At a time when many IT companies are downsizing and laying off senior staff, Infosys, the Indian multinational IT services provider, is expected to give its senior employees a low pay hike in January next year, which will be between three and five per cent. This raise was earlier scheduled for July this year, but got delayed. Some senior executives are also expected to be promoted, while senior vice presidents will be getting restricted stock units. The junior staff already received an increment in April, 2018. It is reported that the Company will be emphasising more on performance incentives towards…
Author: HRK News Bureau
Manoj Sharma will now be handling the India operations of NetApp India, the data management company, as director, human resources. Sharma has moved from Redknee Solution, where he was the HR head for India and APAC. In his new position, Sharma will work with leaders in India and across the globe for the designing, implementation and evaluation programmes meant to not just attract and retain talent but also motivate the best performers. Sharma will ensure better people practices, talent engagement and talent enablement processes in the Company. He will also be responsible for improving the capability, performance, leadership hierarchy and…
According to a report by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the number of job seekers has gone up to 6.9 per cent, which is the highest since 2016. The country is said to have only 397 million employed as of October, 2018. The estimated figure for the same time last year was 407 million. As per the report, 42.4 per cent of the country’s adult population was ready to work in October 2018. This willingness to work, or labour participation rate, was the lowest recorded in two years. The rate was approx. 47– 48 per cent before demonetisation,…
The ground staff of Air India — hired on contract — suddenly went on a strike on Diwali night at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. They sought the reinstatement of a colleague who was fired recently. It is reported that the employees were apparently demanding a Diwali bonus too. The situation led to several flights being delayed and a need to call staff from their homes to help restore order. According to a spokesperson, these employees of Air India Air Transport Services (AIATSL) had gone off duty leading to disruption in work. However, efforts were being made to set things…
Andy Jassy, CEO, Amazon Web Services, dismissed the staff’s concerns over the sale of facial-recognition technology to immigration and law-enforcement agencies. Jassy’s argument was that Amazon’s terms of service will ensure that the software is not misused. This explanation followed a signature campaign in the organisation, wherein over 450 employees had signed a letter to Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon demanding that the Company refrain from selling ‘Rekognition’, its facial-recognition software to law-enforcement officials. The staff was concerned that the technology will be misused against the citizens, especially immigrants, some of whom were separated from their undocument offspring not long ago.…
Several companies in the US, including General Electric (GE) are taking steps to reduce the alarming rise in childbirth expenses for US employees. They are tying up with hospitals and doctors directly to bring down medical costs. According to a Reuters report, the objective is to ensure that employees are taken care of at better hospitals that are less likely to perform unnecessary and expensive interventions, such as cesareans. There has been an extraordinary increase in spending by employees on maternity care and an even alarming jump in cesarean cases in the past ten years. This results in higher cost…
Arunachal Pradesh is the latest state to announce 7th Pay Commission benefits. Lakhs of government employees in the State will enjoy an increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) from seven per cent to nine per cent. The increment will be effective from July 1 onwards, which means the bank accounts of the State Government staff will also be credited with four months’ arrears. However, institutions that get a grant or aid from the Government are not eligible for this increment. In Odisha also, the employees of the public-sector undertakings of the State will be eligible for a…
The National Human Resource Development Network (NHRDN) has welcomed a new member to its national secretariat called Ati, a chatbot that can interact with humans and help solve day to day queries of the people. ‘Ati’ means beyond human imagination in Hindi and in Spanish it stands for ‘to you’. Ati is at your service all the time. NHRDN is the first apex body to take this initiative of including a chatbot in the workforce. Dhananjay Singh, director general, NHRDN believes that it is very important for humans to understand technology and appreciate it. According to him, robots and humans…
Mphasis, an IT services and solutions provider and specialist in cloud and cognitive services, has entered into a partnership with NSRCEL, the start-up incubation centre at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB). The collaboration is part of its Social Venture Incubation Programme, thatrenders support and aid to germinating social ventures. The objective of the programme is to incubate and support ‘for profit’ social ventures. According to a press release, it covers start-ups that have been operatingfor one to three years. The programme will help and supportstart-upsestablishfinancially sustainable and scalable models in the education, livelihood and disability sectors. While existing…
The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has entered into an agreement with Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) and Jaquar Foundation (JF). An MoU to this effect was signed recently as per which the three will together work to establish the relevant infrastructure, provide equipment and offer training support to the youth of the country. This collaboration will not only contribute towards the Skill India Mission, but will also scale the capacity of the training centres affiliated with NSDC. This will facilitate better training of students using the latest tools, technology and machinery, and enable them to perform better at…
On discovering that ‘double salary’ had been deposited into their accounts in the month of October, many Punjab Government employees in Amritsar mistook the deposit as a Diwali gift. However, they were soon told that the additional amount was erroneously deposited into their accounts and instructed not to withdraw that cash. AK Maini, district treasury officer, issued a notice to all heads of government offices informing them of the error, and that the additional amount will be taken back soon. Apparently, this mistake happened not only in Amritsar but throughout the state of Punjab due to some technical snag in…
Not long after the successful launch of IKEA’s first store in India in Hyderabad, IKEA India, the Sweden-based home furnishing retailer is all set to begin operations in Mumbai. The Company will be offering its complete range via large format stores and small stores, as well as e-commerce. In doing so, the retailer will generate 5000 direct and 5000 indirect jobs in Maharashtra in the times to come, and 50 per cent of its employees will be women. IKEA will be offering job opportunities in its distribution centres as well as online and offline stores. Recruitment will be done in…
Following the worldwide walkout by Google employees recently, CEO Sundar Pichai reasserted that the American multinational technology company is “not run by referendum” and that he still is and continues to be the boss who doesn’t always get influenced by staff uprisings. In Pichai’s own words, “There are many good things about giving employees a lot of voice, out of that we have done well.” Google has always been known for its transparent work culture, where employees discuss matters on open forums, and enjoy the liberty to speak their mind at weekly meetings which are attended by the senior managers.…
Most people are anxious to know how their job will be affected in the coming years — whether their skills, which they took decades to master, will be relevant at all in the next three years; whether their skills will become obsolete while they themselves are rendered redundant. The general prediction and assumption is that automation will take away jobs. However, the focus should not be on job gains or job losses, but on job content, because that is where the impact will be seen. Take the Indian telecom industry for instance. On one hand, there has been a loss…
Following allegations of rape of a trainee in London by a senior staff member, UBS Group AG, the Swiss multinational investment bank and financial services company is setting up a confidential hotline for its employees to report sexual misconduct and harassment. Having taken the matter very seriously, Bank’s management has taken it upon itself to ensure a safe environment for its staff to report any misbehaviour. The Bank will also ensure that its HR personnel are trained to investigate such cases in future. The Financial Conduct Authority, UK’s financial-services regulator, has been reviewing and investigating the manner in which UBS…
Cushman & Wakefield, the global commercial real-estate company, has always been committed to supporting the progress and upliftment of its women employees. In yet another step in this direction, the Company has gone on to create a new future-ready policy— the surrogacy leave policy. The policy has been introduced for the benefit of women and single parents employed at Cushman & Wakefield India. As per the policy, six months of paid leave will be offered to mothers, so that they can bond meaningfully with their babies. The staff members availing surrogacy leave shall be entitled to the proportionate privilege leave…
Google employees across the world abandoned their desks at 11 a.m. on November 1, as a mark of protest at the manner in which the American multinational technology company has dealt with the allegations of sexual misconduct. The protest came on the heels of a report published in The New York Times revealing the apparent misconduct of senior managers of Google. The report also disclosed that the Company had admitted to terminating 48 of its staff members for sexual harassment in the last two years! Disappointed by what appeared to the employees as abuse of power and a dismissive attitude…
A Supreme Court Bench — comprising Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi and Justices UU Lalit and KM Joseph — has announced that the Minimum Wages, as fixed by the Delhi government according to the notification dated March 3, 2017 will continue to be applicable till the Supreme Court makes a decision on the appeal on its validity against a Delhi High Court Judgement. The Bench also directed the Delhi Government to fix the minimum wages for the scheduled employment once again — within three months — in line with the procedure recommended either under Section 5(1)(a) or 5(1)(b) of…
India’s top five IT companies witnessed the most extraordinary hiring figures ever in the quarter ending September. In fact, the hiring figures were the best in three years, with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro, together expanding their workforces by 28,748 employees. While TCS hired 10,227 employees, Infosys hired 7,834 and Wipro recruited 10,687 in the same period. Cognizant and HCL Technologies were not far behind with 5,300 and 3,754 net additions respectively. These IT firms have been exhibiting good growth in terms of enhanced digital practices that require talent equipped with new skills. With technological shifts happening, most…
With the demand for pay hikes by government employees in Uttar Pradesh still to be met, the employees have decided to organise state-wide protests now, covering 15 districts. The Uttar Pradesh government had already effected the 7th Pay Commission recommendations for its employees. However, the government employees of the State are seeking the revival of the old pension scheme that was abolished in 2005, and replaced by a new pension scheme (NPS). With repeated discussions with the Government having shown no results, lakhs of UP government employees have taken to protesting. A procession named ‘Purani pension bachao-chetana rath yatra’ was…
In 2015, Intel had revealed its plans to ensure full representation of underrepresented minorities and women in its US workforce in five years’ time. However, it has managed to achieve its goal well before the deadline of 2020 that it had set for itself. According to the 2018 Diversity and Inclusion Report released recently the representation of women, as well as underrepresented minorities (URMs), has grown in the US over a period of three years. There has been a visible increase in the representation of Hispanics, African-Americans and Native Americans in the country from 2015 to 2018. Various initiatives taken…
Strategy&, the global strategy consulting team at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released ‘Nagarik: Inclusive growth through large-scale employment generation’, a report that presents practical ways to generate gainful employment across India in the next ten years. The report looks at how the smaller districts of India can be linked to markets to create employment and reduce marginal unemployment. According to the report, India is in the middle of a demographic transition, with a large young demography and a median age of 27.6. More than half of its population is below the age of 25 and more than 65 per cent is below…
AuthBridge Research Services — a Gurugram-based 13-year-old Indian provider of platforms and solutions that enable trust — has acquired Bangalore-based Footprints Collateral Services. With this acquisition, AuthBridge will be counted amongst the largest Indian companies offering employee background screening solutions. This is probably the biggest deal in the background screening industry in the country, which currently caters to only five to seven per cent of the potential market, which is estimated to be more than a billion dollars in market size. Given the changing socio-economic dynamics in a country, such as India, the demand for employee background verification services has…
First Meridian, an HR-investment platform — formed by private equity firm Samara Capital, global investment bank, Goldman Sachs and Hong Kong-based long-term investor, Janchor Partners — has acquired staffing firms Innovsource Services and V5 Global Services for an undisclosed amount. It is reported that First Meridian will go for additional minority investments/buyouts in areas such as HR technology, staffing, recruitment-process outsourcing, compliance management and managed services. Sudhakar Balakrishnan, former managing director and chief executive of Adecco India, will be co-investing in the platform and will also head First Meridian. As per reports, the other senior managers will also invest in…
A transparent corporate culture is much sought after in today’s world. However, at Netflix the level of transparency is rather unique, according to a report on the Company’s culture in Wall Street Journal. Employees who are fired are expected to attend a meeting where their colleagues discuss and explain the reasons for their termination! These meetings, referred to as ‘postmortem’ sessions are quite common at the American media services company. When the ex-vice president of Netflix, Sean Carey, was asked to leave after a five-year long tenure, he attended such a session where about 50 of his team members were…
With the festival season having already begun, Amazon India and Flipkart anticipate a deluge of online orders. To ensure timely and smooth delivery for Diwali shoppers, the e-commerce companies are expected to create 1,20,000 temporary jobs. Post Flipkart’s acquisition by Walmart, the former is now in a position to deal with the festival rush with more offerings and a massive logistics and delivery team. Amazon is now under pressure to match Flipkart’s new-found financial strength and significantly expanded team of delivery boys and warehouse workers. Both the companies have been investing in strengthening their delivery and logistics areas. 2018 witnessed…