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Carriator buys out Keane to form a billion dollar company
Keane
- Saturday, March 03, 2007

Tech Job Market In The US On Recovery Path :After a long wait Information technology jobs are making a comeback, as staffing companies and recruiters said orders in that area surged in January. The demand from US companies for technology workers ranging from chief information officers, programmers, project managers and mechanical and electric engineers are high, according to the recruiting executives. “As corporate profits continue on the plus side and more and more companies are comfortable that earnings will continue to be strong, they have eased up on budgetary restraint and are prepared to invest more in technology,” said Mr Mark Polansky a senior client partner at executive recruiting from Korn/Ferry International.
The Hindu Business Line Delhi Edition, 14 Feb.'05
:Humanlinks team
- Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Global Joblessness Falls To 6.1pct:Global unemployment has fallen to 6.1pct (184.7 million) at the end of 2004 from 6.3 pct (185.2 million) in 2003. According ILO’s annual Global Employment Trends released in Geneva on Monday, the decline, though small, was a “significant development” as it was the “second time in the past decade that there was a year-over-year decline in total unemployment”. The sharpest decline in unemployment was seen in the Latin American and Caribbean countries, where it dropped from 9.3 pct to 8.6 pct. The rate has fallen to 6.4 pct in 2004 from 6.5 pct in 2003 in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. South Asia recorded a rate of 4.7 pct from 4.8 pct. But the rate remained unchanged in East Asia at 3.3 pct and in West Asia and North Africa at 11.7 pct. It said job growth was weak at 47.7 pct in 2004, a rise of only 1.7 pct in the total number of jobs worldwide.
The Financial Express New Delhi Edition, 15 Feb.'05
:Humanlinks team
- Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Individual Performance Key To Salary Raise In IT Firms :More than 80 pct of Indian IT organisations consider individual performance as the most important criteria for salary increments. According to the ‘Nasscom Hewitt Total Rewards Study, 2004’ released recently, an increasing number of organisations lay emphasis on variable pay and aligning rewards to business goals, with more than 85 pct organisations having a prevalence of variable pay. The study also revealed that the average accession rate in IT and ITES industries are higher than the attrition rate. However, attraction and retention of employees remains a key issue for IT and ITES organisations with the IT industry reporting an average attrition rate of 18 pct for 2003-04 and the ITES industry reporting a higher average attrition rate of 32 pct across levels. Other findings include that Bangalore continues to be the most expensive city in terms of compensation for IT, reporting 8 pct higher salaries compared to the national average. For ITES, Bangalore and National Capital! Region (NCR) were 1 pct higher than the National average.
The Hindu Delhi Edition, 16 Feb.'05
:Humanlinks team
- Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Market Movers Ride Sensex To Fat Bonuses :In capital markets, increments this financial year are in the range of 20-35%. The executives at foreign broking companies have received an average bonus of 200 pct of their annual salaries for 2004 that is up 75 pct over the previous year. To retain their employees foreign brokerages have been forced to hike the compensation structure. “This year we have seen quite a jump in bonus payouts because of a sharp surge in institutional volumes,” according to a senior HR consultant with a Mumbai-based firm. Institutional trading made up 60 pct of the total traded volumes on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange. The head of HR at a foreign brokerage said, “Equity markets have witnessed a spectacular run last year and employees have received handsome bonus packages this year. While the fixed compensation portion of salaries has jumped 24-40 pct, the bonus payouts range anywhere between 50 and 300 pct of their annual salaries.”
Business Standard New Delhi Edition, 17 Feb.'05
:Humanlinks team
- Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Mobile Telephony Sector Jobs To Grow :The number of people employed by the Indian mobile telephony sector is set to grow by 30 pct over the next 12 months. According to a study commissioned by the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Association, this sector currently provides direct and indirect employment to over 3.6 million people. The study while highlighting the economic benefits from the mobile services industry in India, specifically examined the impact on GDP, employment and government revenue;it was released at the GSM World Congress being held at Cannes, France. The study shows there were 47 million mobile subscribers in India from a population of over 1 billion, with subscriber numbers growing by 87 pct in the last 12-15 months. Presently, less than 30 pct of the total population is in range of mobile coverage — and that is largely restricted to urban areas.
The Hindu Business Line Delhi Edition, 17 Feb.'05
:Humanlinks team
- Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Indian Corporates Are Increasingly Opting For Temporary Staffing; Ma Foi Employment Survey : Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd., the largest HR services provider in India conducted the Ma Foi Employment Survey (MEtS), India’s First Employment Survey launched in November 2004, this survey seeks to understand the employment trends in the organized sector for the first time in the Indian subcontinent. The survey provides the base for two unique indices Ma Foi Employment Index (MEI) and National Hiring Confidence Index (NHC). The study revealed that ‘Temporary staffing’ through Professional employer Organizations (PEO) is a trend fast catching on in India. The Ma Foi Employment Survey (MetS) revealed that temporary staff comprised nearly 11.8 pct of the employee base of the companies surveyed. The survey predicts an increase of 11.47 pct by the end of this quarter taking the employee base to 12.84 pct. The top ten sectors that would use flexi staffing in this quarter are Hospitality, Print, Media & Entertainment, Energy, Education, Training & Consultin! g, Telecommunications, IT, Chemical & Allied, BFSI, Pharma and Textile & Garments.MEI measures the pace of recruitment activity/hiring needs of the employers and indicates the prospective net percentage growth in employment over the present levels. NHC will capture the hiring confidence level of the employer and project hiring intentions across sectors. .
HR Headlines, naukri.com, 19 Feb.'05
:Humanlinks team
- Wednesday, February 23, 2005

US Brain Drain Leads To India's Gain: Study - The highly-skilled Indian born talent that had flocked to the USA to work are now beginning to come back to their native country, said “turning America’s brain drain into India’s brain gain,” a recently released report. The report also says that countries such India and China, through restructuring of their economies were dramatically increasing the skill sets of their work force, thereby posing a challenge to the US leadership in the technology domain. “This will only make India more competitive and alluring to investors and multinational companies,” according to AeA (formerly the American Electronic Association). The US is cutting R&D funding while foreign governments are creating public-private partnerships to invest in R&D projects.
The Statesman, 17 Feb.'05
:Humanlinks team
- Wednesday, February 23, 2005

No Sympathy For Re-employment: SC :The courts should not decide the matter of reemployment of retrenched workers on the ground of “sympathy” the court ruled. A division bench comprising Justice Mr N Santosh Hegde and Justice Mr S B Sinha upheld the retrenchment of workers of Maruti Ltd, which was acquired by the government and rechristened as Maruti Udyog Ltd. The decision of Punjab and Haryana high court had directed re-employment of retrenched workers, the bench said that Maruti Udyog Ltd, now Maruti Suzuki, after its collaboration with Japanese company Suzuki, need not take them back. While giving reference to its previous judgements, the apex court said: “In a case of this nature, this court should not even exercise its jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution of India on misplaced sympathy (A Umarani VS Cooperative Societies and Others).”
The Financial Express , New Delhi Edition, 5 Feb.'05
Humanlinks team
- Friday, February 18, 2005

Government Rules Out Equity Option For EPFO :The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is likely to consider implementation of a multi-pronged plan which includes parking funds in equities and postal deposits. The plan is expected to cover up for the estimated Rs 927 crore shortfall due to the EPF rate increase. However the government source denied any immediate plan to invest the workers’ money in equities. It may be noted that the government has already announced its decision to allow non-state PFs, superannuation and gratuity funds to invest up to 5% of their assets in equities and 10% in corporate debts and equity-oriented mutual funds from April 2005.
The Financial Express , New Delhi Edition, 5 Feb.'05
Humanlinks team
- Friday, February 18, 2005

IT Now Employs More Than A Million :The number of knowledge professionals employed in the IT sector has crossed yet another milestone as it crossed the one-million mark and is expected to close the 2004-05 financial year with a headcount of 10,45,000 people. Along with the rising number of employees, the revenue per employee too has increased during the period. “IT is clearly a career of choice. The IT services segment is amongst the highest paying. Even the Business Process Outsourcing industry has attractive salary levels, with a strong scope for professional growth compared to other sectors. Also the extent of training in technology, cultural skills, global negotiation skills and opportunity to pursue higher education while working makes the sector attractive,” Mr Sunil Mehta, vice-president of the Nasscom (National Association of Software and Service Companies) mentioned in a recently issued statement.
The Hindu Business Line , New Delhi Edition, 8 Feb.'05
Humanlinks team
- Friday, February 18, 2005

Indian Call Centre Professionals Are Better Taken Care Of Than In US :US, Call centre professionals in India are well taken care of by their employers, a lot better as compared to the US, where the workers were treated as a “commodity”. “The call centre environment in India is much better. In the US, the employers are not considerate about the workers. They treat people as a commodity,” said Mr Steve Tirza, president, CWA. Taking exception to the argument that many jobs are outsourced to India for cost-cutting purposes, he said that even while doing this, the salaries of CEOs in the US get fatter and fatter, negating the cost advantage.
The Financial Express , New Delhi Edition, 9 Feb.'05
Humanlinks team
- Friday, February 18, 2005

Scrutiny Of Directors’ Pay May Be Stiffer :The draft company rules have proposed disclosing details of employees drawing remuneration above a certain level in the director’s report to Rs 12 lakh per annum and is expected to disclose a long list of employees in the bigger companies. The draft rules also specify that the audit committees constituted by the board of directors of the company would require to have at least two independent directors. In the existing Companies Act, there is no concept of independent directors. The existing Companies Act requires the board’s report to disclose details of those employees who take home at least Rs 24 lakh per annum.
The Business Standard , New Delhi Edition, 9 Feb.'05
Humanlinks team
- Friday, February 18, 2005

Bharti Revamps Business Structure :Bharti Televentures has announced a new business structure with the induction of four regional hub chiefs in the northern, southern, eastern and western parts of the country. The regional chiefs would also be part of the company’s mobility office and will be supported by circle and regional heads, with their respective teams. The eight member mobility board would be headed by Mr Manoj Kohli, president, mobility. The other members include Mr Jagdish Kini, executive director, (Southern region), Mr Vinod Sawhny, executive director, (Western region), Mr Sanjay Nandrajog, executive director (Northern region), Mr Rajan Swaroop, director, (Eastern region), Mr Atul Bindal, chief marketing officer and director, Mr Don Price, chief technical officer and director, and Mr Ashok Juneja, director - planning and special projects.
The Business Standard , New Delhi Edition, 10 Feb.'05
Humanlinks team
- Friday, February 18, 2005

Unilever Restructures Top Deck:The Unilever group has revealed a weak set of full-year results and has decided to abandon its 75-year old dual chairman-chief executive structure and launched management changes under pressure from investors after two years of sluggish sales and profit growth. Mr Patrick Cescau would be taking charge as chief executive, and former joint head Mr Antony Burgmans would become non-executive chairman. The number of executive board members has also been reduced to four from seven. An independent director will fill Mr Burgmans’ new role as non-executive chairman in 2007, the company sources said.
The Business Standard , New Delhi Edition, 11 Feb.'05
Humanlinks team
- Friday, February 18, 2005

Hike Spike: Indian Firms Pay Better Than MNCs:the 573 companies in 24 sectors surveyed had imposed a salary freeze in 2004, and just 0.7% are projected to do so in 2005. The survey also shows Indian firms are paying as well, if not better than the much-coveted multinationals. There’s an increased willingness to pay more for the best talent in India. While senior management is projected to get a 12.7% raise in 2005, those at the other professional/supervisor/technical level, with a 14.8% gain. Interestingly, 86% of the respondents agreed that salary should be linked to performance, rather than other factors like seniority.
The Times of India, New Delhi Edition, 9 Feb.'05
Humanlinks team
- Friday, February 18, 2005

Gulf’s Poaching For Indian Staff, Leaves Engg Cos Floundering :With a construction boom in the Gulf countries piggy-riding on robust oil prices, multinational giants have been on a massive recruitment binge of Indian engineers thus giving sleepless nights to engineering firms. It is not only Dubai which is witnessing frenetic activities on the construction front- but also the other emirates in the UAE as well as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait which are hiring Indian engineers at alluring pay-packets. According to industry observers, engineers from western countries are reluctant to take up job opportunities in many Gulf countries owing to the risks involved, forcing multi-nationals to go on a tremendous poaching exercise in countries like India.
11 Oct.'04, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, October 28, 2004

Panel Suggests Flexi-Timings, Mid-Career Breaks For Women Scientists :Identifying the factors that hamper Indian women from opting for science careers, a committee set up by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA)- a scientists’ body that promotes scientific knowledge in India- has suggested remedial measures such as providing flexible working hours, mid-career breaks and age relaxation in recruitment in order to facilitate the study and practice of science by women.The study revealed that only 13 pct scientists and 10 pct of students said they faced difficulty in finding the first job or placement and that problems cropped up after that. Gender insensitive organisational practices and workplace discrimination were few of the things which came in the way of such women’s career growth, the study maintained.
12 Oct.'04, Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, October 28, 2004

Google Founders Scout For Indian Talents :Google founders Mr Larry Page and Mr Sergey Brin expressed their interest in enlarging their foray into India as far as their operations are concerned. The two patrons who met president Mr A P J Abdul Kalam on October11 during their India visit, said that India is dynamic and that there is a lot of construction happening and assured that the country would be one of Google’s larger operations. They further maintained that Google Hyderabad, second of Google’s offices in India - first being Bangalore- will be home to engineering, human resources, online sales and service functions. Engineers hired for the Google Hyderabad engineering centre will mirror the scope of work and hiring standards as in Google’s other engineering offices. The founders however assured that the operations would allow normal business hours for employees and not working to US working hours.
13 Oct.'04, The Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, October 28, 2004

PFs, Pension Funds May Get To Invest in Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities:The finance ministry may show the green signal for pension and provident funds to invest in residential mortgage-backed securities of National Housing Bank. The ministry is also considering to treat such securities as eligible scrips under the Securities Contracts ( Regulation) Act, 1956, to create a liquid market for the papers. The move will benefit organisations like the Employees Provident Fund Organisations to park their investments in a market with increasing profits. It will also enable pension fund managers in the emerging pension market, to pick up a valuable stream of good quality long-term papers.
14 Oct.'04, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, October 28, 2004

US Shelves Expensing Of Esops Till June: The Financial Accounting Standards Board which sets the accounting guidelines has rejected in a meeting held on October 13, the plea of software firms and the US senators that employee stock option plans (Esops) should not be reflected in the profit and loss account. However, it has postponed its plan on making this exercise imperative from December 2004. US politicians had earlier tried to scuttle FASB’s proposal. However, the Stock Options Accounting Bill, that required only Esops awarded to the CEO and the next four highly-compensated employees to be expensed, was passed by the House, but faced some restraints at the Senate level.
15 Oct.'04, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, October 28, 2004

Mr Miller Sees Silver Lining In US’ Tech Job Loss : The president of the IT Association of America, Mr Harris Miller feels if US IT jobs were offshored, jobs in other industries would gain by a total of 3,17, 367 by 2008, as compared to a net job addition of 90,264 in 2003. These industries include construction, manufacturing, wholesale, retail and transportation. The 2003 figures include a loss of about 24,860 IT jobs in 2003, while in 2008, about 50,000 IT jobs would be lost. Mr Miller pointed out the logic in the matter which lay in the fact that if IT jobs went offshore, it would boost efficiency and cost-control. However he asserted that all these gains would result only if IT jobs are offshored.
16 Oct.'04, The Hindu
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, October 28, 2004

Germany Reels In Job Losses : Mounting competitive and cost pressures took their toll on corporate Germany on October 14 when General Motors of the US unveiled extensive job-cuts at Adam Opel, its largest European unit and Karstadt Quelle, the struggling retailer, secured a trade union pact on a wide-ranging rescue package. The declaration which indicates the loss of thousands of jobs, highlighted the speed at which German firms are restructuring in order to slash labour costs and revive competitiveness. General Motors plans to cut a third of its 32,000 German workforce to stem heavy losses in Europe.
16 Oct.'04, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, October 28, 2004

Spectramind Tops BPO Headcount Race :With a headcount of 13,330 at the end of the second quarter, Wipro Spectramind has emerged as the single largest BPO services provider in the country, as maintained by the chairman and managing director, Mr Raman Roy.The outfit which saw a sequential growth of 20 pct during the second quarter, added 2,264 members to its rolls. According to Mr Roy, the company signed up three new clients during the quarter.
16 Oct.'04, Hindu Business Line
: The
- Thursday, October 28, 2004

`Best Places To Work’ In India Ratings In the `Great Place to work’ survey was carried out by Grow Talent Company Ltd in collaboration with US-based Great Place To Work Institute. Texas Instruments, Federal Express and Johnson & Johnson have emerged as the top three companies in a first of its kind survey carried out among employees of over 120 companies in India. According to the survey, Eli Lilly, Philips Software, Godrej Consumer Products, Wipro Spectramind, Nokia, Birla Sun Life and Cadbury’s figure among the top 10 employers in India. The list aims to identify responses which point to a company that provides a healthy work environment for its employees and the ranking is primarily based on the opinions of employees who are asked to rate their workplace according to a series of qualitative criteria
23 Aug.'03, Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

Cadence Best Employer: DQ-IDC Survey The local unit of electronic design automation tools giant, Cadence Design Systems, has overtaken Infosys Technologies as the numero uno in the ‘best employer’ category for the IT industry according to DQ-IDC Best Indian IT Employer Survey 2003. Cadence, Tata Consultancy Services, Hewlett Packard, Infosys Technologies and IBM have been ranked as the top five best employers in 2003. Although Infosys has slipped down the best employer rankings for the first time, it remains the dream company for IT employees in the country, the third DQ-IDC survey said.
23 Aug.'03, Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

Top Dogs’ Pay In Pvt Banks No Longer On A Leash:The RBI has lifted the controls on salaries of Pvt bank CEOs, and whole time directors, but has put a cap on the annual bonus or incentives they could receive. Till now private banks had to take RBI approval in clearing the pay structure of their chairman, CEO and senior officials like executive directors. While banks may no longer be required to consult the regulator on the issue, the maximum bonus they can give is 25% of their salaries or the average level of bonus paid to employees across the board, whichever is higher.
21 Aug.'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

PAN Outsourcing Faces Opposition From IT Unions:Income tax officers and gazetted officers are against the Finance ministry’s decision to outsource allotment of PAN cards to UTI Investors Services Ltd (UTIISL). They assessed the decision as being a precursor to privatisation and downsizing. Apart from outsourcing Allotment of PAN, the finance ministry has shortlisted six banks to function as authorised intermediaries for filing of electronic returns for salaried tax payers. “By outsourcing the allotment of PAN to UTIISL, assesses are being exposed to extortionists. It is illegal since the information collected by tax department is confidential in nature,” Income Tax Gazzeted Officers Association secretary general Ms Rajarshi Das Gupta said.
20 Aug.'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

It's Boom Time For High-Skill Back-Office Jobs: The search for people with MBAs, insurance diplomas, and even Ph Ds is emerging as the latest trend in the country's back-office service sector. The back-office revolution started with humble call centre agents with affected US accents. Today there are many new fields that are becoming key to this profitable business viz securities research, project management, underwriting and demand forecasting. Back-office jobs in financial services rose to an estimated 24,000 in the year to March 2003 from 15,000 a year earlier, and revenues to $510 million from $300 million, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies. India has cornered 60% of the $16 billion offshore IT services market and the country is now set to dominate the next big sector: outsourcing of financial services.
16 Aug.'03, Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

MNCs Discover Gender Diversity Makes Eminent Business Sense: With North American and European governments enforcing new regulations to promote diversity in corporates, MNC subsidiaries across the world are switching to diverse work place culture. Companies like Hindustan Lever Ltd, DuPont, are leading with a trend of hiring more `diversity' candidates. This is also triggered by the realisation that diversity in the form of race, religion, language, gender, colour, age, sexuality, style - make good business sense. Unilever, for instance, has been promoting women in its subsidiaries over the last ten years. HLL has also been working hard to change the `male bastion' image of the organisation on the B-school campuses. The process includes making special pitches for women candidates, where career paths are clearly etched out, and women-friendly policies on marriage, maternity and mobility are explained in detail.
15 Aug.'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

India Will Meet 2008 IT Manpower Requirement : Data compiled by Business Line show that India would be able to meet the demand for IT workforce quite comfortably. According to Human Resources Development Ministry, there are 1,058 engineering colleges in the country today (excluding IITs), which produce 2.71 lakh engineers annually. In addition to this, there are 1,231 diploma engineering colleges which churn out 2,20,947 engineers and 797 institutes providing MCA degrees to 37,005 people, Then there are six IITs. Ever since reports poured in about millions of jobs moving to India in about next 5-10 years, coupled with a now famous forecast of McKinsey on the need to create 2.2 million jobs in the IT industry by 2008, there were doubts expressed about India's IT talent's ability to meet the requisite demand. This puts to rest questions raised regarding the ability of India to meet the requirement on such a huge scale. .
12 Aug.'03, Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

Supreme Court says Govt employees have no right to strike: Trade unions have described the Supreme Court ruling that government employees have no “fundamental, legal, moral or equitable right to go on strike” and hold the state machinery to ransom, as retrograde. On the other hand chambers of commerce and industry have cautiously welcomed the judgement. Union labour minister Mr Sahib Singh Verma felt that government employees should have some way of ventilating their legitimate grievances. Disposing of petitions pertaining to dismissal of nearly two lakh striking Tamil Nadu government employees for going on strike, the bench comprising Justice MB Shah and Justice AR Lakshmanan said the reinstated employees should take care to observe discipline in future as there was no fundamental or equitable right available to them to go on strike.
07 Aug.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

New pension plan that lets you pick your scheme: Under the new pension plan to be launched in December, individuals will not only get to choose the scheme, but also pick the fund manager who is offering the best possible returns. The government is yet to decide the number of fund managers, who will be allowed to operate, but will review the earlier proposal of restricting the number at six. Besides, the fund managers may even be allowed to invest in overseas markets.
07 Aug.'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

Independent directors limit raised to Rs 20,000: Accepting board positions as independent or non-executive director has become more attractive. There’s more money to be made from attending meetings regularly, although there is no word yet on exemption from civil and criminal liabilities.Directors of companies with paid-up capital and free reserves of Rs 10 crore or more or with turnover in excess of Rs 50 crore can be paid up to Rs 20,000 per meeting of the board and its committee. Directors of all other companies can be paid up to Rs 10,000 per meeting.
05 Aug.'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

Attrition rates in IT companies goes up: The rate of attrition, which fell considerably in the last two years due to the IT slowdown, is again raising its ugly head once again, say industry experts. Growth in volumes and rapid scaling up of offshore development centres (ODC) by multi national companies has once again made attrition a key issue in the Indian information technology (IT) space. Companies such as Infosys and Wipro have seen their attrition rates go up during the last few quarters. Mid-sized companies have also seen attrition go up significantly. Polaris Software Lab has seen its attrition rates go up to 14 per cent, after the merger with OrbiTech Solutions. The most obvious way companies are dealing with the rising attrition rates is through salary hikes apart from others.
05 Aug.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

Variable salary takes centre stage in IT companies: A variable component is becoming increasingly common in the salary structure of employees in IT companies. Stock options, which were once considered an attractive part of the salary component for IT employees, are no longer considered attractive, even when the stock market is currently on an upswing.Typically, IT companies like Infosys and Wipro till recently paid a large component of their salary in the form of stock options. This is now been replaced by cash, increasingly the total salary bill for most Indian IT companies. The salary cost for Infosys, for instance, went up by 1.5% in April – June ’03 quarter.The variable component can go up to 40% for the total salary.
23 July'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

Zen and the art of CEO driving: The Japanese are thinking young. In a bid to keep up with the rest of the world, which is seeing younger CEOs at the helm, Japanese companies seem to be recognising the virtues of infusing young blood into the boardroom. There is a growing realisation that the traditional Japanese system of people graduating to top management levels around the age of 60 is a tremendous waste of human resources, not only for Japanese companies, but also for Japanese society as a whole.
23 July'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

Indians 2nd largest US immigrant group: A whopping one million people migrated to the US, legally in the last fiscal, with India contributing the second highest number of immigrants. A total of 1.06 million people were granted legal permanent residency in the 2002 fiscal year that ended September 30,2002, according to data released by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS.
20 July'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

Microsoft becomes a benevolent dictator: It is finally time to holler a few cheers for one of the greatest industrial bullies of all time. Microsoft Corp., which dominates the personal computer business with its Windows operating system, has just shown it can use its monopoly for good. Microsoft said last week that it is eliminating stock options as a means of paying its employees and instead giving them shares of the company’s stock.
20 July'03, Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

BPO jobs to grow at 32%: IDC Survey Total employment in the business process outsourcing industry is expected to reach 0.6 million by 2007, according to a research done by International Data Corporation (IDC) in association with the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry ( Assocham).
18 July'03, Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, September 01, 2003

Immigration to US: India overtakes China:Indians hold their own among legal immigrants into the United States. For the second year running, India has overtaken China and the Philippines to take the second place among legal immigrants into the US, next only to neighbouring Mexico. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services granted legal permanent resident status(green cards) to 1.063 million during 2002, roughly the same figure as in 2001.
17 July'03, The Hindustan Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, August 04, 2003

Entrepreneurship report ranks India at No.2: Finance Minister:India may be the second most entrepreneurial country after Thailand with a score of 17.9 per cent from among 37 surveyed countries, but it throws up some interesting paradoxes and differences, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report 2002. Globally, 460 million or 12 per cent of adult population is involved in entrepreneurial activities. In the domestic scene, this grew by over 50 per cent, defying the global trend where the average dropped by 25 per cent.
16 July'03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, August 04, 2003

Pension Scheme To Have Exit Option, Loan Provision: Finance Minister:Finance Minister Mr Jaswant Singh on Monday announced a few charges in the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana, including an exit option and a loan facility. Announced in the 2003-04 Budget, the scheme offers a minimum monthly pension of Rs 250 and a maximum of Rs 2,000. Mr Singh said at its launch here that the new insurance scheme, as originally envisaged, did not have an exit option and no provision for loan.
15 July '03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, August 04, 2003

Outsourcing Debate Escalates In US:With the job outlook grim, outsourcing overseas is an increasingly thorny issue in the United States. Those opposed say it effectively means exporting work and jobs, a controversial strategy given that the overall number of people collecting unemployment benefits reached a 20 – year high last week. Those in favour say it enables US companies to compete globally. One thing is clear: The debate is escalating as the practice spreads. Forrester Research Inc predicts that American employers will move about 3.3 million white-collar service jobs and $136 billion in wages overseas in the next 15 years.
15 July '03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, August 04, 2003

Tech Firms Tap Tier-II Institutes To Keep Attrition Levels Low : Ask any top – notch information technology firm its recruitment strategy for entry – level professionals and you will get the usual sales pitch. Dig a deeper and you will find the firms just wont hire the best and the richest but also scout for candidates from second – tier institutes and other streams, who would be less likely to switch firms. Another strategy adopted by top firms is to recruit from second – tier institutes. The Regional Engineering colleges are favourite hunting grounds.
14 July '03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, August 04, 2003

Move afoot in US Cong to eliminate H1- B visas:A quiet move is afoot in the US Congress to do away with the H1- B visa category that has benefited countries like India, particularly its software exports and IT professionals. A Republican Congressman from Colorado, Mr. Tom Tancredo, has introduced a 15- line bill proposing to eliminate all visas under the H1- B category, created in 1952 to provide the US economy with technically skilled foreign workers. The bill comes at a time of slump in the US economy and unemployment, resulting in an outcry against H1- B visas and tech jobs being shipped abroad, particularly to India, via outsourcing.
13 July '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, August 04, 2003

ESOPs Back In Favour: With the bounce-back in the equity markets, there is a sudden rush for employee stock option plans (ESOPS). Employees of both new and old economy companies are equally enthusiastic about the instrument. ESOPS of four frontline infotech firms evoked a good response in 2002-2003. Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Computers and Digital Global have reported an over 100 per cent rise in demand and allotments.
7 July '03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

New Norms Likely On Auditor Employment: A mandatory cooling –off period is to be prescribed by the Government for those persons engaged in employment of a company and keen to move over to the audit firm that is the statutory auditor of the same company. The department of Company Affairs intends to bring about modifications to the Companies Bill, 2003, especially to those provisions relating to disqualification for appointment as an auditor of a company.
5 July '03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

A Passion For Work: Passion is central to the quality of human life. This is a clarion call to those who spend their lives working in jobs they dislike or hate. Every day, too many people spend more than half of their waking hours doing work for which they feel no passion. “Few people discover the work they love,” writes Mr Lance Secretan in his book, `Inspirational Leadership.’ This disengagement has profound implications for companies. Simply put, passion, or its absence, isn’t just a philosophical or psychological matter- it’s a business problem. Far too many companies lack employees who are passionate about their work, and they flounder, or just get by. But some companies instil passion and thrive as a result. Ask Mr Herb Kelleher, founder and chairman of Southwest Airlines, and he will tell you that passion means money in the bank for his company. Passion helps to engage an organisation. When people discover the work that they love, work becomes more than a job- it becomes a unique callin! g, a life’s mission. People with passion for their work engage each other and their customers.
4 July '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

54,000 New BPO Jobs This Year: Despite intense lobbying in the US and several European countries against outsourcing infotech enabled services (ITES) and transferring infotech operations, around 54,000 new business outsourcing (BPO) jobs are slated to be created in India in the next six months. According to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), 65000 new BPO jobs happened in the six months from January to June and the growth will continue.
2 July '03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

Is there a nicer way to fire?: Most ways of sacking employees are unpleasant – though rarely as nasty as the method chosen by Accident Group. Accident Group’s 2,500 staff received a series of text messages on their mobile phones, telling them to call a number. There, a recorded message from the company’s insolvency administrators at Pricewaterhouse Coopers informed them that, “All staff who are being retained will be contacted today. If you have not been spoken to you are being redundant.” Is there a better way? Mr. Francis “Tom” Coleman, an American lawyer who recently wrote a book on “ending the employment relationship”, urges bosses to sack staff in private, doing it respectfully and preparing a script of what to say. He says bosses often panic, fearing that dismissed staff may steal valuable information if allowed to linger. In fact, brutally sacked staff may do more damage than those let go kindly. In America they may sue for the “intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
12 June'03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

UK to plug Indian IT inflow: Armed with a pile of scary statistics, Britain’s infotech industry is putting pressure on its government to police a legal loophole that allows hundreds of Indian workers to be imported into UK. Monday’s deliberations, focusing on the Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) scheme, is considered a sure –fire way for an Indian computer professional to get a UK work permit and enter Britain. Early last year , unemployed British computer consultants and contractors had forced the Blair government to end its fast-track visa system for Indian techies.
11 June'03, The Times of India
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

Job – Luck Club for Indians seeking jobs in the West: Amidst the gloom and doom for Indians seeking jobs in the West, there are two offerings by the British council, which hold out some hope. These are the Association of British Scholars jobs club, launched last year which covers all UK qualified Indians, and British Overseas Placement Scheme (BOND) for high – flying professionals. Both the schemes facilitate linkages between industry and job seekers. The jobs-club while supporting efforts of Indian students from UK institutions to get back into the employment market also provides a talent pool of HR resources for companies that join as members.While the jobs club is restricted to alumni, the BOND scheme provides high-flying professionals from India with introductions to British industry through temporary job placements. Specially targeted at certain sectors like information technology, oil, gas and petrochem, power generation, telecom, automotive industry, healthcare and finance, the scheme provides an opportunity to successfu! l candidates to work in UK for a period of six to 12 months.
09 June'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

Feeling unappreciated? Griping may make things worseFew people ever feel adequately rewarded and recognised for their work achievements. But how can you gripe about such mistreatment without being branded a whiner – and possibly sabotaging your job? Different grievance tactics might enhance your chances for greater rewards and job security. For starters, determine your manger’s performance measures, provide objective evidence of your relevant accomplishments and regularly confirm that your boss agrees you’re a star. “Make it easy for people to give you what you what you’re asking for, “and don’t expect”performance to speak for itself,” advises Mr. Deborah Kolb, a Simmons College management professor.
07 June'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

Corporates opt for customised management programmes to upscale managers:Adding a new dimension to on-the job learning is a new concept: customised management programmes. Several corporates are tieing up with management institutes to offer their staff customised MBA programmes. Corporate professionals believe that these MBA programmes can be used as a retention tool, besides helping in addressing some of the typical problems confronted by individual organisations. Providing a formal education to employees, they feel, would help in developing the skills of future managers, as well add value to the employees. The objective is to equip employees to move up the value chain much faster.
7 June'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

Human Capital Management: the new HR mantra:The era of human resource management is showing signs of waning. In its place is dawning the age of human capital management also called workforce management. Either ways, the reality is the same: companies are going to extract their pound of flesh, in terms of tangible results, for every penny they have invested in their people. Companies will have to deal with the ‘survivor syndrome,’ for one. The moment the upswing begins, companies will have to cope with trying to retain high-performing employees who are too valuable to be laid off, but have lost trust in the company and are just waiting to change jobs. Companies will also have to deal with a workforce that is much more heterogeneous in its composition then it was in the past. Perhaps the most important change will be the accountability that will be placed at the door of the human resource department.
6 June'03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

US backlash not to hit BPO: Gartner:Growing backlash against offshore service providers in the US would not effect the trend towards offshore BPO, US based research company Gartner said. Mr. Sujay Chohan, research Vice-President (offshore BPO), says: “The momentum is too large. There is disaggregation at functional level happening in corporates worldwide. Non core functions are being looked at (as) cost centres and corporates are looking at efficiency, productivity and lower costs.” “It will be difficult to convince a CEO of a company not to utilise offshore services as the business case for it is too compelling, especially in a downturn. ” Currently there are 150,000-200,000 people employed offshore in the call and contact centre business, predominantly in India, the Philippines, Ireland (to a lesser extent) and a host of emerging destinations across the world.
26 June'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

Big CEOs started out as trainees & soldiered on:Top performers and their employers are inseparable. And the view from the top: Cosy. If there’s a lesson in all this for kids out of B-school, its this: Don’t hop till you drop. Data compiled by ET Intelligence Group shows top executives in good companies have spent upward of 20 years with their employers. A study found an average tenure of about 23 years, among 125 executives from 20 large companies.
26 June'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

Tighter US visa norms worry executives:There is both good and bad news for companies covered under the business express visa programme of the US embassy (now known as the business executive programme). The US embassy in New Delhi has clarified that the BE programme is not being scrapped. This will come as a major relief for Indian companies with strong business links in America. However, the new tighter US visa procedure now makes personal interview essential even for applicants under BE; obviously, that leads to longer queues.
21 June'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

IIMs to train directors for firms:Soon you will have to enroll for a course at an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) or National Law School if you entertain thoughts of becoming an independent director of an Indian company. Department of company affairs officials said Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, has already initiated the process to train prospective directors and some other Indian Institutes of Management are in the process of doing so. The department of company affairs is also in talks with the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and the National Law School, Bangalore. The training will not be confined to classrooms. It will also be available online.
21 June'03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, July 14, 2003

Other side of pink slip: Pay packets get fatter: Employee costs in ’03 have risen 9% overall, based on the result of 1,893 companies that have declared their results so far. This could either mean that companies are hiring afresh or that existing employees are getting pay hikes. Either way, thats some good news for employees following years of pink slips, pay cuts and layoffs. It may still be premature to say goodbye to the pink slip syndrome, but its effects going forward could be less severe.
05 June'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Knowledge Management can help you get a better grip on your business: Knowledge Management (KM) is in fashion. It has become a buzzword in modern business. The reason: It promises to convert information in to an intellectual asset. One that can reduce cost and improve bottom lines, besides helping you to take informed decisions. Km, it is a process followed by companies and individuals to generate value from their intellectual and information assests. In simple words, knowledge is a reservoir of information that can add value to your business, if managed properly.
03 June'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, June 24, 2003

ITES players remain unfazed by US anti-outsourcing bills: India could lose up to $450 million of the total $9 billion worth of software and services work being outsourced to India, if states in the US pass laws against outsourcing to developing countries. This is an estimate by neoIT, a consultancy firm that specialises in infotech (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITES) outsourcing. “If these states or even all the states in the US pass the bill as law, only the low-end IT-services work by the state and federal governments would be stalled. This work accounts for only 5 per cent of the total IT software and services work being outsourced to India by the US,” neoIT managing Director Mr. Avinash Vashisth said.
02 June'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Job exchanges exist only for the babus: Employment offices are fast losing their significance. For most government jobs, an eligibility criterion is registration with employment exchange. This means obtaining forms, submitting them, and getting registered. But babus being babus, all this can get on one’s nerves. District employment officer Mr. D.C. Verma admits that employment exchanges are unable to provide jobs. But then, he adds, there are too few jobs and too many aspirants, something for which the exchanges cannot be held responsible. The situation is becoming worse with the passage of time. The 930-odd exchanges spread across the country account for 2 lakh placements a year, against an annual registration rate of 60 lakh; and the accumulated backlog is 4.20 crore.
02 June'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Oriental MNCs seldom think local on honchos: Have you ever wondered why oriental companies have their own guy at the helm of affairs in the Indian subsidiaries while American and European MNCs are replacing their expat heads with local managers. The Koreans, Japanese and Chinese companies which include biggies like LG, Samsung, Hyundai, Sony, Honda, Toyota, Bridgestone. Hitachi and TCL are yet to pass on the baton to local guys. Says HR consultant, Mr. Sandeep Chaudhary, Director MapsnGrow Consulting, “While Korean management culture is based on suspicion and mistrust, Japanese pride themselves on their quality and process and don’t trust any non-Japanese for this. According to Mr. Anil Sachdev, CEO of Grow Talent, another HR consultancy: “ Korean companies are known to be aggressive and target driven, while Indian managers are considered complacent and risk averse.”
02 June'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Insurance becomes a big agent of job creation: The insurance industry is creating more jobs than the banking sector with private life insurance companies in particular ramping up operations in hundreds of cities across the country to achieve a nation - wide presence. However, unlike banking where private companies recruited former bankers to man various positions, over 95% of the recruits in new private companies have never worked in an insurance firm. The industry along with telecom and BPO companies appear to be the only major job creators in the organised sector. According to Mr. Sanjay Teli of ESP Consultants, an HR firm that recruits for insurers, employment generation on account of insurance is at par with that of BPO.
31 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Tuesday, June 24, 2003

One Day as the HR-head of Microsoft: In an interesting job swap, Ms. Lucy Kellaway a journalist, quit her profession for one day to become the senior manager-HR of Microsoft (UK). Arranged by the educational charity, Campaign For Learning, the job swap was an eye opener for Ms. Kellaway who started her day with a 8:30 am bonding breakfast, met headhunters and toured the impressive facilities in the Microsoft office which included dry-cleaning store, coffee bars, state-of-art gym and a well-being centre with a acupuncture unit and a electric massage chair. She also learnt that Microsoft has won many awards for being a great employer and only 5% of its employees leave every year.
28 May '03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, June 06, 2003

Managing a global workforce ia a HR challenge: Managing a global workforce is indeed the single biggest challenge that virtually every HR department of multinational organisations faces today. As the organisations grow across geographies, it is but inevitable that extended enterprises need to be managed. Facing a similar challenge Wipro Technologies has re-christened its human resource function as Talent Engagement and development (TED), to highlight the philosophy that would guide the management of diverse talent. The most important initiative of TED probably was to create channel (W), an integrated e-HR and employee communication architecture that serves as a common platform for over 10,000 employees across the globe, says Mr. Anupam Mukherjee of Wipro Technologies’s strategic marketing group. The web-based medium bonds all Wiporities through community, collaboration and care.
28 May '03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, June 06, 2003

Staff costs bear down on IT cos: Bogged down by lower billing rates and declining margins, the information technology sector appears to have the wage will as its latest nemesis. Indian IT companies are said to be witnessing increasing employee costs despite cost pressures and global economic slowdown. Most software company employees used to trade off their salary for stock options. However, in the current scenario and with valuations of tech stocks being severely beaten down, companies have to look at other incentives to sustain employee morale. It is not good for the company to keep salary levels unchanged,” a sector analyst said.
27 May '03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, June 06, 2003

Executive stress? Let robots take the strain: A technology race is underway to help international executives meet and schmooze from the comfort of their own offices. Fuelled by fear of terrorism, the high cost and inconvenience of business travel and now SARS, technology companies are experimenting with new – and sometimes bizarre – ways to make remote meetings more lifelike. Enter the BiReality machine, created in Hewlett-Packard’s Silicon Valley labs. A human-sized slab of blue plastic with four screens mounted on a cube where the head should be, the proto-robot waits at the site where a meeting is to take place.
27 May '03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, June 06, 2003

Shaw Wallace in HR revamp: Liquor major Shaw Wallace has initiated steps towards realignment of manpower within the company. Shaw Wallace is carrying out an intensive exercise for an HR revamp in collaboration with Mercer Consulting, the world’s largest human resource consulting group. The exercise is primarily aimed at developing a clean and efficient organisation and benchmark HR policies with the best in the market place.
26 May '03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, June 06, 2003

Four American states plan law to ban data outsourcing: Four American states are considering legislation to ban outsourcing of state data processing contracts to developing nations even as dozens of household names, spanning insurance, banking, technology and telecoms, are transferring part of their white-collar administrative and customer-service work to Asia, particularly to India to cut costs. The US states considering the measures to curb flight of jobs are New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut and Washington, the Sunday Telegraph reported. The report also expressed concern about the future of UK call centres, a major industry employing about 5,00,000 people across 6,000 sites.
26 May '03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, June 06, 2003

UK removes Indian techies from priority visa list: The movement of software professionals from India is increasingly becoming more difficult as countries adopt various methods to prevent local jobs from being exported. The UK government has recently removed software professionals from the list of immigrant workers who were given visas on priority basis. Other professionals like nurses and teachers continue on this priority immigrant worker visa list. Dropping software professionals from the list of immigrant workers who are given priority has been done quietly without making any noise, industry sources claim.
26 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, June 06, 2003

Accepted VRS can’t be withdrawn: SC: The Supreme Court has held that once an employer accepts the voluntary retirement scheme application of an employee, the latter cannot withdraw from the scheme even if he continued in service beyond the cut off date due to lack of funds to settle his dues This ruling was given by a bench comprising Justice Shivaraj V Patil and Justice Arijit Pasayat while disposing of a batch of petitions concerning the VRS acceptance of certain employees of Andhra Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation (APSIDC).
24 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, June 06, 2003

Award for HR research in Asia: International human resources consultant, Mercer Human Resource Consulting, has announced the institution of an award for the most innovative and practical human resources (HR) research in Asia. The award, which will involve $10,000 in prize money, is targeted at students who live or work in Asia, including India. The award is part of the company’s efforts to foster the growth of HR ideas and practices in Asia and also to forge better links with the academic and business communities in the region.
24 May '03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, June 06, 2003

The making of the ‘best employer’: Ask your employees one simple question: what’s the feeling like in your organisation? And if the majority of the answers read “ there’s a sense that we sink or swim as one big family”, you are probably one of the best employers in the country. A substantial section of Indian corporations, however, have a different question to ask: What’s the payoff for becoming a “best employer?” Listen to what a Delhi-based midsized corporate CEO has to say: “ I have no quarrel with the concept of my employees having a sense of belonging. But does it pay?” The answer would be an emphatic yes, it does pay. According to research by Hewitt, the best companies invariably report a higher operating performance, better return on assets and higher research and development and capital expenditures, compared to those who are unable to make it to the list of best employers.
23 May '03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, June 06, 2003

US bill seeks to stop job transfers under L - 1 visa: A draft legislation in the US to protect local jobs, making it more difficult for Indian technology companies and their employees to work in the US, shows no signs of abating. Congressman Mr. John Mica of Florida, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to stop companies from outsourcing their L – 1 visaholder to client sites. The L – 1 visa allows companies, which have subsidiaries abroad to transfer employees from foreign countries to the US as intra-company transferees, subject to them having been employed with the company for at least six months. Once in the US, these L – 1visa holders can be outsourced to a third party, i.e local firms. L1visa holders are either specialists or managers. The new bill proposes stopping outsourcing to third parties.
22 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, June 06, 2003

India ranks 21st in scientific research: Though India has the third largest scientific and technical manpower community, its research output doesn’t match the claim. If research output is to be measured by the number of scientific papers then India has slipped to the 21st place this year, going by ISI essential science indicators. India ranked 13th in 2002. The lack of a general culture of research, the uneven spread of quality of technical education account largely for the state of research in the country.
20 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Sunday, June 01, 2003

Challenges for HR in call centres: The first thing that strikes you as you move about in any typical call centre organisation is the youthfulness of people (not necessarily age related), the buoyancy of attitude, high levels of interaction, energy and self-confidence. It almost seems as if the ambience of a college canteen has been transplanted on to the business organisation. This charming appearance of the internal environment belies the daunting challenges that confront the HR manager. To begin with, he or she should be able to get and maintain the number and the type of staff required for a project. For the HR function this means that HR has to be at its creative best to devise new and more effective tactics to keep employees from jumping the ship. At a broader level, HR has to partner with the management at the top and the line departments to engender a culture that stresses traditional values such as loyalty and commitment alongside the contemporary values of productivity, efficiency and business contribution.
17 May '03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Sunday, June 01, 2003

Keeping people a problem for the BPO industry: Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies across India are contending with a growing style: how to retain people in a business where employees change their jobs virtually as often as they change shirts. Keeping people has been a problem for the BPO industry from day one. But it’s worse than ever this year because all the biggest companies are expanding swiftly and hoovering up talent. Exl Service.com, one of the country’s largest BPO companies reckons that most companies are loosing between 40 per cent and 45 per cent of their staff annually. Nasscom’s estimates show that the industry’s average attrition rates are between 30 per cent and 35 per cent. It’s even worse for smaller firms that lose half their staff every year. So the smart companies are throwing all their efforts into keeping people and they’re looking for every which way to lower attrition. Wipro Spectramind, for instance, is encouraging employees to sign up for university courses and finds this cuts staff l! oss dramatically. Daksh e-services has even gone greater lengths that sometimes start even before the candidate is hired. The BPO has tied the knot with NIIT subsidiary Planetworks, which provides training to borderline candidates who have been interviewed but not found up to scratch. Planetworks trains such candidates for three weeks and it’s paid for by Daksh. The industry, which has already employed over 150,000 people, expects to grow by over 60 per cent this year. That means it has a whopping 90,000 new people to hire which is an added reason why the new anti-poaching pact is unlikely to work.
17 May '03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Sunday, June 01, 2003

You’ve high BP at 120/80 as US raises bar: The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of USA added 46 million Americans to the list of people who should worry about their blood pressure by defining a level of 120/80 as “ pre-hypertension”, although people do not need to take drugs until their levels reaches 140/90. These are the recommendations of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection and Treatment of high blood pressure- 1. Lose weight. Losing 20 pounds (10Kg) can lower blood pressure by 5 to 20 points. 2. Eat right. A diet rich in fruits, vegetables and using only low fat dairy products, low in saturated fat and salt, can reduce blood pressure. 3. Exercise. Walking briskly for 30 minutes most days of the week can lower blood pressure by 4 to 9 points. 4. Drink only moderately. Taking two drinks a day can keep blood pressure in control.
16 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Sunday, June 01, 2003

Top guns in firing line: CEOs had it bad in ’02: Chief executives were forced out of their jobs last year at record levels all over the world, according to a survey of leadership turnover. Management and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton’s survey of the world’s 2,500 largest publicity traded companies found that 253 CEOs left their positions last year-a 10% rise over 2001. Of those, nearly 100 were forced out of their jobs because of poor performance-a 70% increase over the number fired in 2001. “Business leaders are enduring scrutiny and pressure unseen since the Great Depression” of the 1930s, Mr. Charles Lucier, Senior Vice-President emeritus of Booz Allen, said. “ The CEO mystique has all but evaporated and director activism has replaced crony capitalism in the boardroom.
14 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 16, 2003

Workplace discrimination rampant globally: ILO: Discrimination remains rampant in the workplace worldwide, depriving women, ethnic and religious minorities and migrants, of equal jobs or pay, a report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said. “While the most blatant types of discrimination were fading” subtle, less visible and more insidious forms’ had emerged, including pre-employment testing for HIV/ Aids, the report said. “Every day, around the world, discrimination at work is an unfortunate reality for hundreds of million people,” said the United Nations agency’s Director General Mr. Juan Somavia in an introduction to the report, titled Time For Equality At Work.
13 May '03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 16, 2003

Our students in US are chalk to their cheese: It has become tougher for international students enroled in the MBA programmes in the US to secure internships and final placements. An increasing number of companies are opting to only hire US citizens and permanent residents, even if only for the summer. The fact is that with the US economy still facing a downturn, the job situation is tight. Add to that the stringent visa requirements in the post 9/11 scenario. Both these factors are making it more difficult for international students to land either summer internships or long-term jobs.
12 May '03, Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 16, 2003

Low enrolment of women in MBA courses: While management schools across the world split hairs over the low enrolment of women in their MBA courses, their Indian counterparts don’t seem to show the same concern. Roughly speaking, women represent between 11% and 15% of enrolment at the country’s premier management institutes, the IIMs; and about 20% at other top schools. In the US, at least, that figure stands at 30% for top institutes. In ’00, the University of Michigan and Catalyst Inc put together a research study called “women and the MBA: Gateway to Opportunity”. The survey cited lack of female role models; incompatibility of careers in business with work/life balance; lack of confidence in math skills; and lack of encouragement by employers, as barriers that steer women away from pursuing an MBA—not dissimilar to the Indian scenario—and suggested ways to alter this.
12 May '03, Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 16, 2003

The curious case of the fat pay cheque: This placement season the buzz in management campuses was not around who was doling out the fattest salaries but how much the recruits were getting. Ever since it was reported that financial services firm Capital One, the best paying global recruiter, had offered a starting salary of $82,000 to an Indian Institute of Management- Ahmedabad candidate but $130,000 to an IIM- Banagalore graduate, this mystery dominated campus talk. Things got more bizzare when it was heard that the best paying domestic recruiter, Triniti Corporation, offered Rs. 16 lakh at IIM-Kozhikode and Rs 14 lakh at IIM-Kolkata for similar job profiles. But here is a simple clue, use the 'cost to company' (CTC) that HR managers use to lure new talent, to solve the case. In a package that includes CTC, the money that a firm will spend on training you abroad, the office rental that it pays on a floor area basis and long term benefits like gratuity and ! pension get counted as 'salary'. Some institutes go to town with the CTC figures. That is how the Faculty of Management studies quotes a higher average salary than some of the IIMs.
9 May '03, Business World
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 16, 2003

Meditation the best way to beat those blues: Organisations today, run and thrive on a performance-driven culture where deadlines are sacrosanct. In such a scenario it’s natural for a section of these employees to succumb to the demands of their super charged lives. So what do corporates do to keep their employees from falling on the bowling alley like nine pins? They organise special programmes for them, get expert speakers to hector about the matters of switching to a “stress free” lifestyle, or commission day long seminars on yoga and meditation, where long haired instructors share the secrets of ancient “yogic” exercises with them. The guiding philosophy behind this trend is take your employees more seriously, handle them with kid gloves, they are valuable assets. Look after them and in the process, keep them away from stress. The corporate motto is fairly simple. If you love your job, you will love your employee. .
8 May '03, The Hindustan Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 16, 2003

Hardware majors to woo developers: Indian software developers are being constantly wooed by all the global majors, says Mr.Srikamt Rao, country head of BEA Software, an application server vendor. “The developer community is a very significant factor in influencing our sales revenues. Developers are software professionals who have had passion for keeping themselves up-to-date with the latest of developments in technologies. They also interact with each other exchanging information, hence becoming a very strong but informal network for creating brand awareness, addressing support issues and also for exchanging developmental approaches which were either successful or failures. As an application server vendor, the developer community in India becomes hugely important for the likes of BEA as it sells middleware and IT users in a company are rarely aware of its presence.
7 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 16, 2003

Indian software companies hiring globally in quest of profits: India's software companies have begun hiring sales and marketing executives globally. Companies like i-flex and Wipro have hired local executives for senior positions overseas. As India's IT companies spread their wings overseas, they’ve realised that they have to employ the best and the brightest men abroad. “ Its time for a reality check. We Indians are very good at all things software, but have to accept the fact that when it comes to marketing and getting $100 million–plus deals we do not have the requisite marketing bandwidth,” says the marketing head of a Bangalore based software company.Two developments are taking place. At a broad level, IT companies are hiring local staff when they set up a shop overseas. Secondly they are focussing on hiring the best marketing and sales skills available worldwide. Foreign nationals account for only about 2 percent of Infosys’ 15,000-plus workforce-but by June last foreigners comprised 36 per cent of its overseas sales and marketing team.
7 May '03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 16, 2003

How outsourcing impacts US jobs: While Indian information technology companies are optimistic about bagging offshore projects and have been recruiting students off campus during the current year, the job situation on the other side of the globe, particularly in the US appears sticky. The demand for tech workers is said to have touched an all-time low, with more positions being outsourced overseas. The ITAA’s telephone survey of 400 hiring mangers (selected at random) from the IT and non – IT companies revealed that he predicted demand for hiring IT workers was 4,93,000 positions, down from 1.6 million at the start of 2000 and less than one half of the predicted 1.1 million positions at the beginning of 2002.
7 May '03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 16, 2003

Desi vs phirang: It’s hard fight in software world : In Bangalore, just about every one you meet knows someone who has just joined Accenture or is interviewing with them. Such is the furious pace at which the company is hiring-almost 200-250 people every month. All the evangelism for ‘offshore’ done within the $12 billion IT consulting company by the former Accenture India head, Mr. Sid Khanna, has obviously paid off. At rival IBM Global services, the scene repeats. It wants to add 1,800 more to its army of 3,500 developers. CapGemini Ernst & Young is also in the fray but on a smaller scale. Compared to the 10,000 plus employee strengths of the top-tier Indian IT services vendors, these numbers are still small. But very obviously they will rise rapidly. So far there hasn’t been a huge migration from the likes of Infosys or Wipro. HR managers with the Indian IT industry believe that their mid and senior professionals will not migrate to MNC firms for a few reasons: Limit! ed overseas travel opportunity, different work culture, being a remote, out of sight element of the company and the lack of job security.
7 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

Nasscom to focus on HR aspects of ITES industry: India’s hot and happening new industry IT Enabled Services (ITES), is finding it tough to handle the twenty-somethings, meet their aspirations and address the worries. Despite the salaries and facilities an ordinary graduate in India could never imagine at any other job, the average attrition rate in the ITES industry is quite high at 30-35 per cent. And it is estimated about 30 per cent of the people who quit, actually leave the ITES industry. Thus being an HR Manager at a call centre is an unenviable job these days. Apart from attrition, a whole host of issues stare at HR officials in ITES firms, varying from hiring the right people to providing them training to charting out their career options. The problem is so serious that Nasscom, the apex IT industry association, has decided to focus more on the HR aspects of the ITES industry this year.
7 May '03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

Organised sector sheds 4.2 lakhs jobs in a ‘01-02: In another confirmation of the shrinking number of organised sector jobs in India, new data shows that the organised sector employment has dipped by 4.2 lakhs in ‘01-02. It marks the 5th consecutive year in which organised sector jobs have fallen. More worrisome is that the reduction in jobs in ‘01-02 is larger than the combined decline in the previous 3 years. The biggest contributor to the reduction in organised sector jobs was the manufacturing sector. The organised manufacturing sector shed 4.6 lakh jobs between ’97 and ’01. During this period the services sector employment increased by 1.9 lakh, despite the decline in banking sector employment.
6 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

Hard days for software pros as companies target payroll costs: Software salaries that have already been under pressure during the slowdown over the past two years, could see the worst year ahead as wages are again on the radars of top companies looking to cut costs to align with declining margins. Sources say that the managements of top Indian IT services companies such as Infosys and Wipro Technologies have already started reworking their remuneration policies. On-site employees, who take away a major chunk of the company’s wage bill, will be worst hit as their salaries, allowances and perks are being scaled down to bring their remuneration near to the actual cost of living in foreign countries, sources said.
6 May '03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

India only major country to have surplus work force by 2020: From back office operations to health care to engineering services to animation- growth of services exports from India is expected to be driven by declining birth rates in America, Europe and most of Asia. By 2020, India would be the only major country in the world to have a surplus workforce whilst other major countries including China, Asean countries and East European countries are projected to have shortage of labour. According to a study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), based on data generated by US Bureau of Census, by 2020 India will have surplus population of about 47 million while the US will face a deficit of 17 million workers and China over a million.
4 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

Wall Street set to ship research jobs to India: The stock markets have not been kind to financial analysts in India, in common with the rest of the world. The shrinking business available with stock brokers means that research analysts have fewer and fewer job opportunities . However, the lure of outsourcing from India is now creating new job opportunities for analysts. The same rationale which drove offshore out sourcing of IT services- attractive talent at lower salaries-is also driving the lower end of global research to India. Strategy consultancy firm Mc Kinsey was one of the first to realise the potential of using Indian talent for research. JP Morgan Chase also plans to set up a captive offshore research department in Mumbai. It plans to hire junior analysts and support staff in Mumbai, where salaries for business school graduates can be a fourth of those in New York or London. Merill Lynch is planning to setup a captive BPO centre in the country which is ex! pected to employ around 4-7 hundred people.
3 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

How job seekers can deal with ‘Problem Hire’ mantle : Many workers leave their jobs under less-than ideal circumstances that can haunt them long afterwards. Finding a new position in spite of a “problem hire” label is one of the trickiest challenges job-seekers can face. So what should you do? First, recognise that depending on the circumstances, employers may well be legally limited in how much they can bad-mouth a former employee. “Most employers are concerned about litigation over termination and formally won’t say anything expect to confirm dates of employment,” says Mr. China Miner Gorman, president of Lee Hecht Harrison, a career-management-services company in Woodcliff Lake, N.J. The bad blood still could come up during a more informal, “off the record” reference-checking process, of course. So some counsellors suggest employees try to smooth things over with their former managers –assuming the relationship isn’t beyond repair-before or soon after they leave to ga! uge whether that person might provide a good reference.
3 May '03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

Counsellors essential to deal with stressed employees: A look at the industrial scene presents a terrible sight- “Phasing out”, requests to take VRS followed by CRS, process of making the organisation lean, mergers and acquisitions are ever standing threats. More and more individuals in organisations are feeling anxious, alienated, estranged, helpless and victims of circumstances. Too much of stress, insecurity, competition, impersonal relationships in organisations are affecting employee’s emotional and physical life which in turn is taking toll of his professional effectiveness. It is at such a time a Professionally Trained Counsellor, (not a welfare officer) can provide uninterrupted, non-evaluative relaxed listening and an opportunity to get in touch with self. However the organisations do not need to train managers to become professional counsellors. All that needs to be done is to train managers to be more person oriented and be able to know the difference between “! the problem employee and the employee with the problem.
3 May '03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

Labour ministry organises pensions for unorganised sector: Workers see provident fund and pension schemes as old age security. The Labour ministry sees them as turf-- to be protected from takeover by a marauding finance ministry. At a May Day press conference, labour minister Mr. Sahib Singh Verma announced his intention to cover unorganised sector workers with a social security blanket before the end of the year. A key element of the social security package would be a new pension scheme for unorganised sector workers, deriving its mandate from the unorganised sector workers bill that would be moved in Parliament next week.
2 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

IT companies raise the bar for compensation: It’s time for some good news in the IT industry at last. This year employees in the software services and the BPO sector can take a look forward to a wage hike. But the glorious days of across-the-board pay hikes are over. Most software firms are planning to continue with the variable compensation model they began adopting only recently. Taking the practice of linking pay rise to individual performance further, top tier domestic software exporters are adding two other elements to appraisals-group and company performance. “Competitive pressures and bleak economic conditions have forced companies to bring sanity in employee, compensation and this is resulting in innovative ways to reward employees” said the HR managers of software service companies.
2 May '03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

ICICI to roll out initiatives to customise competencies: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd is now rolling out a host of Human Resource (HR) programmes. The aim would be to help the employees from diverse business sectors acquire a set of capabilities that are customised to meet the needs of the insurance business. Importantly, the organisation will also look at developing a crucial set of attitude among employees. This would be in addition to the skill-sets that these professionals would have to internalise. The company is also conducting workshops to usher in a measure of clarity in the various business interactions that the professionals conduct among themselves.
29 Apr.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

Fostering good work when promotion isn’t in offing: Managers often stumble badly when they turn down requests for promotions. Many managers don’t explain why an employee isn’t being chosen. They will insist the staffer is better off in a current job, undermining his or her ambition. Employees who feel overlooked or stuck in one position for too long may soon become apathetic or seek a position at a rival company. Mr.Ian Basey, Director of marketing at Electronics marketing, an operating group of Phoenix based Avnet, a distributor of electronics parts, thinks managers should talk frequently to employees about their strengths and weaknesses. Doing so would give the employees realistic goals and expectations. The managers then won’t be put in the position of having to turn down unexpected requests for a promotion.
26 Apr.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

Report Sees 40 Million extra jobs by 2020: India could generate an additional 40 million jobs and raise revenue worth $200 billion by 2020 because of the changing demographics of developed countries, Mr N.K Singh, member Planning Commission, said while releasing the report ,"India's new opportunities -2020 here today.The report said that India would be one of the countries with a population surplus in the 19-35 age group where even China was expected to have a deficit of 10 million as a fall out of its population control policies.
18 Apr.'03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

US citizens petition to end H1-B visa scheme: A US citizen , Mr Damon Scott , an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina is petitioning the US Congress to abolish the H-1B vis program completely.Mr Scott said that his petition has been sent to the speaker of the US Congress. According to Mr Scott, "The principal reason why the H-1B Visa Program should be abolished is that the Americans are definitely thrown into unemployment and underemployment,and at a truly massive scale,by this law.The rest of the world is twenty times the population of the United States.By laws of supply and demand, any industrialised nation's job markets would be devastated by a global supply being readily available to meet a demand that is only domestic."
17 Apr.'03, Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

Outsourcing remains IT industry's bright spot: Outsourcing has remained a bright spot in the U S amidst the generally dire conditions in the information technology industry, according to earnings reports on Monday from Accenture and Unisys. However both companies said they were cautious about the outlook for their outsourcing businesses, while they also continued to report weakness in their other operations. The continuing boom in outsourcing reflects efforts by companies to cut overall IT spending. The shift to outsourcing has weighed on the profit margins of technology companies.
16 Apr.'03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

India Inc in hiring mode: Hiring time is on for Corporate India if the Business Expectation Survey conducted by Dun & Bradstreet Information Services is to be believed. “Cutting across segments, firms in general expect to recruit more in the April-June 2003 quarter compared to the past. Neither war nor the economic impact of it has dented the hiring plans of Corporate India,” said the survey conducted in India for April-June 2003. 29% of the firms surveyed expect to add people while 64% expect no addition and only a marginal 5% plan to retrench.
16 Apr.'03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

US firms saved $8 bn via outsourcing: Outsourcing to India has helped the US cpmanies to save as much as $8 billion in the last four years,said a market research firm,inductis.Companies like the General Electric Corporation saves about $350 million per year through the 18,000 offshore employees it has in India.
16 Apr.'03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

US demand for jobless benefits falls: Demand for jobless benefits in the US fell last week at the fastest pace this year in a preliminary sign that the economy might be improving. The labour department said first time unemployment insurance claims fell last week to 405,000 below the 425,000 economists had expected the previous week. It was the biggest one –week drop since late December.
13 Apr.'03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

Watch out for more women on the board: Indian corporate boards may soon get a feminine touch if the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) has its way. In all likelihood, the proposed companies ( Amendment ) bill, 2003 will include a clause on the reservation of minimum number of professionally qualified women on a company’s board..
13 Apr.'03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 09, 2003

Civil services to get performance linked promotion: The criticism that IAS officers are generalists will be addressed soon. Promotions within the IAS, IPS and the IFS will soon be linked to performance and will not depend entirely on seniority. Work allocation in the civil services will no longer be arbitrary and will depend on specialisation. The Surinder Nath committee, appointed by the government in December 2002 to suggest civil services reforms, is set to recommend a rational system of performance evaluation for the officers, a huge task considering that the centre and the states together employ over 8 million in the civil services and, according to independent estimates, spend almost 3.5 per cent of the GDP on them.
09 Apr.'03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 02, 2003

British women can keep tabs on male colleagues’ pay : The Blair Government has given British women the right to know how much male colleagues are paid for equivalent work. According to new employment rules that took effect on Sunday, women may submit a questionnaire to their employer to find out whether they are being paid the same salary, the Government’s Women and Equality Unit said on its website.
08 Apr.'03, The Hindu Business line
: Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 02, 2003

Alignment is the basis of all management: Business heads of large or small companies, departments or sections or teams all have a common problem .How do I get my people to see what needs to be done and how to do it? Each person has different motivations, fears, energies, likes and dislikes. How does one get to pull together in productive ways? Alignment is really the key word here and many very senior executives, Mr. Fred Smith of FedEx among them, feel that alignment is the basis of all management.There are actually three components to strategy: profits, Customer and People. They are all interdependent and each is in a state of dynamic tension with every other.The challenge really is to focus on all of them at the same time. It’s like juggling three balls in the air. If even one is sent out of alignment, all three come tumbling down . 31 Mar.'03, The Hindu Business Line
Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 02, 2003

SC notice on sexual harassment: Taking note of the alarming rise in sexual harassment cases in professional institutions the Supreme Court has issued notices to a large number of bodies, including the UGC, to seek their views on enforcing stringent measures to stop the menace. The court had, on August 13, 1997, given a series of directions to deal with people sexually harassing their colleagues at the workplace . 30 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 02, 2003

Ethics are important for top brass: How can you tell if the man you are hiring as CEO is honest? From his handshake and by asking him questions like 'how he plays golf'. If he cheats in a game of golf, you can be sure he is not entirely honest, said Mr. Joel Stern Managing Partner, Stern Stewart & Co., at the Business Today panel discussion on corporate governance presented by the Tata Group. “When people misbehave at the top, it becomes a contagious disease, so ethics are important,” he said . “But the question is not just an occasional violation of ethics- you cannot prevent people from cheating or stealing and in every generation there is someone out to make a quick buck the dishonest way,” he added. 30 Mar.'03, The Hindu Business Line
Team at humanlinks
- Friday, May 02, 2003

At IIT a new phenomenon: Graduates without jobs: Much to their dismay, nearly 50 percent of the students are still jobless in the 2003 batch of IIT Powai, with campus placement officially closing in two weeks . Worse still, a handful of students from last year remain unemployed. "The situation is scary and dissappinting but after the bad job scenario last year, we were expecting this, says a sombre student. .30 Mar.'03, The Indian Express
Team at humanlinks
- Friday, April 25, 2003

With unemployment rising, workers curtail sick days in US: The latest casualty of the worst employment market in a decade is the sick day. Given the grim job market right now, looking lazy is a bad idea. The unemployment rate is hovering just below 6% in USA, a level not seen since 1994. Last year, big employers laid off more than one million Americans. The sluggish economy has done wonders for the nation’s attendance record. This year, about 200,000 fewer employees per week are taking a day off for health, personal or medical reasons than they did in 2000, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. .29 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
Team at humanlinks
- Friday, April 25, 2003

Screening norms eased for medicos trained abroad : There is good news for Indian medical students trained abroad. The cap on the number of attempts a student could make to clear these mandatory screening tests is all set to be lifted. In a bid to introduce a minimum level of competence among medical practitioners, the government had instituted a system of screening tests for all foreign trained doctors. Indian citizens with primary medical qualifications (that is a MBBS degree and a year of internship or equivalent training programme) acquired in any country other than India have to appear for this test.29 Mar.'03, The Economic Times
Team at humanlinks
- Friday, April 25, 2003

HR Initiatives: Make 'reward & recognition' fun for employees : 'Work' and 'Play' are supposed to be direct opposites. The phrase 'reward and recognition's is usually associated in the workplace with the idea of financial reward or bonus. But if you can add some fun and play to a financial reward, then you can make the experience a much more long lasting one for your employees. Adding an element of fun and play to a reward and recognition program increases the likelihood of employee involvement and participation in the program and that is a key factor if the program is to continue to have an impact over time.
28 Mar.'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, April 03, 2003

Telecom's out! Outsourcing's in :A few years ago, they followed the siren song of private telecom companies and waltzed off into the promised land, or so they thought. But a number of senior managers at telecom companies, many of whom were bought in at astronomical salaries, are now exploring the world of business process outsourcing (BPO) as alternate careers. "There is a huge churn taking place and many of these managers are asking themselves whether they want to be in the telecom industry at all. Many are even questioning the long-term viability of this industry , "says Toral Patel of Accord Search.
28 Mar.'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, April 03, 2003

More flights, staff cuts on horizon in the global aviation sector : Many major airlines are expected to cut flight schedules and jobs this week due to the slump in travel bookings because of the US Iraq war, analysts said. Some have begun to lay off workers or put them on temporary leave to cope with the worst crisis in aviation history.
25 Mar.'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, April 03, 2003

Training Initiatives: 'HR Needs To Reinvent itself' : HR professionals are not meant to be just fair-weather friends for contemporary businesses. In fact the role of HR becomes all the more crucial when businesses are confronting turbulence and downturn. These were the highlights of a round table on 'Linking HR with Business' that was hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Mumbai. HR should deploy appropriate training initiatives so that the professionals are adequately equipped to gather relevant insights and bring innovation to the table.
24 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, April 03, 2003

Hiring ’s back, big bucks aren’t: Corporates are flocking back to B school campuses in droves in India this year. Campuses across the country have seen an increase in the number of participating corporates as well as an increase in the number of offers. In fact, most campuses had more than one offer per student and many of them had corporates going back empty handed. Technology saw a revival after almost two years of lying low and was a run away success at some tech-heavy campuses. IIM Calcutta , for instance , had information technology and IT enabled services accounting for more than 30% of the total jobs on offer. Infotech was a big draw at IIT Bombay’s School of management, NITIE and Weligkar.
24 Mar.'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, April 03, 2003

European Conference on HR BPO: We are holding the first European Conference on HR BPO in Brussels 6-7th May 2003. Contact me on 0046 8678 6040 for further details.
Patricia Galbraith <conferences@marcusevansse.com>
Stockholm, Sweden - Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Low satisfaction levels with corporate training: Corporate training rides high on importance, but low on delivery- this is the inference of a recent study conducted by National Family Opinion (NFO) India Ltd. Majority opinion ruled in favour of ‘low satisfaction levels’ with corporate training. While lack of qualified trainers and budget allocation were seen as two major impediments for training, the methodologies chosen, timings and sequencing to some extent ‘content’ were seen as major pitfalls for effective execution of training.
21 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, March 24, 2003

US High-tech industry loses more than half a million jobs: The battered US high tech industry lost more than half a million jobs from January 2001 to December 2002, putting 10%of its employees out of work
21 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, March 24, 2003

War gains seen for Indian IT, ITES players: The Indian software and back office services companies need not worry much with the war breaking out between US and Iraq according to industry leaders. The war is expected to have a negative impact on an already recession ridden market and global companies will be under greater pressure to outsource their business processes to cut costs further. However, the conflict will have a short term adverse on outsourcing deals that are already in the pipeline as international travel and decision making process will slow down.
21 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, March 24, 2003

Tata group's journey of transformation in human resource : The Rs 40,000 crore Tata group has accomplished nearly half its journey of transformation in human resource (HR) development, which it began in 2000. The process involved the group driving excellence and moving towards a younger appeal in 60 months. The transformation is half way to completion and according to Tata Sons Ltd executive vice -–president (group HR) Mr. Satish Pradhan, it is well on target.
17 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, March 24, 2003

Book puts CEOs on couch : Michael Maccoby, a psychoanalyst, business coach and best selling author has authored a book delving into the different personality types of CEOs. The 'erotic' type of CEO is a sensitive co-dependent individual who thrives on the adulation of others. But as a rule erotics make lousy CEOs because they avoid taking a tough stands. The 'marketing' type meanwhile is a chameleon-like creature adept at changing with the times and spotting the latest trend. They make great salespeople and advertising executives. One of the pitfalls of marketing personalities; they often promote themselves. Then there's the 'obsessive' personality, a tradition-bound, detail oriented person who thrives on doing the same thing over and over but with increased efficiency. The last is the 'narcissist' who has a compelling vision that he or she truly believes will change the world, regardless of what everyone else may think. The narcissist is p! erhaps the prevalent CEO type these days. Maccoby says that the narcissist-obsessive combination makes for an ideal chief executive.
16 Mar.'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, March 24, 2003

Indian professionals leave Malaysia: Dozens of Indian IT professionals are leaving Malaysia signalling a steady deterioration in bilateral ties following the arrests and harassment of nearly 300 software and other executives by Kuala Lumpur police for alleged visa irregularities.“ Thirty-two professionals, have left for India. I have spoken to others and many of them also want to leave the country as soon as possible,” says Mr. Veena Sikri, the Indian high commissioner in Kuala Lumpur.
16 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, March 24, 2003

IT enabled services creating 200 jobs a day: India added 200 people to its booming infotech – enabled services sector every working day of 2002. As an average mid – sized call center employs around 200 people, this amounts to a call center mushrooming everyday of the year in the country. All told, the sector created 64,500 jobs during the year, says a survey by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom). At the end of 2002, the number of infotech – enabled Service professionals in the country stood at 171, 100.
15 Mar.'03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, March 24, 2003

Many newly unemployed people turn to consulting as a way to pay the bills during down times: And it isn’t uncommon for their old employers to ask them whether they would consider coming back in that capacity. In some ways, it can be a plus. Consultants who have been full timers know the company well and can hit the ground running. It also helps eliminate a potential black mark. “Consulting demonstrates a good relationship with a former employer and verifies that the layoff wasn’t due to incompetence,” says Ms. Barbara La Rock, a career coach.
15 Mar.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, March 24, 2003

A good parent is a good Wiproite: Wipro’s HR department is working on a new hunch: a better parent could mean a better employee. In its latest approach to get its 2,000 employees on an emotional high, Wipro Infotech has launched a personal growth programme – a workshop on Effective Parenting. According to Mr. Joseph George, Manager, Employee Development, Wipro Infotech's logic is “ When you are teaching your children to be independent, more decisive, and telling them to take initiative and not rest at boundaries, you yourself cannot be any different at work.”
15 Mar.'03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, March 24, 2003

US unemployment rate hits 5.8 %; Companies cut 308,000 jobs in February:In one of the weakest economic reports in months, the Labor Department in US reported that the economy lost 308,000 non- agricultural jobs in February. That sharp drop which followed a 185,000 increase in January, was the steepest decline in payrolls since the month immediately following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Moreover, the job cuts were widespread, touching just every major industry. The nation’s unemployment rate, meanwhile rose one – tenth of a percentage point to 5.8%. The percentage of unemployed people who have been looking for work for 27 weeks or more rose to 22.1%.
09 March'03, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, March 24, 2003

Tata Telecom gets HR award : Tata Telecom Ltd, India’s leading enterprise end – to – end converged communication solutions provider, has been felicitated the 'Innovative HR Practices Award’ World HRD Congress 2003 held recently in Mumbai. The award was presented by Mr. K V Kamath, managing director, ICICI Ltd, to Mr. B N Jha, director – people excellence at Tata Telecom. The Innovative HR Practices Award recognises the global standards that Tata Telecom follows in its people excellence practices.
09 March'03, ET
: Team at humanlinks
- Monday, March 24, 2003

Most IIT graduates take up IT jobs:Software companies in India hire over 60 per cent of fresh engineering graduates as students from all branches of engineering are being lured by software firms which offered high wages compared to the 'old economy' firms. This trend may affect the growth of manufacturing sector and also the quality of teaching faculty in the long term, according to the study by The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) .
6 Mar.'03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Goodlass Nerolac outlines CAT for people management:Goodlass Nerolac Paints Ltd (GNPL), has now constituted a team, termed CAT (Creative Analyst Team) which will sort out the “grey areas” that might be prevalent in people management. Says Mr. Vijay Deshpande, vice president, HR, Goodlass Nerolac Paints Ltd.: “We constituted CAT to make rapid strides in people management."
5 Mar.'03, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Green signal turns red on the German Infobahn:The German government has decided to stop issuing green cards to information technology (IT) professionals from July 31,’03. This is likely to be a big blow to Indian IT companies with operations in Germany, all of whom have ambitious plans for this market. As of January this year, 13,566 green cards have been issued, of which 3,262 have been given to Indians, making them the single largest group of green card holders in Germany.
5 Mar.'03, Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 12, 2003

CEOs make twice as much as deputies:Companies pay their chief executives more than twice what they pay their next-in command functional heads, says a compensation and benefits study of top management done by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. “There are two reasons for this. One, the CEO is responsible for delivering the results. The buck stops with him. And two, CEO talent is very scarce in the market”, Mercer HR Consulting (India) Pvt Ltd country head Mr. R Sankar said.
5 Mar.'03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Outsourcing hate gang gaining numbers:The state legislature in the US State of Washington may soon consider a bill which will make outsourcing difficult. The bill claims its basic objective is to reduce layoffs, reallocations and terminations of employees. According to experts here, the bill will also affect outsourcing, especially to offshore locations like India, Philippines or Russia. This is because a large number of layoffs in the US can be traced to companies sending these jobs to other countries in a bid to increase competitiveness and cut costs .
4 Mar.'03, Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 12, 2003

BPO surge in India worries American Trade Unions:Technology sector labour unions in United States want the US Congress to study the “distributing trend” of outsourcing of work by US companies to India. The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech), an organisation of high tech workers formed to advocate improved benefits and workplace rights, is spearheading this campaign. The objective of WashTech, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America, is to provide a voice for IT professionals both in the public policy and in the workplace.
3 Mar.'03, Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 12, 2003

US CEOs get paid handsomely to stay at home, says study:While company fortunes took a nosedive, their CEOs departed with a plot of gold, reveals a new study. The exit packages of S&P 500 companies ranged from a potential high of more than $82 million for Mr. Robert Nardelli to leave Home Depot, down to $1,426,021 paid to Mr. Carl Yankowski when he left Palm, according to the two – part study. The study, by Mr. Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at the corporate library, revealed that during 2001 and 2002, departing CEOs received an average golden handshake of $16.5 million.
3 Mar.'03, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 12, 2003

NASSCOM indicates rapid growth in employment in Indian IT sector:According to the NASSCOM annual industry survey, the IT and Software industry is projected to employ 650,000 IT professionals by March 2003. This reflects a growth of 24.4% from last year's employment of 522250. Of the total, almost 205,000 are working in the IT software exports industry, 160000 are employed in ITES industry, 25,000 in the domestic software market and over 260,000 in user organisations.
28 Feb.'03, Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 05, 2003

India to grab 70% of the call centre market: IDC:A study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) has said that India will be able to corner 70% of the call centre services market by the end of the year. The report further said that the advantage which India enjoys over the other countries will help it obtain a 73% market share by 2006. In contrast China-widely perceived to be India's biggest competitor in this business --will manage only 3% market share this year. The figure will move upto 4% in 2006. It is Philippines which will come closest to India, which is projected to grab 15% marketshare in 2003.
28 Feb.'03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 05, 2003

US companies in no mood to hire:Fewer US companies plan to hire in the second quarter 2003; the first drop in more than a year, said a survey. This is a sign that employers continue to face uncertainty in their businesses. With fears of war with Iraq and no clear signs of improvement in businesses, most employers plan to stay at the current staffing levels; said the Chairman and CEO of Manpower, the world's second largest employment agency.
25 Feb.'03, The Economic times
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 05, 2003

Mixed bag on increments for CEOs:Increments for CEOs in the pharmaceutical & chemical and financial services sectors are predicted to be marginally better for 2003 – 4 over 2002 – 03. CEOs in engineering companies can expect slightly lower increases over 2001 – 03 while those who head consumer goods companies can expect substantially lower salary jumps, says a compensation and benefits study for top management done by Mercer Human Resources Consulting.
25 Feb.'03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 05, 2003

US IT Outsourcing to India to grow by 25 % in 2003: Report:Market research firm Giga Information Group is forecasting a boom in overseas outsourcing for the US information technology industry. The research firm predicts that outsourcing to India will grow by 25% this year, as companies seek to cut cost and improve quality.
24 Feb.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 05, 2003

Hiring shows IT majors are upbeat on India:Despite jitters being caused by the New Jersey Bill opposing outsourcing of work to other countries and the possibility of other states in the US following suit, multinational companies, in the IT sector at least, are actively stepping up recruitment in India. Oracle, Sun, Accenture, Sapient, EMC, CSC, Ittiam, and i2 are on the lookout for talent in India. The companies are quick to point out that it is not just the cost factor that is attractive, but also the talent. When they happen to come together, it is a combination hard to resist, they say.
22 Feb.'03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Wednesday, March 05, 2003

New HR trends in the banking industry:Of late the banking industry has undoubtedly been one of the most active sectors in terms of HR movements. While private banks are poaching from other private and nationalised banks, state-run banks are slowly starting lateral recruitment. While Bank of Baroda is looking for six general managers with salaries that match the market rate, Union Bank too is looking for skilled people to run its treasury operations.Mr. Anil Khandelwal is believed to be taking over as chairman and managing director of Kolkata-based Allahabad Bank soon. Mr. P.A Sethi, GM (international) of Bank Of Baroda taking over as the executive director of Vijaya Bank.
21 Feb.'03, Business India
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, February 27, 2003

Software jobs may come hard in US:If going to the US and getting a job there are tough for software engineers today, it may get tougher in the coming days. Expatriates taking up the jobs on lower salaries than Americans may come under scrutiny as job cuts and unemployment levels are rising in the US, according to Mr. Jerry A. Greenberg, co-chairman and co-CEO of Sapient, a business and technical consultancy company.
15 Feb.'03, The Hindu Business Line
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, February 27, 2003

"Managers not good judges of employee motivation":Research conducted by Stanford Associate Professor Chip Heath suggests that managers are not as good at judging employee motivation as they think they are. A common finding through Heath's work is what he calls extrinsic incentive bias. That term refers to our tendency to assume that others are more driven than we are for external rewards for work (like pay and job security) and less by intrinsic motivators like desire to learn new skills or contribute to an organisation. Heath's research shows that this widely held assumption is false.
14 Feb.'03, Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, February 27, 2003

Reinventing the role of HR Managers:Being a human resources manager is never an easy job, specially in turbulent times like these. The last few years have witnessed the metamorphosis of the archetypal HR department thanks to the inrush of technology. Reinventing the role of HR seems to be the biggest challenge that HR practitioners face today. Explains Mr. Patrick David, HR Director of the Ford Motor Company, "One of the biggest shifts in mindset has been that HR now plays an integral part of strategic decision making and the facilitation of moving a business in the right direction."
14 Feb.'03, Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, February 27, 2003

UK to ease visa norms:UK is easing visa norms to allow more Infotch professionals into the country. The British government will soon open offices in the four metros as well as Bangalore, Chandigarh, Hydrabad, Jalandhar and Ahmedabad to smoothen the visa processes. The relaxation in the visa norms comes at a time when the US, the largest foreign workplace for Indian Infotech professionals,is becoming more stringent in issuing H1B work permit visas.
13 Feb.'03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, February 27, 2003

Expat, bank CEOs just dough it: Getting to the ‘crore’ of the matter, ET asked a whole lot of human resource consultants about how many CEOs in India, of all ilk, were getting above a crore in annual salary package. The consensus was 100-150. The drift that came in during various discussions with HR gurus was that while the banking sector paid the most to its CEOs, it was the expat CEOs who were really raking it in. Even though the banking sector paid the most to CEOs in absolute terms, the highest annual raise for CEOs came in the IT and IT-enabled services sector, which are both high-growth sectors. As far as expats are concerned, in whichever sector they operate, they generally get as much as 30% more than their Indian counterparts in an equivalent company. To get an idea of how the CEO’s salary in India is structured, one has to take a peek into a very detailed study conducted by HR consultants, Mercer. The study points to the pre-eminence of the CEO in a corporation, saying that the salary of CEOs is still around twice that of other functional heads in the company. But the guaranteed part of the big man’s salary package is down to 50%, with incentives and bonuses making up the other half. In terms of overall salary, the Indian CEO is getting even with his counterparts in Asia, or even in the US. Says Ma Foi managing director, K Pandia Rajan, “In India, while top management salaries are still rising, the salaries of senior management in the US and the UK are falling.” Hewitt Associates’ South Asia MD Ravi Virmani says that around 300 Indian CEOs are earning salaries of around $200,000, which is what CEOs in mid-sized US companies earn. However, according to R Sankar, India head of Mercer, “Straight like-to-like comparisons of the salary levels between Indian CEOs and those in the US or Europe will be very difficult. Remuneration packages depend on various factors, scope and magnitude of the job, and will vary from sector to sector and industry to industry.” The most interesting aspect of the Mercer study is the increasing importance of variable pay in the CEO’s package, which now takes up as much as 50% of the total CEO salary. The study says that increasingly companies are defining financial and non-financial parameters for gauging the success of the CEO. Usually, the ratio of financial and non-financial parameters is 70:30. Common financial parameters are profit, revenue, cost control, while non-financial parameters include things like customer satisfaction. Stock options are still one of the most popular methods of long-term incentive plans offered to the top executives. A majority of the companies offer stock options to all the middle, senior and top management, says the Mercer study. The interesting fact is that the eligibility for offering stock options to employees is typically grade-based. The size of the options offered to a CEO is usually 40% to 60% of the guaranteed cash salary that he earns annually.
20 Feb.'03, The Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, February 20, 2003

Employees cannot be sacked for disability rules SC: Standing by physiacally challenged persons, the Supreme court of India has said that a government employee cannot be rendered jobless if he /she becomes disabled during service.
14 Feb.'03, The Times of India
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, February 20, 2003

"Who wants to be a CEO? Not me!" : Everybody no longer wants to be a CEO. In the post – Welch era, the life of the CEO has become tougher, even in India. The average tenure of Indian CEOs has shrunk from six to four years over the last few years, and is headed down. The practice of sacking CEOs by the board on the grounds of performance is becoming far more common. Says Mr. Ronesh Puri, executive search firm Executive Access’ India MD, “It’s the first time in my eight year career as a HR professional that I am finding many vice-presidents in companies confide in me that they don’t want to be CEOs.
6 Feb.'03, Economic Times
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, February 13, 2003

Variable pay is the new HR mantra: Study: Variable compensation method for rewarding employees has become more common than ever before, if the findings of a recent study conducted by Quadrangle Consulting, an HR consulting firm, are any indication. As per the survey report, large FMCG multinational organisations tend to have a global qualifier philosophy which is based on relative ranking and performance on a year – on – year basis rather than a standard cut – off. The lack of clear-cut point raises issues of transparency and credibility. Which is perhaps why most Indian organisation define the cut off percentage at the onset.
6 Feb.'03, Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, February 13, 2003

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young deploys leadership programme: In an effort to consolidate a new leadership talent pool for its Indian practice, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young has now deployed a programme termed 'Leaders of Tomorrow.' In line with this initiative, the firm plans to send top management professionals from India for leadership orientation programmes at a corporate university that it has set up in Paris.
4Feb.'03, The Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, February 13, 2003

VRS in banks may be linked to wage pact: The second round of voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for public sector bank employees is expected to be delayed for a while, with the government planning to link it to the wage settlement negotiations. Some bankers are of the opinion that the pension bill will outstrip their wage bills over the next 5-6 years.
3 Feb.'03, The Business Standard
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, February 13, 2003

HLL to leverage on experienced hands: Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) is actively looking to be more than the breeding ground for young talent. Popularly known as super business school of Corporate India, the company has decided that it will actively scout and hire mid career employees for its new ventures. Mid-career recruitment are expected to occur at all levels, specifically at the senior management levels. This could be considered an interesting trend, considering that HLL is known for creating ‘Leverites’ from scratch.
1 Feb.'03, Financial Express
: Team at humanlinks
- Thursday, February 13, 2003

IT Companies use ‘Benched’ staff of other firms to complete projects : Indian IT companies have begun resorting to strategic sub – contracting, a process whereby professiona