Following delays in salary disbursement, now the flight attendants of Jet Airways have been given the option of taking ‘leave without pay’ for up to 50 days. While this first-come-first-serve option, offered to Delhi and Mumbai-based crew only, is claimed to be in the interest of the employees, analysts see it as an indicator of worse financial troubles. The ‘leave without pay’ offer was first given to the cabin crew of the Boeing 737 planes about four months back. Now the offer has been extended to the crew of Airbus A330s and Boeing 777s. According to Jet, this offer is…
Author: HRK News Bureau
Chee-Wei Tan has joined Shell Energy—Royal Dutch Shell’s business for energy commodities—as its global head, human resources. With over two decades of experience in human resources, Tan is well versed with strategic business-partnering, talent management, organisational development, transformation and change management at the global, regional and country levels. Collaboration and capability development are his forte. Based out of Singapore, Tan will be in charge of development and deployment of human resource strategies, to ensure business growth and transform the energy market, globally. Before taking on this position, Tan served as the regional head of HR, Shell Lubricants for Asia Pacific…
Jet Airways has requested more time from its employees for payment of salaries for the month of September. However, it has assured the employees of a solution to the present financial crisis. The Airline paid 50 per cent of the salaries for August to its pilots, engineers and senior management last week. On 6 September, Jet failed to pay its staff and announced that the salaries will be disbursed in parts, on the 11th and 26th of the month. This arrangement was to be followed till November. So, the August salary was to be paid on 11 September and 26…
The Central-Government employees are optimistic about receiving the over and above 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) pay hike before the elections. There are 48.31 lakh Central-Government employees and 62.03 lakh pensioners. Considering that many states are headed for polls in the next two months, and the General Election 2019 is not far away, no government will want to displease such a significant vote bank. Just in time for the festive season, the Odisha Government has announced an increment in dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) for pensioners, which have jumped to nine per cent from seven per cent. The…
Union Cabinet has approved the payment of Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) equivalent to 78 days’ wages for the financial year 2017-18 for all eligible non-gazetted Railway employees excluding the Railway Protection Force (RPF/RPSF) personnel. The total financial implication of 78 days’ PLB to railway employees is estimated to be Rs.2044.31 crore. The concept of PLB payments was introduced for the first time in the year 1979-80 and railways was the first government department to do it. PLB was primarily introduced to increase the share of railways in the Indian economy and keep the railway employees motivated to enhance the overall…
Reuters’ ranking of the World’s Most Innovative Universities has American universities occupying the top positions, with Stanford University ranking number one and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University in the second and third positions respectively. These three names and positions have shown no change in the last three years. This list comprises names of 100 educational institutions that have not only witnessed maximum scientific advancements and technological inventions, but powered new markets and industries. Not surprisingly, Stanford University got to the first position with its patents and research work widely acknowledged, appreciated and cited by the academic fraternity…
With a reputation for strict workplaces, and employees committing suicide from work stress, companies in Japan are now trying to change the rigid norms to create better workplaces, with more flexible work practices. Japanese firms are now going out of the way to make the workplace more comfortable and fun for the employees. There are ‘outdoor offices’ available in parks along lakes and rivers, in the suburbs, which give the staff an opportunity to escape stuffy buildings and into the fresh air for a change. Many organisations believe that working in the open, amidst nature actually activates the brain and…
It’s time employers start treating their candidates well, right from the time they are approached and until they on-board. as negative experiences of the applicants can even affect the sales a company does. In a study conducted by Manpower solutions, it was found that employer brand and consumer brand are directly linked. Companies may face repercussions if their candidates leave with a bad impression. This can heavily affect their employer branding efforts and may in turn adversely impact the overall sales as well. The report says that 54 per cent of people who leave with a negative experience as candidates…
The technical team at Amazon.com in Seattle, US, discovered that their new artificial intelligence-based recruiting tool, which was used to review resumes and job applications and short list the right talent, was showing preference for men! The Company had been trying out the new hiring tool to rate aspiring candidates and select the best. However, after a while it became obvious that the selections made by the tool were gender biased. This was due to the computer vetting applications on the basis of the patterns / resumes received over a period of a decade. Since most resumes belonged to men,…
Oracle and LinkedIn have come together to launch a new service for HR professionals which will help organisations enhance the experience and capabilities of employees as well as potential candidates. Oracle’s HCM cloud, Taleo Enterprise Edition along with LinkedIn will allow HR teams to attract, engage and retain employees by growing their talent pool, improving the candidate experience, enhancing internal mobility and increasing career development opportunities. Thanks to automation, not only the workplace is changing, even the workforce needs to acquire new skills more frequently. To address this growing challenge, the integration among the three services, will enable HR teams…
As per the new guidelines by the HRD Ministry, public money is not to be used by any of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), National Institutes of Technology (NIT) and other centrally-funded institutes to build food courts and swimming pools in the campus. Post a meeting of the IIT Council earlier this year, the Ministry has conveyed to all the existing IITs that plan to upgrade their facilities and all the new IITs that are to come up soon, to strictly adhere to the new building norms specifying that government funds cannot be used to create anything that is…
Vocational Training (NCVT) and the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) are to be merged with the aim of improving the results of the Skill India Mission. National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) is what the merged body will be called. The approval for the merger was given by the Union Cabinet. This new merged regulating body will ensure accountability in the skill training sector, which serves almost 15 million students. Terming this an ‘institutional reform’, the Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, explained that the move will make the sector more credible and attract bigger private investments.…
Just imagine what the world will look like if machines completely displace humans in every aspect of work. Earlier, people were worried that work is turning them into machines, but now they worry that machines will completely replace them and leave them struggling to eke a living. Men may still have some time, but for women the day has come when technology will replace them completely. According to an International Monetary Fund(IMF) report, nearly 180 jobs for women are at a high risk of getting displaced globally. While advancement in technologies may cut costs for employers and companies, a lot…
IBM has collaborated with NITI Aayog to offer an internship programme to top- performing students selected by the Atal Innovation Mission. More than 40 high school students will undergo paid internship at the IBM Bengaluru, for two weeks to be trained on artificial intelligence, Internet-of-Things, cybersecurity, cloud computing and blockchain. The selected students will also receive training on critical workplace skills. Some teachers have also been selected to be trained by volunteers and mentors at IBM so that they become innovation coaches. This programme is part of IBM’s commitment to upskill the next generation and make them future ready in…
Fullerton India, a non-banking financial company will host the Appathon round or the second round of the Finnovatica programme 2018. The programme is a platform that aims to leverage the ideas of talented young students to develop innovative digital solutions that may redefine the landscape of retail and rural lending in India. The initiative is in alignment with Fullerton India’s agenda of continued focus on digital innovations to improve consumer experience. Finnovatica takes place in three stages: Genesis This is the first stage where ideas from students are received. Appathon In the second stage, the shortlisted teams are first mentored…
State Bank of India signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Banking Institute (NBI), Kathmandu (Nepal) to set up a strategic alliance for development of NBI’s human resources in education, training and research. Under this MoU, State Bank of India’s strategic training unit (STU) will educate, train and develop NBI’s HR department to transform it. Among other things, SBI and NBI will share their experience and expertise — faculty and research and development wing —as well as the infrastructure and administrative facilitates available to hold press conferences, seminars, workshops, and study and group discussions. The two organisations will…
Lenskart, the company that specialises in eyewear, appointed Suruchi Maitra as its new CHRO yesterday. Maitra was earlier handling cultural transformation and associated challenges at UnitedLex, as its vice president, human resources. Fully aware that Lenskart has been growing tremendously over the last two years, Maitra realises how important the role of HR will be in providing continued support through its phase of rapid development. She will have to lead HR with a focus on the culture of the Company, which is based on a highly value- system driven. Given the exceptional pace at which it is advancing, HR will…
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn — the web- and mobile-based business and employment-oriented service — has announced its acquisition of Glint, which is a California-based organisation that helps companies obtain feedback from employees. While the details of the deal have yet to be disclosed, the acquisition will give the business social network enhanced insight into the morale and skill levels within organisations. Daniel Shapero, vice president-talent solutions, careers and learning, LinkedIn believes that Glint’s new-age HR best practice should be followed by all companies, and that obtaining regular feedback on work, culture and leadership is rather important. Being a customer of Glint, LinkedIn…
QuoDeck, a game-based HR learning platform has roped in Venkataraman Ananthkrishnan to lead its online and global business. Ananthkrishnan has moved from Amazon, where he was senior programme manager. He managed the ‘seller lending initiative’. After completing his engineering degree in 2005, Ananthkrishnan joined India Infoline as risk analyst. However, this stint lasted only seven months and he moved to Edelweiss Capital as risk manager. Here he climbed up the ladder and became associate vice-president, product mortgages and housing finance. In 2015, he moved to Aditya Birla Finance as product head, retail loans. He has spent a good part of…
Following PTI’s decision to retrench 297 employees and the announcement of its compensation plan, the Federation of PTI Employees Union has claimed the compensation figures to be misleading. It has challenged the same by filing a writ petition. The Federation disagrees with the compensation figures presented by the management and calls the exercise illegal. It has, therefore, approached the Delhi High Court for justice. A statement from the Federation conveyed that the compensation figures shared by the management ranged between Rs 28 lakh and Rs 1.09 crore. However, these sums were completely deceptive since they included gratuity and provident fund…
Usha Martin’s (UML) Engineering Labour Union has expressed dissatisfaction over irregular and delayed disbursement of salaries. The unhappy workers who claim their salaries have not been paid on time for the last two to three years, feel that their condition will be improved if Usha Martin’s Ranchi plant (which manufactures wire rope) is acquired by Tata Steel. It has requested the Government to intervene and take steps to make this possible. It is to be noted that last month, Tata Steel had formally acquired the steel business of Usha Martin for Rs 4,300-4,700 crore. It is expected to take six…
Mercer, a global consulting company has acquired the Gurgaon-based talent assessment company, Mettl. Mettl, founded by Tonmoy Shingal and Ketan Kapoor, has been around for eight years now. It provides content across psychometric assessments, aptitude tests and IT/Non-IT domain tests, along with a SaaS platform to conduct secure online assessments. Mercer is part of $14 billion Marsh & McLennan Companies, a global colsulatnt in the areas of risk, strategy and people. This acquisition will mark Mercer’s foray into the talent-assessment space and further strengthen its capabilities as a talent consultant. Anish Sarkar, CEO, India, Mercer believes, “The combination of Mercer’s…
Verizon has conveyed to 1,400 of its employees — 700 each from Chennai and Hyderabad— that they will be shifted to Infosys by the end of this year, to work on the latter’s projects for a year, and then be transferred to other projects. The transfer of these employees was discussed by the leaders of the two companies at a formal meeting. The process of transfer is to begin in the second week of October and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. It is reported that the concerned employees will receive appointment offers from Infosys.…
Air India has been asked to alter its hiring policy so as to permit third-gender candidates to apply for jobs. The online petition demanding this facility was begun by an activist from Mumbai, Shipra Parswani, to back Shanavi Ponnuswamy, a transgender woman whose application was rejected by the carrier. The 26-year old engineer has been trying to apply for a job with Air India since 2016. However, in spite of a Supreme Court ruling that recognises transgenders as the third gender, Ponnuswamy was told that there was no category where transgender women could be accommodated. Desperately in need of a…
The management of Tata Motors and the Tata Motors Workers Union have agreed upon a bonus settlement, just in time for the festive season. The Company also regularised 301 temporary employees. According to the agreement, the employees will receive a bonus amount ranging from a minimum of Rs 23, 231 and maximum of Rs 46, 323. The average bonus amount will be Rs 36,501. The temporary workers will be eligible for a bonus of 8.33 per cent of basic and DA. The amount will be credited to the employees’ bank accounts by the second week of October. The union leaders…
Women journalists in the country have also joined the #MeToo movement, with the Mumbai Press Club authoritatively backing them. The Club issued an official statement making its support very clear for the victims of sexual harassment from the media fraternity. The statement was issued by Lata Mishra, secretary, Mumbai Press Club, on its official Twitter handle. The Mumbai Press Club stated that it backed all the women journalists who had revealed incidents where they had been sexually harassed by professionals from their fraternity. Recently, two women accused journalist Mayank Jain of sexually harassing them. According to reports, Jain — who…