HR Learning: 31st January, 2022

1.   YouTube is an L&D Powerhouse for Younger Workers.

 Firstly, YouTube is very entertaining and secondly, it is full of learning content. Over the last decade, YouTube has slowly been changing the way people are learning and how educators are teaching.

But it’s more than just Gen Z.

Although YouTube is especially effective at engaging younger audiences in learning, its appeal is much broader. YouTube’s own data shows that 72 per cent of people aged between 36 and 55 are also learning on the platform. Matthew Syed and Malcolm Gladwell may be household names, but there’s a whole new generation of personal development and productivity superstars on YouTube and they have millions of followers. By putting YouTube at the heart of a future-focused learning strategy, L&D professionals can grab the attention of not just younger workers, but across every generation, background and origin.

The learning potential within YouTube is phenomenal and best of all, it is completely free. One of the biggest factors that makes YouTube content so valued and high quality is that it attracts the most creative learning content producers and world leaders in education. 

2.  We need to bring the life back to work through better job design.

The pandemic has forced us to think again about the way we enable performance. While managing performance should never have been solely about controlling employees.  

 Some years ago, I did some work for an organisation that had created an employee engagement team whose purpose appeared to be about organising events, arranging extra-curricular activities or devising programmes that allowed employees to spend some of their working time on an external cause of their choice. While this might form part of any holistic engagement strategy, it seemed to me that their approach to engagement was about anything other than the job itself. The greenkeeper role was varied and involved activities including cutting grass, building walls and planting trees . The role had inadvertently ticked off all the components of a model of job design by Hackman and Oldham .

As a result, the role was hugely rewarding in itself, regardless of the salary , working conditions or extra-role activities .

3.  Defining talent management in 2022.

 The last two years were indeed the most difficult years for India Inc teaching us a lot about who we are as societies and individuals and how we treat the most vulnerable amongst us. It was a test of our moral strength and what kind of world we want to build in the aftermath of the pandemic. In the aftermath of COVID-19, the 'great resignation' has impacted many companies globally that saw a large number of employees quit their current organization for better rewards, recognition, work flexibility and other added benefits. Most economies witnessed a much higher rate of employee resignations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a total of 4 million Americans quit their jobs by July of 2021. Smarter talent management solutions which are science based and real time are the need of the hour to empower human resource professionals and leaders to make smarter decisions to create a talented workforce. The way talent managers interact and conduct their operations impacts every employee in their day-to-day life. Similarly, the HR policies that ensure that their people grow and thrive help create a loyal and skilled workforce alongside the added power of internal brand advocates.

HR Movement: 31st January, 2022

  1.  Pixis names Neel Pandya as CEO, Europe and APAC.         

 His expanded role as CEO Europe and APAC, Pandya is now tasked with building the business and brand across key European markets. A seasoned leader with an impressive global experience and a deep understanding of consumers in APAC and Europe, Neel was named among India's Top 40 under 40 Most Disruptive Minds, two years consecutively. As CEO of Pixis’ European business, Neel’s key responsibilities will include leveraging existing traction in the region to profoundly grow the business and brand, stated a release. He will also be responsible for driving talent and business growth in key European markets. He has not only added close to 30 new enterprise customers, but continues to play a crucial role in building a global team of collaborators in Pixis.

Having raised a total of $124 Mn so far, the company is all set to accelerate growth and expansions across Europe. Neel has been doing a remarkable job navigating and growing the business in APAC and it gives me immense pleasure to announce Neel’s appointment as CEO of our Europe business, as well. Over the last few months, we’ve been noticing steadily increasing traction in Europe, and I believe we have the right person in Neel to lead our Europe business, Mishra added. Based out of Bengaluru, Pandya took on the role as CEO APAC for Pixis in July 2021, after a four year tenure with L’Oreal as National Media Head.

Under his leadership, within six months Pixis has experienced a 185% growth in revenue in the APAC Region, with a 150% revenue jump in India alone. The past 7 months at Pixis have seen my learning curve grow steeply, and I’m beyond honoured at being given the responsibility to grow the Europe business now. Neel’s success in the APAC region is testament to his belief in the Pixis vision, as well as his charisma as a leader.

2. Nitin Paranjpe named Unilever's new chief transformation officer & chief people officer.

London-based consumer goods company Unilever on Tuesday named Nitin Paranjpe, the current chief operating officer of Unilever, as the chief transformation officer (CTO) and chief people officer (CPO), reports said.

3. IT giant Wipro appoints Badrinath Srinivasan of Infosys, as MD for Southeast Asia.  

Global IT giant Wipro had appointed Badrinath Srinivasan as the Managing Director (MD) for Southeast Asia (SEA). In the new role, Badrinath will focus on Wipro’s vision for business growth, revenue expansion, client and influencer relationships, talent development and brand building. He will also strengthen the key markets of Southeast Asia focusing on large deals and strategic transformational engagements.

HR News: 31st January,2022

 1.  JPmorgan to hire 500 employees for Latin American offices.

JPMorgan is all set to hire more than 500 employees across the Latin American region as it witnesses growth in the market.

According to a report carried out by Yahoo, the hiring plans of JPMorgan for the next three years are mainly centred around Buenos Aires hub. The new hires will add to the 3,850 employees of the bank based across the Latin American countries namely Chile, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

Alfonso Eyzaguirre, JPMorga’s CEO for Latin America and Canada aid, “For 2022, we believe the region will have a challenging year, as Covid is not going away, the Fed is expected to taper and raise rates, local central banks are also increasing rates, and we will have our own idiosyncratic Latin America issues, mostly on the political front.”

2.  Google increases parental leaves for employees, offers more vacation time.

Tech behemoth Google has ramped up wellbeing benefits for its full-time employees across the world in 2022, increasing parental leave to nearly six months and offering additional vacation time.   The Sundar Pichai-led search engine giant on Thursday announced that it has expanded parental leave to 18 weeks for all parents (previously 12 weeks) and 24 weeks for parents who give birth (previously 18 weeks), media reports said.

It will also let employees take up to eight weeks of caregiver leave, doubling its previous allowance, starting April 2.  Also, employees will now get a paid vacation time to a minimum of 20 days a year, up from 15, starting April 2.

In an emailed statement, Fiona Cicconi, Google's chief people officer, said that more than 40% of their employees are in the 'sandwich generation,' where they might find themselves both bringing up their children and caring for aging family members.

"We want to support our employees at every stage of their lives and that means providing extraordinary benefits, so they can spend more time with their new baby, look after a sick loved one or take care of their own wellbeing," Cicconi said.

3.  KPMG to give out $160 mln in salary increases.

KPMG has allocated about $160 million of investment on a salary hike of around 35,000 employees. According to a report carried out by HRD Asia, company CEO Paul Knopp made the announcement in a statement. 

In the statement, Paul said, “This increase in salaries embodies our commitment to quickly recognise the value our people create for our clients and firm in times of change. Moreover, it reflects our appreciation for their resilience and consistent dedication to serving our clients and the capital markets with quality.”  This announcement follows the declaration of the Total Rewards benefits package by the company which aims at enhancing employee benefits in terms of mental, physical, social, and financial well-being. In the statement, Paul further added that this increase was done with reference to a previous study conducted by the company which revealed that employee value proposition is viewed as the "top operational priority to achieve growth objectives."

Additionally, the company will continue to focus on prioritising people through all the employee-oriented initiatives some of which are: 

> Diversity, equity, and inclusion ambition defined by Accelerate 2025, which Knopp said sets the company's plan to make measurable progress and make sure all of their employees thrive.

> The $1.5B global investment in expanding our ESG capabilities, focusing on training all their professionals to enable clients and businesses to fully embed ESG into KPMG's strategy and day-to-day.

> The hybrid future, which reflects hundreds of conversations with employees and focuses on a bottom-up approach to define how an individual, a team, and a business works.

On-Line HR Or-A-Torio Debate Competition

   

Event Report

Title of the Event : Student Centric (Club Activities) In-charge Faculty : Prof. Dr. Mrs. MERLYN MICHAEL D`SOUZA Day : Tuesday Date : 26-Jan-2022 Time : 11:30 AM Venue : Virtual Platform Audience (for whom conducted): PGDM & PGDM (PM) 1st Year Batch 2021-23 & 2nd Year Batch 2020-22 Number of Finalists: 08  3 Topic : "Or-A-Torio" - Online HR Topics" Competition Organized by which Club : HR Club Winning HR Or-A-Torio HR Debates  : 1st Rank - HR Or-A-Torio Competition Write-up Sheethal Devadiga PGDM-Div B, 1st Year 2nd Rank - HR Or-A-Trio Competition 2nd Rank WriteUp1 Janvi Mahatre PGDM-Div B, 1st Year 2nd Rank Write-Up2 Swapnali Pavanskar PGDM-Div C, 1st Year 3rd Rank - HR Or-A-Torio Competition Write-Up 3rd Rank - HR Or-A-Torio Video Sayali Paralkar PGDM-Div B, 1st Year

HR Learning: 24th January, 2022

 

1.  Soft Skills: Need for communication skills in an increasingly digital work environment.   

Of these, communication has emerged as one of the most important and necessary soft skills. Many organisations emerged from 2020 with an increased readiness for digital transformation.

Role of L&D in developing effective communication.

One of them is leveraging a wide range of ready-to-use, curated courses that are designed specifically for personal and interpersonal skills development. These courses empower L&D to deliver effective development opportunities to employees, while achieving better engagement and desired business goals.

While it has always been a fundamental skill set, the digital and remote work environment has now made it extremely critical.

Bite-sized learning modules that have problem-based elements, such as scenarios and case-studies, are an effective way to stimulate critical thinking and enhance problem-solving skills.

2. Are Indian employees skill-ready for the future of work?           

 The need of the hour is to build resilience in employees with the right skills and support their upskilling. As per the UdemyGlobal Skills Gap Report, a majority of the employees in India agree that there is a skills gap in the country and two-thirds feel personally affected by it. The report further reveals that Indian employees realise the importance of professional development while also feeling responsible for it and expect their employers to offer support for upskilling.

3.   Microlearning, as the name suggests, is a way of offering short, crisp and focused content nuggets to learners, at the time and place of their need. When done in the right manner and context, microlearning can be a highly effective method of training.

Suitable for learners with shorter attention spans.

This makes microlearning the best way to offer much-needed skills training to such a workforce.

Enables training through mobile devices.

At a time when remote workers are increasingly relying on mobile learning, microlearning is a great way to deliver skill-development programmes.

 Making the best use of bite-sized videos.

One of the most effective and engaging ways of imparting skills training is videos. There are multiple ways in which micro e-learning videos can be used to build different skills. With the help of videos, learners can be guided on different aspects of communication, such as verbal/non-verbal communication, body language, tone, gestures, and so on.

Utilising micro problem-based learning modules.

HR Movement: 24th January, 2022

 1.   NeoGrowth appointed Arun Nayyar as the Whole-time Director & CEO.     

Nayyar has served as CEO of NeoGrowth since August 2018. Under his leadership, the company has been focusing on innovation with proprietary technology. SME digital lender NeoGrowth has appointed Arun Nayyar, to the company’s Board of Directors, with effect from January 6, 2022. He has played an instrumental role in advancing the digital loan journey for NeoGrowth customers, increasing its branch network, adding to its product range, and growing the portfolio.

2. Continental Tires appoints Samir Gupta as the new Managing Director, India.   

 Samir has over three decades of experience in varied industries. Continental Tires appoints Samir Gupta as its new Managing Director for India. Currently, the company is looking forward to expanding its footprints across the Indian subcontinent and Samir’s appointment is a stepping stone towards the goal. The company leadership believes that Samir’s experience and the customer-centric approach will bring growth to the company in the target region.

3. IT solutions company T-Systems appoints Anant Padmanabhan as the MD.

IT solutions company T-Systems has appointed Anant Padmanabhan as its Managing Director with an effect from 1st January 2022 to accelerate the company's growth in India. Anant has been with T-Systems since the Indian affiliate was founded in 2016, heading Delivery of its Growth Portfolio. Adel Al-Saleh, CEO, T-Systems International, said, India is key to T-Systems’ growth strategy and Anant has contributed to many strategic initiatives to scale the India operations and drive business value for T-Systems. His extensive global experience and strong entrepreneurial spirit will enable him to lead T-Systems India through the next phase of its growth, building on the successes of recent years.

HR News: 24th January, 2022

 1.     2 out of 3 Indian companies want a phased roll-out of the new labour codes: Survey.

The industry seems to be receptive to the four new labour codes that the Government is planning to implement in the near future, according to the findings of a new survey released by the Karnataka Employers’ Association in conjunction with BCP Associates.

The four labour codes — Code on Wages, Industrial Relations Code, Social Security Code and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code — are set to replace the 29 labour laws that exist in India.

The report was released virtually by Pratik Kumar, CEO, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering and executive director – Wipro Enterprises.

Delivering the keynote address, Kumar said, “The changes that the four codes are expected to bring about have been long overdue and it has been an industry ‘ask’. The codes aim to enhance the social security of the workforce and guide implementation of labour law compliance. They will cut down on significant systemic complexities and help accelerate economic growth. On their part, organisations need to revisit their HR policies and relook at their employee compensation structure. They have to conduct their own impact analysis and critically look at their own compliance practices.”

He adds that the new labour codes would have to strike a balance between enhancing social security and simplifying things in a manner that compliance becomes easy. One of the salient points of the codes is that they cut down on compliances, so that employers could focus on other aspects to a greater extent.

Madhu Damodaran, group legal head, Quess Corp, commented on the fact that the survey results showed that 700-odd employers are interested in the implementation. He was “Pleased that more than 57 per cent of the participants are ready,” and concerned that “43 per cent are not prepared”. He felt it was “High time stakeholders ready themselves for the impending change quickly”.

The report highlights some common sentiments from the industry bodies that took part in the survey. One of the key demands of the employers from the Government is to provide an adequate time frame to the industry to understand and implement the three codes without issues. Further, they expect to be provided with a financial incentive for a year or two to meet the increased cost of consulting, which companies may incur during the implementation.

2.    India Inc. still to become truly inclusive: Survey.

Where do Indian organisations stand in terms of readiness for LGBTQ+ inclusion? How do members of the LGBTQ+ community feel at their workplaces in India? Will India Inc. be able to successfully create an accepting culture of inclusion in the future? These are just some of the questions that a recent survey by Randstad tried to find answers to.

The members of the LGBTQ+ community feel that their identity tends to get lost under the guise of neutrality at the workplace. The environment becomes less attractive when intrusiveness is often interpreted as curiosity. Even in workplaces where discrimination is not externally evident or visible, there exists a somewhat underlying toxic culture which makes members of the community feel less than comfortable.

There is also lack of clarity when it comes to whom to approach or seek help from in case there is discrimination or bias. While formal policies are in place, they have not been advocated aggressively. Matters become worse when no penalties are imposed on employees who fail to comply with the organisational policies. There is lack of sensitisation, and therefore, unless adequate internalisation happens, homophobia will not vanish, but will merely remain just below the surface.

True inclusiveness, members of the community feel, will come only if the members are considered for leadership roles and core roles, and not expected to only lead LGBTQ initiatives. They wish to be appreciated for their willingness to learn. The community suggests that instead of focussing on fancy diversity and inclusion (D&I) content and forums, D&I should be made part of the organisational DNA. The best way to do this is by having more members from LGBTQ+ community in then leadership rank.

Other facilities and benefits that would make workplaces more inclusive are gender-neutral washrooms, insurance/health cover for same sex partners, competitive salaries, and so on.

3.  Meghalaya government extends upper age limit for employment.

The Meghalaya government has extended the upper age limit for those seeking employment, from 27 to 32 years. For those from Scheduled Tribes (ST), the age limit is now 37 years.

“In a historic move, the Cabinet has decided to relax the upper age limit for candidates applying for government services by 5 years. This will, however, not be applicable for certain departments like Police which require physical fitness as a criteria,” the CM announced in a tweet.

Earlier, the United Democratic Party (Meghalaya) President, Metbah Lyngoh had said that increasing the age limit for the youth is important because a lot of them have reached the age of maturation and cannot apply for the jobs even though there are vacancies available for various posts. He also asked the government to take into account the time that got wasted during the pandemic while making a decision.

The CM also added that to focus on the health sector at the village level, cabinet has approved the policy for Village Health Councils (VHCs) that are aimed at refining community engagement to achieve the goals of the State Health Policy passed in 2021.

Online HR Spin-A-Yarn Competition 2021-22

  

Event Report

Title of the Event : Student Centric (Club Activities) In-charge Faculty : Prof. Dr. Mrs. MERLYN MICHAEL D`SOUZA Day : Tuesday Date : 18-Jan-2022 Time : 11:30 AM Venue : Virtual Platform Audience (for whom conducted): PGDM & PGDM (PM) 1st Year Batch 2021-23 & 2nd Year Batch 2020-22 Number of Finalists: 09  3 Topic : "Spin-A-Yarn - Online HR Topics" Competition Organized by which Club : HR Club Winning HR Spin-A-Yarn HR Topics  : 1st Rank - HR Spin-A-Yarn Competition Sayali Paralkar PGDM-Div B, 1st Year 2nd Rank - HR Spin-A-Yarn Competition Riya Thakur PGDM (HR), 2nd Year 3rd Rank - HR Spin-A-Yarn Competition Sheethal Devadiga PGDM-Div B, 1st Year

Post 17th January, 2022: Assessment Centre Workshop Day4: Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument Exercise

 Assessment Centre Workshop Day4: Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument Exercise

  

Event Report

Title of the Event : Student Centric (Club / FG Activities)

In-charge Faculty : Prof. Dr. Mrs. MERLYN MICHAEL D`SOUZA

Day : Thursday

Date : 14-Oct-2021

Time : 4 PM

Venue : Virtual Platform

Audience (for whom conducted) : PGDM (PM) 1st Year Batch 2021-23

Number of people attended: 24

Organized by which Club :

Photographs :

1. The form link to submit the Thomas Kilmann conflict profile evaluation in PGDM-PM batch 2021-23

2. The 60-point form submitted for the Thomas Kilmann Conflict profile evaluation in PGDM-PM batch 2021-23

3. The Thomas Kilmann Conflict resolution profile results online email ID-wise in PGDM-PM 2021-23 batch

Comments :

The 1st Year PGDM-PM students are subject to various psychological tests, management games, and oral presentations and such other various exercises. They are asked questions and accordingly judged by the raters. This was Day 4 of the 4-day assessment centre workshop where they found out their conflict handling style as part of their assessment and development.

HR Learning: 17th January, 2022

 1.  Manage talent, not weakness. 

Traditional HR strategies focus on the weaknesses and development areas of employees. More modern approaches emphasise the assessment of competencies in order to align an individual’s behaviour to the ideal job role.

Stop asking: How can I get employees to perform optimally in their existing positions?

Start asking: In which function will this employee perform optimally?

2.  Big data comes to HR: The need for a talent dashboard

No talent management and succession planning strategy is complete without objective information about the talent and motives of your old and new employees.

With the rise of ‘big data’ in organisations across the world, HR departments face the challenge of instituting a talent dashboard, defined as a real-time user interface that provides the current status and historical trends related to employee competence, assessment results, development areas and more.

Dashboards offer the ability to systematically measure and monitor what employees are good at and what they have to offer, allowing HR to make strategic decisions that are backed up by a wealth of data.

3. Employee misclassification in the gig economy.        

 With the rapid advances in technology in the past decade leading to the widespread deployment of ridesharing applications and delivery platforms, terms such as ‘gig workers’, ‘Flexible work’ and ‘sharing economy’ have been brought into the mainstream. Such classification of gig workers in the category of independent contractors enables companies to avoid providing the benefits which they would otherwise be liable to pay under various Indian labour laws. Notwithstanding whether the misclassification of employees has been done intentionally or not, it could lead to the exploitation of these workers by depriving them of basic protection and benefits such as social security, minimum wages, payment of bonus, overtime, leave, etc. Such misclassification carries serious penalties, risks, and consequences for employers including, but not limited to, non-compliance with the applicable laws, litigation by the affected workers, back payment to the said misclassified workers, loss of revenue/tax for the government, loss of reputation, etc...

HR Movement: 17th January, 2022

 1.  FloBiz appoints Rabi Agrawal as head-HR

Agrawal comes with managing HR in growing startups. In this role, Agrawal will be responsible for leading the talent acquisition, management and people operations for the Bank. Agrawal moves to FloBiz after three years with Clear where he was heading the talent acquisition function. Backed by close to 14 years of experience in HR, Agrawal is an alumnus of KIIT University from where he completed his MBA. After a successful six-year long tenure at CareerNet, Agrawal moved to Zivame in 2014, as head of talent acquisition.

Recognising Agrawal’s «vast experience and expertise in the people function, which is critical to the success of any organisation,» Rahul Raj, founder and CEO, FloBiz, appreciates how Agrawal «has played an instrumental role in his previous stints, especially technical and leadership hiring». Excited at being able to join FloBiz at such an exciting time in its growth trajectory, Agrawal says «the organisation’s core ideology of keeping people and teams at the centre of every business decision» is rather heartening.

2.  Welspun India hires Madhumita Mitra as CHRO

Mitra announced her appointment as the CHRO at Welspun on a social-media platform. “I consider myself incredibly privileged to have the opportunity to work with some amazing leaders and colleagues across the world who passionately drive the vision of sustainable, profitable and inclusive growth at Welspun,” writes Mitra in her post.

Mitra moves to Welspun from Maersk, where she was the global head of employee engagement, group HR, talent and organisational development (OD). In this role, Mitra majorly spearheaded the employee engagement function coming up with strategies to keep all employees at Maersk engaged at a global level.

She was with Maersk for over five years and joined the company in 2016 as the global learning and OD manager. In this role, she was responsible for running the learning function at Maersk for its different , such as sales and finance. After a few months in this role, she made a shift as a senior consultant – global functional and managerial development where she worked closely with the global teams to design learning interventions for the transport and logistics business.

3.  What if your star employee behaved like Djokovic?  

As the tennis champion’s vaccination dispute with the Australian government seems increasingly likely to culminate in his deportation, we take a step back to look at how a hypothetical scenario might play out.

What was the actual issue?

Simply put, Djokovic didn’t want to take the COVID-19 vaccine. He received it, to public outcry in Australia - with many suspecting that his celebrity status had somehow played a role in Tennis Australia’s decision.

What if this happened in a workplace context?

It’s easy to see how managers might choose to give such a star performer some leeway even for policies that appear otherwise non-negotiable. And it does happen, albeit for lower-stakes policies than vaccination. For instance, a top performer might be allowed extra flexibility around set working hours or dress codes, or might be granted additional leeway with the use of benefits. It’s a valid managerial decision, just as Tennis Australia’s decision to offer a medical exemption would have been.

Problems emerge, however, when such leeway clashes with high-stakes standing policies. Ideally, this would be recognised as not actually the manager’s fault. A decision has to be taken at some point, and there’s no doubt that celebrity status, or at least high-performer status, may sway that decision in the direction of ‘yes’. Unfortunately, for a high-stakes decision like that of Novak Djokovic’s visa, blame will eventually land somewhere - hence the rush of parties trying to clear themselves of wrongdoing over the last week.

On the other hand, there’s also the fact that Djokovic himself has been highly vocal about his views on vaccination and also has a history of not taking health and safety precautions seriously. Even top leaders have been sacked for not following COVID-19 health and safety policies.

How should organisations and leaders or managers handle something like this?

«'Star' employees as in Djokovic's case would be identified as such via the performance management system of a company which would not just focus on 'trophy' winning outcomes but also ideally would include risk, compliance and behavioural measures,» he said. «Organisational values and culture are the intangibles which also act as beacons for employees to be in alignment». The idea behind granting exceptions, he added, is that such exceptions would not expose the organisation and its stakeholders - be they customers, employees, shareholders, or others - to immediate or long-term risks.

HR News: 17th January, 2022

1. TCS now employs more than 2 lakh women in its wokforce.

Tata Consultancy Services has announced that it has achieved a big diversity goal in the third quarter of the financial year 2021, with the total participation of 2,00,000 women in its workforce.

The total employee count at TCS stood at 5,56,986 as on December 31, 2021. The Company added 28,238 employees in the past year. What is commendable is that the growth in the number of women holding positions at senior levels between 2016-21 was observed to 68 per cent!

The Company has reportedly filled almost one-third open positions internally, through upskilling or cross-skilling.

The attrition rate for the third quarter for TCS stood at 15.3 per cent, which the Indian multinational claims to be the lowest in the IT services industry.

In addition to the 43,000 freshers the Company hired in H1, it has further added 34,000 fresh graduates in Q3 in its workforce. This is the highest fresher hiring in the Company’s history.

According to Milind Lakkad, CHRO, TCS, the Company has always believed in giving preference to internal candidates for the best vacancies and offering them opportunities for global postings. The Company focusses on fast tracking its employees’ career paths through learning.

2.  Labour Minister interacts with HR heads in a rare event.

In a rare event, Union Minister of Labour and Employment Bhupinder Yadav, had an interaction with the HR heads of various sectors across manufacturing, staffing, automotive, hospitality and so on.

This interaction was facilitated by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). To begin with, Sunil Barthwal, secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, initiated the dialogue inviting comments from all participants on various topics, such as improving service delivery in the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), Work from Home, better utilisation of services of the National Career Service Portal and enhancing women’s participation in the labour force.

The HR heads appreciated the formulation of the four new labour codes and insisted on rolling them out as early as possible.

In the interaction, Yadav mentioned the formulation of committees to resolve the grievances of 6.5 crore EPFO members. He also talked about strengthening technological interventions, capacity building, effective monitoring of ongoing projects and enhancing coverage under social security.

Yadav also mentioned that for better governance and policy making, having better data points is also important. Therefore, Yadav announced that apart from the All India Quarter Employment Survey (AIQES), the Government will also launch an area-based area-frame establishment survey for establishments having 9 or less workers in formal and informal sectors.

The Union Minister also talked about the success of the e-Shram portal, which maps occupations in about 400 catagories of all unorganised workers. 

Yadav ended the interaction on a positive note saying such interactions with the HR heads and CEOs will be organised more frequently to ensure better worker conditions and to create employment in the country.

3.    Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp staff to submit proof of booster to return to office.

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has now mandated that all its employees produce proof of having got their booster shot before returning to office.

Earlier, the return-to-office was scheduled for end of January, 2022. However, with the surge in the Omicron variant recently, the Company has again pushed back return-to-office to end of March.

The tech company, which owns Facebook, Instgram and WhatsApp, realises that the booster shot offers effective protection to people, and is therefore, adding this to its vaccination requirement.

The Company will try to ensure that its workforce is offered options to choose from, in terms of where and how to work, given the uncertainty that has set in yet again due to the scare of the latest variant.

HR Learning: 10th January, 2022

 1.  How To Upskill New Recruits And Provide Employee Development       

India has long been a hub for some of the most creative minds, yet the rapid growth of unemployment indicates it's time to upskill job seekers and provide them with opportunity to learn and grow. In the midst of the increasing global unemployment rate, employee development remains one of the biggest concerns worldwide. Currently, in India, the rate of unemployment among youth is around 13 percent (compared to 4.9%, globally), according to various studies. We are at the onset of becoming the youngest country in the world, contributing 28 percent of the total global workforce. Yet, today, 15 million job seekers are not job-ready due to the lack of formal training. Our education system allows them to access only theoretical concepts, due to which many students are able to score well in exams, however, they lack practical knowledge. Bridging this skill gap remains to be of utmost priority and needs to be addressed immediately by reshaping, restructuring, and reforming the traditional education system. There are various approaches to develop industry-specific skills among graduates and unemployed youngsters, such as providing them with the right learning environment during the training period, with deliverables and tasks, and connecting them to mentors, who can guide them on job requirements and other aspects of a job, etc.

2. Buckle up, HR: L&D is about to get really exciting 

The days of off-the-shelf templates, standard workshops and mandated employee training are vanishing, as pandemic-driven shifts create new expectations for development on the part of employees and change how, where and what employees need to learn. In response, many HR professionals are abandoning practices born in the industrial era and developing new ways of learning that aren’t just customized, but cross silos and motivate employees to want to learn more.

3. Knowledge Is Power: Why L&D Industry Needs Better Analytics.        

For the success of any organization, it’s imperative that employers offer employees upskilling and reskilling opportunities. Effective workplace learning and development (L&D) programs help sales representatives understand product messaging and close deals; workers in the financial services field learn new regulatory measures; and healthcare workers understand the latest protocols and research, to name just a few industry applications. Yet, many organizations still deliver professional development and training through outdated methods – virtual or in-person instructor-led training, eLearning, self-paced courses, etc. – that don’t effectively engage employees, enable them to retain critical knowledge, and have little effect on day-to-day job performance and overall business outcomes. Not to mention, these methods of learning don’t provide business leaders with the in-depth analytics needed to determine if their employees are actually retaining the information they’re learning. Businesses use data to make critical decisions every day, and it should be no different for L&D programs. Real-time analytics that thoroughly describes employee performance based on the information they’re being trained on is paramount for business success. When an employee is having difficulty at work, the best way to address the issue is directly with the employee.

HR Movement: 10th January, 2022

1. Emeritus appoints Ganesh S. as Global CHRO

A press release on Wednesday issued by Emeritus announced that the company has elevated Ganesh S. as its Global Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO). In his new role, Ganesh S. will be responsible for all aspects of Emeritus’ employee and workplace operations, talent management, pay and benefits, global recruiting, while continuing to lead Emeritus’ response to the impact of COVID-19 on its workforce. Ganesh’s appointment coincides with Emeritus’s efforts to upscale and grow across the globe to support the vital need to upskill and reskill the workforce across all sectors coming out of the pandemic.

2. Diageo elevates Global Talent Director Louise Prashad to Chief Human Resource Officer

 In light of Mairead Nayager joining GSK Healthcare as CHRO, Diageo has announced the elevation of Louise Prashad to the position of Chief Human Resources Officer, effective 1 January 2022. In her new role, Prashad will be tasked with expanding and headlining her initiatives of learning and development, talent acquisition, inclusion and diversity, and business partnering with global functions, which she undertook as Global Talent Director. She has been a quintessential element for the brewery company, who has led the creation of high quality leadership and talent initiatives that have shifted the company’s culture and performance.

3. Unilever’s Jaydeep Shah joins Sebamed as VP & marketing head

 Unilever’s Jaydeep Shah has joined Sebamed India as vice-president and marketing head, and will lead marketing for its consumer business. A seasoned brand and marketing professional from London-headquartered FMCG major Unilever, where he handled multiple roles in home and personal care categories, Shah brings expertise on defining category and brand strategy, new product and communication development, category creation, and redefining brand architecture and portfolio play.

HR News: 10th, January 2022

 1. Assam government makes first weekend of 2022 long by 2 days for staff

The employees of the Government of Assam were in for good news at the start of the New Year when they were told they would get two extra days off, making it a long first weekend.

The employees were also instructed to upload pictures of the time spent with their parents and in-laws on the government portal, as detailed in the local newspapers.

In a video announcement, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma wished for all government employees of Assam to use the long weekend to spend time with the elderly and the seniors and take a step towards preserving Indian values and traditions. He hoped that employees would care for the seniors in their families and seek blessings from the elderly to bring about positive transformations in the State as well as the nation.

2. 50% cut in paid leave for COVID-positive staff at Walmart

Employees of Walmart in the US who need to self-isolate or have tested positive for COVID-19 will now only get a week’s paid leave as against the two weeks that they were eligible for, earlier.

It has already allowed its corporate staff to work from home as far as possible, till the end of January. Earlier, it had asked them to return to office by January 10, but the same was pushed back amidst the surge in COVID-19 cases across the US.

Therefore, the hourly wage workers at Walmart’s stores as well as its drivers have been informed that those who need to quarantine themselves or are ordered to do so by Walmart or any healthcare or government agency, will get a week’s paid leave.

Walmart, which employs about 16 million workers, is one of the first organisations to reduce this leave in the US, probably taking into account the paucity of labour in the country.

3. Over 500 cabin crew of Air India to go on indefinite strike from January 15

The transition of Air India into a privately-held company is expected to see yet another hurdle from its workforce. The cabin crew union of the Airline, the Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU), recently announced its decision to go on an indefinite strike starting January 15, 2022.

The Union, which is over 500 strong, has alleged that Air India managed has discriminated against it while issuing contracts. The union has sent the strike notice to the Air India’s CEO. The members intend to proceed as planned unless they receive a positive response from the management.

The primary demand of the Union is that the Air India management should reconsider the contract period of the cabin crew.

Secondly, the Union has demanded that the management offer a job to a cabin crew member who was injured on-the-job and is currently wheelchair bound. The president of the Union alleges that while the Labour Commission had directed the Company to offer the injured staff a ground job, the Company had chosen to terminate his employment instead.There has been no positive response till date.

HR Learnings: 3rd Jan, 2022

  1. How SAAS Is redefining the startup landscape: Opportunities for young talent                                     

 Software as a Service (SaaS) has quickly become one of the most dominant technology trends of our time. Over the last decade or so, many of the world's greatest software enterprises have successfully repositioned themselves as cloud-based companies, while many others are slowly but surely embracing the transition. 

Further, with the pandemic-induced acceleration towards digital, the SaaS industry is now expected to grow at an even faster rate than experts had anticipated. Projected to now reach $1 trillion in value by 2030, with a potential to create over 5 lakh jobs, Indian SaaS is a hard-to-ignore-growth market that is opening up a pool of opportunities for fresh talent.

2.  Role of Human Resource Management (HRM) in Leadership Development                                                                        

The leadership development programs in these companies follow the philosophy of grounding them in value, the expected contributions from the leaders are defined, and the organizational culture geared towards inspiring leaders. Next, the performance management system in these companies is tied to the company’s business strategy and it includes talent development activities and leadership objectives that are articulated clearly and succinctly. In many of these companies, it is common to find lists of potential leaders known as high potentials who are earmarked for fast track career progression based on the organizational assessment of the skills and capabilities of these leaders.

3.  Why M&As Fail? How Can HR Help?       

When people make a large purchase, like a house or a car, they try to do everything they can to be sure that it’s the right fit for them. Numbers are hammered out for months, endless paperwork is put in order, presentations are delivered and meetings are held. Fortunately, strong HR initiatives during the M&A process can help avoid unnecessary friction, confusion and lack of unity. Here are some common M&A roadblocks and the HR best practices to overcome them.

HR Movement: 3rd Jan, 2022

 1. Eishin Chihana appointed Yamaha Motors India Chairman. 

 On Thursday, Yamaha Motors India announced the appointment of Eishin Chihana as its new Chairman. According to the official communique, Eishin Chihana has been associated with Yamaha Motor Company and its group companies across the world since 1991. 

The communique further states that Chihana brings strong expertise of operating across various verticals, to the table. He has been leading sales, marketing and business management, with a major focus on motorcycle business operations in European, North American, African, Middle Eastern and ASEAN markets.

Speaking about his appointment as chairman of Yamaha Motor India Group, Chihana said that India is a diverse country with a huge customer base and immense potential. "With the majority of its population comprising the youth, it gives us the opportunity to penetrate the market by meeting their evolving expectations through Yamaha's leading technological advancements and engineering prowess,'' Chihana further said in a statement.

He further added that Yamaha will continue to innovate and bring new products to the market. It is going to launch a new brand strategy 'The Call of the Blue', to further strengthen its position in the Indian market.

2. Accion Labs gets Poornima Prasad as global CPO

Prasad moves from Tech Mahindra, where she was global head – HR, based out of Plano, Texas.                Poornima Prasad has been appointed the global chief people officer, Accion Labs, the cloud and digital transformation services company.

Backed by over two decades of experience, Prasad has moved from Tech Mahindra, where she was global head – HR for over six years, based out of Texas.

In the initial part of her career, Prasad was group manager – HR at Infosys BPO, at Bangalore. There, she was responsible for the end to end functioning of learning and development activities for over 18,000 employees spread across six locations in India and five abroad. Six years later, she joined Infosys as business leader – HR, in 2008, at Texas.

In four years’ time, she was promoted to head – compensation and benefits, compliance – Americas. In this role, it was her responsibility to drive strategic compensation and benefit programmes for the region to stay aligned with the market trends and better attract and retain talent. By 2013, she was heading HR for the data science and analytics unit. For almost one and a half years, she was able to successfully drive the talent strategy in line with the unique needs of data science and analytics.

After a successful almost seven-year long tenure at Infosys, Prasad moved to Tech Mahindra in Aril 2015, as the global head – HR, network services and head – HR, Americas Region.

Prasad, who postgraduated in psychology from Bangalore University, specialising in clinical psychology, also has a PhD in psychology – organisational behaviour.

Her proven excellence in crisis management, immigrations and mobility, strategic planning, global HR management, performance management as well as learning & development will stand her in good stead in this new assignment at Accion Labs.

3.  Tata Technologies’ Anupal Banerjee joins FSS as CPO

Banerjee moves to Financial Software & Systems after spending five years at Tata Technologies             Anupal Banerjee, who recently announced his departure from Tata Technologies — where he was CHRO — on social media, has now joined Financial Software & Systems (FSS), a technology company providing payment software solutions and payment processors, as its chief people officer.

Banerjee spent close to five years at Tata Technologies (TTL) as its CHRO, leading the Company’s HR function. When Banerjee had shared the news of his exit from TTL, he did hint that his next assignment would be in the online payment and fintech space.

“I take the experiences I’ve garnered here at Tata Technologies and leverage it to bring value to people’s lives. That’s why, I’m very excited to be joining a bunch of great people who are attempting to enrich the lives of hundreds of millions of people by making payments/banking easier,” he had said then.

Prior to TTL, Banerjee was the senior vice president – HR at Viacom 18.

At the start of his career, Banerjee worked with Ashok Leyland at its management-development centre. After three years with Ashok Leyland, he moved to Infosys, where he stayed put for close to six and a half years, with his last position being that of senior HR manager. In 2008, Banerjee got the opportunity to work with WNS Global services as the senior vice president and head of total rewards, HRMS and payroll. Two years later, he moved to Capgemini as the head of global rewards where he spent the next three years.

HR News: 3rd Jan, 2022

 1. District collector of Jabalpur withholds own salary, sets right example

The district collector of Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, has set the right example by holding himself partly accountable for the district’s poor performance in terms of resolution of complaints. That is not all, he even stopped his own salary along with the salaries of officers from various departments that have failed to perform up to the mark.

Tehsildars and deputy commissioners of the municipal corporation have also been hauled for being lax, and some of them and are going to have their salaries withheld too. Additionally, they will also be deprived of one salary hike each for not performing their duties.

A district marketing officer who failed to show up for the review meeting has been issued a show cause notice.

The IAS officer has demanded that each and every case received through the CM helpline be looked into and cleared by December 31, 2021.

2. DA hike for TN government employees, pensioners announced by CM

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has announced an increment in dearness allowance (DA) from 17 to 31 per cent, for the state government employees and pensioners. This means, an additional annual expenditure of Rs 8,724 crores for the state government.

However, at the time, there had been no mention of how much the DA would be hiked by. It has been months since the employees began demanding an 11 per cent increase in the DA.

Stalin has now also authorised an additional 170 crores as Pongal gift for category ‘C’ and ‘D’ employees. The gift extends to the employees who are on special timescale, as well as former village administrators and retired officers.

Despite Tamil Nadu struggling under the weight of debt, Stalin has authorised the money needed to pay for the DA hike, prioritising the wellbeing of government employees and pensioners.

3.  Apple gives bonuses upto $180,000 to retain top talent

In a bid to retain top talent, especially software engineers, Apple has extended retention bonuses to certain top performers in its workforce. The bonus ranges between $50,000 to $180,000!

As per media reports, Meta, formerly Facebook, is trying to poach some of Apple’s top talent, and in order to retain them, Apple is offering such an attractive bonus.

In the past also, Facebook has poached employees from Apple from their augmented reality, artificial intelligence, software and hardware-engineering divisions. It is reported that Apple is also in an ongoing process to build a product for metaverse. Apparently, Apple has hired or poached Oculus PR chief from Meta where he headed the research team division for augmented reality and XR. This was done because Apple is looking to launch its own AR headset in 2022. Therefore, poaching employees from one another seems to be a common practice in both the companies.

Meanwhile, Meta is said to have increased the salaries of its employees after the whistleblower controversy this year, and of course to retain its top talent in the company.