HR Articles: Dec-13 (Part-41)

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Hiring Marginally Up 1% in Nov'13 over Oct'13: Naukri Job Speak Index The Naukri Job Speak Index for the month of November 2013 was at 1,300 showing a 1% growth in hiring, when compared to October'13. Annual comparison shows that hiring activity has witnessed a 16% increase in Nov'13 as compared to Nov'12. Industry wise hiring sentiment was positive but weak in Nov'13 except in IT-Software which has seen an upward trend with the index moving up by 10% in Nov'13 when compared to Oct'13. Sectors like Insurance and Telecom saw double digit decline with the index moving down by 29% and 17% respectively in the same period. Among the top metros, Kolkata has shown the maximum increase in hiring with the index moving up by 14% in Nov'13 when compared to Oct'13. Source : 10-12-13   Naukri.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Bharti Group IT Director Mr. Jai Menon quits Mr. Jai Menon, Bharti Group's Director for Innovation and IT has quit amidst reports of alleged violation of the company's code of conduct. While the company said he "exited" without giving any reasons, Mr. Jai Menon said he has quit to pursue research and innovation in technology from January. Mr. Jai Menon, who was also the Group CIO across all businesses, joined Bharti in 2002 as Corporate Director and has been credited with the launch of Airtel's enterprise business. Source : 07-12-13   Financialexpress.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Mr. Prasoon Sharma appointed by ZTE Corporation Provider of telecom equipment and network solutions, ZTE Corporation, has appointed Mr. Prasoon Sharma as the deputy director- India& South Asia, ZTE Soft India. Source : 06-12-13   The Indian Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Google still favourite: 2 IITians say 'No, thanks!' to Oracle's crore+ pay Contrary to popular belief, money is not top priority at India's top engineering colleges. Two IIT graduates from IIT Kanpur have rejected US-based tech major Oracle's Rs 1.31 crore ($210,000) offer and may have settled for Google, which offered Rs 68.34 lakh ($110,000), or Tower Research Capital, a US-based financial services firm, which offered a package of Rs 74.55 lakh ($120,000). "These students are mature; they know money does not reflect everything," the report quoted a placement team member as saying. Moreover, if you look at the salary package closely, Oracle was only offering $110,000 as the base pay while the rest was performance-based. Source : 03-12-13   Firstpost.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan NIFT joint director shifted after sexual harassment charges Several undergraduate and postgraduate students and some staffers at the National Institute of Fashion Technology's Bhopal centre have accused joint director Mr. Vasant Kothari of sexual harassment. The 36-year-old has since been transferred to NIFT's Jodhpur centre after an internal committee found that allegations that he engaged in lewd behaviour and passed sexually suggestive comments were prima facie correct. The students alleged that Mr. Kothari, who besides handling administrative affairs was also a lecturer, often called them to his chamber and then made indecent gestures and engaged in explicit talk. Almost 75 per cent of the 270 students of UG and PG courses at the centre are girls. So far, no FIR has been filed by the complainants or the institute. Source : 05-12-13   The Indian Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan New Naukri app is a hit with job seekers Be it to apply for jobs on-the-go or to save your resume in your phone, Naukri.com's new app has taken the Android store by storm. The app, which comes with over 2 lakh job listings, has been downloaded nearly 3 lakh times within a month of its launch. Elaborating on the app, Mr. Vibhore Sharma, CTO, Naukri said, "Two lakh plus downloads is an important milestone for us. It clearly demonstrates that this app has filled the need for a job seeker to hunt and apply for jobs even when he/she is away from a computer. It is also testimony to the emergence of the mobile technology era, in fact- 23 per cent of job seekers visit Naukri.com from their mobile phones itself. A lot of companies today have a prohibition on recruitment sites in their offices and this app circumvents this problem by letting job seekers obtain access to jobs through their mobile phones. Professionals are now just a touch away from their new jobs." Source : 05-12-13   Indiatoday.intoday.in   Compiled by Amresh Anjan EADS to cut 5,800 jobs in Europe in restructuring European aerospace giant EADS, the maker of Airbus aircraft, announced plans Monday to cut 5,800 jobs in its defence and space division over three years. The layoffs, part of a major restructuring in the face of falling orders, will affect the group`s workforce in Germany, France, Spain and Britain, the company said in a statement. The news came after a meeting of its European works council with chief executive Tom Enders, whose bold plan to merge the conglomerate with Britain`s defence group BAE Systems was torpedoed last year with a surprise veto by Germany."We need to improve our competitiveness in defence and space -- and we need to do it now," Enders said, according to the statement. Source : 10-12-13   Zeenews.india.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan US unemployment rate hits 5-year low, all eyes now on Fed US employers hired more workers than expected in November and the jobless rate fell to a five-year low of 7.0%, which could fan speculation the Federal Reserve could start reducing its bond purchases this month. Non-farm payrolls increased by 203,000 new jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. The unemployment rate dropped three-tenths of a percentage point to its lowest level since November 2008 as some federal workers who were counted as jobless in October returned to work after a 16-day partial shutdown of the government. Source : 07-12-13   The Indian Express   Compiled by Amresh Anjan India most desired place for bank BPOs Attracted by a vast talent pool of business graduates, more than half of the world's top 40 banks have set up shop in India to run their back-office operations that may generate nearly 25,000 jobs in the coming time, an HR consultancy has said. According to Randstad India, close to 25 of the world's top 40 banks, from countries like US, UK, Switzerland, Germany and France, have set up their back offices in India with a few more global banks expected to open such offices in 2014."When compared to other sectors, banking and financial services industry has been the major driver of back office operations in India in the last decade," Randstad India and Srilanka CEO Mr. Moorthy K Uppulari said. While initially these banks leveraged back offices to manage their automated business processes and client service requests, in the recent years, the focus has been expanding to areas of finance and accounting, procurement services, and knowledge services, Mr. Uppulari added. As per the HR firm, India has emerged as the 'most desired destination' for banking office operations for global MNCs owing to large number of qualified graduates in business and finance. Source : 09-12-13   Thehindubusinessline.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan 6000 jobs on TCS Rajarhat first list TCS, India's biggest IT firm, will commission the first phase of its new campus in Rajarhat within the next three months and hire 6,000 professionals. "Our investment in Rajarhat is on track. We will have the first phase commencing its first operations by March 2014. Initially, what comes out in March will be a smaller version and two to three months later, the rest will come up. We will hire 6,000 in the first phase," said Mr. Ajoyendra Mukherjee, executive vice-president and global head (human resources), TCS. Source : 06-12-13   Telegraphindia.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan IIT graduates make a beeline for jobs outside their core Not all engineering students wish to do engineering throughout their life, not even IITians. Four out of 10 students are taking up jobs which are unrelated to their core subject. Instead of the manufacturing sector, a majority of techies are choosing diverse fields like consultancy, e-commerce, software and others. The reason: Core engineering jobs offer lesser packages as compared to some other fields. Moreover, postings in core engineering jobs or the manufacturing sector are mainly in smaller cities while consultancy, e-commerce, IT and online ventures offer jobs in metros. As a majority of these firms require less capital, they offer better career growth to the talented candidates. Out of 1,600 undergraduate and postgraduate students registered for campus placement this year at IIT Bombay, approximately 1,000 want to go for core engineering. "These jobs also offer a certain lifestyle, better exposure, contacts and robust growth in career," said a final-year chemical engineering student of IIT-Delhi. Mr. Avijit Chatterjee, professor-in-charge of placement at IIT Bombay, admits, "Besides the attraction of a better package, students who wish to start their own firms in two-three years usually prefer these jobs which offer a different set of skills and challenges." Source : 09-12-13   Dnaindia.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Six-Day Work Week May Soon Be a Thing Of The Past: Staffing Experts Lack of time to attend to personal matters, exponential stress levels and little recovery time between work weeks are cited as the main reasons that are fuelling this trend in the country. Mr. Moorthy K Uppaluri, CEO, Randstad India says, "We see that there is an increasing demand for 'five-day week jobs' from women and mature employees, that is, those employees in middle and senior level management (aged between 35 and 65). Our research studies indicate that mature employees accord greater value to work-life balance as compared to younger employees." He further added that, "Due to heavy workload and associated stress, we find more and more candidates looking out for those jobs that are not only meaningful and challenging but also allow them to pursue other areas of interest outside of work." Source : 09-12-13   Jobs.siliconindia.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Corporate India on ego trip at IIT campuses Many IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) launched a "graveyard" slot this year on the opening day of the placement season. While the official kick-off date was December 1, many began the process right after November 30 midnight. The rush among companies to offer jobs to some of India's best and brightest students played only a small role in the decision to start placements at such an unearthly hour. The main reason was the ego trip of companies — everyone wanted to be invited to the campus on the first day itself. Since accommodating everybody on day one is impossible, the IIT placement committees chose the best solution: Extend "day one" itself by 12 hours. But even that didn't solve the issue fully. Many IITs said, miffed with not being given day-one slots, some companies either backed out of the placement process or lowered the hiring commitments made earlier. Source : 07-12-13   Business-standard.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Start-ups lead the hiring boom Indian start-ups are fuelling the campus hiring boom again. Does this indicate an upturn in corporate fortunes? E-commerce Company Flipkart.com has topped the hiring charts at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) this year. This is one sign that there is an increase in recognition and respectability for risk taking that did not exist in India previously. New hires will benefit from getting their feet wet in a start-up environment with growth opportunities that staid companies such as Infosys Ltd simply cannot match. Smart, enthusiastic and connected, today's IIT's graduates appear to be increasingly willing to forfeit stability to reach new heights. Investors have infused millions of dollars in Indian start-ups like Flipkart and Zomato recently, recognizing the growth potential for online ventures in an increasingly connected country. Start-ups breed start-ups by creating serial entrepreneurs who are key drivers of new businesses. Taking risks, absorbing failures and starting over become easier with cash on hand from past successes, contacts and experiences. Source : 05-12-13   Livemint.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Growth is back in IT industry, says Cognizant vice chairman Nasdaq-listed IT services company Cognizant said that growth is back in the sector, and deriving confidence from the same the company expects it would meet its annual revenue guidance for the full year."For the first two quarters of the year, things appeared to have turned around for the industry. We are of course doing well ... in fact we are doing better than what we had expected in the beginning of the year," Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan, vice chairman of Cognizant said on the sidelines of Infocom 2013. "So we do believe that growth is back and remain confident for the rest of the year," he added. Mr. Narayanan also said that the company would look to step up hiring in the US. Like most of its Indian peers, Cognizant uses India extensively for offshore delivery. The company employs over 166,400 globally of which around 75% are based out of its delivery centres spread across 10 locations in India. Source : 05-12-13   Business-standard.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

 

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HR Articles: Dec-13 (Part-40)

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Facebook hires IIT-Delhi student for Rs. 65 lakh a year Social networking site Facebook will now have an employee from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi. After trying - and failing - to recruit students from the institute last year, Facebook came back to the campus this year and chose 21-year-old Mr.Ankur Dahiya, a student of computer science engineering. Mr.Dahiya's annual salary package is around Rs. 65 lakh. This is the first time that Facebook has recruited a student from IIT-Delhi. The social networking giant had hired a student from IIT-Chennai last year. The company, started in February 2004, has scouted for talent at many other IIT campuses in India this year. Unlike last year when it hired only two students from India, Facebook is eyeing the country as a talent hub this time around. Mr.Dahiya will be placed in Palo Alto, California as a programmer after he finishes his course next year. Source : 05-12-13   Hindustantimes.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan 87% Indian B-school grads employed this year, says GMAC survey The employment scenario for Indian management graduates of 2013 rings in optimism amid the grim economic scenario. According to a recent survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), nine out of 10 Class of 2013 business school alumni have been employed. About 84% also report their graduate management education to be professionally rewarding. The B-school Class of 2013 also fared well overall on the job market. "As many as 87% of Indian citizens are employed this year with 83% working for an employer and 4% being self-employed. The global figure is down slightly to 90% from the 92% of last year's graduates employed by September 2012. Despite the continued economic uncertainty, 72% of the Class of 2013 alumni who landed jobs said they could not have got it without their graduate management education. This shows that despite the slow, uneven economic recovery around the world, the job outlook for business degree-holders is holding fairly steady," says Mr. Gregg Schoenfeld, director of management education research for GMAC. Regardless of their employment status, a majority of alumni from the Class of 2013 believe their education developed their skills, expanded their network, and prepared them for the job market. Source : 03-12-13   Hindustantimes.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Mr. Neeraj Sahai appointed president of S&P Ratings Services A top Indian-American executive at Citigroup has been appointed president of Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, the world's largest ratings firm. Mr. Neeraj Sahai, 56, will assume his new role at S&P from January 6, 2014, financial intelligence company McGraw Hill Financial said in a statement. Mr. Sahai, who did his master's in economics from the University of Delhi, is currently head of Citi's Securities and Fund Services business and also acts as chief fiduciary officer of Citigroup. He succeeds Mr. Douglas Peterson, who became president and chief executive officer of McGraw Hill Financial on November 1. Mr. Peterson has taken over as chief executive of the parent company earlier this month. Source : 27-11-13   Indianexpress.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan IIT-B kicks off placement season on a high note Bucking the sluggish economy and global financial crisis, IIT Bombay has seen a 10-15 per cent hike over last year in the average salary being offered to students on the first day of campus placements. The first phase started on December 1 and will go on till December 18. The mood was upbeat on campus even as majors and blue-chip firms like Google, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Boston Consulting Group, Shell, Morgan Stanley, IBM, Schlumberger, Sony (Japan), Samsung (Korea), LinkedIn, Deutsche Bank, Oracle and ITC, among others, were part of the placement process Sunday. On Day One, 360 students participated in campus placements. With 230 companies registered for the first phase, 32 firms were slotted on Day One. Last year, around 240 companies had registered during the first phase and about 35 had come on the first day. The institute said companies seemed upbeat about hiring and what is significant is that the number of offers per company has been "above expectation" and has gone up as compared to last year. In the first slot itself, 90 job offers were made; an average of six offers were made per company. According to IIT Bombay's 2012-13 placement report, 173 jobs (both slots combined) were offered on the first day. Source : 02-12-13   Indianexpress.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan UK's npower to outsource jobs to India British energy major npower announced that it was cutting 1,460 jobs and outsourcing its back office operations to India, sparking outrage among employee unions. Npower said its proposed restructuring was aimed at boosting its customer service activities and would result in the closure of three sites and back office functions outsourced to India. Npower is a major integrated UK energy company. The company supplies gas, electricity and related services to residential and business customers and operates and manages a flexible portfolio of coal, gas and oil-fired power stations. The restructuring plan will involve more work being outsourced to Capita and Tata Consultancy Services, it said. Mr. Paul Massara, npower chief executive, said: "Today we have set out our proposed vision of how we would improve customer service, calling on the support of leading retail outsourcing partners". He added: "I understand that these changes would be incredibly hard for some of our employees and we'll be doing everything we can to support them over the next few months. This restructure is necessary if we are to deliver the levels of service our customers deserve". Mr. Colin Smith, the GMB union's northern region senior organiser, said, "GMB will vigorously campaign against the offshoring of jobs to India because it has absolutely nothing to do with customer service and everything to do with cost." Source : 28-11-13   Hindustantimes.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Reverse brain drain: Young Indian professionals are returning home Amid a global economic downturn, non-resident Indians from around the world are actively looking to return home, largely because even a diminished growth rate in India — currently projected at 5.5% for 2013-14, down from about 9.3% in 2010-11 — offers greater stability than the shrinking growth rates of their adoptive economies. India's evolving corporate structure is also encouraging Indians to return home, with the added advantage of family and social networks, and their own culture and lifestyle. A study conducted by human resource and recruiting firm Kelly Services India in 2011 estimated that 3 lakh Indian professionals working overseas will return between 2011 and 2015. Estimates by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) suggest that about 1 to 1.5 lakh Indians have already returned to work in the country. The lack of stability and job security abroad is emerging as a key reason for the shift from aspiring to find a job overseas to working to return to a job in India. Adds Mr. Rajiv Burman, managing partner at human resource consultancy Lighthouse Partners: "With the slowdown in the global economy, there is rampant discrimination and naturally the ones to be affected the most are Asians and non-whites. This is one key factor that is pushing Indians to get back home." Source : 01-12-13   Hindustantimes.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Déjà vu 2008: Slowdown-hit real estate stares at huge job cuts Slowdown is biting the real estate sector hard and at stake are jobs. Over the last nine months, when sales weakened and liquidity tightened, 8 percent white-collar jobs like architects, sales personnel, designers and engineers, were cut, said Mr. Lalit Kumar Jain, chairman of Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India (CREDAI). Until now, the worst affected have been sales, administration and management, while labours remained unaffected. The next three months will be "critical", because if the situation does not improve, the pain will extend to the larger majority of blue-collar workers hired by the sector, said Mr. Jain. Source : 04-12-13   Firstpost.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan No question of doing contract jobs for Microsoft: Nokia Employees' Union With the prospect of Nokia's India plant in Chennai being excluded from the company's deal with U.S software giant Microsoft, the Nokia Employees' Union has spoken up, saying that its members are not open to the idea of contract manufacturing. The Delhi High Court, in November, had ordered a freeze of Nokia's India assets, putting nearly 6,500 employees of the Finnish subsidiary here in a fix. In the wake of the court order, the management indicated to them that there could be problem in transferring them to Microsoft rolls. Mr. M. Saravana Kumar, President of the union, asserted that the onus was on the management to resolve the imbroglio caused by tax-related issues. He asserted that whatever had been agreed upon under the global deal with Microsoft should be adhered to in the Sriperumbudur facility as well. Source : 03-12-13   Thehindu.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan TCS bags 1000 offshore jobs for British energy giant Npower India's largest IT service provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) bagged a major deal to handle nearly 1,000 offshore jobs for the British energy giant Npower as part of its restructuring. Npower, the UK arm of Germany utility RWE, said it will outsource much of its customer service and back office functions to India. TCS will oversee around 1,000 back-office jobs in India. The roles being outsourced to TCS over the next eight months includes largely administrative activity, such as checking meter readings against customers' bills. British firm Capita is the front-runner to provide front office customer management and some back-office services from February 2014, for a contract worth around 120 million pounds over seven years. About 540 existing Npower staff will be transferred to the company. Around 1,460 UK jobs will be cut as part of a major corporate restructuring and outsourcing is aimed at helping Npower cope with peak hour demands. Source : 28-11-13   Zeenews.india.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Cognizant is hiring 10000 people in the US Nasdaq listed IT services firm Cognizant today said that it will hire 10,000 professionals in the US in the next three years. Of these, 750 will be from Texas. At present, Cognizant has a total of over 29,000 employees in the US. "Because of structural changes in business (driven by regulation, consolidation, globalization and virtualization of businesses) and emerging social, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies, we see continued demand for our business. To meet this demand, we expect to hire over 10,000 professionals in the United States over the next three years," said Mr. Gordon Coburn, President, Cognizant. Cognizant also announced a grant for three years of $150,000 to support university-sponsored science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education programmes at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. "We have a technology "skills gap" in this country today. The American Society for Training and Development defines this situation as 'the point at which an organization can no longer grow and remain competitive because it cannot fill critical jobs with employees who have the right knowledge, skills and abilities.' This is America's challenge today," he added. Source : 03-12-13   Business-standard.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Bank Unions to observe one-day strike on Dec 19 Pressing various demands, the United Forum of Bank Unions, representing employees of public and private sector banks, has decided to observe a one-day nationwide strike next month. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting held recently, UFBU said in a statement on Friday. "The United Forum of Bank Unions deliberated at length about the anti-people policies of the government especially with regard to the banking reforms which are bound to not only hit the common people but also the resources of the country," it said. "More and more foreign banks are encouraged to open their offices in India and this may pave way for takeover of the established private banks in the country," it said. "Therefore, the UFBU has decided to launch a one-day country-wide token strike on December 19", it said. The Unions would meet again on December 23 for taking further course of action, the statement added. Source : 23-11-13   Business Standard   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Infosys expands Sydney operations; to hire 85 people Even as Infosys trims its overseas headcount to reduce costs, the country's second largest software services firm today said it has opened a new branch office in Sydney and will hire 85 people. Infosys has opened a new Sydney branch office to keep pace with business growth of more than 500 percent in New South Wales (NSW) over the past five years, the company said in a statement. It expects to hire 85 new employees in NSW alone to keep up with client demand in the coming financial year, it added. Infosys currently employs about 2,600 people based across Australia and New Zealand. Source : 02-12-13   Zeenews.india.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan PSU banks stare at staff crisis Nationalised banks are likely to face a severe shortage of manpower, particularly at the senior management level, over the next three years. According to a report by McKinsey & Company, about 60-90 per cent of the deputy general managers/ general managers at PSU banks are set to retire by 2016-17. However, this number could jump to 93-100 per cent by 2020, the report said. In the next fiscal, PSU banks could face a 10-15 per cent shortfall at higher levels that include senior managers and those ranked above, initial estimates by the management consulting firm reveal. These projections come at a time nationalised banks are focussing on opening branches in rural and semi-urban centres as part of their financial inclusion programme. Further, the Reserve Bank is likely to grant banking licences to new entrants in January. This could lead to higher attrition in both PSU and private sector banks at the higher management level as the new entrants are likely to poach experienced personnel from existing lenders. Source : 01-12-13   Telegraphindia.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan U.S. jobless claims drop to 316,000 as layoffs slow The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits dropped 10,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 316,000, a sign that workers are in less danger of being laid off. Source : 28-11-13   Hindustan Times   Compiled by Amresh Anjan BT to add 400 people to AMEA region workforce BT, which was known as British Telecom earlier, said that it will add more than 400 new people to its existing workforce as part of new phase of investments across the rapidly growing economies in Asia Pacific, Turkey, West Asian countries and Africa, to ensure expansion in the growth markets. The hiring would be focussed in key markets including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey, BT said in a statement today. The investment is aimed at capturing opportunities in the region, which is pegged at about £32 billion, BT said, adding that the fresh hires would be additional to the 600 positions it had announced earlier this year for BT's Global Development Centre in Bangalore and to the 600 hires expected for BT's new Global Shared Service facility in Kuala Lumpur announced in April. Source : 28-11-13   Business-standard.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

 

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HR Articles: Dec-13 (Part-39)

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Summer placement at IIM-Indore: 156 companies offer jobs Around 156 companies including 81 new recruiters evinced interest in summer placements of IIM-I. 450 participants in the PGP batch, one of the largest across IIMs, picked up diverse internship roles in sectors such as BFSI, Consulting, E-Commerce, FMCG and pharmaceuticals. IIM-I placement officer Ms. Bhavya Kapoor said, "The highest domestic stipend offered for the eight week internship is Rs 1.5 lakh."IIM-I director Mr. N Ravichandran said, "The completion of summer placement for the class of 2013-15 is a testimony of our robust process and rigor in academics and emphasis on relevant management education." Sales & Marketing emerged as the most preferred function with 42% of the batch opting for roles here. The leading recruiters were AT Foods, Airtel, AkzoNobel, Dabur, Emami, HCCB, HUL, ITC, L'Oreal, Madura, Marico, PepsiCo, Philips, Pidilite, SABMiller, Tata Motors and Vodafone. Source : 24-11-13   Dnaindia.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan IT firms hope to deter job hoaxes with digital signatures Every year, imposters claiming to represent large IT companies lure gullible candidates into paying between Rs 8,000 and Rs 1 lakh as a 'deposit' to fill a "vacancy". Now, software companies are deploying new technology to deter the fraudsters. TCS, Cognizant Technology Solutions and Tech Mahindra now have digital signatures to distinguish their offer letters from fake ones. Cognizant has a Quick Response (QR) code on its letters. This code can be decrypted only by the company, says Mr. Sriram Rajagopal, Vice-President, HR. It is also setting up a hologram-based verification system for offer letters. Says Mr. Ajoy Mukherjee, Executive Vice-President and Global HR Head at TCS: "The practice of printing the QR code on offer letters is a new one for us. Once the code is scanned, the TCS server verifies if the letter is valid. It is a near-foolproof system of authentication."TCS is also putting out advertisements in regional newspapers to educate job seekers on fake offers, he said. Companies are making it clear that they do not charge money to hire people. The fake job racket hit the headlines last month when Tech Mahindra realized that nearly 50 people were conned by a gang about landing jobs with it. These candidates had paid upwards of Rs 9,000 each. Source : 25-11-13   The Hindu Business Line   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Real salaries of software engineers lowest in 15 years: Credit Suisse The lure of attractive salaries, quick promotions, foreign posting and job mobility attracted lakhs of young students to India's top outsourcers, making India the back office of the global IT requirements. Some of those charms faded over the last few years as the global economy saw sustained slowdown, but more recently, India's big outsourcers have bounced back as global demand picked up. What's missing, however, is the usual exuberance among employees associated with a change in environment."This time the usual acceleration in wage pressure that accompanies improving demand seems absent... We note the bargaining power of companies with respect to entry-level employees is at its peak with real wages at their lowest in more than 15 years," Credit Suisse said in a report. The global investment bank conducted a detailed research on employment and salary patterns of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) employees and concluded that the average wage hike (7 per cent) for offshore employees in 2013-14 was at multi-year low. TCS is India's biggest outsourcer with nearly 3 lakh employees. Source : 25-11-13   Profit.ndtv.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Lack of Industry Exposure Proves Costly For Indian Management Graduates: Survey Lack of industry exposure and functional experience proved to be costly for the recent management graduates from the country, as it was seen as a red flag for employment, said a survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). As per the findings of the survey, lack of industry exposure, inadequate pay and over-qualification are the main hindrance that prevented Indian management students from landing a job in 2013. A staggering 47 percent of the respondents cited the lack of industry exposure as the main reason behind their inability to land a job, while both inabilities to find a job that pays enough and over-qualification fetched 29 percent votes respectively. On a positive note, Mr. Gregg Schoenfeld, Director, management education research at GMAC, said that all is not gloomy for MBA grads from India. A healthy 87 percent of Indian management students surveyed are employed, out of which 83 percent are working for an employer and 4 percent are self-employed. Source : 22-11-13   Jobs.siliconindia.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Sebi to increase headcount; finalises 75 applicants Market regulator Sebi today finalised 75 applicants for the officer level job as part of its plan to beef up its headcount for faster and more effective execution of newly granted powers. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said that these "appointments are subject to satisfying the age limit, educational qualification along with minimum marks (as required) and other eligibility criteria." Sebi has embarked upon a major recruitment drive to carry out its newly granted powers and expanded role to regulate various segments of capital markets, while safeguarding the interest of investors from fraudsters and other manipulators. Source : 21-11-13   Business-standard.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Government may relax salary norm for foreign faculty visa India may consider relaxing the minimum salary threshold for issuing work visas to foreigners willing to work in Union government-funded higher education institutes, according to two government officials aware of the plan. The human resource development (HRD) ministry expects this will help its institutions get foreign professors at lower salaries and has written to the home ministry urging the visa relaxation. It has begun discussions on this matter, with the next round of deliberations with the home ministry scheduled for Friday, the officials said, both of them declining to be identified. "It's a requirement for the growth of our top central government-funded technical institutes (CFTIs)," one of the officials said. "The home ministry listened favourably to the HRD ministry's point during the previous meeting. And in the Friday meeting, we believe it will make further progress," the second official said. According to the home ministry's guidelines, foreigners seeking work visas need to be drawing a minimum salary of $25,000 a year (Rs.15.73 lakh at the current exchange rate). Source : 22-11-13   Livemint.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan TCS to step up automation, chase non-linear growth India's top software exporter Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), which now employs more people than every technology firm in the world except International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), plans to step up automation in some of its commoditized information technology (IT) service lines and chase more non-linear growth that does not depend on increasing revenue by adding headcount. Also, entry-level salaries for fresh engineering graduates joining TCS next year will remain stagnant and the company has no immediate plans to raise salaries, said TCS's global head of human resources Mr. Ajoy Mukherjee."This year, salaries will remain the same as what we offered last year. It has not changed. In future what will happen, we have not decided yet," said Mr. Mukherjee. Source : 22-11-13   Livemint.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Are you #trending? Recruiters 'like' you? Digital proficiency of candidates is working out to be the most crucial attribute companies are looking for in prospective employees. While summing up their hiring decisions, companies are bent on ensuring that the selected candidates are capable of working in a virtual environment, are well-versed with social media, and if they have created communities online. Mr. Ajoy Mukherjee, global HR head at TCS, says global organisations require teams to work in a virtual environment. "A candidate might not know much about analytics and big data. But level of awareness about social media, ability to see the big picture, and ability to work smoothly in virtual teams is necessary." A recent survey by HR firm Randstad states that employees' social and digital skills, along with education and job experience, are more important now than they were five years ago. The survey, conducted among 400 employees in India, states that about 90% of the surveyed employees expect their job requirements to be more demanding in the next five years. Moreover, about 52% of the employees in India fear they will not be able to meet their job requirements in future, while others are committed to doing anything to deliver what their job would expect of them. Source : 26-11-13   Dnaindia.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Slower hiring, falling commissions, force over 7,000 job search firms to shut shop India's economic slowdown, which led to a drop in hiring in the last two years, has hit recruitment firms hard. Thousands of selection firms, which recruit candidates for mid-and-junior level positions, have shut down, hit by employers pruning commissions and bill payments getting delayed, said industry officials. In fact, well over 7,000 selection firms have shut their businesses according to the Executive Recruiters Association (ERA), which represents the head-hunting industry. As costs are under pressure and recruitment is moving in-house, about 7,800 staffing firms have shut their businesses in the last two years," Mr. Deependra Nigam, vice chairman, ERA, told HT. Source : 26-11-13   Hindustantimes.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan BJP promises 15 lakh government jobs, loans for students in Rajasthan poll manifesto Three days after the ruling Congress released its please-all manifesto, the opposition Bharatiya Janta Party announced loans to farmers and unemployed youth, 15 lakh government jobs and 5% quota for Gujjars and other backward castes if voted to power in Rajasthan. Releasing the 60-page document the party prefers to call Suraj Sankalp Patra-2013, BJP chief minister candidate Ms. Vasundhara Raje said the party will provide loans up to Rs20 lakh at 3% interest to registered unemployed youths and farm loans at 1% interest. She also announced 15 lakh jobs will be created in the government sector and the controversial Teachers Eligibility Test will be reviewed. The BJP waited for the Congress manifesto and tried to fill in gaps in its document, covering almost every section of the society, with special focus on the rural folk. Source : 20-11-13   Hindustantimes.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan BlackBerry replaces CFO; others exit, in executive shakeup BlackBerry Ltd (BB.TO) said that three top executives, including its chief financial officer, are stepping down as recently appointed Chief Executive Mr. John Chen embarks on his promised shakeup at the struggling Smartphone maker. Mr. Chen brought in as interim CEO earlier this month after the company dropped a plan to sell itself, said BlackBerry is setting its marketing sights on corporations, governments and the big clients that were at the root of its early success. BlackBerry named Mr. James Yersh to replace Mr. Brian Bidulka as CFO. Mr.Yersh has worked with BlackBerry since 2008, serving as its senior vice president, controller and head of compliance. Mr. Bidulka will stay on through March 1 as special adviser to Mr. Chen. Chief Operating Officer Ms.Kristian Tear and Chief Marketing Officer Mr. Frank Boulben are also leaving. Mr. Tear played a key role in BlackBerry's latest restructuring, while Mr. Boulben was instrumental in the company changing its branding and name to BlackBerry from Research in Motion. Source : 26-11-13   In.reuters.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan TCS to recruit 25000 candidates via online campus placements Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) which is one of the well known IT firms in India has changed the pattern in which they conduct campus recruitments. Now the entire process of campus placement has become digitized. TCS has announced that they will be hiring candidates that have graduated from the 2013 batch to fill up around 25, 000 positions available with the company. Digitization of the hiring process will ensure prevention of fake offer letters and fraud employments. Online job application process is also more appealing to the younger generation. For campus placements, TCS has tied up with more than 450 institutes. The candidates will be referred by the Campus Placement Officers. These candidates then have to register online with TCS's online recruitment portal NextStep. Source : 25-11-13   Indiancolleges.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Saudi Arabia seeks to allay fears in India over new labour law In its first reaction since the controversial drive under a new labour law, Saudi Arabia today said that over 1.4 million Indians have regularised their job status and asserted that action was taken against illegal workers irrespective of their nationality. Amid concerns over return of large number of Indians following implementation of the 'Nitaqat' legislation, the Embassy of Saudi Arabia said that the Indian community has benefited the most from the grace period offered to regularise the job status, which expired on November 3, with its size going up to nearly 2.8 million and complimented its contribution to the Kingdom. It said the legislation is being implemented with an aim to ensure that all immigrants living in the Kingdom have "correct legal status" and claimed that no legal worker has been affected. "As far as Indian community in the Kingdom is concerned, it is the community that has benefited the most from the grace period. According to available data, more than 1.4 million Indians regularised their status during the grace period. "Moreover, during the six months of the grace period, the size of the Indian community in the Kingdom has gone up to nearly 2.8 million," the embassy said in a statement. The Nitaqat law makes it mandatory for local companies there to hire one Saudi national for every 10 migrant workers. Source : 21-11-13   Thehindu.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan Mr. Narayan Murthy's cost-cutting plan: Reduce senior execs onsite; employ more night staff Infosys chief Mr. NR Narayana Murthy has said the company is looking at reducing the number of top officials and subcontractors at onsite locations in a bid to reduce operational costs, according to Barclays. The cost cutting strategy also includes more night shifts in its offshore facilities in India as well as improving its internal training mechanisms. Infosys is running a pilot project where it is deploying employees at offshore locations to work in night shifts to support its clients based in North America. Night shifts would become necessary if offshore staff have to interact with US staff or clients on a real time basis. "Management has identified three areas to reduce its employee costs," Barclays said in a note about its analyst meeting with Infosys Executive Chairman Mr. Murthy. "Decrease the proportion of senior people onsite by rationalising its role ratio; reduce the usage of subcontractors by improving internal training; and reduce the number of people in onsite locations in business enabling functions," Barclays said about the management's strategy. Source : 27-11-13   Firstpost.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan India ranks 83rd globally in talent competitiveness Indicating acute shortage of skilled workforce, India has been ranked 83rd globally in terms of talent competitiveness of its human capital, while Switzerland has topped the charts. In the list of 103 countries, compiled by INSEAD business school in partnership with Adecco and Human Capital Leadership Institute of Singapore (HCLI), Switzerland is followed by Singapore, Denmark, Sweden and Luxembourg in the top five ranks. The UK and the US are ranked 7th and 9th respectively, while Netherlands (6th), Finland (8th) and Iceland (10th) also made it to the top-10. The Global Talent Competitiveness Index ranking was heavily dominated by European countries as the top 10 include only two non-European nations -- Singapore and the US. Among the large emerging market economies, China was ranked 47th, followed by Russia (51) Brazil (59) and India. Source : 26-11-13   Financialexpress.com   Compiled by Amresh Anjan

 

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