HR News: 10 Oct, 2016

1.

Why Reliance Jio is showering high increments on top performers

The company has taken extra care to reward some people, from specific roles/functions, based on their efforts and commendable performance.

After revolutionising the 4G offerings in the telecom industry, Reliance Jio Infocomm, a wholly- owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, is now delighting its employees too as it is providing salary hike of up to 25 per cent to its top performers.

Jio has increased salaries of the top performers among its junior and middle-level managers by 15 per cent while the high performers among its senior executives, in the level of DGM and above, have got a 10 per cent raise, a spokesperson close to the matter shared with HRKatha. He also said that, “A few people who have done extraordinarily well in their roles, across levels and functions, have even received a hike of 25 per cent.”

However, the decision to provide hikes that are way better than what the telecom industry has offered this fiscal, is not a retention strategy resulting from recent key exits from the company, but are in line with the company’s endeavours to excite its employees as much as its customers.

2.

LinkedIn lets you seek a job without your boss knowing

LinkedIn’s new feature, Open Candidates, allows users to secretly declare that they're available for hire.

Professionals across domains have used LinkedIn to seek new opportunities, showcasing their profiles and expertise to potential employers as strongly as recruiters have used the platform to mine potential talent. Taking this a step further, the company is now allowing candidates to privately declare that they are open to being hired, which will only be visible to recruiters.

The professional social network recently announced a new feature called Open Candidates, which allows users to flip a switch under the ‘preferences’ tab that tells recruiters they're open to job opportunities. Recruiters who pay for LinkedIn's premium service will then see a tab in its search results that lists profiles of those who have turned on the signal, connecting them with what LinkedIn calls ‘warm’ talent. Others won't be able to see if a user has turned on the feature, and LinkedIn hides the signal from recruiters at an individual's own company or its subsidiaries.

Eduardo Vivas, head of product, Talent Solutions, LinkedIn, shared in an official blog, “Through Open Candidates — a spotlight feature within our Recruiter product — we’re making it easy for LinkedIn members to privately raise their hand to say ‘I’m open to being recruited’ for the first time ever.”

  

3.

IIM- Kozhikode to offer executive postgraduate programme in 21 cities

The programme is offered to executives with at least three years of work experience.

Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode (IIM-K), one of the leading B-schools in the country, recently announced its ‘Executive Postgraduate Programme’ (EPGP) for working professionals in 21 cities across India. The course is launched through an exclusive partnership with TCLL’s (Times Centre for Learning Ltd) executive education brand, TSW.

It is a first of its kind two-year part-time programme with 700 credits, including management foundation courses, specialisation electives, capstone courses, functional workshop and simulations. With this programme, working professionals will have direct access to IIM-K’s experienced faculty, robust curriculum and excellent teaching methodology through a live virtual interactive learning platform. Graduates who have appeared for CAT or GMAT in the past are eligible for the programme.

Having benefitted over 3,000 working professionals so far, IIM-K has now introduced this rigorous programme in various cities, with an aim to create high-impact learning experience including a brilliant mix of theory and practical knowledge. Designed for working professionals looking at gaining competency and leadership skills to move to the next level in their organisations, this programme is offered to executives with at least three years of working experience.

HR Movements: 10 Oct, 2016

1.

Priyanshu Singh appointed country manager for Adecco India

Singh takes over from Angelo Lo Vecchio, who is now moving back to Italy.

Adecco Group India has appointed Priyanshu Singh as the country manager.

Singh takes over from Angelo Lo Vecchio, who led the company in India for two years and is now moving back to Italy to take over a larger role as managing director for the staffing business line of Adecco Italy.

Prior to this, he was the country manager for Honeywell Building Solutions (HBS), where he was strategically leading and driving profitability and growth for the business in India. During his six-year stint at HBS, he was responsible for strategic initiatives of all three aerospace businesses: Defense & Space, Air Transport and General Aviation (B&GA). He also supported Honeywell’s (B&GA) customers and channel partners in India, while growing business to record levels.

2.

Gautam Chainani to join JSW as group CHRO

Chainani, currently chief people officer, UltraTech Cement, Aditya Birla Group (ABG), has put in his papers and is serving notice period.

JSW Group, the power and steel conglomerate, has appointed Gautam Chainani as group CHRO to transform its human resource management and bring a positive business impact. Chainani will join JSW in the first week of November.

With his vast experience in the manufacturing and labour-intensive industry along with a long association with the family-led corporate, he makes for a perfect fit for the Sajjan Jindal-led group.

Chainani, currently chief people officer, UltraTech Cement, Aditya Birla Group (ABG), has put in his papers and is serving notice period.

At UltraTech, Chainani was directing, leading and guiding the human resources strategy and practices. The company is the single largest building materials company in the country, with operations across India, UAE, Bahrain, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with a workforce of over 30,000.

He joined the Aditya Birla Group in 2007 in the Financial Services Business and moved to UltraTech in Nov 2013.

Confirming his appointment at JSW, Chainani tells HRKatha, “My stint of nine years at the Aditya Birla Group has been great and I am now looking forward to joining JSW.”

3.

HSBC’s Ram Kumar joins Microland as chief people officer

As head human resources, HSBC Global Resourcing managed 43,000 employees across seven countries in his last role.

Ram Kumar, head human resources, HSBC Global Resourcing, who till recently was based out of Kuala Lumpur has now shifted base to Bengaluru. He has joined Microland, the hybrid IT infrastructure service provider, as chief people officer.

Kumar has spent a good number of years with HSBC in various capacities. Out of the 33 years of his professional life, Kumar has been with HSBC for the last 22 years. He has held important positions such as head-learning, talent, resourcing & OD, and global head-HR - HSBC Global Technology Centre. In his last role, he managed 43,000 employees across seven countries. In comparison Microland has employee strength of 4,300.

At HSBC, he built a reliable, responsive and resilient HR function, driving efficiencies through in-country HR programmes aligned with group entities, and enabling key organisation-wide change management initiatives.

A TISS pass out, Kumar started his HR career with Unilever where he spent five years as factory personnel manager. He later worked with Citibank and ANZ Grindlays before joining HSBC.

HR learning: 03 Oct, 2016

IDFC Bank's approach to Talent Transformation

Leveraging technology and driving engagement are crucial to any talent transformation journey. 

The business of managing people has come a long way – From Welfare Officers in 1890s, Labor Managers in 1910s, Personnel Managers in 1940s and HR Management in the 1980s. Since the late 1990s, the term “Strategic HR” has been used to describe the role that HR should play in accelerating and enabling business goals. At Converge 2016, Animesh Kumar, Head – HR, Brand and Foundation at IDFC Bank highlighted the evolution of HR practices in the recent years and spoke about the approach of the bank towards talent transformation.

In recent years, the job of an HR professional has been compounded by an increase in non-traditional career paths, increased appetite for risk and diverse skill-set. Added to this is the ever present scrutiny of companies through employer review sites and social media. From an organization standpoint, there is a complete shift in the day to day work enabled primarily by technology - recruiters are no longer aggregators of people, they have to re-orient themselves to build the employer brand. L&D professionals need to identify ways to give opportunities to the employee to make their own learning choices. And the focus on performance management has moved away from the bell curve model to regular feedback and engagement. 

Given that learning is a self-directed activity, the focus has been on enabling self-learning through interactive and augmented reality. Gamified learning modules with a combination of internally developed and externally aggregated learning content ensure that engagement is at the center of learning. There is already a high-quality content already available in the market today. It is, therefore, important to curate content based on the current needs of the organization today instead of spending time on creating content. Another important feature that was taken into account is to allow autonomy to the employee. This means employees can craft their own career path and learning journey using the skills to job mapping that the organization identifies.

The importance of constant learning for leaders

Making learning a habit and incorporating it in every tasks is always worth the effort. Without learning, your ideas stagnate, and your innovation capacity takes a plunge for the worse.

Change and growth are associated with learning more deeply than we give them credit for. Letting your weaknesses unchecked with excuses is the worst possible thing that you can do to your future. Some people blame the boss, some blame the job, some blame the work environment, yet others just refuse to accept that change and growth can come from learning new skills. It doesn’t matter what skill set you have, your future depends on the fact that you keep learning constantly. 

Leaders, most of all, need to maintain a constant learning streak, not only to remain relevant in the present and the future, but also to grow their leadership skills. Here are a few reasons why constant learning is far more important for leaders.

The first step to personal and professional growth is to understand and know yourself thoroughly. When you receive the feedback, you have to understand that it may not have reached you in the clearest of terms. Analyze and decode it, so that you may learn something about yourself that you need to work on. Once you have decoded the feedback, you need to grade it according to your short and long term priorities. Focusing too much on your strengths turns them into a weakness while leaving you vulnerable with your existing weaknesses. Learning constantly enables you to see it coming and ensures that you don’t overuse your strengths. Knowing and understanding your weaknesses is half the battle. Once you know what you lack, you can compensate for it by filling in the gaps or learning new skills. 

Consumerization in learning

How will you define consumerization of learning, and how can you embrace the same.

Workplace demographics are changing gears, and technology is forcing employees to constantly learn and refresh their skills. Given this reality, learning leaders will have to change the way learning is addressed today. The role of L&D leaders is also undergoing a massive transition where it has become essential for them to push the right mode of training to enable their workforce in order to be future-ready.

Making engaging content available to people when they need it could be defined as consumerization of learning. Gamification, apps, social tools are common tools helping in consumerization of learning. Today, employees need 24*7 engaging learning content and leaders are empathetic to deliver the same.

HR News: 03 Oct, 2016

AAI to hire 1,200 people across various functions

The staff requirement is expected to rise as per AAI’s new capex plan and with more low-cost airports in the offing.

State-owned Airports Authority of India has geared up for increased hiring after a gap of nearly five years, in line with its expansion plans. AAI is set to hire around 1,200 people by the end of this year across functions, such as air traffic control, corporate affairs, as well as the legal and technical departments.

AAI chairman, Guruprasad Mohapatra, recently shared with the media that the recruitment drive is to keep up with the growth of the organisation and intend to add around 1,200 employees this year.

The current staff strength of the Authority, which has training centres for its employees in Delhi, Allahabad, Gondia, Hyderabad and Kolkata, is around 18,000. It has 125 airports across the country, of which about 95 are operational, with 71 having scheduled commercial operations.

The Authority that has lined up a capex of Rs 17,500 crore to be spent by 2019, will see an increased requirement of manpower as it implements this capital expenditure plan and builds more low-cost airports in India.

Iksula to provide 1,000 jobs at Indore

The e-commerce solutions provider has set up a delivery centre in Indore.

Iksula, the eCommerce solutions provider, has set up a second delivery centre in Indore after Mumbai.

The Indore centre will be a 100-seater delivery centre and will serve as an extension to its existing Mumbai centre. The company plans to expand the Indore operations which is expected to generate up to 1,000 new jobs in the next three years.

The Indore office will also service new clients for technology development, merchandising operation and online marketing processes.

The company which boasts of 30 plus eminent clients in India, the US, Singapore and MENA markets, has made a strategic decision to open its new delivery centre at Indore based on the pivotal factor – the city’s an educational hub. The technical and management institutions at Indore can serve as a great talent pool for companies such as Iksula.

Iksula Services is an eCommerce solutions provider for internet retailers and brands globally. The company has successfully developed end-to-end, creative & cost-effective eTail solutions for clients such as Amazon, Snapdeal, Big Bazaar Direct and The Mobile Store

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Nuance Communications to hire 3,000 medical language specialists

The company presently employs 4,000 medical language specialists (MLS) in India and around 12,000 globally.

Nuance Communications Inc., a voice and language solutions provider, plans to double its workforce. The company intends to hire 3,000 medical language specialists (MLS) in India over the next two years.

The company currently employs 4,000 medical language specialists (MLS) in India and around 12,000 across the world. On Tuesday, it opened a 600-seater facility in Hyderabad, which is an add-on to its existing network of facilities in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore and Mumbai.

The Hyderabad facility will accommodate 200 people each, across three shifts.

The company has invested close to $7 million on its India operations in the last two years of its operations in the country.

The medical transcription industry in India is poised to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over four per cent to reach $1 billion by 2020.

Nuance offers a work-from-home option that supports a high work–life balance. The key requirements for an MLS are knowledge of medical terminology, English language proficiency along with strong transcription skills and relevant experience.

HR Movements: 03 Oct, 2016

Abhay Srivastava joins Cipla as head HR-TechOps

Srivastava was earlier with Piramal, as the senior VP and global HR head, Pharma Solutions Business. 

Building a top-class HR leadership team, Cipla, the pharmaceutical major, announced the appointment of Abhay K Srivastava as the headHR-TechOps. Srivastava will lead HR for the entire manufacturing and quality at Cipla.

Srivastava holds an MBA from SIBM, Pune and comes in from Piramal, where he was the senior VP and global HR head, Pharma Solutions Business. Prior to that, he was associated with Dr Reddy's Laboratories, as the senior director - human resources (HR leader — New Product Development organisations). He was also a part of the civil services (Ministry of Defence) earlier, adding to his diversified experience.

Talking of this new member, who joins today, Prabir Jha, global chief people officer, Cipla, says, “Abhay brings with him many years of HR & IR leadership from his experience in the civil services (Ministry of Defence) and the pharma industry, across manufacturing, services and the R&D space.”

Jha is building yet another very high-talent team at Cipla as the company pushes forward its organisational transformation agenda. Last week, the organisation had announced the joining of Ashwani Dahiya, another ace HR leader as its chief talent officer. With Srivastava also joining forces, it is clearly, a company and HR team to watch out for disruptive thinking ahead.

Aditya Birla’s group head-talent staffing, emloyer brand quits

Raju Mistry, the group head-talent staffing, employer brand & group leadership programmes, had joined the Group in June, 2015..

Raju Mistry, who was Aditya Birla Management Corporation’s group head - talent staffing, employer brand & group leadership programmes, has recently resigned from her position, according to a source.

At Aditya Birla Group, she was responsible for designing, delivering and rolling out group wide talent staffing policies, processes and systems. She also played a key role in strengthening the employer brand and in providing strategic guidance and direction to the teams for the group leadership programmes, such as Global Manufacturing Leadership Programme, LEAD and LEAP, etc.

Mistry has over 25 years of experience working across industries and she joined the Aditya Birla Group in June, 2015. Earlier, she was the CHRO at Grasim Pulp & Fibre Business. She also held the position of group head - leadership development, at the Aditya Birla Group from October 2004 to July 2010. In the past, she has also worked with Tata Sons as the head - talent strategy.

Mistry, who completed her Ph.D in organisational behaviour- leadership effectiveness, from Mumbai University, has also worked with Colgate Palmolive India, Siemens Ltd and Bayer.

Vikram Bector joins Piramal as group CHRO

Bector joins from Cipla where he was the chief talent officer and head corporate HR.

Piramal, the leading healthcare firm, recently appointed Vikram Bector as the group chief human resources officer. Bector joins from Cipla, where he was the chief talent officer and head- corporate HR, for the last eight months.

Bector is a seasoned HR professional and comes with a rich experience of over 25 years across industries, such as IT, consulting, BFSI, automotive, office automation, commodities and healthcare. He has been associated with both global Indian conglomerates and multinational companies. As the chief talent officer, he spent three years and a month at Tata Motors and a year and a half at Reliance Industries.

Before joining Tata Motors, he was the chief learning officer and vice president-talent development, at Deloitte. A science graduate, Bector did his MBA in marketing and finance and spent considerable time in his career as a training and development professional. During his stint at Satyam Computers, he co-created the Satyam School of Leadership by hiring a competent team and supervising the design of a robust curriculum/service offering.

He has also worked with Canon India, Max Healthcare, Gyanodaya (Aditya Birla Group) and Birla Sunlife AMC (Aditya Birla Group) in the past. His global exposure consists of his experience facilitating M&A and change initiatives in countries, such as Brazil, the United States, China, Singapore, Japan and the Middle-East.

Bector brings with him vast experience in building world class, e-enabled practices in areas such as talent acquisition, leadership development, succession planning, managing high potentials, training, organisation development and employee engagement. He is well known for his expertise in leading HR transformations on a large scale; as well as for being a thought leader and a credible advisor. He was also adjudged the best speaker at the Global Learning Summit at Singapore, in 2013.

Bector joins Piramal in place of Srinivas Chunduru, who has been recently elevated as the executive director at Piramal Corporate Services.