1.
Why women in Iceland leave work at sharp 2:38 pm
To protest against 14 per cent gender pay gap, thousands of women
employees across the country walked out of their workplaces at 14 per cent
short of their work time.
Iceland is known to be the
best example in the world of a country that follows gender equality. Yet, it
was recently observed that women, on an average, still earn 14 to 18 per cent
lesser than their male colleagues. According to unions and women's
organisations, this means that in every eight-hour day, women are essentially
working without pay from 2.38 pm.
To protest against this
gender pay gap, thousands of women employees across Iceland walked out of their
workplaces at 2.38 pm on Monday, which marks 14 per cent less of their working
time.
In the Nordic country's
capital, Reykjavik, thousands of women gathered in central Austurvöllur square,
leaving their offices, shops, factories and schools where they were supposed to
be working. Similar but smaller protests reportedly took place around the
country.
2.
How single-occupancy smoking rooms
can reduce unproductive time
Employees can
now get their nicotine fix inside their office, close to their workstation.
Smoking at the workplace
makes people step out of their office space and move to an open break-out area
or a cornered smoking room, if an organisation has one. This requires them to
leave their desks and set aside work for a while. Frequent smokers take at
least two to three such smoking breaks, sometimes even more, in an average seven
to eight-hour workday. These breaks are in addition to the usual lunch break,
which in turn, impacts their productive time.
Solving this issue, a Japanese company, Ryonetsu, has come up
with a quirky innovation to get people to take shorter and quicker smoking
breaks, without leaving their desks for too long. The company has come up with
small ventilated smoking rooms/cubicles that can be installed right next to an
employee’s desk.
Employees now need not go out anywhere for their nicotine fix as
the smoking room for one enables them to smoke inside their office, close to
their workstation, without bothering their non-smoking colleagues with the
smell or harmful smoke. These rooms are equipped with deodorising air
fresheners, filters, and air conditioning, making the smokers’ experience
inside as pleasant as possible. Even though these smoking rooms are rather
compact, capable of accommodating only a single person at a time, they make for
a great way to get people back to work quickly, without having them sacrifice
their smoking needs.
3.
Essar's Aegis plans to increase
staff in India by 5,000
In line with
its business expansion plans, the company is looking to hire 5,000 people in
the country in 2016 and will add another 2,500 in the rest of the world.
Aegis, the business process
outsourcing company owned by the Essar Group, has begun partnering with
startups on social media products and analytics. For this, it plans to hire
5,000 people in India to tap the growth from the e-commerce, telecom and public
sectors.
The business process
outsourcing industry has increasingly been talking of working with startups to
boost their strategic value to the customers. Experts are expecting social
media and analytics to be finalised into deals going forward.
The company shared that the
idea is to focus on products and platforms. As they have already tied-up with
one Indian startup in the social media space, they are looking at partnering
with one more. These are go-to-market partnerships. Increasing demand from the
telecom, e-commerce and public sectors are also driving the company's hiring
plans for the year.
The company will also add
another 2,500 members to its existing staff in the rest of the world.
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