1.
Hired, but put on hold: The Flipkart–IIM-A tussle
IIM-A rose in support of its disappointed students and
reached out to Flipkart with an official letter conveying the time and
financial loss the students had to undergo, in addition to the feeling of
insecurity
Delayed joining dates for
fresh campus recruits isn’t a new phenomenon. However, this time an institute
has raised its voice in favour of its students. It so happened that Flipkart
had hired 18 students from IIM-A, to join in June this year. However, at the
last moment, it postponed the joining dates to December, citing corporate
restructuring as the reason behind the delay. Flipkart’s decision naturally
created disappointment amongst the hired students. Following this, IIM-A
reached out to Flipkart with an official letter stating that such a decision is
not justified on the part of the company as the students would have to undergo
time loss, financial loss and most of all, huge disappointment just when they
are on the brink of entering the corporate world.
Sharing the concern, Prof.
Asha Kaul, chairperson, placement committee, IIM-Ahmedabad, told HRKatha that,
“Such a decision is not justified at all as the students, who chose Flipkart to
be their employer, now have to bear a huge opportunity cost.” Flipkart, on the
other hand, remained unavailable for comment. However, in an official post on
the website, it stated that the restructuring process at Flipkart is also
focussing on a ‘comprehensive overhaul’ in their campus programme to ensure
that it is in line with the new business structure, and that is why they have
delayed the joining. The post went on to state that, ‘Flipkart will also pay an
additional joining bonus of Rs. 1.5 lakh to all campus recruits’.
2.
More layoffs at IBM
The company is also relocating a few employees to offices in
India and Costa Rica from the US.
Job cuts are ‘on’ at IBM. According to media
reports, in the third week of May, IBM laid off a few more employees at its
offices in the Research Triangle of North Carolina, New York City;
Poughkeepsie, NY and Boulder, Colorado. This is part of the retrenchment, the
company had announced in April, 2016. In March, around 5,000 people were asked
to leave.
In addition, the company is also relocating a
few employees to offices in India and Costa Rica from these offices.
According to the website, thelayoff.com, an
employee who joined IBM in 1980, was asked to leave. After his severance, he
offered to work for a vendor!
An estimate by Sanford Bernstein analyst, Toni
Sacconaghi, puts the total layoff figure at 14,000 jobs. The job cuts are a
result of four straight years of declining revenues as the rise of cloud
computing threatens the company’s software and services business.
“We have estimated that it has historically cost
IBM about $70,000 to eliminate an employee, which would imply a workforce
reduction of about 14,000 employees this quarter,” he said.
The note from Bernstein estimated that IBM saved
$6.78bn from ‘workforce rebalancing’ in the last decade, by cutting some 96,986
jobs.
The company’s total workforce was 377,757 at the
end of 2015.
It is said that S&D and GTS have been hit
the hardest as the entire departments have been decimated.
However, if we go by the official version, IBM
plans to restructure its workforce to enable them to work for cloud services
and data analysis. It even said that it was planning to hire more than 20,000
people. Though, its internal job search tool has 7,000–8,000 open positions.
Earlier in the week, IBM said it would close its
70-acre Somers, New York, campus and move those jobs to a facility in North
Castle, New York.
3.
Sony Pictures amends maternity policy.
The modified maternity policy will not just support
childbirth but also surrogacy and adoption.
The winds of change are making a lot of
organisations realise the benefits of having women-friendly workplaces. Be it
for balancing the male–female ratio in the workforce or for retaining talented
women, companies are now accepting the fact that workplaces also need to
support women in maternity and child care. That is why, recently various
companies including Tata Sons, Flipkart, Airtel, Accenture and Godrej changed
their policies to retain more women employees and to boost their gender diversity.
Going with the trend and beyond, Sony Pictures
Networks recently tweaked its maternity policy to support not only the event of
childbirth but also cases of surrogacy and adoption. SPN’s women employees can
now avail a paid maternity leave of six months instead of the earlier 12 weeks.
This leave can be taken from up to six weeks before the delivery date. In the
other cases, it will start from the date of adoption or the date of surrogate
delivery.
In addition to the extended leave, the company
has also taken care to make expectant and returning mothers comfortable at
work. Self-driving expectant moms are allotted priority parking at office
locations in Mumbai, Gurgaon and Bengaluru. Another major issue that most
breastfeeding mothers face while returning to work, post childbirth, is
managing feeds for their babies. Providing a solution, SPN has created a
special ‘Mother’s Room’ where new mothers can pump and store milk for their
babies, while at work. This room has a refrigerator and all other necessary
amenities to maintain hygiene.
SPN's ratio of female employees to the overall
employee population was at 32.2 per cent during the last fiscal year (2015-
16).
NP Singh, CEO, Sony
Pictures Networks India, in an official statement said, “Women form an integral
part of our workforce. Our policies are geared towards encouraging women at SPN
to develop their careers and essay leadership roles, while playing a key part
in supporting their families”.
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