HR News: 12 June, 2017

1.

Humu: Google’s former HR chief’s startup is as interesting as it sounds

The name of the company has apparently been derived from the name of a fish called humuhumunukunukuapua or the reef triggerfish or Picasso triggerfish, which is the state fish of Hawaii.

Laszlo Bock—former SVP of people operations at Google— and Wayne Crosby— former director of engineering at Google— have come together to create a startup that seems to promise to make work life simpler, helping improve work–life balance.

Although much of the details are still undercover, Bock introduced the idea publicly on LinkedIn. He announced that he is starting a company called ‘Humu’ along with Crosby. While Bock left Google last year, Crosby, who had joined Google in 2007 with the acquisition of Zenter—which provided Google cloud product Docs with its PowerPoint presentation feature— quit Google last month.

In his LinkedIn post Bock mentions how people spend so many precious hours of their life working, more than anything else, and unfortunately, most people don’t even enjoy the work or their jobs. It remains simply a means to an end. “It needs to be better than that. If we're devoting most of our lives to work, that experience should be meaningful, impactful, productive,” Bock said in his post.

“Our mission is to make work better everywhere through science, machine learning, and a little bit of love,” he concluded.
It is being speculated that Humu could be a recruiting or job-search service, or an HR software or service company. The industry can only keep guessing till Bock raises the curtains.

2.

Cognizant offers VRS to senior staff: Will cut costs and digitise operations

Employees with over Rs 40 lakh in annual salaries or those at the director and senior VP level are being considered.

Technology solutions firm Cognizant is working on a voluntary retirement scheme for its senior staff, in a bid to control wage costs, while it looks to digitise and automate its operations.
Cognizant hasn’t yet disclosed the number of people who have been offered VRS, although the IT firm, which has over 2.6 lakh employees, reportedly shares that it represents a very small percentage of its workforce.
Speculations suggest that employees with over Rs 40 lakh in annual salaries or people at the director and senior VP levels are being looked at for the option. It is also being said that as part of the VRS, a salary of minimum six to nine months will be given out to the employees concerned, based on their position. 
Apparently, the voluntary initiative is being communicated to management-level associates—from director-level to senior vice president. However, the eligibility is at the discretion of Cognizant leadership. 
The company hasn’t yet elaborated much on the compensation being offered, but ensured that it was fair and also assured that it provided a positive experience for those leaving.

3.

Working overtime: No cash but time off in return

With the new bill, backed solely by the Republicans, workers will have to forego the extra bucks they could have earned working overtime.

The hourly-wage employees working overtime in the US will now get paid in time off instead of cash rewards, as was the practice earlier. The House of Representatives just passed a bill that will let employers give workers paid time off instead of time-and-a-half pay, whenever they put in extra hours.

The bill will tweak the Fair Labour Standards Act, which mandates that employers who require hourly-paid employees to work more than 40 hours a week will have to pay time-and-a-half, or 1.5 times their usual hourly rate. The bill also prohibited employers from coercing or intimidating employees into choosing  time off instead of overtime pay.

Now, with the new bill, backed solely by the Republicans, workers will have to forego the extra bucks they could have earned working overtime. Interestingly, the bill was not favoured by a single Democrat with six of the Republicans also voting against it.

The Trump administration, on the other hand, supports the bill as The White House mentioned in a news release that the president's advisers recommend that Trump sign the bill into law if it is presented to him in its current form.

The Democrats, on the other hand, strongly oppose the bill as they feel concerned about the fact that now employers have the final say on when comp time can be used. This means, bosses can defer compensating employees for overtime work.

HR Movements: 12 June, 2017

1.

Snapdeal’s Saurabh Nigam set to join Omidyar Network as VP, human capital

In his new role as an in-house subject matter expert, Nigam will support Omidyar Network’s portfolio companies in India with respect to people practices. 

Saurabh Nigam, who quit the e-commerce firm, Snapdeal last week as SVP and head of HR, is all set to join the non-profit investment firm Omidyar Network as vice president, human capital. HRKatha reported his decision to quit Snapdeal last week, as he shared that he would soon disclose the details of his next assignment.

In his new role as an in-house subject matter expert, Nigam will be responsible for supporting Omidyar Network’s portfolio companies in India with respect to people practices. He joins the firm on June 12 and will be based in Bengaluru.

At Snapdeal, Nigam played a significant role in a massive ramp up of the organisation from a little less than 1000 people to almost 7000 in less than a year from 2014 to 2015. Snapdeal also featured among one of the best organisations to work for in the retail industry during his stint. In addition, he has an extensive experience in a full spectrum of business operations in diverse industries including high-tech, legal, and start-ups.

2.
Emily Horne appointed as Twitter’s new Communications Director

Horne, who was earlier serving as the Assistant Press Secretary of the National Security Council, will now head the global policy communications for Twitter.

Microblogging website Twitter has hired the State Department veteran Emily Horne as its new Communications Director.
The decision was announced on Twitter by the company’s corporate communications leader Kristin Binns, to whom Horne will report when she assumes duty.
Horne's appointment comes after several communication executives quit Twitter last year, including Natalie Kerris (former vice president, global communications) and Jim Prosser (former head of corporate, revenue, and policy communications). Horne was previously serving as the Assistant Press Secretary and Director of Strategic Communications, for the National Security Council. She was the spokesperson for the White House and National Security Council on key foreign policy issues, like counter-terrorism, international economics, and trade. She also regularly briefed senior White House and National Security Council officials, and coordinated senior government communications efforts (State Department, Defense Department, Treasury, Intelligence Community and others), as per her LinkedIn profile. She has been working with the US Department of State since 2009, after joining as a Historian.

3.

Adecco Group India appoints Marco Valsecchi as India CFO

He will have an overall responsibility of supporting the business by leading the finance function and operations teams..

The Adecco Group India has appointed Marco Valsecchi as Chief Financial Officer for the India market. Marco takes over from Vinayak Prabhu who was handling the responsibility in addition to heading General Staffing for the past one year. Vinayak will now move full time as the Director General Staffing business in India. Both will be based put of Bangalore.

Prior to joining The Adecco Group, Marco served as the Managing Director for Punkt in Lugano, Switzerland where he was strategically leading and driving profitability and growth for the Punkt business. He comes with 20+ years of experience in finance and investment having worked with companies like Randstad (Netherlands, India and Italy), Morgan Stanley & Nextra Investment Management. In his 9 year stint at Randstad, he worked in India for 3 years as the country CFO. 

Priyanshu Singh, Country Manager & MD, Adecco Group India, said, “We are delighted to welcome someone of Marco’s caliber onboard to support Adecco’s operations in India. Marco has extensive knowledge of the industry having previously worked in India as also other markets like Italy and The Netherlands. We are confident that these changes in our senior leadership will drive significant value to the business. In this role, Marco will have an overall responsibility of supporting the business by leading the finance function and operations teams.”

HR learning: 06 June, 2017

1.
Skillsoft’s Percipio: Redefining e-learning

Percipio is a cloud-based, content delivery and learning platform. 

Learning cannot be imposed, it can only be acquired when one has the will and feels engaged in the learning process. Unlike the traditional learning models that worked on a push factor, the new-age learning is about the pull it can create and let people choose what, when and how they want to learn.

In line with this need, and taking e-learning a step ahead, Skillsoft has launched Percipio, a cloud-based, state-of-the-art content delivery and learning platform. Built by leveraging almost 20 years of e-learning experience, Percipio is designed to provide a beautiful, consumer-led experience that makes the learner feel engaged and inspired.
The name, ‘Percipio’, Latin for ‘acquiring knowledge,’ reflects Skillsoft’s commitment to transforming the e-learning industry. The platform is designed with the user experience in mind to inspire personal learning and career development. 
Potoula Chresomales, ‎senior vice president of product management, Skillsoft, tells HRKatha that “Percipio is a next-generation e-learning platform and what’s unique about it, is that it is entirely learner focussed and covers a broad spectrum of critical skills that most organisations require in their employees.”

2.

Magicbricks Leadership Academy: Empowering future leaders

MBLA works towards igniting personal transformation among employees and inspires them to become better future leaders.

It is said that the best way to predict the future is to create it.  In today’s fast-changing marketplace, the future is not only complex but also highly unpredictable. It has thus become important for every organisation to invest in its future, both to pre-empt the future and ride the change.
Talent development and strong leadership pipelines are the foundations for a robust and sustainable organisation. In order to do this in a structured manner, Times Internet Group company Magicbricks has launched Magicbricks Leadership Academy (MBLA), a programme aimed at empowering leaders for tomorrow.
The company strongly believes in the power of its human capital and the benefits of developing it through constant learning interventions to create a better tomorrow. Uncovering the power of talent, MBLA works towards igniting personal transformation among employees and inspires them to become better future leaders, who would have a greater impact on business.

3.
Labor Minister admits to jobless growth

Union Minister, Bandaru Dattatreya admits that the current growth being witnessed in the country might not be generating enough employment.

With the advancement in technology and the fact that fewer people are required to do the same job as compared to how it was a few years from now, it is not very surprising that India currently is in a state of jobless growth.

We still don’t have the data to confirm the exact status of job creation by the government, but now we have the statement by the Labour Minister hinting that there is definitely an urgent need to relook the data that the government has and to finally determine how dire the situation is.

The government's promise

During the General Elections 2015, NDA had promised that it would create 10 million jobs a year, but by far the promise has not been met. And this is despite the government’s focus on ‘Make in India’ initiative and ‘Skill India’ program.

While some of this is being attributed to the lack of complete data with the government, the other reason for the same is the ongoing and widespread automation of processes.

HR News: 06 June, 2017

1.

Google, Mercedez-Benz, Amazon, ITC, Philips India’s most ‘attractive employer’: Randstad Awards

Competitive salary and employee benefits continue to be the top priority among the Indian workforce, while choosing an employer, followed by good work–life balance.

Google India has been named the most ‘attractive employer brand’, followed by Mercedes-Benz India, according to the Randstad’s Employer Brand Research 2017. In addition, the sectoral-specific winners for the most attractive employers this year are Amazon India for e-commerce, ITC Limited for FMCG and Philips India for consumer and healthcare.
The Randstad Award, instituted globally, is hosted each year to encourage best practices for talent attraction and to identify the best ‘Employer Brand’ in the country based on the perceived awareness and attractiveness of a company. In India this year, the Randstad Employer Brand Research captured the views of around 3500 respondents, who chose the nation’s most attractive employer brand for 2017.

Randstad’s research covering 26 countries and over 1,65,000 respondents worldwide, clearly reflects that this year too, salary and employee benefits continue to be the top drivers among the Indian workforce, across all profiles, while choosing an employer. This is followed by good work–life balance and job security. However, for the IT professionals, good work–life balance emerged as the top priority while choosing an employer. It is interesting to note that the importance accorded to good work–life balance has increased considerably across all work profiles, with this attribute moving up to Rank II from Rank V, as per last year’s findings.

2.

NEIL helps women get ‘Back on Track’ after a break

With multiple technical and non-technical opportunities, the company is inviting applications from women professionals under the programme.NEIL helps women get ‘Back on Track’ after a break.
National Engineering Industries (NEIL), a CK Birla Group company, just launched a programme creating opportunities for women to come back into the workplace after career breaks. 
The programme, aptly called ‘Back on Track’, aims to bring back the careers, of women who have been on a break, back on track again. The programme is looking to recruit a good number of women on career breaks into various management roles over the next three years.
An official communiqué  stated, “Under this exclusive ‘women returning to work programme’, we are encouraging women, who are on sabbatical, to put their careers back on track.”
With multiple openings for technical and non-technical roles, the company is inviting applications from women professionals under this new initiative. It is also looking to hire women employees from tier II and III cities, in an endeavour to increase the representation of women across all functions and locations.

3.

EPFO to further simplify its process; no supporting document required for advance withdrawal

In a bid to increase social security and enhance worker awareness EPFO has taken significant measures to provide more benefits to members and ease the withdrawal process.

It was always our hard-earned money. Even then withdrawing money from the PF account or closing an account was always a cumbersome exercise.

In the last few years, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has taken several steps to make the scheme more convenient and beneficial for the depositors. It is now working to simplify the process even further.

The Ministry of Labour & Employment has recently announced that EPF members/depositors will only need to submit a self-declaration for advance withdrawal in case of illness of members/dependents. Even for differently-abled members, withdrawal can be done on the basis of self-declaration. This self-declaration form is included in the composite claim form.

As was the practice earlier, the depositor will no longer be required to submit a medical certificate or any other certificate, document or proforma whatsoever, to avail advances under paragraph 68-J or under paragraph 68-N of the EPF Scheme 1952.

HR Movements: 06 June, 2017

1.

Arnnon Geshuri, HR head, Tesla replaced by Gaby Toledano as allegation of unsafe workplace mount

This is the third big exit after Jennifer Kim, director of HR engineering and MarkLiscomb, VP of HR under Geshuri left the company. 

Amidst allegation of long hours of work, unsafe working conditions and harassment at Fermont plant, Tesla HR head Arnnon Geshuri has made an exit from the company.

This is the third big exit after Jennifer Kim, director of HR engineering and MarkLiscomb, VP of HR under Geshuri left the company.

According to Worksafe, an organisation based in California with a single objective to make better workplace by preventing injuries, illness and death at workplace, “the working condition at Fremont plant of Tesla is not safe.”

Worksafe reports that in year 2015, the rate of injuries at Tesla was 8.8 injuries per 100 employees. This rate is 31 percent more than the injuries of employees in same year at other factories.

2.
Snapdeal's SVP and HR head Saurabh Nigam calls it quits

After having spent more than three years at the company, Nigam is looking to pursue new opportunities.

In a surprising move following a series of key exits from e-commerce company Snapdeal, its SVP and head of HR, Saurabh Nigam has quit. After having spent more than three years at the company, Nigam is looking to pursue new opportunities, about which he will share details shortly.

He confirmed the decision to HRKatha and shared that May 31 will be his last working day at the company. “An intense and enriching three years with Snapdeal come to a nostalgic close. It has been a true honour to work with an outstanding team and exceptional leaders. It is now time to paint a new canvas,” he said.

“I will disclose details of my next stint shortly in due course of time,” Nigam added as he shared a few highlights from his tenure at Snapdeal. Nigam played a significant role in a massive ramp up of the organisation from a little less than 1000 people to almost 7000 in less than a year from 2014 to 2015. Snapdeal has also featured among one of the best organisations to work for in the retail industry during his stint.

3.

Nitin Seth, COO and Head HR Flipkart quits

Seth joined Flipkart in 2016, as chief people officer to fill in for Mekin Maheshwari, then HR head, who had moved on.

 

Nitin Seth, chief operating officer, Flipkart has put down his papers citing personal reasons. Seth was one of the top executives of the firm, who was responsible for the logistic arm Ekart and corporate functions like strategy and human resources. Seth joined Flipkart in 2016, as chief people officer to fill in for Mekin Maheshwari, then HR head, who had moved on. At that time, the firm was going through major restructuring in the management and so Seth was given more responsibility. He was made chief administrative officer within six months of his joining where he handles strategy and corporate function. In January 2017, Seth was again elevated as COO, when Kalyan Krishnamurthy became the CEO of the firm. As a COO, he handled Ekart, the logistic arm and customer experience apart from other responsibilities.