at hiring anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 in the next 12 months. Capgemini is shifting to its new 200,000 sq ft office campus, which can accommodate 1,700 people. HCL Infosystems Ltd has also got land for a Kolkata campus, which will become a consulting hub for the IT major in system integration and employ around 1,000 to 1,500 people in the next 12 months.
Source: 06-08-08 www.telegraphindia.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

M & M Rejigs Top Management
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has announced key changes in its top management. Mr Rajesh Jejurikar has been appointed Chief of operations and Mr Rajan Wadhera Chief of engineering and development, while Mr Louis Pereira is the new CEO of Mahindra Automotive Ltd. Mr Jejurikar will look after the manufacturing division, in addition to his sales and marketing functions. Mr Wadhera will manage the materials management segment apart from product engineering and development. Mr Pereira will be responsible for the development of the Chakan plant in Maharashtra. Meanwhile, Mr Nalin Mehta has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Mahindra Renault Pvt Ltd, the joint venture between M&M and Renault of France.
Source: 05-08-08 www.telegraphindia.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

US Unemployment At A Four-Year High
According to a labour department survey in the US, the unemployment rate hit a four-year high in July. While employers are shedding jobs for a seventh straight month, economic uncertainty is adding to the woes. Employers cut 51,000 jobs last month as the national unemployment rate ticked up to 5.7 per cent from 5.5 per cent in June.
Source: 02-08-08 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

In UK, Support Diminishes For Working Mums
A survey by Cambridge University has suggested that in the United Kingdom, growing numbers of people are getting concerned about the effect of working mothers on family life. The results are based on social attitude polls from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. In 1998, 51% of women and 45.9% of men believed family life would not take a hit if a woman went to work. This has dropped to 46% of women and 42% of men in 2002. This indicates growing acceptance of the old-fashioned view that women should be in the home and not the workplace. The survey, conducted by Professor Ms Jacqueline Scott from the university's Department of Sociology, questioned between 1,000 and 5,000 people. She, thus, established that the idea that support was steadily growing for women taking an equal role in the workplace, rather than their traditional role in the home was just a myth.
Source: 06-08-08 news.bbc.co.uk Compiled by Amresh Anjan

British Government Launches Helpline For Mistreated Employees
The UK government has launched a helpline to report the mistreatment of workers and illegal pay rates. The helpline is part of government’s initiative to clamp down on rogue employers. A new board has been constituted to coordinate the work of the groups which check that firms adhered to rules on treatment of staff. An information campaign has also been planned to raise awareness of employment rights and how to enforce them.
Source: 05-08-08 news.bbc.co.uk Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New CMO At Reliance Cap
Mr Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital has hired Mr Sanjay Jain as the Chief Marketing Officer of the company. In his new role, he will be responsible for brand building, marketing strategies and corporate communication of all Reliance Capital companies. Earlier, he was associated with Bajaj Allianz where he was responsible for creating a strong visible identity for brands Bajaj Allianz & Allianz. In his 17 years of work experience, Mr Jain has worked in diverse sectors and companies like Times of India Group, Ogilvy and Coca-Cola Co.
Source: 06-08-08 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

India-Origin Co-CEO At Motorola Inc
The US-based telecommunications major Motorola Inc has appointed Mr Sanjay Jha as its Co-Chief Executive Officer alongside Mr Greg Brown. Mr Jha is the Co-CEO for its handset division. In this role, he would be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the company's mobile devices business and report directly to the board. Also, Mr Greg Brown, Motorola's earlier CEO would now serve as Co-chief executive officer of Motorola and would be heading the other two divisions of the company. Mr Brown and Mr Jha would share responsibility for Motorola as it moves towards separating into two independent, publicly-traded companies. Prior to this, Mr Jha was the Chief Operating Officer of Qualcomm.
Source: 05-08-08 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Apollo Tyres Gets New CFO And CRT
Apollo Tyres has appointed Mr Salil Gupta as Chief Financial Officer and Mr Peter Becker as Chief of Research & Technology of the company. These two posts were created recently as part of company’s expansion plans in the domestic and global markets. Mr Gupta would be responsible for the finance, taxation and accounts functions, while Mr Becker, based out of Germany, would oversee the setting up of an R&D facility there keeping in mind the mobility needs of European customers.
Source: 04-08-08 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New CMDs At Three Public Banks
Executive Directors of three leading public-sector banks have been elevated as heads of state-owned banks. Union Bank of India Executive Director Mr R. S. Reddy is now CMD of Andhra Bank, while Central Bank of India Executive Director Mr Albert Tauro has been appointed the Chairman and Managing Director Vijaya Bank. Bank of India Executive Director Mr K. R. Kamath will be the Chairman and Managing Director of Kolkata-based Allahabad Bank.
Source: 03-08-08 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New CMD At Power Grid
Mr S K Chaturvedi is the new Chairman and Managing Director of the Power Grid Corporation of India. Earlier, he was Director (personnel) with the National Hydro Power Corporation. He possesses 30 years’ experience in the power sector.
Source: 04-07-08 Hindustan Times


Compiled by Amresh Anjan