HR-Issues

Reliance Retail's new unit to handle HR 10 Oct, 2007, 0330 hrs IST,Thanuja BM & Sushmita Mohapatra, TNN
BANGALORE: Current headcount status: 17,000. Year 2011: 5 lakh. Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail’s HR story is just unfolding. With a hiring plan that is unprecedented in the Indian private sector, the company is looking at setting up a separate subsidiary for its people function. According to sources, the subsidiary, which is currently in the process of being incorporated, will take care of all recruitment needs of the newly set up retail chain. The retail major is looking to employ about 5 lakh people across functions in the next 3-4 years. The senior Ambani’s retail juggernaut intends to invest around Rs 25,000 crore for a pan-India footprint covering 1,500 cities and towns. Sources said recruitment of all the front-end staffing to logistics-related backoffice employees will be handled by this new subsidiary. The recruitments will include both permanent and temp staffing for the stores. Reliance Retail is currently scouting for technology partners for bolstering its HR system. According to HR analysts, the move for a subsidiary was driven by the fact that staffing was a non-core activity for Reliance Retail. Also, the huge numbers involved will help keep the service function inhouse and under Reliance’s control as opposed to going to various agencies for the task, they added. This is likely to bring down costs for the retail entity and serve as prudent financial management for Reliance. When contacted, a Reliance Retail spokesperson said the company was exploring various options. Reliance Retail was earlier thinking of setting up a centralised training hub, but is now looking at regional training hubs. For the record, Bharti Airtel had set up a wholly-owned subsidiary called Bharti Comtel (now Bharti Airtel Services) in 2006 to provide recruitment, payroll and performance management support to all Airtel verticals. Meanwhile, younger brother Anil Ambani is also reportedly keen on setting up a recruitment subsidiary for his Reliance Capital.

India Inc needs better HR practices: Experts 12 Oct, 2007, 1850 hrs IST, PTI
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NEW DELHI: A booming economy has thrown up a plethora of job opportunities, making it increasingly difficult for companies to hire and retain the talent pool, experts feel. At present, recruitment is $1.25 billion industry, with a growth rate of more than 250 per cent. However, to maintain the momentum, continuous restructuring and innovation is imperative, experts said at meet on "The Changing Face of Recruitment" by Elixir School of Recruiting. "India is witnessing a war for talent, making recruitment tougher than any other business challenge," EXL Services Head (HR) Deepak Dhawan said. Hiring abroad is easier than in India. Recruitment has taken a new form - that of talent acquisition, Dhawan added. With opportunities in abundance for job seekers, sourcing the right talent pool, in a cost effective way at the correct time is a major challenge for recruiters. Companies that want to succeed would have to re-strategise their hiring methods, experts said. "Going beyond cliches is the need of the day, a company has to come out with a challenging environment and innovative offerings to attract and retain talent," Xansa's Senior Vice President (HR) Vikram Karayi said. Benefits like gymnasium, eating outlets and office transport have become almost essential. Candidates now want to work in an organisation which would be able to fulfil his aspirations in the long run, Karayi added. Companies that would be able to re-invent themselves in terms of offering to their employees the opportunity to attain an all round sense of growth and contentment would be able to thrive and succeed.
Bharti Retail appoints large formats, HR heads 21 Sep, 2007, 1700 hrs IST, PTI
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NEW DELHI: Bharti Retail has appointed Rajeev Krishnan and Hari Abburi as heads of large formats and human resources respectively. Prior to joining Bharti Retail, Krishnan worked with Target Corporation, the second largest retail chain in the US for 18 years in various formats in different capacities, Bharti Retail said in a statement. Abburi was director of HR at Baxter (India and South Asia) before taking up the new assignment. He had also worked in other big corporations including, GE, Coca Cola India and Arthur Anderson's Human Resource Consulting. Bharti Retail has announced a 2-2.5 billion dollar investment by 2015 for setting up its multiple stores across India.
Virtual HR; a boon for booming cos
'Virtual HR' is helping companies in handling human resource management quickly and more effectively, according to the top official of a leading IT consultancy firm. The concept of Virtual HR relies on technology, ranging from multimedia personal computers to corporate intranets that brings employees into direct contact with their organisation's human resource system, said M V Subramanian, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Focus Infotech. "With Virtual HR, many typical HR tasks are accomplished without the direct involvement of the HR department. The driving force behind the virtual HR concept is the emergence of new age technology, the need for high-speed management of the workforce, a networked organisation and knowledge workers," he told media. The COO said his company has recently lauched a virtual HR service which would help provide complete employee management services for onsite employees besides improving communication between clients and candidates virtually. The estimated market in India for Virtual HR is around Rs 500 crore, he pointed out. He said that Virtual HR was a good communication tool besides being very participative and process driven. It reduces paperwork, streamlines workflow, improves productivity and flexibility and gets faster response apart from other benefits. "The onsite employees are now better informed and managed with respect to their salaries, leave status, benefits. Also, continued monitoring helps in skimming strategic information such as workforce characteristics, areas of concentration and improvement," he said. Focus also provides IT HR consulting to companies. To a query, he said the company's portal was designed to handle the complete recruitment process from placing the requirement till selection. "The candidate can avail information on the status of the resume and neet not wait in uncertainty till contacted by the recruiter, as is the case with other online portals," he said. "Besides the obvious recruiting advantages that web portals offer by helping cut costs and improve the flow, they help in integration of HR processes and build employee confidence and loyalty." Focus recruiters use the portal as a source to tap the potential employee base, he said. The complete recruitment process of a candidate is managed online and the candidates are informed about the status of recruitment till their selection or rejection. He also said that employees and others who need clarification about the company's policies, statutory information, leave details, referral programmes and tax calculator, could also get them online.

Info flow can help win over staff 13 Jul, 2007, 0249 hrs IST,Hema Ravichandar, TNN
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George Bernard Shaw succinctly described an issue facing most organisations today: “The problem with communication — is the illusion that it has been accomplished.” Imagine that time of the year when compensation reviews are high on organisational agendas. The HR department is working hard to design a new rewards programme that is competitive and sustainable. The spreadsheets have been beaten to death, the top management has been finally brought onto the same page and the end-product is ready for roll-out. It is usually at this crucial juncture that realisation sets in that employee communication needs to be tackled. With not enough time for D-Day, what is usually accomplished is a hastily put together slide deck that conceals more than it reveals, raises questions without providing appropriate answers and does not outline a clear plan to cascade the message down the line. In an essence: “Only in letter, not in spirit” kind of message for that most important stakeholder, the employee, causing distrust and disengagement. My meetings with employees over the years, across companies and industries, indicate that what they feel greatly aggrieved about is not being informed of organisational happenings and the reasons for organisational changes. A common employee refrain and one familiar to most managers is: “It feels ridiculous that I get to read more and much faster about the developments in my company from the morning paper, than from the intranet at office.” Employees feel excluded when their opinions are not solicited in designing new policies. And a surefire way to kill interest in future employee opinion polls, is to not go back and tell participants the results and organisational actions stemming from earlier ones. On recruitment drives, we do our best to woo candidates. There are elaborate presentations, employee testimonials, ad campaigns and designated single points of contact for clarifications. But once candidates become employees, communicating with them in a systematic and organised way, seems to be taken for granted. Several studies show that to build a high performance workforce a senior leader’s most important action is: “communicating a clear vision of the future” and what it means to employees. However, a significantly lesser percentage of leaders actually believe in the business rationale for their own greater involvement in internal communication. Organisations need to evangelise among leaders the importance of talking and listening to employees. I still remember clearly hearing one visionary CEO, take the blame squarely on his shoulders for the organisation’s ineffective internal communication system, when addressing employees after a particularly poor employee engagement score came in. Needless to say, that organisation turned the corner in its employee non-communication game and with planned interventions improved both engagement and effectiveness scores. Last fortnight, I wrote about the crucial role that HR needs to play in future proofing organisations. In a highly competitive, global world, organisations will need to revisit their people strategies and shift focus from not just being best employers but also being better employers for better performers. The change this necessitates can be painful, requiring both courage and skilful management. For it to be successful, a critical ingredient is a robust employee communication system, that reaches each employee, clearly articulating the purpose of the change and addressing concerns in a simple way. Most organisations are aware and experiment with many of them. What is missing, however, is the rigour and discipline in implementing this most important lever of engagement with unfailing regularity and earnestness. When done well, internal communication systems provide a tremendous competitive advantage. Employees will then willingly “live the organisational brand” and that, veterans will agree, is half the engagement battle won. The author is an HR professional, currently offering Strategic HR Advisory. She was formerly the global head of HR at Infosys Technologies

'Attrition indicates growth of the economy' 8 Sep, 2007, 2003 hrs IST, PTI
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MUMBAI: Attrition is good as it indicates growth of the economy, growth of industries and also an increasing number of talent with different options to tap, top HR heads of leading companies said here. "Attrition is not bad for organisations. It is important to retain the right people and not all people," Infosys', Global HR Head, Mohandas Pai, said on Saturday at the 'SaHveeRyam', a human resource management conclave organised by the S P Jain Institute of Management and Research. "If the attrition level is high, then educational institutions will be pushed to create more talent," Covansys, Global HR Head, G Ravindran, said. Pai said 800 employees had left Infosys this year as they opted for higher studies. Last year, around 650 employees had quit the company. He said attrition is not a problem but a reality for the organisations and they should be selective in handling it. Ravindran said "that for the next seven to eight years this trend would continue and you should try and keep back the talent you want to keep." "In the process, talent is not getting lost; rather the mobility is good," he said. Whirlpool's HR Head, Asia, Sanjay Singh, said it is not only salaries for which employees leave their organisations. Employees should be given a role ahead of what they are capable of so that they are comfortable in the organisation.

To retain employees, train the boss 14 Sep, 2007, 0051 hrs IST,Smitha Venkateswaran, TNN
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GOA: Next time you lose an employee, take a close look at the boss – he may just be the reason for this loss. A recent study by IDC (India) on salary hike in IT sector points that while salaries have increased by over 18%, this does not correspond with a similar increase in employee satisfaction levels. For instance, HCL Infosystems is positioned at 23 in salary rank, but topped the charts on employee satisfaction levels. Similarly, TCS employees rank their company at No. 4 in terms of ‘satisfaction with salary’ and is ranked at No. 13 in terms of hikes given. Infosys is ranked 12th for salary raises, but stands at 28th place in satisfaction. The survey clearly points that there is hardly any correlation between ‘salary levels’ and ‘satisfaction with salary.’ But even as companies are looking at ways to keep their ‘experienced’ workforce together, the key here is to train the boss, say HR managers. At a recent conference on Talent Retention organised by The Goa Institute of Management, HR managers argued that the need is to ‘teach the boss’ ways to manage his people and more importantly to be ‘liked’ by his subordinates. “Bosses may not always be a good manager, which is the single most important reason for people to leave jobs. It’s important to provide training to bosses on how to manage his group. This can play a major role in building a strong, effective team,” says SumTotal HR vice-president Lekha Sishta. Adds Dataquest chief editor Prasanto Kumar Roy, “The sheer extent of disconnect is amazing. There was less than 8% correlation between salary and satisfaction with salary. What it means is that companies who have their act together on employee satisfaction can manage a lower wage bill — and still have satisfied employees.” Clearly for the HR, the biggest task ahead is to come up with innovative ways for retaining their employees, as companies are willing to go the extra mile for job retention. MNC’s spending on ‘pampering employee’ has also increased from average 8% to almost 17% of the cost to company (CTC).

Dearth of talent: It's do or die for emerging sectors 26 Jul, 2007, 1512 hrs IST,Anuradha Himatsingka & Writankar Mukherjee, TNN Print Save EMail Write to Editor KOLKATA: Dearth of talent has kept the managements of emerging sectors like FMCG, pharma, BFSI (banking, finance, securities, & insurance) and even the mutual fund industry on their toes. Leading players in these sectors are either tying up with reputed educational institutes to roll out specialised programmes or are embarking on recruitment branding initiatives on the campuses. For starters, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance recently joined hands with XLRI Jamshedpur to launch a one-year specialised management course for the insurance industry. ICICI Bank too had tied up with NIIT to set up a training institute for the financial services sector, christened Institute of Finance, Banking and Insurance. HR circles claim several companies are now exploring similar options across the board to bridge the demand-supply gap. For instance, the banking industry alone employs 9 lakh people and is expected to grow to 15 lakh over the next five years. Pharma major Nicholas Piramal is also in the process of rolling out a pharmaceutical management programme in association with an institute. “This course will focus on frontline aspects of the sector such as R&D and sales. The structure will be ready by October,” said Sanjay Muthal, president (HR), Nicholas Piramal India. “Such tie-ups with educational institutes ensure predictability in supply of quality talent at a time when companies in these emerging sectors are rapidly scaling up their operation. The cost of recruitment also goes down significantly and so does the attrition level since these students have a high loyalty factor,” said Ajit Isaac, MD, Adecco India, a HR consultancy major. ICICI Prudential AMC executive VP & Head HR Vasant Sanzgiri said: “As an organisation, we reckon that dearth of talent across levels is an industrywide issue and there exists an immediate need to address the same. We are in final rounds of discussion with some educational institutes to bridge the talent gap. We intend to create a talent pool, with participation from all parts of India. Thus, we are in the process of developing a robust curriculum in consultation with the institutes which have presence across India and have infrastructural capabilities to support the programme.” FMCG firms, facing problems in wooing students from premier B-schools, are also undertaking extensive campus branding initiatives. Dabur, for example, has recently taken up a business solution competition programme for itself amongst the students of 20 leading B-schools, including the IIMs. GSK Consumer Healthcare director P Dwarkanath said students in premier institutes now-a-days are not finding a FMCG career too hot. “As a result, we are taking up branding initiatives such as workshops and scholarship programmes to promote ourselves as the best employer. The second-line institutes are also becoming important,” he said. Some companies have been encouraging ongoing development programmes to address the problem. “We seek talent through management colleges and directly from industry which ever is the most appropriate for the degree of experience and skills required. Our firm also prides itself on encouraging ongoing professional development of employees,” Mr Dominic Price, MD & senior country officer, JPMorgan India.

Wanna attrition-proof your co? Go for expats 6 Aug, 2007, 0105 hrs IST,Vivek Sinha & Chaitali Chakravarty, TNN
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NEW DELHI: Want to attrition-proof your company? Start recruiting expatriates. They are anonymous, focused and not part of any “old boy” network. Indian employers are discovering that expats, apart from bringing capabilities scarce in the country, are also more reliable and seldom jump employment contracts. While many Indian professionals would dismiss this and say it is merely to fill gaps in the talent crunch economy, Indian firms in private agree that “expats in key positions” bring stability in operations. In the past two years, expats have come in large numbers, especially in sectors like oil and gas, energy, construction, training, aviation design and retail. Hindustan Construction alone has 80 expats, Reliance Retail has about 100, AV Birla Retail’s top operation team comprises mostly expats (it has around eight) and Dabur’s health and wellness retail project is headed by an expat who will be assisted by two more. Managing partner of head-hunting firm Transearch, Uday Chawla, says unlike senior Indian managers, expats are unknown faces, both for head-hunters as well as companies. They are not part of an alumni or any other “old boy” network. So, the chances of them being poached are that much less. For instance, the new expat head of Dabur’s retail venture, Peter Baker, feels that hopping jobs may not be possible as he is in India on a purpose. Also, he is unfamiliar with the market and its people. “Besides, I am well taken care of,” he says. However, the global head of Lee Cooper, who’s also had a stint with AS Watson in Hong Kong, feels that expats have just started coming to India in large numbers and it may be too early to draw conclusions. But at the moment, the main reason for expats’ stickiness to jobs is related to work permits. When an expat is hired on a contract, the work permit is sponsored by the employer. While it is technically possible for the employee to cancel the current work permit and get a fresh one to be sponsored by the new employer, it almost never happens. “Getting a new work permit in itself is a disincentive for switching jobs,” says a head-hunter. This apart, the expatriate employee also sticks to the job for the project bonus — an effective tool to retain them. As Mumbai-based HR consultancy firm Cerebrus Consultants’ CEO Anita Ramachandran explains, “While retention bonuses are there for Indian employees as well, they are compensated with a joining bonus by the new employer in case they leave before term. The big-packet joining bonuses are not common abroad because there are more people to do the same job. Also, India’s growth story allows the employer to pay huge sums as sign-on bonus.” While this may be the case, HR heads agree that expats are quite conscious of their reputation. They know they are in India on a mission and any snafu would make the next assignment difficult to come by. “But this is not to say they are more loyal than Indian professionals,” says the HR head of AV Birla group, Santrupt Mishra. There is also the factor of market knowledge. Says BPO service provider OfficeTiger’s vice-president, HR (APAC), Vishal Mehra, “Our experience has been that expatriates tend to stick to their jobs in India for any or all of the following reasons: they’re new to the country and therefore anxious about moving jobs, they’re not sure about the Indian job market to look elsewhere and they’ve come to India on stringent contracts drafted in the US.” “By contrast, the average Indian employee knows the job market well, is familiar with the head-hunters and possesses greater brand awareness. So he is likely to get more offers and move,” he adds. OfficeTiger, which was acquired by US-based RR Donnelley, has expatriates working across mid-senior levels. But there is also a flip side to hiring expats. They may not like the culture of the work place and since most of them are located in Mumbai and Delhi, they often complain of the harsh climates. Head-hunters say the phenomenon of getting expats with a specific strategy to ensure that he or she does not leave is observed in areas such as oil and gas, design and R&D.

Corporates chalk out buffer plans to outwit attrition 3 Sep, 2007, 1510 hrs IST, PTI
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NEW DELHI: With the attrition rate reaching alarming levels in India's booming sectors like information technology and telecom, human resource personnel have devised innovative ways such as over-staffing and thinking beyond higher pay packet to retain talent. "Attrition is a crisis in India, especially in sectors such as IT, ITeS, telecom and retail, that are growing at the fastest pace. Simultaneously these are the very sectors which get plagued by attrition the most," Global HR consultancy firm HayGroup's Practice Leader Mark Thompson said. Hence, HR managers are resorting to innovative ways to harness and retain talent as the market is witnessing demand-supply constraints, Thompson added. Business process outsourcing firm Genpact, resorts to rotation of talent as a phenomenon or culture. "GE overstaffs around 15 to 20 per cent to tackle attrition," Genpact Executive Vice President (HR) Vivek Jain said. High attrition rate experienced by 60 per cent of BPO units are due to higher salary expectations. Over 80 per cent of respondents from BPO firms surveyed by industry body, Assocham recently, felt attrition rates in future would rise over 40 per cent, while remaining 20 per cent were optimistic that it will drop and would stabilise between 20-25 per cent. There should be a balance between attrition and retention of employees to ensure maximum growth of an organisation. Now-a-days a hike in salary is not the only incentive that attracts talent, Thompson said. "Companies now offer an ideal relational reward that balances work and family life. This is because salary alone cannot ensure retention and loyalty as others can match this," he added.

Cos push staff to balance life & work 1 Oct, 2007, 0915 hrs IST,Ratna Bhushan & Chaitali Chakravarty, TNN
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GURGAON/DELHI: Pepsico chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi’s family focus isn’t just a personal credo. Last week she told ET that she goes out of her way to thank not just employees for their good work, but also their spouses. “It’s important to recognise the support system,” she said. Apparently, after she took over in October last year, PepsiCo has become a “sensitive” company. Back home, the company does not allow outstation meetings on Mondays to avoid Sunday travel for executives. Apparently, this was a bone of contention in many homes and came up in one of the HR meetings. Similarly, PepsiCo managers are allowed to take a year off with some benefits like car and life & health insurance. PepsiCo isn’t bucking the long-hours-big-bonus trend in India Inc. Across the corporate spectrum, managements are waking up to the importance of work-life balance — turning what has always been conventional wisdom about corporate success on its head. At Max New York Life, the human resource department regularly monitors employee attendance to identify the “diligent lot” and then find out their reasons for not taking leave. A Gurgaon-based telecom company has gone a step further. When employees overstay, the extra cost incurred — including cab charges, electricity, overtime payments for office boys — are converted into points and deducted from the performance ratings of department heads. Not surprisingly, the department heads are going all out to ensure nobody stays back beyond office hours. As global best practices come home, India Inc is questioning the efficiency of those who’ve made it a habit to work late. Of course, cynics would argue it’s the cost of overheads like additional electricity and elevator charges that is prompting managements to ask employees to leave early. Apparently, some buildings charge as much as Rs 10,000 per floor to keep the utility services running after office hours and during weekends. “But that’s not what is guiding us,” says PepsiCo India executive director (HR), Pavan Bhatia. Whatever the reason, companies have started linking annual appraisals to how well you manage your personal and professional life. However, most of these best practices are MNC-driven. In many Indian companies senior executives still work 16 hours a day and often travel on train on weekends as well. For MNCs, though, it’s also about matching up to global best practices. Take GlaxoSmithKline. According to MD Zubair Ahmed, “At annual performance reviews, meeting sales targets are given as much importance as how well the individual balances his work and personal life.”
Cos push staff to balance life & work 1 Oct, 2007, 0915 hrs IST,Ratna Bhushan & Chaitali Chakravarty, TNN
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GSK, which has adapted work-life balance as a core practice, has inducted a mentor-mentee system which cuts across functions and is aimed at bringing out the ‘optimum behavioural competency’ of employees. An employee in the finance department, for example, could have a mentor from R&D. Besides, the company keeps tabs on employees who tend to always work beyond office hours. “We address such issues through open discussions — whether enough resources are available to that particular employee or if he or she needs to be coached. This is where the mentor-mentee relationship assumes that much more importance,” said Mr Ahmed. Food major Nestle has set up a cross-functional team, which includes senior management representatives, to improve work-life balance of its employees. “We do not reward people who simply put in long hours, thus retaining our focus on ‘white-collar’ productivity. We are creating facilities that can help people meet their objectives better without interfering with their personal life,” said Nestle’s executive vice-president, Pascal Fournier. These include flexi-timings and a ‘just chill’ room to de-stress. Companies are increasingly coming up with their own package of work-life benefits. Take Max New York Life which has structured annual leave around kids’ summer vacations. The insurance major is specially particular about employees taking annual breaks and does not offer a leave encashment system. “We have a July-June leave cycle, which helps people plan their holidays to coincide with their kids’ summer vacations. The leave cycle is structured in a way so that it doesn’t clash with year-end closing in December and March,” director, HR and internal communications at Max New York Life, Rajit Mehta, told ET. Max’s recreation centre at its headquarters in Gurgaon, complete with a gymnasium, is open to families of employees during office hours. Employees can use the centre before and after office hours. PepsiCo’s work-life balance initiatives include supporting location flexibility to employees, ‘short Wednesdays’ when everyone leaves home early, and encouraging employees to utilise a 30-day annual vacation leave. “We encourage employees to balance their personal lives through empowering mechanisms which suit individual needs,” said Mr Bhatia.

Corporate India gets the coaching context right 2 Oct, 2007, 0353 hrs IST,Hemamalini Venkatraman & Bindu D Menon, TNN
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CHENNAI: From the days of Arthasastra to now, managing business has undergone a sea change. If Chanakya etched his name in the annals of history as the man, who guided King Chandragupta to build the Mauryan empire, it is now the age of business and executive coaches to call the shots. Organisations and CEOs in this era can now turn to the services of a coach, who do not remain an information centre but engage the management, hand-holding them. The latest HR mantra is helping organisations to usher in a coaching culture, which will develop managers to become more coaching-oriented in their functioning style. “The higher one goes, the more lonely you get and tend to seek professional help,” notes HR expert Zahid Gangjee, who has over 30 years of professional expertise. Attributing the complexity and pressures of modern living to the lonely syndrome, he said for the past five years or so, the help requests have risen. “We have seen dysfunctionals at workplace and had to work at levels much deeper than what seemed on the surface,” he said, adding fixated and tightly holding on to behaviour was a common pattern. Executive and business coaching has now made its formal entry into India, with the Coaching Foundation India becoming the first recognised organisation that accreditates coaches. Until now, coaches were accredited in the US or Australia. Development of leaders is central to an organisation’s improvement. Drawing inspiration from fields of counselling, adult learning, sport psychology and consulting, business coaching has rapidly achieved the status of a powerful profession with immense potential, notes Murugappa group former chairman MV Subbiah. Says Blueshift chairman Sankaran P Raghunathan: “Management gurus and consultants give insights into competition, regulation aspects and work out winning strategies but coaching is different. It is not about how to run the company but about knowing and harnessing the hidden strengths.” It is a personal therapeutic counselling that can help plug the accountability factor, especially in family business. “Coaching can unleash the potential on a one-to-one or person-to-person basis in a non-threatening manner,” he said, noting that the impact of a coach on a CEO and senior executives is a long-term one. Managers are expected to wear the coaching hat more often than their managerial hats. Likewise, CEOs are desperately seeking a sounding board and wanting to partner with someone, who can help them navigate their business challenges and realise their full potential, notes Totus Consulting founder-CEO Ganesh Chella. The six-month training programme is priced Rs 2.5 lakh at the corporate level and subsidised by half if the sum is borne by an individual. “Leaders can be helped to reach their true potential if they can partner with someone, who has the competence and commitment to the cause of development,” he added. Organisations need to be hand-held and they must provide platforms for engagements. People should learn and practice methods prescribed by the coaches, certified master coach and RPG group technology business president and CEO PK Mohapatra said. Learn by others’ experience is the way ahead for those in high corporate positions, says ehealth Technology Business Incubator chairman Shivaram Mallavalli. “Teaching industry is all about application. In an era, where businesses and technologies are emerging, coaching executives and CEOs is critical. It is better to learn from other’s mistakes instead of traversing the path of learning by committing the mistakes all over again,” the Bangalore-based professor noted. Coaching not only facilitates a 360-degree assessment by the individual, willing to get coached, but a peer review post-coaching is possible as measurement of result is always an issue. Today, managers do not have the luxury of the time needed to mature into their big roles, notes an HR expert.

Travel plans for kids to retain staff 13 Oct, 2007, 0025 hrs IST,

A multinational corporation is using its global resources to provide employees’ teenage and young adult children with overseas trips, an idea that is credited with being an effective recruitment and retention tool, company officials overseeing the effort tell SHRM Online. Freudenberg-NOK, a global supplier of sealing and custom-moulded products with facilities in 40 countries, has been operating the Travel and Navigate New and Exciting Roads (TANNER) programme since 1999, says Sarah O’Hare, the company’s vice president of HR. The programme allows the children or grandchildren — between the ages of 14 and 20 — of Freudenberg employees to stay with another employee’s family in a foreign country where Freudenberg has facilities, she says. The participating young people can stay for up to four weeks, and the company bears the entire cost of the trip as well as provides spending money and insurance coverage, she adds. Accommodation and board for the participants are provided by the host families, she says, adding that the only other requirement is that the participants maintain a travel experience diary. The TANNER programme averages 70 participants per year, and since 1999 about 600 teenagers and young adults have taken advantage of the opportunity, Ms O’Hare says. The first year the programme had 125 participants; the pipeline for participation was probably broader that year than it should have been, she says. There were challenges with the early programme that required modification, according to Ms O’Hare, who adds that all programmes require changes once underway. A young person hoping to participate in the TANNER programme must complete a form listing where and when they want to go, says Michelle Tomaszek, the company’s senior HR manager. There are also questions about a candidate’s needs, likes and dislikes, and what the participant would like to see and do, she says. Among other things that are evaluated: Whether the participant can be around animals and whether the participant has any medical or allergy conditions, Ms Tomaszek said. “We’re looking out for the safety of our children,” she adds. Once complete, the form is forwarded to a Freudenberg employee in Germany who is dedicated to the programme, and the application is reviewed for a match with a host family’s needs and specifications for a participant, Ms Tomaszek says. For example, some families will limit the gender of the participant they are willing to host, while others are willing to host only during the summer. When a match is made, the participant and host family are notified and travel dates and flight arrangements are made.

Corporate learning takes hi-tech route 27 Sep, 2007, 1144 hrs IST,Writankar Mukherjee, TNN
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KOLKATA: Corporate India is looking beyond ‘brick & mortar’ and the web to deliver learning modules to employees. Companies are experimenting with newer technologies like pod-casting’ and `mobile-casting’ to create a multi-mode employee learning backbone. The advantages for the companies are multifold — much higher employee engagement levels, lower training costs, reduced man-hour wastage and immense flexibility. HR circles claim new economy sectors like IT, ITeS, telecom and BFSI (banking, financial services & insurance) are experimenting with these new technologies. “Companies who are recruiting the ‘iPod generation’ workforce are looking at pod-casting and mobile-casting to deliver employee training. Apart from other benefits, this helps firms cut down on training costs by nearly 75%,” said Ma Foi Management Consultants chief operating officer E Balaji. Ma Foi is a leading HR services firm. IT services major Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) has recently commenced pod-casting among its associates. The company is not only using the medium to deliver training modules but also as an employee communication tool for sending out video-recorded executive management messages. “We have over 100 course titles spanning areas such as soft-skills, managerial skills, multi-lingual skills and domain skills that are podcast to our employees. Although we have bought several of these titles for podcasting, the bulk of the titles have been developed in-house”, said CTS director and head of in-house learning K Venkataraman. IBM too is exploring these technologies to leverage on the higher penetration level of gizmos among its employees. “The pilot phase for delivering mobile phone learning through capsules of five-minutes duration has already been done in China and will be soon started in India,” said IBM India director (learning & training) Lauge Sorensen. HR honchos feel the paucity of physical infrastructure and trained faculty will make newer delivery mediums like blogs, pod-casting and mobile-enabled learning more popular. “However it’s too early to measure the return on investment from such emerging technologies. But it is possible to make these newer learning methodologies much more interactive,” said Wipro senior vice-president (talent transformation) Selvan D. No wonder, corporate learning solutions firms like 24x7 Learning and SQL Star International are customising training modules for mobile casting and podcasting. 24x7 Learning, for instance, has already initiated the pilot phase to customise corporate virtual learning campuses for the mobile phone screen.
Will work for 3 days a week. Wanna hire? 27 Jul, 2007, 1155 hrs IST,Writankar Mukherjee & Sreeradha D Basu, TNN
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KOLKATA: How much of a global role can I expect to play?’... ‘What about stock options?’ These aren’t questions targeted at interviewers by some seasoned corporate executive looking for a job change. Instead, these are the kind of queries increasingly being faced by companies, looking to bring fresh-out-of-premier B-school grads on board. With more and more top-rung companies willing to dish out huge packages during placements in leading B-schools including the IIMs, many of them are willing to go to almost any length to attract the best of talent. Especially those companies from sectors other than I-banking and consultancy which usually lap up the best students. “Recruitment of top students from institutes like the IIMs is now a new challenge of sorts. The old style of making pre-placement presentations during campus recruitment does not suffice anymore,” said GSK Consumer Healthcare director P Dwarkanath. While management students traditionally used to look out for attractive roles, location of posting and salary packages, HR circles claim they now want to be sure of the career progression plan and global challenge which the job will provide. As a result, companies are now including all these in their pre-placement talks and job offers. “Companies even create positions especially to accommodate a very good candidate. Like last year, we had an investment bank creating a position in Mumbai for a candidate who didn’t want to be posted overseas,” says Vijay Anand Menon, external relations secretary, Indian Institute of Management - Calcutta (IIMC). “There are even several instances of consultancy firms which have offered to fly down candidates just to check out their office before accepting the offer,” said an IIM alumni currently working in a leading US-based consultancy. Nicholas Piramal India president (HR) Sanjay Muthal, in fact, cites an instance of an outstanding candidate who wanted to work three days a week only. The company hired him nonetheless ! “The style of recruitment has now changed from ‘purchasing of talent’ to a more concerted marketing effort. Today’s youngsters want to achieve everything within the first ten years of their careers and we have to draft roles to suit this,” Mr Muthal said.
Will work for 3 days a week. Wanna hire? ( contd.) And these concessions apart, sample some of the questions faced by recruiters. Take for instance, ‘Your website mentions a lot about work-life balance , but aren’t markets a lot about working long, hard hours alone?’ Or, probing ones like ‘Does all cutting edge work get done only in Europe/US offices , while Asian offices act as back-office arms?’ Students also try to figure out the recruiting company’s take on business ethics with queries like ‘How do you handle confidentiality issues when there are two teams in your company working for rival clients in the same industry?’ Maruti Suzuki India executive director (HR) SY Siddiqui said: “Even a couple of years ago, we wouldn’t dream of facing such demands or queries from a management student . The kind of professional education the institutes now impart ensures that students develop ambitions right from the word Go.” “There is a huge demand-supply mismatch of quality talent and companies simply do not want to take any chances. As a result, even conservative HR guys do not mind taking on questions like this,” said E Balaji, COO, Ma Foi Management Consultant, a leading HR consultancy.

Helping hand: When cos go out of the way 21 Jul, 2007, 0333 hrs IST,Shreya Biswas, TNN
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India Inc is learning fast the importance of keeping the employees, even those standing at the exit door, happy. That’s because companies realise that in the information age, a bitter and disgruntled former employee could be as damaging as a product recall or dodgy reputation. With increasing talent-crunch, companies are going all out to keep their “aspirational employer” image intact. Ergo, a growing number of Indian companies are putting their best foot forward to make even the exit of an employee a pleasant experience. From helping them to switch jobs, enter a new territory, training them, re-skilling them for a better fit in other companies, in other sectors, roping in third parties for their career transition, organising career fairs, they are doing it all. Such an exercise is undertaken at the time when a company is being restructured or, is facing post-acquisition phase. While some of the companies where employees have gone through career transition exercise include P&G, Motorola, Delta Airlines, there are several others including a Hyderabad-based manufacturing company and an IT firm in Bangalore who are at it. Partnering them in the effort are firms like Right Management, Dale Carnegie, MaFoi, NIS Sparta amongst others. Career transition is a structured process that employees go through. As the first step, managers go through workshops on how best to communicate the news of restructuring or acquisition. This is followed by the another for employees to help them convey the same to their families. On the day of the notification, partners in the career transition, the HR consulting firms, counsel the employees. “The most important thing is to support the employees emotionally,” says Kanti Gopal, VP, Consulting services, Right management consulting, India, which helped Gillette India when the company was being integrated with P&G. “When an organisation is restructured, it effects individual lives as well. Losing a job amounts to a huge emotional burden and we try to offer some help in this psychological and emotional transition”. After the counselling sessions, employees are taken through competency assessment. This involves mapping out their interest areas, strengths and weaknesses and then matching the opportunities with employee priorities. If it means switching sectors, changing to a new function, employees are provided with training support as well. This could include anything from CV writing skills to soft skills to technical training. They are also helped in finding the right job. Many a times employees come back with positive feedback to their ex-employers about their new job. “If employees are happy and content in their new role, our purpose is served. The entire exercise of career transition is about facilitating the process, making it a better experience.” says Raghuram Reddum, director, HR, Asia Pacific staffing and mobile device, Motorola, India. During restructuring of its Indian operations, Motorola India helped around 80 people in transiting to a new job. It organised a career fair inviting potential employers and companies who could interested in hiring their employees. MaFoi, in one of its recent assignment, provided outplacement and career transition service to a Hyderabad-based manufacturing company when 80% of its 200-250 employees needed to be replaced. “Though this is more prevalent in the west, Indian companies too are carrying it out as part of their employer-branding initiative,” says COO of MaFoi Management Consultants E Balaji. Analysts feel career transition initiative has great deal of scope in sectors beyond business as well. “It is still more or less unstructured, people refer their colleagues to their friends in other organisations. There is huge scope, though, for this market, specifically in areas like defence,” says Raj Bowen, CEO Dale CarnegieTraining, India.

Refer & Earn 10 Oct, 2007, 0326 hrs IST,Shreya Biswas, TNN
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NEW DELHI: Internal referrals, once small and confined to the IT industry, has come of age and is gaining popularity among various sectors. From companies in the IT sector such as Xansa, Sapient, Honeywell Technologies to firms in other sectors like KPMG, Maruti, Motorola, Subhiksha Trading and Haier, all are hiring as high as 40-60% of their new recruits through internal referral programme. Maruti has recruited over 250 people via referrals. Not only are companies getting their local as well as global workforce to recommend, it has also helped them to spot potential hires. Understandably, the stakes are being raised. Juniper Networks hands out Rs 1.12 lakh for every individual hired. KPMG pays Rs 20,000-1.25 lakh, Sapient referral programme provides up to Rs 1.5 lakh besides a bonanza prize of Ford Fiesta, depending on the type of positions referred. Xansa India HR director Shantanu Banerjee says: “Internal referral allows you to tap sources which you would have never known to exist, such as those who would have drifted out of the workforce. Your employees help to identify them and get them back into the productive cycle. Xansa, for one, has 42% of its fresh hires in IT and 58% in the BPO business through internal referrals. This was around 15% in 2004 when the scheme was launched formally.” Sapient’s 43% new recruits are from internal referrals while the percentage for Honeywell Technology and Adobe is over 40% each. The reasons behind growing popularity of internal referral are obvious. At a time when companies are reeling under talent crisis, internal referral offers not just cost advantage but also less hiring time, assured quality and better reach as an employer. It also helps companies to spot people with rare skills in the new economy. KPMG, which has over 50% of its people coming through referrals, has been using its global workforce to get people recommended. However, what has helped to better leverage referrals is getting the process automated. “The process has got automated, which has made it easier. The referral rate has steadily increased and in 2006 we had around 44% of conversions,” says Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab global director (HR) Shrikant Lonikar.

Tips to make underperformers deliver better results 21 Sep, 2007, 0112 hrs IST,Shreya Biswas, TNN
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NEW DELHI: While handpicking his team members as a newly-annointed marketing division head, Chaitanya had lofty plans and high hopes from them. Barely a year down the line, he finds himself in a soup. Volatile job market and attrition have left only a bunch of underperformers in his division. Good replacements simply didn’t come along. Today, getting work done and managing underperformers has become the biggest challenge in his 15 years of professional life. Ask around, there’ll be many like Chaitanya across organisations, who are going through similar frustrating experience managing indifferent and demotivated staff in their groups. There’s little choice in the times of talent crunch. They need people and can’t brush under performers aside either. After all, such employees still hold some hopes, people who can do much better, but fail to peak on performance. Complete misfit syndrome Most of the underperformers suffer from ‘wrong job dilemma’ or could also be the victim of changed circumstances. Many people who don’t show interest in work are often the ones who don’t find it exciting enough. They may not be the ones cut out for the job, or changed role may have rendered them clueless about it, say analysts. “For instance, in the telecom space someone who once handled post paid customers may not be able to deliver well when they have to deal with the mass pre-paid customer base,” says Sanjay Jog, head, HR, Pantaloon. “It’s a different set of target audience, hence you have to either retrain them or have patience till they learn and reskill themselves on the job.” Set your priority right Normally 80% of the team performs while the rest 20% lags behind. Decide what you want to focus your energies on. While the better performing bunch could reap you rich dividends with added attention, you may need to put in much more to get work out of the rest. However, if you feel if an individual has potential, don’t ignore and rope him in and do all you can. Who knows, the results could be in your favour. And one career could be brought on a fast track. Set smaller and shorter term goals. They don’t look intimidating to an employee and help in performance appraisal better. Don’t fail to praise him/her if the assignment well done. Don’t shun hard decisions Every person has some strength and weaknesses, even if he or she is an underperformer. Figure those out and to work on strengths. If it’s a really tough situation and things look beyond repair, let go of the person. You need to take the tough decisions to get to a better situation. “Someone who doesn’t contribute willingly can’t be held back,” says Sapna Srivastava, head, HR, JWT, India. “Instead, getting a less experienced person or rather a youngster as replacement could spring a surprise.”

High-level attrition: Universal painpoint 25 Sep, 2007, 1000 hrs IST, TNN
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Satish Bindra’s (name changed) resume would have been tossed into the dustbin, 10 years ago. With four different jobs in the space of six years, he would have most likely been seen a rolling stone, an unreliable job hopper. Instead, Bindra’s career is flourishing. He’s moved in and out of well-known firms, in the IT space, gathering stock all the way. And each one of his past employers has given him a good reference. Yes, the 90s IT industry, completely changed the rules for how long employees stay at their jobs - or even how long employers expected them to stay. Now, of course attrition is gaining critical mass. Raunak Sahai (name changed) of 26, who began as a trainee in a small media house two years back is today a senior reporter with a leading English daily, has changed seven jobs in three years. He draws more than three times his first salary. Almost ditto for the 25-year-old Rucha who has switched five jobs in two years. She began as a caller in a BPO and today heads the sales department of a top-rung IT firm. “I couldn’t expect growth as fast as this, if I stayed longer with any organization. And if one does get an opportunity, why miss it?” she asks. It’s a great time to be an employee today. With the market throwing job opportunities by the score every nano-second, everyone wants a share of the pie. The bad news for employers is that job mobility is likely to get even more pronounced. The attrition numbers reflect a sea change in people’s attitudes about their careers and changing jobs. The days are gone when many people could expect to spend their entire careeer in a single company, slowly moving up the ladder, and retiring with a fat pension. “The regard that people had for these values has vanished now. Sticking with the same organization is, most of the times, looked down at,” agrees Shiv Agarwal, CEO, ABC Consultants. Today’s youngsters want to enhance their standard of living, keep up with the Jones’ and manage their own career in real time. A survey, conducted last year by an HR consultancy firm Ma Foi Consultancies , said 24 per cent of the graduates from premier B-schools like IIMs, XLRI and Narsee Monjee quit their first jobs within 12 months of being hired owing to a mismatch in the salary received and that assured. “It’s peer pressure besides monetary satisfaction that motivates the job-hopping psychology,” says IIFT, corporate and placement advisor, Monish Bhargava. What’s more, the red flag that has been raised, isn’t likely to be lowered anytime soon. “This switching will continue for at least the next five years and the biggest chunk of hoppers is the one with five-10 years of experience,” says Mihir Mallick, plant head, HR, Goodyear. Adds Bhargava , “There are a lot of fresh graduates who switch several jobs within the first few years. This is because they are not mature enough to realize what they want. So they first take up a job and after gathering experience move on to make a career” . But how does this reflect on your CV? What message does it send across to your prospective employers? “Cases of people changing three-four jobs in a year is nothing new and agri-business is the worst hit in this regard. For this very reason Reliance Retail now hires twice it’s requirement. If the demand is X, companies hire 1.3X. Sectors like agribusiness and IT where the blow is felt the most, job-hopping doesn’t reflect badly in a resume. Unlike few years back, when we advised against job-hopping, today consistency is not an issue,” points Ajay Gupta, CEO, Ruralnaukri, a rural placement portal. Job-hopping becomes inevitable in volatile industries such as media, retail and IT, but hopping from one job to another in rapid succession can have hidden consequences. Pointing out a few drawbacks of the practice, Mallick says, “These rolling stones fail to acquire in-depth knowledge of any particular field and remain unexposed to the nuances of running a business”. The demand-supply gap is so huge that companies today are busy attracting the best of the lot, not focusing on the growth trajectory of the employee. “While the Indian companies have come to terms with it, MNCs do look at it suspiciously. This is because they haven’t seen such rapid changes in their respective countries,” adds Agarwal. A resume full of short stints might be looked at suspiciously and lead the employer to believe that either you are unable to get along with your coworkers or have no willlingness to learn and grow. “Right now the hoppers are enjoying the ride as companies need more and more people and are willing to overlook the stability factor. But once the economy stabilizes, which it is bound to, at some point of time, it’s the sturdy folks who will survive,” opines Agarwal. Retaining employees is a big challenge today. Some organisations try to hold on to departing employees by countering. Experts, however, says the best way to retain skilled workers is to continually check that salaries are competitive and make sure individual employees feel challenged and appreciated . “The companies are trying different techniques to retain executives by creating growth opportunities. They designate people to run various units of the business, making it look like they are running their own business. The whole organizational structure is changing due to this,” says Bhargava. So how does one justify frequent job-hopping? “Move from one job to another, but only for the right reasons,” says Agarwal. “If a person is growing within an organization before making a move, switching is all right. However, the mentality of moving out only to gain a higher position is wrong,” he adds. So as long as you’re moving up the learning curve, it pays rich dividends both for you and your organisation.

Ma Foi plans to expand Asia Pacific business 30 Aug, 2007, 1215 hrs IST, PTI
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CHENNAI: Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd, India's largest HR services provider, plans to expand its Asia Pacific business by setting up offices in China, Vietnam, Philippines and Brunei by the middle of 2008. The company has already set up an office in Shanghai which it plans to operationalise by December this year, Ma Foi, head of Asia Pacific operations Kamal Karanth said. Ma Foi also opened an office in Bangkok this week. The company had earmarked Rs 5 crore at the beginning of the year for the new operations, of which it has invested Rs 2.50 crore in setting up these centres, he said. The company also plans to start offices in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar, he said, adding the firm was also keen on starting Ma Foi Academies at a number of places. "We will have Ma Foi Academies in all developing markets in a year and half," Karanth said. "Middle East is the most profitable region for our operations because the need for oil and gas professionals is huge and we need to be closer to the market to take advantage of this," he said, when questioned about the company's focus on the middle-east region being more than other regions. Karanth said there is a global shortage in IT and oil and gas sectors. "In fact, about 30 per cent of our business comes from oil and gas sector," he said. According to Karanth, there is also a manpower crunch in industrial engineering as well as software and manufacturing engineering.

IFBI and HDFC Bank to train upcoming bankers 10 Oct, 2007, 2030 hrs IST, AGENCIES
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NEW DELHI: The Institute of Finance, Banking and Insurance (IFBI) and HDFC Bank have entered into a partnership to develop and train students in the field of banking. Selected students of IFBI would join HDFC Bank as 'Trainees' immediately upon completion of the institute's six-month Post-Graduate Diploma in Banking Operations (PGDBO) programme. Under the terms of the partnership, HDFC Bank would make an offer of employment to identified students of IFBI at the time of their admission to the PGDBO program. Such students would complete the internship component of their PGDBO program at HDFC Bank, and get employed, post successful completion of the requirements. The Institute of Finance, Banking and Insurance is an initiative of NIIT Ltd, Asia's No. 1 trainer and leading Global Talent Development Corporation, to develop talent for the burgeoning Financial Services sector. "As a bank we have always believed in investing in the development of young talent, thereby creating a pool of trained resources which would benefit the banking industry and community as a whole. I am delighted about this partnership with NIIT's IFBI which is a step towards the bank's commitment to this cause," said Mandeep Maitra, Country Head-HR, HDFC Bank. "We are delighted to have HDFC Bank as IFBI's strategic partner. This partnership reflects the universal acceptance that IFBI's programs have received. With the participation of both HDFC and ICICI Banks in IFBI's academic programs, our efforts to develop talent for the industry are strengthened, and we continue to provide our students a broader and richer experience," said Dr. Smarajit Dey, President-Strategic Initiatives, NIIT. Students desirous of building a career in one of the leading banks in India, the HDFC Bank, need to meet the eligibility criteria of at least 55 percent marks, consistently, up to graduation, and successfully undertake IFBI's PGDBO selection process, consisting of an aptitude test (IFBI's Common Entrance Test, I-CET), and an interview, jointly conducted by IFBI and HDFC Bank. Successful candidates will be offered admission to the six-month full-time PGDBO program, along with an offer letter from HDFC Bank. IFBI already has a tie-up with ICICI Bank for recruitment of its PGDBO students selected at the time of admission, and more than 1000 graduates have already joined under this scheme, while another 1000 are currently completing their training prior to employment. With India's banking industry estimated to add six lakh more professionals in the next four to five years, and equally large manpower requirements in the Insurance industry, IFBI is currently rapidly expanding its reach and portfolio to cater to these talent-development needs. Within one year of its operations, IFBI is already addressing the training needs of four large financial institutions in the country. The institute has expanded operations by starting new centres in Ahmedabad, Pune, Gurgaon, Bhubaneswar and Nagpur, in addition to its existing centres at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata, taking the total tally to twelve centres, across the country.

Learn to deal with mid-career blues 8 Oct, 2007, 0022 hrs IST,Ambika Naithani, TNN
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MUMBAI: Eva Singh has made up her mind to retire from the school which she joined 11 years ago. Ms Singh, 39, put in her papers with 21 years of service left, and she doesn’t regret it a bit. “I was becoming emotionally weak and felt saturated because my creativity was being stifled. New management will come and ask us to conform to certain rules which got to me,” says Ms Singh, who now spends her time teaching special children , visiting an old age home and taking tuition classes at home. There are many like Ms Singh who are struck by the mid-career blues. Mid-career crisis, like a mid-life crisis, doesn’t necessarily have definite triggers. It can be a result of an individual’s emotional needs, the environment he operates in or a combination of both. Feeling switched off at 30 something, losing sense of focus at work and feeling unchallenged are some common problems people face. VN Kantharao, a freelance consultant for organisational change and development, says that this happens when career goals aren’t aligned with life goals and money is the prime motivator. “It’s usually the bright guys who face this. They get quick promotions but reach the threshold too soon and start questioning themselves,” adds Kantharao. And such people find it hard to resolve the issues as they have more stakes attached thanks to their age. Their risk taking appetite could be low, they may have loans to repay and the social framework they operate in could be a deterrent to change. According to Wipro HR VP Pratik Kumar, the mid-career bug sets in when for an individual his capability requirements seem to be larger and these require new skill sets which people think they haven’t picked and remain in the comfort zone. “Intellectually we like to believe that we must change with the times but how much of it is actually implemented? Some people assume that things will remain the same and feel comfortable that way,” he adds. Another reason for feeling switched off could be when an employee stops feeling wanted maybe with newer folks joining the organisation. Many organisations have the system of mentoring and coaching whereby these people guide the newer lots and feel engaged. Employee engagement at this level also involves rotating the employees among various departments and giving them cross functional experience. Mr Kumar gives Wipro’s example. “We have people who move across functions after a duration of two-three years. I repeatedly say that one must push oneself to the maximum in one’s zone,” says Mr Kumar. But Kantharao maintains that companies need to give honest feedback to the employees and take personal interest in their career. “The companies aren’t concerned about what is happening at the individual level and they consider these private affairs. Of course, people go through dilemmas and don’t know how to talk about these too,” he adds. The environment can be rectified. Mr Kumar says that this problem has not increased thanks to the fast paced environment. “The growth opportunities are curtailed in smaller organisations where the pace is missing,” he says. But Infosys Leadership Institute senior VP Girish G Vaidya says that mid-life burnout in young companies isn’t an issue since everyone is challenged to grow in the fast paced environment. However, the final decision lies with the individual. “I love teaching and am still doing that. That step has made me a happier person now,” says Ms Singh.

Hindustan Unilever rated among top 4 firms globally: Study 21 Sep, 2007, 0100 hrs IST, PTI
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MUMBAI: Four Indian companies, led by FMCG major Hindustan Unilever including banking major ICICI Bank and IT giants Infosys and Wipro, were today named in a list of the world’s best companies for leaders. A study conducted by human resource consultancy firms Hewitt Associates, RBL Group and the Fortune magazine today named HUL, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Wipro, TCS and Thermax in its “Top Company for Leaders” list for India. Out of this, five companies excluding Thermax Ltd, also made to the Asia list, while four were named in the global list. HUL, the Indian subsidiary of global consumer goods major Unilever, was adjudged as the number one in Asia-Pacific region and in India. The Global Top Companies for Leaders Survey was conducted with more than 530 companies around the world. Commenting on HUL making to the top of the list, HUL’s HR Executive Director Leena Nair said, “The two outstanding ways in which talent is nurtured in HUL is through its various leadership programmes and by providing the opportunity to deliver in a wide range of jobs.”

Employment exchanges now have a rival in Ma Foi 17 Oct, 2007, 0245 hrs IST,Joe A Scaria, TNN
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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: This could be the final nail on the concept of government-driven employment generation of the socialist days. Leading human resources provider Ma Foi Management Consultants is within striking distance of overtaking all the employment exchanges in the country put together, in the matter of placing people. According to statistics, the 998 employment exchanges in the country place 1.10 lakh employees per annum in various government jobs. Ma Foi, which recruits over 5,000 staffers per month, is all set to cross the 1.20 lakh within the next 12 months, company managing director K Pandia Rajan told ET. The employment exchanges are on the brink of losing centre stage, thanks to a buoyant economy, which has witnessed sharp growth in the number of recruiting agencies in the country. Against 998 employment exchanges, there are 19,200 staffing companies in the country, with Ma Foi claiming to have 5% market share. Mr Rajan said the sharp increase in M&A activity in the economy is reflecting on the HR domain with increased demand from the industry for requirement as diverse as transition management, putting integrative systems in place and even downsizing. A significant trend in the changing market scenario for HR requirement is the differential payment being given to HR consultancies by clients for meeting staffing requirement, he said, pointing out that companies prefer to compensate recruiters better when in-house human resources are better utilised against going in for recruitment from outside. Another clear trend being witnessed in the market is demand for flexi-staffing, with the temp staff strength in the country’s organised sector estimated at 6 lakh, according to the latest market information. The sharp growth in HR requirement across different industry verticals has contributed to a jump in Ma Foi’s top line. The company’s revenues, which were to the tune of Rs 328 crore in calendar year 2006, is poised to cross Rs 450 crore in the current year. Mr Rajan said the company is targeting revenues of Rs 1,000 crore and a presence in 20 countries within the next two years. At present, the overseas presence of the company is mostly in the Asia-Pacific region besides its offices in the US and UK. Ma Foi is also the market leader in Oman, and is targeting to be the market leader in five economies over the next two years.
Reliance Retail turns to speciality formats 17 Oct, 2007, 0005 hrs IST,Writankar Mukherjee, TNN
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KOLKATA: Amid continuing protests against its organised neighbourhood convenience store format in several states, Reliance Retail has decided to hasten the rollout of speciality retail formats. In fact, the retail arm of Reliance Group plans to launch stand-alone speciality stores in the health and wellness segment, footwear, jewellery, home solutions, books & music and cosmetics by December. There’s more. The company has decided to debut its mini-hypermarket format spread over 10,000-50,000 sq ft, christened Reliance Mini Mart, in Amritsar towards end-November. This will be followed with seven more stores in Gurgaon, Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai. A total 65 outlets are in the pipeline till March 2008. Reliance Retail honchos are busy signing up property for these stores to ensure a smooth rollout. With the exception of the health and wellness chain, each store will have a heavy mix of private labels. Sources close to the development said private labels will account for nearly 60% of the merchandise. Despite repeated attempts, the Reliance Retail spokesperson could not be reached for comments. At present, Reliance Retail runs more than 300 stores across the country in four formats — Reliance Fresh (neighbourhood small convenience stores selling fresh vegetables & fruit, besides some grocery), Reliance Mart (hypermarket), Reliance Digital (consumer electronic) and Reliance Trends (fashion apparel). The company has earmarked an investment of Rs 25,000 crore for rollout of its retail venture over the next three to five years. Reliance Retail’s health and wellness chain will focus on selling medicines, personal care, diet supplements and other wellness products. Sources said the company will launch this retail format in Hyderabad later this month with another 4,000 stores lined up till 2010. The company is also taking adequate steps to prevent any possible backlash from smaller chemist shops, sources said. Reliance Retail recently clinched an exclusive distribution deal with Apple for setting up stand-alone exclusive ‘iStores’ which will sell Mac computers, iPod and the iPhone. Each of these stores will be spread over 3,000-5,500 sq ft with 37 stores planned over the next three years. While Reliance faces trouble on agri-retail front in states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa, it is banking on the roll out of these speciality outlets till the controversy dies down.