HR Headlines: May-09 (Part-3)

Hiring Activity Down By 4.7% In Apr’09: Naukri JobSpeak

Naukri JobSpeak for April shows that hiring activity was down by 4.7% in Apr’09 as compared to Mar’09. The overall job index declined from 711 in Mar‘09 to 677 in Apr’09. A mild drop was seen in hiring activity across most cities while Hyderabad picked up after a long slump. Hiring activity in BPO and ITeS dropped by 22%, and hiring activity for sales and business development professionals saw a dip too. The insurance sector saw a decline for the second consecutive month, with hiring in this sector witnessing a dip of 11 per cent, compared to March 2009.

Source: 21-05-09 www.naukri.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

MS, Yahoo!, Google Hiring Steadily In India

Despite trimming their workforce worldwide, Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google are still hiring in India. These companies are cutting jobs in India too but they are also hiring simultaneously. Microsoft is looking to hire in India as per the state of the economy amid the firm proceeding with 5,000 job cuts worldwide, including 55 employees in India. Search engine giant Google has plans of pruning as many as 200 jobs in sales and marketing operations worldwide while the firm is still hiring for about 20 positions in engineering operations, finance and software engineering, among others in India. Similarly, Yahoo! too would be reducing its employee strength, however, the company has over 100 vacancies in India.

Source: 20-05-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Wipro Chief Takes Pay Cut; Top Brass Gets Hike

In the fiscal year 2008-09, Wipro chief Mr Azim Premji took a pay cut of about 10% in his annual compensation. The total remuneration paid to Mr Premji dropped by $32,414 (about Rs14 lakh) to $2,96,142 (about Rs1.37 crore). In the previous fiscal, he received a total remuneration of $3,28,556. However, the company paid higher pay packets to many of its other executive directors and senior management personnel in 2008-09. For its non-employee directors, the attendance fee was raised to Rs 20,000 per meeting from Rs 10,000. Besides, the company paid a total of Rs1.46 crore as commission to them in 2008-09, up from about Rs 86.02 lakh in the previous year. Wipro’s chief financial officer Mr Suresh Senapaty got a total compensation of $408,246 in 2008-09, up from $317,751 in 2007-08. The pay package of Mr Pratik Kumar, executive vice-president (HR) rose from $230,507 to $290,201.

Source: 21-05-09 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

PF Withdrawals Rise By A Record 32% in 2008-09

As a clear sign of tough financial times, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) saw a record number of people emptying their PF accounts recently. In 2008-09, it rose by a record 32%, up from a 10 per cent increase the year before. The total number of withdrawal applications filed across India crossed the 1 crore mark. In Delhi alone, the average applications filed per month rose to 1 lakh between Oct 2008 and Mar 2009, from 30,000 between Apr and Sept 2008. According to a labour ministry report, about five lakh people lost their jobs between Oct and Dec 2008.

Source: 22-05-09 Hindustan Times Compiled by Amresh Anjan

EPFO Goes The E-way

The use of technology at the EPFO is set to speed up the payout of provident fund for its beneficiaries. The claim settlement period will be brought down from existing 30 days to seven days by November, when the computerization of all its 118 offices will be over. Secondly, in a major relief, the subscribers will now be able to view their PF balances and status of their claims online. Also, no claims would be allowed to be pushed forward ahead of the queue. After the second phase of computerization, the processes will be streamlined further when the subscribers would be able to access services online ‘anytime-anywhere’.

Source: 18-05-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

TCS Lucknow Centre To Raise Headcount To 1,500

Tata Consultancy Services, the country’s largest software exporter, plans to raise its headcount at the newly inaugurated Lucknow centre by three times in the next two years. Currently, the facility employs 550 people and expects to increase it to 1500 workers over the next two years.

Source: 18-05-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Each Infosys Employee Worth Nearly One Crore

Going by the potential value of their future earnings for the company, each employee at IT major Infosys Technologies is worth as much as Rs 97 lakh. Infosys’ total value of human resources, including both software professionals and support staff, is measured at Rs 1,02,133 crore for the fiscal ended March 2009. The company's annual report says that this value was for 1,04,850 employees during the same period. On an average, the same translates into a value of about Rs 97 lakh for each employee. The value is computed using the ‘Lev & Schwartz’ model.

Source: 18-05-09 Hindustan Times Business Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Infosys To Ramp Up Headcount In US

Infosys Technologies plans to recruit about 1,000 people in the US in the next 12 to 18 months. Currently, 14,000 of the company's 1,04,000 employees are based in the US. Infosys chief executive Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan has said that the company is adding to its employee strength in the US in anticipation of growth resuming in 2010.

Source: 21-05-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Tata Motors To Hike Salaries Despite Slowdown

Even amid the market slowdown and dropping sales, Tata Motors Limited plans to give salary increments to its staff for 2009-10. The wage hikes would not be as high as last year. The exact wage increment structure for the current year is yet to be decided. During the last three years, the average wage increment was around 12-13 per cent but this year it would be in single digits. The company has ruled out any possible downsizing this year. Since last year, Tata Motors has formulated a new policy whereby increments were given on performance basis, while raising the basic salary component was restricted. The total amount of hike is given in the allowance form and not in basic thus not raising the company’s contribution to provident fund and gratuity.

Source: 19-05-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Yahoo! India Appoints Mr Arun Tadanki As MD

Internet search major Yahoo! has appointed Mr Arun Tadanki as managing director of its India operations. This position was lying vacant since August 2007 when the previous MD of the company Mr George Zacharias left the firm. As MD, Mr Tadanki will be responsible for expanding and consolidating business in India as well as sub-continental Asia, Middle East and Africa.

Source: 20-05-09 www.dnaindia.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Global Job Cuts Refuse To Relent

Job cuts across the globe in various industries are piling up as more and more companies announce lay off plans. In the airline industry, Air France-KLM is looking to shed 3,000 jobs in its current financial year. Nokia, world's largest mobile phone maker, will be pruning its global workforce again by another 490 jobs, with as many as 170 positions to be slashed in logistics, production management and production support areas. American Express has announced that it will be eliminating about 4,000 jobs as part of a plan to reduce another $800 million in costs for the remainder of the year. Technology major Hewlett-Packard has decided to slash more than 6,400 jobs or about two per cent of its global workforce in the coming months. Dutch state-controlled bank ABN Amro plans to axe a net of 4,000 to 5,000 jobs. Irish lender ACC Bank has announced that it will cut 200 jobs and close 16 branches around the country.

Source: 20-05-09 news.bbc.co.uk, www.rediff.com, www.livemint.com, www.dnaindia.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

US Post Office Slashed 25,000 Jobs

To reduce huge monetary deficits, the U.S. Postal Service eliminated 25,000 jobs this year. Currently, postal employment in US is below 635,000, down from about 800,000 in 1999. Thousands of carrier routes have also been done away with as mail volume has declined. The agency still faces a potential $6.5 billion loss this year.

Source: 21-05-09 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Rolls-Royce Generates 150 Manufacturing Jobs

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has created 150 new manufacturing jobs at its factory in Goodwood, West Sussex, increasing its total workforce to 900. Rolls-Royce is expanding to hire more workers to produce the Ghost, its latest model. Other luxury carmakers such as Bentley and Aston Martin have been scaling back production during the recession.

Source: 20-05-09 news.bbc.co.uk Compiled by Amresh Anjan

US Jobless Benefit Claims Drop

Giving a glimmer of hope to the strained job market in the US, the jobless claims fell by 12,000 for the week ended May 16 to reach 6,31,000 compared to 6,43,000 in the previous week, according to the US Labor Department.

Source: 21-05-09 www.business-standard.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

BoE Expands Its Bonus Pool

The Bank of England has raised its bonus pool and took on the most staff in more than two decades. The bank has lifted the budget for the bonus pot in the year through February to 8.1% of salaries from 7% in the previous year. The number of full and part-time employees grew by about 6% to 1,857, the highest since 1987.

Source: 20-05-09 www.financialexpress.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Nomura To Add Staff In US

Japanese brokerage firm Nomura Holdings Inc is looking to hire more people later this year in the US. It has already recruited 135 employees in the last eight months in the US. Despite the company trimming its employee base by 2,100 to 25,626 between October and March, it was still hiring in the US. The company has about 750 employees in North America, up from 650 in September.

Source: 18-05-09 www.financialexpress.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

More Senior Level Exits At Diageo India

More Senior Level Exits At Diageo India

Source: 20-05-09 www.financialexpress.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Reliance BPO Chief Quits

Mr Rajnish Virmani has put in his papers as president and chief operating officer of Reliance BPO Pvt. Ltd. Prior to joining Reliance Communications Ltd in November 2007, Mr Virmani was with Aviva Global Services, the offshoring arm of UK’s largest insurance group Aviva Plc.

Source: 19-05-09 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New Chairman And Managing Director At Nestle India

In an internal restructuring, Nestle India has announced that Mr Martial C Rolland, chairman and managing director shall be moving on to take up a new assignment within Nestle Group. It is proposed that he would be replaced by Mr Antonio Helio Waszyk who is presently the Head of Food Strategic Business Unit, Nestle Group, Switzerland. The changes are scheduled to be effective 01 October 2009.

Source: 21-05-09 www.profit.ndtv.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

TVSE Services Appoints New MD & CEO

TVS Electronics has appointed Mr S. S. Raman, director, as a whole-time director and CEO for TVS Electronics and managing director for the recently formed TVSE Services.

Source: 20-05-09 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Wunderman India Appoints Mr Leroy Alvares As CEO

Mr Leroy Alvares has quit Tribal DDB India as president to join Wunderman India, the direct marketing arm of Rediffusion – Y&R, as the new CEO. At Wunderman, Mr Alvares will replace Mr Satish Sathyanarayan, who quit recently to launch Dentsu’s CRM arm.

Source: 19-05-09 www.alootechie.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New VP At InfoPrint Solutions

InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, has appointed Mr Christopher Reid as vice president and general manager of its Asia Pacific operations headquartered in Singapore. Prior to this, he was director of Global Solutions. In his new role, Mr Reid replaces Mr Benoit Chatelard, who was recently appointed senior vice president and general manager of Europe, Middle East & Africa for the company.

Source: 20-05-09 www.financialexpress.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr Yatish Rajawat Is New Managing Editor At Bhaskar Group

The Bhaskar Group, publisher of Dainik Bhaskar, has named Mr K. Yatish Rajawat as managing editor responsible for all group publications. Prior to this, Mr Rajawat was editor-in-chief of Business Bhaskar, the group’s Hindi business daily. Before joining the Bhaskar Group in May last year, Mr Rajawat was associate editor at Business World and worked at The Economic Times between 1999 and 2007.

Source: 20-05-09 www.contentsutra.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

HR Headlines: May-09 (Part-2)

Employees Fear Skills Will Become Redundant In 5 Yrs

In an international workplace survey conducted by global workforce solution provider Kelly Services, nine out of 10 Indian employees were anxious that their current skills would be outdated within five years. They felt that to remain competitive in the job market, more training was required. The survey conducted over 100,000 people across the globe, including 5,000 from India, projected that one third of the respondents believed that the training currently provided by their employers was not sufficient to meet their future career needs. 52 per cent preferred on-the-job training, while 33 per cent rooted for professional development courses. 13 per cent preferred self-initiated learning and a mere 3 per cent wanted formal or college education qualification.

Source: 11-05-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Jet Sacks Foreign Air Hostesses

In a bid to control spiraling costs, Jet Airways, India’s second largest carrier, has handed pink slips to 120 foreign airhostesses. These expatriate airhostesses were an integral part of its 3000- strong cabin crew. The decision to retrench them came after Jet Airways shut down overseas crew bases in countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. All these laid off airhostesses were from these three operational bases.

Source: 14-05-09 www.headlinesindia.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Microsoft To Axe 55 Jobs In India

To cope up with the slowdown that has hit the IT sector, software giant Microsoft is slashing 55 jobs in India, or one per cent of its Indian staff. These jobs cuts are a part of the company’s decision in January this year to cut 5,000 jobs. Microsoft has said that it is laying off these people in a bid to realign its business in the country.

Source: 12-05-09 Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Maruti To Hire For Its R&D Division

Maruti Suzuki India will ramp up its headcount in the R&D division to 1,000 by the end of March 2010. The new hiring is aimed to meet parent Suzuki Motor Corp’s plan of making the Indian subsidiary a global hub for small car development. Currently, the R&D strength is 720 people.

Source: 12-05-09 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Stanchart To Recruit 100 Relationship Managers Globally

To further accelerate its operations, the Standard Chartered Private Bank plans to hire 100 relationship managers globally within the next 12 months. Currently, it has 350 relationship managers globally and the new recruitment will abet planned expansion in its key markets in Asia, Europe and the West Asia, in response to a growing demand from high net-worth individuals.

Source: 11-05-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

DLF Headcount Drops By 22%

The headcount at DLF, the country’s largest real estate firm, has dropped by over 800 during 2008-09. DLF’s headcount dropped by 818 to be at 2,882 as on March 31, 2009 as against 3,700 a year ago, a drop of 22%. The company has not clarified if these people were sacked.

Source: 10-05-09 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

HR Conference By CII In Ahmedabad

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is organising ‘HR Conference 2009’ with the theme ‘HR Leadership in Current Economic Scenario’ on 05 June at Ahmedabad. The conference would address major issues facing the present HR environment and find ways to tackle them. It would be attended by CEOs, HR heads, HR professionals and academia. For further details, please contact Javed Sindhi at javed.sindhi@cii.in. Contact number: 079-26468872

Source: 14-05-09 CII Compiled by Amresh Anjan

NIPM (Punjab) Presents One Day HR Programme In Chandigarh

National Institute of Personnel Management (Punjab chapter) is organizing a one day seminar on the theme ‘Emerging HR Challenges & Commensurating Compensation & Benefits Strategy in Turbulent Economy’ on Saturday, May 23 at CII, Sector 31-A, Chandigarh. The conference will be inaugurated by Dr A K Balyan, Director - HR, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation & National President, NIPM. Eminent HR personalities will be speakers at the event. For participation and fee details, contact Ms Gunjan Nagpal, Mob: 9216215548, e-mail: gunjan_nagpal@yahoo.co.in; nipmpunjab@gmail.com or Mr. S R Saini, Chairman – NIPM Punjab, Mob. No. +91-9815157788; Tel. No. 0172-6451482; e-mail: saini_sr@sify.com.

Source: 15-05-09 NIPM Compiled by Amresh Anjan

PSU Bank Staff May Have To Bear 25% Pension Amount

More than 250,000 public sector bank employees may have to bear at least a quarter of the total amount of the second pension option that will be given to them as part of the wage settlement. According to sources, the public sector banks and the unions have agreed on a second pension option that is estimated to cost around Rs 6,000 crore. However, the extent of burden that is to be shared is still being negotiated. While the banks want the employees to bear 50 per cent of the cost, the unions are willing to take a maximum of 25 per cent of the cost.

Source: 13-05-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

ICICI Pru Life To Add 3,000 Staff

ICICI Prudential Life, country’s largest private sector life insurer, has announced plans to hire 3,000 people in the next two months. The bank has said that it has already started its hiring process. The total employee strength of ICICI Prudential Life stood at 25,000 at the end of March 2009.

Source: 13-05-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Wipro To Increase Its China Headcount To 3000

Wipro Ltd is looking to ramp up its China headcount ten-fold by 2010. Currently, the IT major has operations in Chengdu and Shanghai, where it employs 305 people. The ramp-up is targeted to take the company's headcount in China to over 3,000. Wipro is likely to open its third development centre in China in Nantong, a city near Shanghai. The centre is expected to be set up at a new technology park currently coming up in Nantong.

Source: 12-05-09 Business Standard Compiled by Amresh Anjan

US To Overhaul Compensation Practices In the Finance Sector

In United States, the Obama-led administration is looking to completely restructure compensation practices in the country's financial services industry. It is looking to move beyond banks to include more loosely regulated hedge funds and private equity firms. The policymakers are exploring ways to ensure that pay is more closely linked to performance. In the wake of the economic downturn, exorbitant compensation for top executives has come under severe disapproval from several quarters. Recently, the US administration imposed restriction on the pay structure for companies receiving funds from the government.

Source: 13-05-09 www.rediff.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

ArcelorMittal Eliminating Nearly 1,000 Jobs At US Plant

ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel maker, has decided to indefinitely lay off 978 workers at its Indiana Harbour West mill plant in July. The Luxembourg-based company owned by Indian steel czar Mr Lakshmi Mittal will idle iron-producing operations at Indiana Harbor West until market conditions improve. The company has said that it has already alerted the United Steelworkers (USW) and other stakeholders of these lay-offs.

Source: 14-05-09 in.news.yahoo.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Nike Cuts Down 5 Per Cent Of Global Jobs

Nike Inc, the world's largest maker of athletic shoes and apparel, has decided to retrench 5 per cent of its 35,000-strong global workforce, amounting to 1,750 jobs. This is the largest headcount reduction in the company's history. About 500 positions will be lost at Nike's Beaverton, Oregon, headquarters. Nike employs about 6,800 workers at its headquarters. Most of the layoffs would be completed over the coming weeks.

Source: 14-05-09 news.yahoo.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

UK Jobless Total Touches 2.2 Million

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the UK, the number of jobless people in the country rose 244,000 to 2.22 million in the first three months of 2009. The unemployment rate rose from 6.7% to 7.1%. Unemployment benefit claimants in April rose 57,100 to 1.51 million. The quarterly rises in the jobless rate and number were the biggest since 1981.

Source: 12-05-09 news.bbc.co.uk Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Loss-Hit Daiichi Puts A Freeze On Bonus

Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd has decided to not pay any bonuses to executives for the fiscal year ended March. The company is reeling under losses after it acquired Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, India’s largest pharma firm by revenue. Daiichi Sankyo posted a net loss of 335.8 billion yen (Rs17.15 trillion) for the year to 31 March, compared with a profit of 97.6 billion yen in the previous fiscal year.

Source: 13-05-09 www.livemint.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

JSW Cuts Nearly 50 Per Cents Jobs In US

Reeling under the global economic crisis, Mr Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel has reduced its workforce at its US steel mills almost by half to remain competitive in the current scenario. The mills altogether employed 950 workers in 2007. The mills, which can produce 1.2 million tonnes of plates and 0.5 million tonnes of pipes annually, are now running at only 10-15 per cent of their capacity.

Source: 14-05-09 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

BT Group To Shed 15,000 Jobs

After a 1.58 billion pound ($2.4 billion) write down and restructuring at its Global Services unit caused a fourth quarter loss, Britain's BT Group has cut its dividend and announced further 15,000 job cuts. BT has also decided to double its pension contributions to 525 million pounds ($794.1 million) a year for the next three financial years.

Source: 14-05-09 www.sify.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Cisco Appoints Mr B Raghavendaran As V-P

Cisco has appointed Mr B Raghavendaran as vice-president (channel operations & commercial strategy) of Cisco India and SAARC. In his new role, Mr Raghavendaran will be responsible for building and leading Cisco’s partner efforts in the region. He will also supervise reinforcing of Cisco’s presence in the commercial segment.

Source: 12-05-09 Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

BSE Gets New MD And CEO

The board of directors of Bombay Stock Exchange has appointed Mr Madhu Kannan as managing director and chief executive officer.

Source: 12-05-09 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

New MD & CEO For ICICI Prudential Life

ICICI Prudential Life has appointed Mr V. Vaidyanathan as managing director & chief executive officer of the company. He replaces Ms Shikha Sharma in this position. Prior to this, Mr. Vaidyanathan was executive director with ICICI Bank. He brings to the table nearly two decades of experience in the financial services domain.

Source: 12-05-09 www.thehindu.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

GE Capital Appoints Mr Anish Shah

GE Capital has appointed Mr Anish Shah as presidents and chief executive officer of GE Capital in India. He will lead GE Capital’s consumer and commercial financial services in India, including strategic partnership.

Source: 14-05-09 Financial Express Compiled by Amresh Anjan

NDTV Convergence Appoints Mr Kawaljit Bedi

NDTV Convergence, the digital arm of NDTV Group, has appointed Mr Kawaljit Bedi as its chief technology officer. Prior to this, he was head of research and product development at NDTV Labs.

Source: 12-05-09 www.alootechie.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan

Mr Amit Koshal Joins MySpace India

MySpace has appointed Mr Amit Koshal as senior business development manager, mobile for India operations. Before joining MySpace India, Mr Koshal was head of business development for Asia Pacific and Latin America regions at ACL Wireless. Earlier, Mr Koshal has also worked at Reliance Big Entertainment's mobile gaming company - Jump Games. In his new role at MySpace, he will be responsible for spearheading the mobile strategy for MySpace India.

Source: 13-05-09 www.alootechie.com Compiled by Amresh Anjan