*Checks the watch* Is it time to leave office?

It was a Friday night  and there I was,  at a leading IT conglomerate’s reception area  waiting for my sister to go shopping for the upcoming festivities . As I waited restlessly into the late hours of the night yawning, in desperate attempts to keep myself awake, I could see scores of employees bustling in and out of the campus. I could not but help thinking about a recent conversation with a friend of mine. He said “I am expected to stretch till late night for my deliverables. Given the traffic conditions , I hardly have anytime left for myself , for my family.  I feel am completely famished and drained out by the time I reach home and I do not have a life” .

Well, my friend stayed back late . It was because he was “expected” to do so.  The word expected is possibly attributed to his reporting superior who gives him unrealistic deadlines to complete his tasks. The management, in its part dismisses this allegation calling it callous procrastination that has led to this situation. This also leads to me to think about an interesting class of employees, who even without any deliverable due , willingly stay back at work.  Among other things, this could be due be to general stress, boredom, withdrawal symptoms, workaholic tendencies, disturbed personal life and so on.

In my opinion, class A – the disgruntled and class B – the obsessed are both creating rules for themselves to be sometimes followed and sometimes broken and hold a common view about staying at work – insecurity, about falling in the eyes of their superior. Since unfortunately more hours put in at the workplace means higher productivity .  This may not even be true in many cases but we still do not want to “risk it anyway”!.

The seeds are sown early, with our schools emphasizing on pages and pages of record work writing and parental and societal pressures leading us to attend numerous tuition lessons, At the end of it all a young school student is  being forced into believing that it is all about volume. As we grow, we tend to extend our early informal lessons on religious and moral codes of conduct of complete surrender to God and to the Guru,  to the workplace. Some of us believe that bowing to authority would stand us in good stead  and spread this epidemic across the organization so much so that they set a precedent to their juniors who squirm in their seats to leave seeing their higher ups burning the midnight oil right in front of their eyes.

What smart studying can achieve is not accomplished by memorizing pages and pages of several giant size text books.  Likewise , as future managers we should urge the teams under us and the organization that we are going to belong to emphasize on a quality oriented culture and discourage uncalled for staying late at work which in the long run hampers an employee’s wellbeing; both mental and physical.

My thoughts were interrupted as my sister woke me up from semi –slumber at 1:00AM and appeared rather too excited for that time of the day. She had received an award and was apparently ecstatic. “I worked till midnight almost for a month and I guess that’s what got me this “ said she,  as we walked out of the well-lit edifice awaiting a new dawn!

Author : Radhika K Iyer

Inclusivity of Individual Differences

Inclusivity of individual differences in terms of socio –economic back-ground, physical abilities and other terms is need of the hour for any organization through its people processes to attain long term sustainability and effective utilization of talent pool

 INCLUSION OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIFFERENCES

The sustainability of the human capital of the nation depends on how organizations could tap and utilize the talent available at the different economic strata of the society. When it’s more popular for an Urban Kid can go and teach a Rural Kid, Isn’t there something that an Urban Kid can learn from the rural Kid. In a situation where more than 50 % of the population is below poverty line, left out in the growth story, it’s very much important for any organization to include people from such groups to understand their needs, employ them to grow and tap unexplored market potential. While business is all about expansion and moving from ambition to vision is very much a matter of choice. If we don’t think of building  sustainability in terms of human capital through inclusion it would be five times more costlier than the financial capital ten years down the lane.

INCLUSION OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN PHYSICAL ABILITIES

Many of you would have noted people without any disabilities being preferred for any job in an organization while very few employ disabled people in their organizations. For jobs like Ticket Issuer, Cashier though physical disability is not a critical factor that influences the performer to perform in the job, they are not commonly preferred. However, it’s important for organizations to see how they can utilize such talent in organization and provide necessary opportunities, infrastructure for them to perform. Moreover having such people in organizations improve employee morale.

DIFFERENCES IN VALUES, PERSONALITY, IDEAS

Always Organizations have been trying to understand, predict and influence people behaviours to achieve the firm’s vision by reflecting it’s preset Values, Acceptable Behaviours and Ideas. Isn’t there a possibility for organizations to learn from the originality of people in terms of their differences. It’s more of how organizations are open to individual ideas , how their process and methods are capable to accommodate the individual differences in values, thoughts, personality traits, ideas and could be used to lever the performance of the company to achieve goals.

“Irrespective of whatever business one might do in this world, there is only in one business in reality and that’s human wellbeing”

Contributed by : Shyam Sundar K

TIME TO WALK THE AGILE WAY?

 

AGILE seems to be the mantra that drives the IT industry today. This methodology seen as a successor to the rudimentary waterfall model, is a robust system which in layman terms can be explained as a methodology that differs from the waterfall approach in that it is iterative in nature and the different phases of the SDLC, namely, Requirement Analysis, Design, Development etc. takes place in quick short cycles called sprints which allows for ample feedback and tighter controls and promises customer delight.

The scrum master in addition to the Project manager and team leader checks for any deviations from the agile model and acts as an effective controller to make sure the resources are channelized ably to achieve the short cycle goals which , leads to crafting the bigger picture according to this model.

As a HR professional entering an IT environment practicing the agile model so fervently, he/she needs to be aware of the fallouts of its implementation in organizations and the  its implications on the different functions of HRM.

Learning and Development, has become a continuous, everyday process with conservative(to embrace technology) companies facilitating cross functional sharing through their portals , company blogs and Enterprise content management tools like SharePoint , Documentum , Jive etc.,  which are fast gaining popularity. Thus L&D is not restricted merely to classroom and one need not wait for the experts to impart knowledge , it happens through peer learning and with easy access and availability of information, the employees indeed stand to gain.

Performance Management too, in the agile way is not a standalone process of appraising employees at the stipulated time of the year. It is dynamic since the feedback is constantly fed into the process. However it is extremely daunting for the appraisers since this methodology is directed at self -managed, cross functional teams. Here teams are held more accountable than individuals. Sometimes evaluating and comparing employees from different functions can lead to disparities and discontented employees. In this fast paced world of agility, even recruitment happens in the blink of an eye. Employers today source their prospective employees through the social media like LinkedIn and MySpace and rollout offer letters for immediate employability and unhindered productivity.

Like I mentioned earlier, agility is modelled for customer delight but what is in store for the IT professional involved in a project that believes in agility? Does it delight the IT whiz as well? Well, continuous learning, evaluation, moderation and control, the so-called striking features of the agile model can often lead to disgruntled employees since it means busy schedules, constant monitoring and being accountable as there are scrum calls which track daily performance and progress.

Having said that, agile also aids an employee’s growth and accountability and builds his/her learning curve and aids career progression. Hence, the company practicing agile methodology should adopt employee friendly HR initiatives to ensure that they are happy. Like they all say “happy employees indeed lead to happy customers!!”

Author : Radhika K Iyer

HR Blog Team : 2013-2014

“The future lies before you like a hidden mass of snow, be careful how you tread on it, for every mark will show”

Dear Christites,

It’s been an year now that we started the official HR blog of Christ University Institute of Management with the purpose of providing everyone with the latest trends and developments in the field of human resources. The idea was to develop this blog as a platform that can make you think about the significance of human resource function in organizations today. The positive comments by students and professors kept us motivated and going.

It’s time to introduce the blog team for the year 2013-2014.  Hope they will work with the same enthusiasm as we did and keep you updated with all the weekly dose of HR gyan. This year shall see more guest writers and more posts. Stay connected because PEOPLE MATTER!

Regards

Rahul Sharma | Sharnitha Ramachandran (HR Talks)

HR Lessons from Singapore Airlines

For any organization operating in any sector, Human Resources is definitely a valuable asset  – right  from the traditional agricultural sector to the modern Information Technology sector. It is human input which brings together all factors of production to achieve the goals and objectives set for the company. Taking into consideration the recent news of ‘turbulence’ in the Indian Airline industry, it would be interesting to take inspiration and few HR lessons from one of the Most Admired Airline in the world – Singapore Airlines (SIA).

SIA’s success can be directly attributed to its customer centric services. To achieve this, holistic and overall growth of employees are encouraged. Employees are allowed to continuously innovate and new ideas are given support. The employees here are trained to delight customers in a cost effective manner. One of the service initiatives of SIA is the ‘Transforming Customer Service’ programme. The aim of this initiative is to ensure that the entire journey of a passenger right from the purchase of a SIA ticket till the passenger reaches the destination; everything is made comfortable and enjoyable for them so that they are happy and contented and in this way will prefer SIA over the competitors.

For these customer centric services to happen, staff members are divided into various groups and team spirit is built among these members through many activities. The objective is that everyone should work together towards the common purpose of satisfying the customer and at the same time each member of the team must know, appreciate and be at ease working with others in these functional team set up. SIA uses 40-30-30 rule in this regard.  This simply means that 40% of the resources are devoted to training, 30% of resources on the review of various processes and procedures across departments and the remaining 30% of resources are used for creating new product ideas and services.

SIA’s rewards system pays bonus based on the profitability of the airline. Thus employees make best use of resources available and also come up with schemes that have good profit margins. So continuous feedback is taken from passengers to be in tandem with their changing preferences – be it in designing loyalty programmes or in coming up with food and wine options or in providing services that will meet or exceed customer expectations.

Training in SIA is considered the best in the airline industry and a SIA steward / stewardess has excellent reputation wherever he /she goes. The training period here is for four months, longer than training given in any other airline companies and the entire crew knows how to go about in a professional manner with a personal touch when dealing with passengers travelling to and from different parts of the world. Every employee, irrespective of the level of management he /she belongs to, has a specific and actionable training and development plan. Training is given in functional areas along with training in personal skills and emotional skills based on the nature of the employee’s job. Frequent travellers have mentioned that the interpersonal skills of the flight attendants and comfortable journey and good service are the factors that attract them to choose SIA over other brands.

Further, employees are encouraged to form groups having similar interests across different sections of the airline like ‘Gourmet Circle,’ ‘ Performing Arts’ group etc so that employees can engage in activities they like outside of their job and satisfied employees will have work-life balance which means their performance and efficiency will also be high. The recruitment and selection processes here are of high standard. When the need arises, employees usually flight attendants are selected at the international level from countries where SIA flies to, so that there are no language barriers or culture shocks when starting the job. Approximately, for every 20 seats, 1 SIA flight attendant is responsible and so from a human resources point of view, the value of a flight attendant as a SIA employee is undeniable. It is said that only people who naturally enjoy serving others are hired and that’s why even employees stay longer with SIA.

It is no wonder then that Singapore Airlines bagged the Top Worldwide Airline Award for the 6^th consecutive year by Wanderlust Travel Award 2013 (UK) in January this year. Thus the HR discipline, by itself or as a strategic business partner has gained importance in today’s workplace and will continue to grow even in years to come and it is employees who drive the growth of a company.

Author: Sharnitha Ramachandran

Reference:

With insights from Heracleous Loizos (2004). Cost effective service excellence : lessons from Singapore Airlines. Business Strategy Review. 15(1), 33-38.

What’s Cooking?

 Chief Learning Officer for the Wipro group, one among the top ten Human Resource (HR) influencers on Social Media according to SHRM, regular columnist for Economic Times and other national dailies, an author and XLRI alumni. That’s Mr. Abhijit Bhaduri! (@AbhijitBhaduri )The HR batch at Christ University had the pleasure to listen to the man himself and it was one of the most interactive corporate interface sessions we have had in a while.

So, here are the key learning’s from the session. Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed listening. Happy Reading!

Broccoli: Imagine a situation where you are made to eat a vegetable which you dislike (Example: Broccoli) everyday for the rest of your life. How would you feel? Choosing a career is quite like deciding on what vegetable you would like to eat. Going for a job which you don’t like will never give you the satisfaction which a job of your choice can give! It’s important that one enjoys the work s/he takes up. So, go for your favourite vegetable.

HR = Business Partner : One never hears the finance, marketing or operations people “asking” for a seat at the table in organizations but we often see human resource professionals doing it. Why? Given the significance of human resources to any business; HR has every right to be on the table but at the same time HR managers should walk an extra mile to understand business. If you can, you have earned the seat!

Don’t Hire Best: Yes, you heard it correct! As recruiters one of the greatest challenges that HR professionals face is to select the ‘right’ candidate that fits into the culture of the organization. And often they fail! The marks, grades and college should not be the sole criteria while recruiting; a person’s personality and his ability to fit into the organization’s culture are equally important. So, the chances of finding the right candidate from a not-so-popular college are equal to those from a popular college.

Learning Organization: Allow employees to make mistakes & howsoever dumb might be their ideas; at least hear them – That’s the key towards creating a culture of learning in organizations. As HR managers, we are the keepers of an organization’s culture and we should ensure that a culture that fosters learning and aims at knowledge creation should be developed in organizations.

Author: Rahul Sharma

2013: The year of Social HR

1.     Gamification Becomes A Standard Practice  

In 2013, gamification will continue making huge inroads in many business processes.

Delloite is one company already using gamification, integrating levels, “badges” and top-scoring leader boards into its “Deloitte Leadership Academy,” which has trained over 20,000 executive users since its inception in 2008. As a result of this effort, Delloite and its clients can boast rewards like engaged employees who are committed to improving at work.

Delloite believes that letting employees share their badges – earned through completing various training modules – on Twitter, LinkedIn and in their company’s intranet is a huge motivator. People like having something to show for their achievements, especially as employees at all levels become ever more invested in maintaining a robust personal brand.

The technology research firm Gartner, Inc. predicts that 70 percent of Global 2000 businesses will be managing at least one “gamified” application or system by 2014.

2.     The Death of the Resume

In 2013, the traditional resume will be replaced by the breadth and depth of your personal brand.

Before you’re interviewed by a potential employer, expect the recruiting manager or hiring manager to check out one or more of the following sources about you: 1) the top ten searches on your name on either Google or Bing 2) the number of Twitter followers you have and last time you tweeted, 3) the size and quality of your LinkedIn community, 4) the number and quality of recommendations you have on LinkedIn and 5) your Klout score.

Sound Darwinian? It may be, but it’s already happening. Taking the lead from innovative applicants like  Shawn Mc Tigue, who made this 2:50 video as part of his application to a Mastercard internship, more workers will take a creative approach to marketing their experience.

3.     Your Klout Score Will Become A Measurable Currency

In the next year, your Klout score will find a prominent place on your resume and LinkedIn profile, and may even help you get your next promotion.

Klout calls itself the SAT score for business professionals, measuring the online “influence” of each user. A Klout score is a statistical score from 1-100 which ranks you on variables such as: how many people you reach through social media; how much they trust you; and on what topics.

As the biggest player in the growing world of “digital influence,” Klout is still setting the bar for what this means. Prepare to answer the Klout tag line, “what’s your influence?” in your next job interview.

4.    Personal Branding Will Be A Required Skill

Companies will follow the lead of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which holds an annual Personal Branding Week wherein a series of training exercises helps train prospective new hires on building their personal brand and increasing their marketability. We will see more forward-looking companies catching onto this type of mutually beneficial training, and use this as a point of differentiation in recruiting top Millennial talent. If personal branding seems shallow, think again. Putting value on candidates’ networks and spheres of influences makes perfect sense in an age where crowd sourcing the right solution to a problem is just as good as coming up with it yourself.

5.     Recruiters Will Find You Before You Know You Are Looking For A Job

Not only applicants must know how to use social to their benefit; HR executives in charge of talent management also must know how to use social tools to their advantage.

Already, entire businesses are cropping up to streamline the process for them. Start-ups like Entelo and TalentBin help companies find eligible applicants by scanning social networks and spotlighting certain candidates. Their search tools consider the experience and history mentioned in users’ profiles, but also their use of the social network. These companies can pinpoint those who have updated their bios lately or often, to determine which candidates are getting ready to get back on the job market. Getting this head start on head hunting is crucial as top corporations’ search for top candidates becomes ever more competitive.

Reference: This article originally published at Forbes . Written by Jeanne Miester.

Microwave Popcorn Leadership

Lessons of life need not necessarily be inspired from great thought leaders or famous personalities. There are so many lessons that we can learn from the simple things that are found in our surroundings. One of them is Popcorn Leadership.

Microwave Popcorn Leadership

How  many of us can even imagine that the manner in which a person prepares a bag of microwave popcorn can say a lot about your leadership style. Let’s break it down into three groups:

Extra Butter: This person stands next to the microwave and watches the popcorn pop. He or she is afraid to leave the bag unattended. The instructions were read but not necessarily believed. This person may pull the popcorn out early for fear of a burning smell entering someone’s cubicle.

On the job, this leader is a micromanager. He or she believes that staff need to be constantly watched to make sure they stay on task. Things do get done but there is an obvious separation between the leader and the rest of the team. This person also lives in fear of office gossip. 

Pop & Go: In this case, the leader thinks the instructions play it safe. He or she will always add extra time to the microwave in order to get the most kernels popped. It’s okay to leave the microwave unattended while the cooking is underway. Burnt popcorn is seen as an acceptable risk in the pursuit of a maximum yield and can be picked out of the good stuff. Little time is spent thinking of colleagues who may have to smell it. It’s not unusual for the popcorn to be left in the microwave hours after it’s been popped.

At work, this leader is a rebel. He or she believes that people and limits need to be pushed. It’s okay to assign your team last minute work and leave early. As a leader, this person can lead a department to record performances but will also accept a lion’s share of the credit. He or she believes that if people aren’t talking about you behind your back, then you’re not doing your job.

Lightly Salted: This person reads the instructions but understands that microwave power and other factors can affect cooking time. He or she will remember the results and adjust the time the next time popcorn is prepared. While these people don’t stand next to the microwave, they are never more than a few steps away. This leader would pop another bag before giving burned popcorn to someone.

This person is a steady performer who believes that if you hire good people, then you should let them do their jobs. They feel more comfortable being a part of a team, rather than the leader of it. It’s very important for them to be liked by staff. He or she doesn’t mind doing the work of employees who are out sick for the day or are overwhelmed by a task. There is little gossip about this leader as most like him or her.

Author: Aarthilakshmi M

Reference: www.fluenceportland.com and www.kenokel.com/blog

3 HR Heads who have emerged as strategic partners

There has been a long standing debate around the changing role of human resource (HR) function in the organizations and the continuous pressure on HR managers to develop it as a ‘profit-center’ rather than being a ‘cost-center’. Going with the recent trends one can say that the role of HR has come a full circle. Today, companies are asking their people managers to transform into number-crunching business heads and handle both portfolios simultaneously. As a result, when it comes to a vacancy in a business leader’s role, an HR head’s chances are as good as that of the finance or marketing lead.

In today’s environment, people strategies have to be integrated with business imperatives. HR has taken centrestage at a time when most companies are grappling with people issues including attraction and retention of talent. This phenomenon will gather momentum in times to come. Simultaneous handling of multiple verticals by the same leader not only broadens the vision of each vertical but also helps the team grow in responsibility and stature. People will continue to be the key differentiator of an organisation and therefore in the next decade, HR will play a pivotal role in organisation building.

R Elango – HR Head & Strategic Business Unit Head, MPHASIS

Mid-tier ITeS firm MphasiS named its chief people officer R Elango as strategic business head for emerging markets where he is responsible for application services, business process outsourcing and infrastructure service in emerging geographies like India, Indonesia, Hong Kong and the Middle East. “It is like handling a company within a company,” says Elango. For Elango, this means a career spurt and the chance to be part of the CEO succession plan. “I get to eat my own medicine. This step makes me a fuller HR professional as I get a multi-dimensional perspective,” says Elango, who was HR head for six years before taking over the new role.

Krishna Mohan – HR Head, CEO, Sales & Supply Chain, EMAMI

Mr. Krishna has been playing a triple role for the past two years and believes this strategy integrates some of the important components of each function. His sales background meant he had to handle people on a regular basis and push them to perform, a role that matches an HR head’s profile as well, but across functions.

Sachin Raole – HR Head & CFO, RPG Lifesciences

After heading the finance vertical for two years in RPG Lifesciences, Sachin Raole was asked to look into the HR role. A smart ploy on the part of the firm, since his customers remained the same. Raole, however, says he may not have been able to marry marketing and finance, which have two distinct set of customers. Finance and HR, he says, can be merged more easily. “Both departments deal with resource management. For any investments in workforce, including compensation, it is finance that gives the final nod and the process becomes smoother since they are under one umbrella,” says Raole. He did not have any formal training in HR processes but has managed to bring in more town halls and alter performance management since he sits on the other side of the fence as well.

 Reference : This article was originally published in the Economic Times on October 16, 2012

Top 10 HR Developments

1. Hiring at managerial, professional levels shrinking: Survey The Indian staffing sector is witnessing a contraction as companies recruiting at managerial and professional levels has decreased by over a third, a global survey says. According to the 13th Antal annual global snapshot, the Indian staffing sector is shrinking but going forward this space is set to rebound. The percentage of Indian employers currently hiring for managerial and professional positions now stands at 40 per cent, down 7 per cent below the global average, Antal said. The report further said although this is the lowest level in Asia, the signs are positive that this figure will climb to 43 per cent in the near future.

2. India, China tough markets for recruiters like Universum, Mahindra Satyam  Employers around the world say that India and China are among the five most difficult markets to recruit talent highlighting the widely acknowledged skills gap that is prevalent in the region. Self-monitoring, intellectual curiosity, professionalism and confidence are some of the traits that prospective employees lack in India, according to the findings of a survey shared with TOI. The ability to differentiate from competition is the foremost challenge today for companies and will remain that way for the next three years as per findings by Universum, a global consulting firm that helps employers improve their attractiveness to prospective job seekers.

3. Infosys Plans to hike on-site wages by 2-3%; attrition stable at 15.1%  After declaring its results for the third quarter of the current financial year, Infosys on Friday announced its intent to hike on-site wages by 2-3 per cent in the fourth quarter. The salary increments announced in the second quarter and the lethargic markets have managed to reign in on people leaving in IT giant. “We plan to give onsite wage increase of 2-3 per cent in Q4 … We added 7,500 employees gross this quarter. We are looking at promotions this quarter, 6,000 to 9,000 people,” Infosys CEO and Managing Director S D Shibulal said.Infosys was the only company among large software services firms which deferred salary hikes earlier in the year citing uncertain business environment. It, however, gave promotions to 20,000 employees. Attrition for the last 12 months for Infosys has remained stable at 15.1% for the quarter ended December. The previous quarter was 15% and in the same period last year the IT firm had an attrition rate of 15.4%.

4. How PSUs like NTPC, Coal India keep their staff in far-flung areas happy and productive WiFi hotspots and Cafe Coffee Day outlets within townships, jobs for qualified spouses, and extra leave — these are some of the carrots being dangled by public sector companies to cajole employees to work at remote sites. The tough task before the public sector companies is to control attrition that is highest at the entry and senior levels while adhering to government pay-structure. NTPC chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhary said young and middle aged employees are increasingly moving to low profile jobs in cities for a comfortable life though they are capable of managing projects in far-flung areas. The company is seking to upgrade all its townships with modern facilities such as Cafe Coffee Day and Haldiram outlets to give employees a city feel. All the company’s townships are Wi-Fi compatible. NTPC is also exploring tie-ups with coaching institutes like Super30 to prepare kids of employees for IIT-JEE entrances exams through web classes.

5. Attrition, retirements trim SBI workforce The country’s largest lender State Bank of India, which has hired over 25,000 in the last three years, has seen its overall staff strength fall by 7,500 in March 2012 due to a surge in retirements and a 15% attrition among new hires. This has prompted the bank to hire another 10,000 employees by March 2013. According to data released by the Reserve Bank of India, the banking industry has added 42,000 jobs in FY12 taking the total number of people employed directly in banks past the million mark to 10.13 lakh. The only two segments that have seen a decline are foreign banks, which have seen a marginal drop of 300 jobs, and SBI group where overall staff strength has fallen by over 3,000. The reduction in jobs has resulted in the growth in SBI’s wage costs easing to a single digit.

6. Greece unemployment hits highest rate in European Union The latest unemployment rate for Greece has risen to 26.8%, the highest figure recorded in the European Union (EU). The Greek economy remains mired in recession and the government is in the process of imposing significant austerity measures. Athens is cutting spending to meet the terms of its financial bailouts. So far, the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the European Commission have pledged a total of 240bn euros ($315bn; £196bn) in rescue loans, of which Greece has received more than two thirds.

7. 24,000 offers for campus placements: Tata Consultancy Services Tata Consultancy Services said it has given campus offers to 24,000 people, who will be joining the organisation in 2013-14. “We had said we would hire 25,000 from campuses in the next fiscal (2013-14). We have already rolled 24,000 offers, who will join the company starting July,” company’s Executive Vice-president and Global Head for Human Resources Ajoy Mukherjee told reporters. The company has, however, not set a target for the overall hiring for the next fiscal. “We have hired almost 50,000 professionals in the first three quarters of this financial year to support business growth and we continue to forecast a healthy growth in the workforce numbers going forward,” Mukherjee said. He said against the target of hiring 50,000 people in the ongoing financial year, the company has already added 49,600 people in the past three quarters.

8. Students with prior work experience preferred in IIM placements this year Early data trickling in from the ongoing lateral placements in at least eight IIMs suggest that, company’s like Google are braving the economic slowdown to pick up professionals.”In difficult economic conditions, laterals hit the road running very fast,” says Ganesh Shermon, KPMG India partner and country head (human capital). “They have a faster learning curve, easier socialisation, quicker turnaround time, easy adaptability and good people skills. Plus, attrition is lower.”

9. 4.4 million IT jobs creation globally to support big data by 2015: Gartner IT industry would see creation of 4.4 million jobs globally by 2015 to support big data, but only one-third of the jobs will be filled because there is not enough talent, according to IT research and advisory firm Gartner. It also said the IT spending is forecast to surpass USD 3.7 trillion in 2013, a 3.8 % increase from the current year projected spending of USD 3.6 trillion. “By 2015, 4.4 million IT jobs globally will be created to support big data, generating 1.9 million IT jobs in the United States,” said Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice-President at Gartner and Global Head of Research.

10. Employee referrals are emerging as an efficient sourcing tool Experts at the recently conducted TimesJobs.com Boardroom Dialogue emphasised on the fact that internal employee referrals are bringing in stellar talent with high loyalty quotient. Discussing this trend, Amaresh Singh, country HR director, Alstom stated, “Our employees are our consultants. We do 56% of our recruitment through employee referrals.” Employee referrals are more trustworthy and help hire good quality skills in the system. The widespread appeal of employee referrals among the HR fraternity can be attributed to its ability to identify and source the best talent even amongst the passive category. Experts have claimed that employee referral schemes have helped them enhance the retention levels and mitigate recruitment costs.

Author: Rahul Sharma

Refrence: Economic Times, BBC News, Times of India