HR News: 26 Feb, 2017

1.

Snapdeal’s internal mail confirms layoffs, salary cuts

In a recent official mail to the entire staff, founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal admitted to the need to tighten the belt and in the process, let go of some people.

The suspicions around Snapdeal’s plans to cut down its workforce have turned out to be true, and the situation looks extremely grim. In a recent official mail to the entire staff, founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal admitted to having made mistakes in the past, and to correct its course the company will have to tighten its belt and in the process, let go of some people.
The internal official mail that the founders sent to the staff, of which HRKatha has a copy, they said, “As part of our overall path to profitability plan, which is currently in full swing, we will be reorganising the company into a lean, focussed, and entrepreneurial one. We are combining teams, reducing layers, eliminating non-core projects and strengthening the focus on profitable growth. Sadly, we will also be saying really painful goodbyes to some of our colleagues in this process.”
As per the mail, both the founders have also pledged not to take a salary, for an unspecified period, while a few other senior officials may also be voluntarily taking a cut in their salaries. “We believe that every resource of the company should be deployed for driving us towards profitable growth and with this announcement, both Rohit and I are taking a 100 per cent salary cut,” they wrote.

2.

Facebook goes the LinkedIn way: New feature allows jobs posting

Employers will now be able to post job openings on their Facebook page.

With talent and organisations going social and mobile, it is no wonder that even search, selection and recruitment are happening online. The boundaries between the social and the professional seem to be blurring as people connect both formally and informally over social media. Realising the depth and scope of interactions between job-seekers and businesses, Facebook recently launched a new feature that allows employers to post job openings on their Facebook page.
Although the new feature is presently applicable only to businesses in the US and Canada, it seems the same will gain huge traction all over the globe soon. “We're focussed on building new ways to help make it easier for businesses to interact with the over 1 billion people visiting Pages every month. Businesses and people already use Facebook to fill and find jobs, so we're rolling out new features that allow job posting and application directly on Facebook,” the company mentioned in an official blog.
For the job seekers, the new feature has an ‘Apply Now’ button that opens a form pre-populated with the information they provided when they opened a Facebook account, including name, cell number and e-mail as well as any education and employer information listed in their profile. The form also prompts one to explain in a 1,000 characters, or roughly 250 words, why they feel they’re the best candidate for the position.

3.

Microsoft’s Project Sangam to aid skilling and hiring in India.

The learning platform blends together Microsoft’s cloud technologies and LinkedIn’s job-search capabilities.
Microsoft recently launched Sangam, a skilling-cum-job search/hiring platform, which showcased its cloud and mobile technologies driving digital transformation across large, medium and small enterprises, and across government departments in India.
CEO, Satya Nadella, spoke at the company’s event—Future Decoded—where he also announced a new offering—Skype Lite—for mobile-first and mobile-only markets. Skype Lite allows communication and collaboration over low-bandwidth networks and will bring Aadhaar integration to the app, by June 2017.
Nadella introduced Project Sangam as a blended learning platform that brings together Microsoft’s cloud technologies and LinkedIn’s job-search capabilities. Project Sangam can create a life-long skilling platform for Indian workers. Nadella also mentioned Kaizala, a productivity app that helps organisations connect with mobile-only users to get work done on a simple and secure chat interface.