HR News for the Month

The following are interesting HR news for the month : -

Reliance’s Retail Hiring Goes Wholesale
Picture this. Fourteen months into the business and the headcount stands at over 6,000. It’s hiring over 100 people a day, touching 3,000 people a month and this is just the initial warm-up phase. That’s what happens when a group that thinks big and executes fast decides to put its muscle and might into a red-hot sector of the new economy. This is the revving up of the Rs 25,000-crore Reliance Retail venture. And if the rollout goes according to plan, it sees employee count touching a million people by the year 2010. Reliance Retail has roped in the who’s who of Indian retailing to put the plan on ground. One of the imperatives for a business that would need many shop-floor staff is putting in place a robust internal process of recruiting, training and retaining talent across all functions. Sources said that it’s systems-oriented HR team numbers more than 500. Backing it up is a research team which tracks the best practices of Fortune 500 companies to assimilate learnings and incorporate them into its own processes. The venture may be just 22-stores old now but Reliance retail has readied the framework necessary to scale up aggressively towards the 1,500 stores across verticals from food and groceries to consumer electronics.
Source: The Economic Times New Delhi Edition

Wipro Plans To Hire 14,000 Freshers
Continuing with its belief in running software development in a factory style, Wipro plans to hire more entry-level employees. Wipro plans to add about 14,000 freshers in 2007-2008 and has already issued some 10,000 campus offers, said Mr Suresh Senapaty, Chief Financial Officer, Wipro. In the current financial year, a total of 6,600 campus recruits have joined Wipro till date. Wipro is also planning to enhance the intake at Wipro Academy of Software Excellence (WASE) — where it converts science graduates into software professionals through in-depth technology training — to around 4,000 in the coming year from the present 1,700, Mr Senapaty said. Wipro feels that de-skilling of services would broaden the potential recruitment pool, thereby lowering the costs. Increasing wage inflation by an estimated 13-15 pct annually has been a cause of concern for Indian companies in recent years and firms such as Wipro among others are trying to keep a tab on their wage costs through a higher intake of entry-level employees. In the recent years, Wipro has absorbed about 7,000 science graduates. In fact, the company's utilisation rate during Q3 declined by 2 pct to 62.2 pct because of the high number of rookies.
Source: The Hindu Business Line New Delhi Edition


Head Hunting To Get Tougher For Other Sectors
Information technology and the financial sector between them are expected to hire close to 5 lakh people during the current financial year. It is going to be a tough job for the rest of the industry to recruit the people they are looking for, according to Mr Mohandas Pai, a member of the Board of Infosys Technologies. While the financial services sector might hire about 75,000 to 1-lakh people this year, the IT sector's head count will nearly be four times of that — about 3,80,000 people. These two industries are driving up the demand for entry- level people and the IT sector was the largest hirer. He said: "They get the best of the crop. And obviously competition is for the best of the best." Referring to the entry wages, he said: "We raised them from Rs 2,40,000 a year to Rs 2,70,000 a year for the next year. And this could go up by may be 10 per cent a year after that." If the entry-level salary is up by 10 per cent, one could possibly pay slightly more to the middle-level employees. But he said: "Definitely going forward for the rest of the industry in this country, it is going to become very, very challenging to get more and more people in." Mr Pai said: "Right now, the retail industry is hiring. They are not able to get people." The construction industry also was finding it difficult to get the manpower it wanted "because all engineers want to join IT."
Source: The Hindu Business Line New Delhi Edition

Cos Look Beyond IIMs For Fresh Talent
A rising tide is lifting many boats. India’s premier colleges like IITs and IIMs are learning to deal with surging salaries and multiplying job offers. Their lesser brethren - the degree colleges from Delhi to Mumbai, Punjab to West Bengal - are getting some deflected attention too. At Presidency College, Kolkata, placements have gone up 200 pct over the past five years. At Delhi’s SRCC, the number of companies showing up on the campus is expected to go up from 10 in 2001 to 35 companies making up to 150 offers this year. Up North in Chandigarh, while engineering and management colleges have registered 200 pct rise in placements, in degree colleges 70 pct of the screened students are landing job offers. Placements, which stood at 50 pct in 2003 in the city colleges, have been steadily rising 7-8 pct every year. Salaries too have been rising. In Delhi’s St Stephen’s college, for example, HLL has offered highest package of Rs 9.5 lakh to three of its students compared to Rs 7.2 lakh last year. If the increase in job offers and salaries look good, the recruiters’ list looks even more impressive. Some of the best and biggest names in corporate India have been lining up - from Google to Deloitte Consulting, HLL, Ernst & Young or McKinsey, Corporate Executive Board or KPMG, UBS Bank have been lining up to recruit graduates from these campuses. Says Mr SY Siddiqui, HR head, Maruti: “Our experience has been absolutely A-class. Their desire to learn and grow beats all others.” Maruti last year had hired 13 graduates from degree colleges from metro cities as part of a pilot project. They will be put through a two-year on-the-job training program before being absorbed at par with MBAs. Encouraged, they are hiring 25 this year.
Source: The Economic Times New Delhi Edition


Bangalore Is Truly A Jobseekers Heaven
When it comes to hiring in India, Bangalore is the place to be, it seems. The city remains the favourite destination for jobseekers, with a sharp 7 pct net increase in hiring outlook for the January-March quarter over the previous quarter, according to staffing major TeamLease. And obviously, hiring in the Silicon City of India is led by IT and ITeS sectors. The city has a net employment outlook of 90 index points in the Jan-March quarter, compared to 83 points in the October-December period. According to the TeamLease Employment Outlook Report, Mumbai is expected to see the second highest hiring growth in the current quarter with index points touching 90 while Delhi follows with 88 index points. Net employment will see an increase in Hyderabad and Pune by 4 pct and 2 pct respectively. Net employment outlook is derived in percentages as the difference in the proportion of respondents reporting an increase in hiring needs and those who report a decline in hiring needs over the next three months. According to TeamLease Services, there is a sharp 6 pct increase in the business outlook for the January-March period over last quarter, with the current index point touching 91. The overall employment outlook for the quarter remains consistent at 81 index points.
Source: The Economic Times New Delhi Edition

GenX IT Professionals Are Restless, Get Bored Easily
GenX IT Professionals are restless, get easily bored and want to go up the ladder quickly without becoming experts, says a senior official of Infosys and human resources management specialist. "I think the people, who have been joining in the last one-two years, have a feeling of restlessness among them," Mr T V Mohandas Pai, who is in charge of human resources at the Bangalore-headquartered NASDAQ-listed firm, said. Mr Pai, who is also Chairman of Infosys BPO, said IT professionals joining today are restless, they want to go up the ladder very fast and see rapid change in the work they do."They get easily bored. They do just one project and they get bored and they want something else," he said in response to questions at a press conference, where the company announced its third quarter results. He said the way out possibly is to have "better communication, more hand-holding, more investment in training and talking to them and making them understand that they have a long working life of 30 years and they need to become masters of one or two technologies and for that they have to spend time and do a deep-dive exercise." According to him, IT professionals, who joined firms some years ago, were willing to work in a job, learn and grow.

Handle With Care: Greenhorn At Work
The placement season is on and you have just hired an enthusiastic bunch of fresh graduates. But hiring them is the first of the many challenges you are going to face. Passing out from top colleges, sitting on multiple job offers and wooed by many recruiters, freshers these days come with loads of attitude and unbridled expectations. Chalk out a clear career path for them, tell them what a career in a particular function holds for them and where it would lead them. If possible, allow them to pick from a few options you have to offer. This would give them clarity on what to expect. Secondly, if they are involved in the decision-making process, the patience threshold will be a little higher. With high aspirations and low patience levels, disenchantment and disappointment set in fast with fresh graduates. The best way to handle this is by talking straight and telling them what the corporate world is all about. Besides showing them the path to dream and grow, it is also important to tell them about the downsides of their jobs and how to handle them. Ensure that the work environment is challenging enough to hold them back. And also allow for churn of job profile with cross-functional exposure to help them find their feet within the organisation. They should be enthusiastic about their work and at the same time be accountable too. A sense of responsibility and accountability is important for both fresh recruits as well as for the organisation to get the best out of them.
Source: The Economic Times New Delhi Edition


Honchos Seek Help In Global Hunt
India Inc, which is on a major acquisition spree abroad, has sought government incentives to support its global ambitions. In its wishlist for Budget 2007, industry sought a slew of tax benefits, reduction in corporate tax rates and removal of fringe benefit tax (FBT). In the pre-Budget meeting with finance minister Mr P Chidambaram, industry captains asked the government to give tax benefits to support domestic companies that are acquiring companies abroad. They also wanted government to bring down incidence of total tax from about 38 pct to 25 pct. “The suggestion was put forward that there be incentives from the government — certain tax benefits — to support the Indian companies going global. Companies such as Tata Steel must be given incentives for its acquisition bid for Corus as its Brazilian rival CSN is also being supported by the government,” said Videocon’s Mr VN Dhoot. According to sources, Tata group chairman Mr Ratan Tata is believed to have suggested that the government should encourage special economic zones (SEZ) to create employment and ensure industry gets raw materials at internationally-competitive prices. Bharti’s Mr Sunil Mittal is learnt to have proposed the correction of the inverted duty structure and reduction in service charges paid by telecom companies to the department of telecommunications.
Source: The Economic Times New Delhi Edition

No Time For Goodbyes At BPOs
Mr Ritesh Dedhia, 24, still cannot get over that day in 2003. Working at a call centre, he found his seven-member team getting reduced to three overnight. For the next few days, his small team slogged and stretched to make up till replacements came on board. “We have quit,” he was bluntly told. And the reasons could not get more bizarre: “We handled technical calls for which engineering graduates are required”. Easy job openings, desperate employers coupled with young workers and their frequent job-hopping is bringing in a new kind of casualness about jobs and resignations in corporate India. Absconding workers — workers who don’t resign, just disappear — are becoming common. Resignations are losing their value. So far, the trend has been largely limited to the sizzling $7-bn BPO industry that is growing at close to 40 pct annually. But as young workers make their presence felt elsewhere in the industry, this casualness is likely to spill over to other sectors. Genpact senior VP (HR) Mr Piyush Mehta says: “The challenge isn’t about technical skills — it’s about the dos and don’ts at work, which many of them don’t seem to realise.” At Genpact, at least 500 of the 6,000 employees turn into absconding workers. This is when the company says its attrition rates are lower than industry average. The problem is understandable. For foot-loose young workers, their first jobs are normally about trying out new things for fun, specially when companies come knocking at their doors. According to industry estimates, attrition in the first seven days of the month jumps to around 50 pct due to this factor. And desperate employers are only making things worse. The need to ramp up numbers quickly leaves companies with little time to carry out background checks.
Source: The Economic Times New Delhi Edition

Bad Bosses Spell Big Problems
For most people, it's back to work on Tuesday after a holiday weekend with family and friends. And for many, a new study shows, it will be under a bad boss. Nearly two of five bosses don't keep their word and more than a fourth bad mouth those they supervise to co-workers, the Florida State University study shows. And those all-too-common poor managers create plenty of problems for companies as well, leading to poor morale, less production and higher turnover. "They say that employees don't leave their job or company, they leave their boss," said Mr Wayne Hochwarter, an associate professor of management in the College of Business at Florida State University, who joined with two doctoral students at the school to survey more than 700 people working in a variety of jobs about how their bosses treat them. Employees stuck in an abusive relationship experienced more exhaustion, job tension, nervousness, depressed moods and mistrust, the researchers found. They found that a good working environment is often more important than pay, and that it's no coincidence that poor morale leads to lower production.
Source: The Times Of India New Delhi Edition

New Sources for Hiring - Using Social Networking Sites For Hiring
Social networking is catching on websites like Orkut, Minglebox.com, MySpace and others are becoming informal hiring grounds. Examples range from IITians, IIM guys and sundry others putting up scraps to find venture partners, websites putting up messages in communities to work on-line to scraps for young journalists to join a publishing and consultancy firm. Scraps, for the uninitiated, are messages. Do they succeed? Ask Mr Govind and you will get an affirmation. He got his start-up partner through Orkut, an IITian who worked in Intel for three years. Besides, he got two engineers from the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. He has got seed funding of Rs 20 lakh from NirmaLabs and expects to start operations by April 2007. He hired 3-4 people to scrap about his new company, put them on people’s scrapbooks and not just on communities. And he got a decent response of 1,200 people, including freshers.
Source: The Economic Times New Delhi Edition

Head For The Nearest Exit In A Dead-End Job
Ever got the feeling that you’re working hard, yet going nowhere at all? You haven’t seen a promotion in years, the raises have been minuscule, and work seems to drag on week after week, with each day just the same as the last? Don’t worry. You’re far from being alone. Look around, and you’ll probably find any number of people out there who feel they’re stuck in a dead-end job, but simply don’t know what to do about it. It is true that while lack of suitable opportunities might be a hindrance for some, for most others, it usually boils down to a mixture of fear and complacency. A new job involves some risk-taking and uncertainty, while the old one offers a certain level of comfort and a steady pay check at the end of the month. Consider an internal transfer: Speak to your boss, HR people, or colleagues in other departments and see whether you can assume some other role in the organisation. These lateral moves may not be the same as moving up, but facing up to new situations and taking on different responsibilities may help you get out of the rut. Put in that extra effort: This may include volunteering for a job where nobody is showing much interest or brainstorming with colleagues to come up with ideas to try and boost the productivity of the organisation.

MNCs To Dominate Tech Hiring Wave In India
Multinational companies will dominate the tech hiring wave in India, during the next three calendars, giving their domestic counterparts a backseat. MNCs alone are expected to hire 1,50,000 people in the country during calendar 2007 against around 60,000 recruitments they have cumulatively accounted for in the previous calendar. The MNC hiring will more than double year-on-year in the next three years till 2009. That means, domestic tech firms, that have been going great guns with large-volume hiring during calendar 2004,'05 and '06, will put hiring on a backburner, say industry observers. Accenture, Bearing Point, CapGemini, EDS, IBM, JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch, are the leading MNCs that are going to drive the hiring storm in India till end 2009. Again, a whole host of MNCs like Cisco, Oracle, Dell, SAP, Deloitte, Perot Systems, Microsoft, Mr VeriSign, British Telecom and Logica CMG and dozens of MNC outsourcing firms like Fidelity, Convergys, America Online, Barclays, Reuters, Ocwen Financials, Viteos and HSBC are expected to scale up their people front significantly in India. A lot of high-value hiring is expected by over 50 different product development and design MNCs. In addition to all these, a large number of MNCs are waiting in the wings to enter India. ''So together, starting now, a lot of action is expected among MNCs in the coming few years'' says Mr BS Murthy, CEO, HumanCapital, a career consulting firm.
Source: The Economic Times New Delhi Edition

Google Moves Away From Traditional Hiring
Google has always wanted to hire people with straight-A report cards and double 800s on their SATs. Now it is looking for more well-rounded candidates who have published books or started their own clubs. Desperate to hire more engineers and sales representatives to staff its rapidly growing search and advertising business, Google in typical eccentric fashion has created an automated way to search for talent among the more than 100,000 job applications it receives each month. It is starting to ask job applicants to fill out an elaborate online survey that explores their attitudes, behavior, personality and biographical details going back to high school. The questions range from the age when applicants first got excited about computers to whether they have ever tutored or ever established a nonprofit organization. The answers are fed into a series of formulas created by Google’s mathematicians that calculate a score from zero to 100 meant to predict how well a person fit into its competitive culture. With traditional hiring methods, we were worried we will overlook some of the best candidates. Google is certainly not alone in the search for quantitative ways to find good employees. Employers use a wide range of tests meant to assess skills, intelligence, personality and honesty. Google has doubled the number of employees in each of the last three years. Even though the company now has about 10,000 employees, Bock says he sees no reason the company will not double again in size this year. That would increase the number of hires to about 200 a week.

Youngsters Hung Up On 5-Day Work Week
India's GenNext is now hung up on the five-day workplace. After flexi-hours and temp employment, the latest American work-style to hit India Inc is the five-day workweek, say HR practitioners and recruiters. The 22-year-old who has grown up on a five-day week in school and college is now hesitating to take up the big job offer that expects a six-day presence at the workplace. Ms Anusha Joy, HR Manager at a leading retail chain in Bangalore, says: "Money cannot pull people to work on Saturdays. We have at least three out of four people refusing jobs (like admin and HR) that demands their presence here on Saturdays." Mr Rajesh A.R., Vice-President, Team Lease Services, agrees. "Convincing employees to take up jobs in sectors that expect a six-day commitment is indeed a big problem." TeamLease has close to 60,000 temps on its rolls across sectors such as IT, ITeS, BFSI, pharma, manufacturing and retail. At temp recruitment from Tier I institutes, students look for five-day work, says Mr Rajesh. "Retail does demand long working hours and we find that people from manufacturing and army backgrounds are more easily convinced about working on Saturdays.

Compiled by Team @ HRudaya

HRudaya - Jan 07 Highlights

HRudaya Jan 07 Issue Highlights
HRudaya January 2007

Editorial - 07 Corporate Mantras for 007 by Raghav Chief Editor
Article - Expanding the Talent pool
Article - The Coming Knowledge Drain
HR News - HR 2020 A new HR Perspective
Book Review - Winning Habits
Website Review - Human Resources @ RMSI
Upcoming HR Events - Asia Pacific HRM Congress at Mumbai Feb 1-3, 2007

For more details click the links in this blog.
http://hrudaya1.blogspot.com/

Thanks

Editorial Team
HRudaya
Publication Division
HRI Foundation
303 Motherland Apartments
3rd Main 3rd cross
Kammanahalli
BANGALORE 560084
# 09880080321
hrudaya@gmail.com

Editorial - 07 Mantras for 07 - Raghav

Hello Readers,

It is this time of the year we make a fresh beginning and our whole approach is to make this an eventful and successful year. The following mantras will go a long way in establishing yourself in the society.

Develop a clear Vision
This is one aspect, which needs a greater attention today than ever before. Having clarity of vision helps you in building a career. For this first assess your strengths and weaknesses, this will help you to focus on your strengths and overcoming the weak spots. Having a vision greatly helps you being motivated and keep achieving the milestones set for yourself. Create a specific milestone this year and you will surely realize the power of purpose!

You should also set realistic milestones towards your journey of realizing your vision. Upon reaching your milestones you need to celebrate small victories. This not only boosts your self-confidence but also helps you to stay on course.

Help others
Most of us are good at seeking help forgetting that we need to do something in return. This is one critical factor for sustaining the relationships. This is a year when you can be different. Do not hesitate in extending your helping hand for those who are in need. You can make a great difference by offering help to those who might require. It could be pure volunteering for a cause or for doing your bit helping others.

While helping others keep in mind do not expect any thing in return for you. This means that once we set our expectations to receive accolades we may be in for disappointment. Primary reason for this is that as a rule people hesitate to acknowledge what you did to them. The moment they come to know that you have a hidden agenda in helping all your efforts will go astray!

Create and nurture a network
The world is indeed flat and the best way to enjoy life is to have long lasting relationships. Creating a circle of friends is always easy. It is keeping the network going that is proving to be the biggest challenge. Here is where you can use technology to the maximum. Making full use of various modes of communication you can nurture your list of friends whom you wish to keep informed.

Contacts helps you to keep in touch and also aware of the on goings around us. The network built can be tapped in case you are looking for some genuine help. It is here that loads of knowledge and experiences are being shared within the community. Networks also contributions from you and be prepared to put your shoulder for any work.

Honesty is best policy
With an increased focus on the background verification, it is always better and prudent to put the right things in the resume. While talking to others also it is all the more better to be true to you. It does not take much though to make out what is true and what is false. Being honest will get you more recognition and regard in your community. This will also help us avoid untoward embarrassments when the truth is out, why face the music when you can play it safe and secure?

Even successful people acknowledge that they have achieved success since they were honest with themselves and also with others who deal with them. Ultimately as we all know truth prevails and those who are caught lying will lose their image. Once this is lost it takes enormous amount of effort to retrieve the goodwill.

Never Miss an opportunity
Do you feel that your efforts are not recognized and you are not really enjoying what you are doing, thing again. This may be just the right time to ring in a new opportunity. Upping the ante is one thing that will keep you in touch the happenings around you. With newer companies ramping up the workforce, this is a time when exciting offers do come your way. This is not a right time when you can switch off to what is happening around you. !

Talk to the people who worked with you earlier. Most of the recruiters are now gunning for the passive job seekers than those who upload their profiles on the job portals. The recent trends indicate that headhunters are stalking the social networking communities and make sure to put your presence in these networks!

Rolling Stones
If you are having a great time in your present assignment why rock the boat? There is certainly a premium for those who dig in there. People who stay longer may go faster in their career. Frequent hopping for new opportunities will result in an assessment by the company as an unstable resource. If you are contributing and have job satisfaction this may not be the year you should spoil the party!

There are many instances where in their hurry executives make a hasty exit even while they are doing a good job and their work is widely acknowledged. After sometime wisdom dawns and people realize that they did a mistake by moving out. It is also a well-known fact that the ‘diggers’ the folks who stay long in a company command a premium and have juicy jobs waiting in the wings.

Learn something new
To be ahead of others it is better to learn new thing now. For instance you can join language classes and pick up at least one foreign language. With the increased globalization the focus will be on the people who actually know an alien language. This will also keep challenging your mind giving enough fodder is the best way to keep it busy.

We crave for food when we feel hungry. Similarly have you thought of keeping enough food for thought? This means solving puzzles / sudoku or just reading books on the topics which you like the most. These exercises keep the brain busy thinking, just like we sweat for doing exercises while we are in a gym.

Keeping in touch
Communication has become so cheap that the costs are no longer a hindrance for many of us. Keep in touch with your contacts. Make a rule that you should keep constant touch with your known folks – friends, relatives and colleagues. This does not mean that you are having an agenda when you communicate with others. In this materialistic world be different and let not people assess you for approaching then only when there is a need.

Looking at the current trends this looks like another exciting period for all of us. Making New Year resolutions and breaking them is a common practice. We can all make a difference in making resolutions that are achievable and meaningful will help us to stick to the same.

Best Wishes

Raghav
Chief Editor
HRudaya
Indias Largest read HR ezine

Sponsored by :
Ravina Consulting - We only deal with HR vacancies.

Upcoming HR Events - Asia Pacific HRM Congress Feb 1-3, 2007 at Mumbai

Upcoming HR Events - February, 07

Asia Pacific HRM Congress

Chairmans Message :
Mr. Arun Arora
President
Bennett Coleman and Co Ltd
CEO – Economic Times & Chairman
Asia Pacific HRM Congress



We are all set for the Asia Pacific HRM Congress scheduled in February 2007. With inputs from so many prominent HR professionals, each of whom brings to the table his/her unique perspective, we believe that the Congress will be a grand success.
The field of HR is in a state of flux, with newer and ever-changing demands and challenges. Thus the HR professional of the new millennium is expected to possess far greater competencies than ever before. The objective of the Congress is to explore future directions for the profession and to have a closer look at ways of successfully developing these competencies.

In 1996, Thomas Stewart, the current editor of Harvard Business Review, wrote an article for Fortune magazine suggesting that HR was bureaucratic and ineffective, and added little to the organization’s success. Thus it should be “blown up” (Stewart, 1996).

Much has transpired since that article was published. The role, responsibility, effectiveness and accountability of the HR function have all changed. Defining HR requirements is not an easy task, given the dynamic rate of change in the workplace. Much needs to be done before we can realize the true potential of the profession. The Asia Pacific HRM Congress has thus felt a big need to debate on the theme ‘The HR Professionals as a Business Manager in the New Millennium.’

It is essential that HR leaders anticipate the future and how such things may value their accountability without the capacity to recognize and accurately plan for changes in the business landscape. Coping strategies can not be proactive - they can only be reactive – at a much higher cost. Foresight will help HR professionals to achieve more. We do hope that the Asia Pacific HRM Congress will help us to reinvent ourselves, so that our contribution is higher to the people we serve, the organization we shape and the societies in which we operate.

Objective of the conference

HR VALUE: Expose yourself to ways the HR function can ADD VALUE to business operations.

HR INTEGRATION: Discuss strategies to strengthen the CREDIBILITY of HR in order to truly impact the agenda on people in your organization.

HR PERFORMANCE: Learn how to ENHANCE both PERSONAL and DEPARTMENTAL performance.

Strategies for Surviving the Future
The Personal Influence Factor-Maximizing your Impact in the Management
Driving Strategic HR initiatives through scalable Internal Coaching Programs.
The Business of the People, the Power of the Workplace
Metrics & Measuring HR: Providing Evidence of value.
The Savvy Owl Politics, Power and Influence What they don't teach you in Business School
Teaching Big shots to Behave.
Strategic responses when there is no Strategy.
Top trends in HR technology 2006
The Talent Pipeline Strategy: A staffing models to compete globally.
The Four Obstacles to organizational change: How to overcome them and inspire a Dynamic workplace
Exploring the relationship between employee Morale and Organizational Leader behaviors
The HR Directors role: Be Savvy, Be Strategic, Be Smart!
Redefining strategy from the Inside out
How to become a Strategic partner in your company.
Moving the Needle: Making Leadership development a core Business Strategy.
Creating Executive Presence: Thinking on your feet.
Employment Branding: Branding your organization to attract and retain 'A' Level Talent
Leading with Heart in a heartless economy
The Leaders Toolbox: Practical and proven tools to unlock the Power of Leadership.
Creating Competitive Advantage through People-Strategy, Structure and Systems.
Personal Power: Optimizing your Influence in the workplace
Great Ideas aren't enough: Strategies and Tactics for Selling HR to an Indifferent world.
Why great Leaders don't take Yes for an answer

Program Schedule -

February 1st 2007
Opening Remarks by Mr. Arun Arora, Chairman, Asia Pacific HRM Congress

Keynote by Mr. K Ramkumar, Senior GM-Human Resources ICICI Bank Ltd.

Chaired by: Dr. Santrupt Misra, Director-Corporate HR, Birla Mgt. Corporation Ltd.

Venue:
The Ballroom

Workshop - A Day with Prof. Dave Ulrich "HR Opportunities and Challenges-
What's next for HR….?"



Venue:
Salcette 1 & 2 Chairman: Prof. Chetan Wakalkar, Group Director,
Indira Group of Institutes

Dr. Vidula Bal, Global Manager - Leadership Development Program, Center for Creative Leadership, USA

"Coaching Big Shots, Hi Pos and No Shows: A Developmental Perspective”

7:00pm Venue:The Ballroom
Event - RASBIC Awards
Chairman: Mr. Jyotirmoy Bose, Director - HR, The Times of India

February 2nd 2007

Venue:
The Ballroom Inauguration of the Asia Pacific HRM Congress

Welcome by: Mr. Arun Arora, Chairman,
Asia Pacific HRM Congress

Keynote by: Dr. Stephen Lundin, Founder,
The Fish! Philosophy

Masterclass A (Venue: The Ballroom)

Chairman: Mr. Soumen Basu, Executive Chairman,
Manpower Services India Pvt. Ltd

Speakers
Mr. Alan Parker, Managing Director, Hewitt Asia Leadership Center
Mr. Kenneth Kwek, Managing Director - Asia, Cartus
Mr. Devarajan Harish, Vice President - HR, Unilever South Asia
Mr. Peter Cheese, Managing Director,
(Human Performance Service Line), Accenture

Masterclass B (Venue: Salcette 1 & 2)

Chairman: Mr. S K Dutt, Head – Human Resources (Talent Management & Employer Branding),
Larsen & Tourbo

Speakers
Mr. Diaa Mohamed, Regional HR Director,
Motorola Middle East and Africa
Mr. Radhakrishnan B Menon, Executive Director - HR, Cadbury Indian Subcontinent
Ms. Kristen Weirick, Sr Manager - Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding, Whirlpool Corporation
Ms. Regina Miller, Founder, The Seventh Suite

Workshop by Dr Stephen Lundin, Founder, The Fish! Philisophy (Venue: The Ballroom)


Venue: Salcette 1 & 2
HR in Services

Chairman: Mr. Sandip Ghose, Chief General
Manager – HRD, Reserve Bank of India

Speakers
Mr. Ahmed Ali Al Sirkal, Sr VP - Group HR, Dubai Islamic Bank
Ms. Mandeep Maitra, Country Head - HR HDFC Bank Ltd
Mr. Zafar Aziz Osmani, Sr. EVP and ChiefExec – HR & OD,Habib Bank
Mr. Dinesh Burrenchobay, Chief HR Executive, Air Mauritius Ltd
Mr. Rajesh Padmanabhan, Executive VP - HR & OCLD,The Oberoi Group
Mr. Chandan Chattaraj, Executive Director - HR, Xerox India Ltd
Mr. Mark Smith, Head - Retail Human Resources, Nedbank Group*

Venue: Konkan
HR in Manufacturing Sector

Chairman: Mr. Sanjay Muthal, President – Human Resources, Nicholas Piramal India Ltd

Speakers
Ms Ethel M Odilao, Director - HR Fluor Daniel Inc
Dr. A Gururaj, GM - India, Flextronics
Ms. Talat Naseer, Head of Human Resource & OD,
Glaxo SmithKline Pakistan Limited
Mr. Michael O'Hare, VP - HR (China Business Unit),Pepsico International (Asia Region)

Venue: Malabar
HR in IT

Chairman: Mr. Harish Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, Onward Technologies Ltd

Speakers
Mr. TGC Prasad, Director – Organization Strategy and Design
(Asia Pac/ China), Lucent Technologies (I) Pvt. Ltd
Mr. T Hari, Senior VP - HR, Satyam Computer Services
Mr. Aquil Busrai, Executive Director - HR, IBM India Limited
Mr. Arics Poon, Ex - Managing Director Oracle South China and Hong Kong
Mr. James B Jordan, Global Solutions Executive, IBM Learning Solutions

CEOs Round Table Conference (Venue: The Ballroom)

Chairman: Mr. Arun Arora, Chairman,Asia Pacific HRM Congress

Speakers
Dr. Mukesh Aghi, CEO, Universitas 21 Global
Mr. Sanjay Nayar, CEO - India and Area Head (Bangladesh, Nepal & Sri Lanka), Citibank


7:00pm Global HR Excellence Awards
Chief Guest: Shri Praful Patel, Cabinet Minister for Aviation, Government of India

February 3rd 2007

Venue:
The Ballroom ccc Case Study Presentation on Sentosa by
Ms. Cynthia Lee, Director - Human Resources,
Sentosa Leisure Group


Venue:
The Ballroom ccc Keynote & Plenary Session

Hon'able Minister Mr Jigmi Y Thinley, Minister for Home and Cultural Affairs, Royal Government of Bhutan

"Gross National Happiness Index"

Venue:
The Ballroom Workshop on Employer Branding
Mr. Richard Mosley, Managing Director, PeopleinBusiness UK


2:00pm - 3:30pm Knowledge Sharing
Sessions/ Concurrent Sessions

Workshop by Mr. Michael Bungay Stanier,
Box of Crayons
Workshop by Mr. Stuart Harris & David Simpson, Team Building Asia
Workshop by Dr Madan Kataria, Laughter Yoga


HR in Oil and Gas

Chairman: Dr. Sujaya Banerjee, Chief Learning Officer, Essar Group

Speakers
Mr. Luechai Wongsirasawad, VP - HR & Business Service Division, PTT Exploration & Production Public Co Ltd
Ms. Susan White, ED - HR and Corp Policy Worley Parsons
Ms. Lia Belilos, HR Director, Shell China
Dr A K Balyan, Director - HR ONGC*
Mr. Alvaro Brazon, Human Resource Manager,
Petrolera Ameriven*

Venue: Konkan
Knowledge Sharing Session

Chairman: Ms. Saagarika Rai, Chief HR Officer,Bharti Airtel Ltd.

Speakers
Mr. Hanan Darwish, Program Director Schneider University
Mr. Anthony Twigger, Executive Director, International Federation of Training and Development Organisations
Dr. Lulwa Al-Mutlaq, Chief Executive, Golden
Trust Business Consultancy

Venue: Ballroom
Knowledge Sharing Session

Chairman: Mr. Rajeev Dubey, President – Human Resources and Member of the Group Mgmt Board,
Mahindra & Mahindra Limited

Speakers
Mr. Paul Keijzer, Human Resources Director,
Unilever Pakistan Ltd
Mr. Navroz Surani, Director, Human Resources,
Aga Khan University
Mr. Paul Keursten, Partner, Kessels & Smit, Director - FCE
Mr. Pierre-Yves Poulain, Executive Director, ANDCP

Venue: Salcette 1 & 2
Knowledge Sharing Session
Chairman: Mr. Jyotirmoy Bose, Director – HR, Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd.
Speakers
Mr. David Arkless, Senior Vice President - Corporate Affairs, Manpower Inc.
Mr. Tom Vines, Vice President - HR (Asia Pacific), IBM
Mr. Vincente Picarelli Filho, Regional Practice Leader - Human Capital, Deloitte
Mr. Udai Upendra, Vice President - Global HR, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd

6:00pm Venue: The Ballroom - Valedictory address

Dr Vidula Bal, Global Manager - Leadership Development Program, Center for Creative Leadership, USA

Click here for registrations -
http://www.asiapacifichrmcongress.com/registrationform.asp

Source : asiapacifichrmcongress.com

HR 2020 - A new perspective

IIPM and Times Ascent HR Forum had a series of programs on HR 2020 at New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Background :
Remember the first time you applied for your job ? We all do ! The million dollar interview confirmation that you received - be it thrugh a speculative telephone call or a fancy call letter or after an interactive session with your prospective boss, in all aprobability, there was a time at some stage of your work life where you have dealth with the personnel department or popularly referred to as the HR department.

With the national economy growing speedily and with enormous growth in major sectors - IT ITeS, Retail,Pharma, Manufacturing, Telecom, Airlines etc of the Indian economy, HRs role has not only become an integral part of an employees life but also HR challenges have grown multifold. In todays highly competitive job scenario, it is like building an aircarft while you are in the air for several HR managers. FAced with growth at record levels in some industries and skyrocketing attritio, for HR finding workers with the right skills is a grave issue. Even hot industries that can attract college graduates from the top-tier business schools are being forced by market conditions to inflate salaries and lower job expectations.

While the HR challenges facing many Indian companies are both daunting and crucial to the continued success of their businesses, the number of enlightened HR leaders helping to tackle those challenges ina strategic fashion is small. HR still has not reached the strategic level that it should be at. Even in the larger companies, they talk about being strategic, but in the main they are not doing it !

Attraction and retention are all the HR puts emphasis on. But, HR needs to look at the bigger picture. HOw many of HR executive actually do workplace planning ? Are there any innovative HR policies laid to encourage employee motivation ? Hence, after the overwhelming response received inthe previous editions of the TimesAscent HR forum has conducted 3 back to back seminars at New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai in the month of January, 07. To tune up to the challenges and trying to predict the future of HR these events are named as HR 2020.

Google India was Platinum sponsor while Adrenalin and Accenture were Gold sponsors for the event across 3 locations.

About the event :

If there is one people management mantra of the future, it is this - take a more holistic approach towards managing human beings. In the past, the term ‘resource’ was taken a tad too seriously. HRM was basically seen as a top-down activity; employees had to be ‘handled’ by the management. But people, unlike robots, cannot merely be oiled, polished, recharged and put to work. As Dr. Covey said, ‘Human beings are not things needing to be motivated and controlled; they are four dimensional — body, mind, heart, and spirit.’

Having realised this, managers and organisations are talking about creating more engaging workplaces. After all, today’s leaders have to do more than merely extract work out of their people. Modern people management has a lot to do with nurturing the dreams and ambitions of employees and making them realise that their contribution is not just a transaction of work for money and material comfort.

As HR enters mainstream management in its new role as a critical business function, Times Ascent, through the Times Ascent HR Forum: HR 2020, takes on the mantle of observer and analyst, in its quest to be the voice of the new Indian HR industry. HR 2020 is an attempt to gain insights into people strategies for the future by gauging employee engagement and empowerment tactics, innovative rewards and compensation practices; and everything else that enables leaders to meet the opportunities and the challenges of managing tomorrow’s workforce.

The events got started off with Key Note address by :

Mr Shantanu Khosla MD Procter & Gamble at Mumbau
Mr. Ravi Swaminathan President Hewlett Packard at Delhi
Mr. Romi Malhotra MD Dell India at Bangalore

IIPM has made a presentation about the institution which had a av.

Followed by the key note address there were presentations on Great Places to Work -
Innovative HR Practices: Case study on’ Great place to work ‘
At Mumbai by Sujaya Banerjee CLO Essar Group
At Delhi by Aditya Roy Manager HR Google India
AtnBangalore by Narasimha Prasad - Staffing Programs Manager Google India

Panel Discussion - I
Can HR contribute to the bottomline? “ CEOs" Perspective

Background :
Some still consider HR a support function. But there are others who actually dare to dream that there could be room for it to evolve and acquire a more strategic role. With functions like recruitment and payroll taking a backseat to more demanding functions like employer branding, talent grooming and succession planning, this dream could actually come true. As for getting a seat at the table, only time will tell how well professionals in this function manage to administer their new roles. We invite CEOs from progressive organisations to throw light on their vision for the function of HR.

Mumbai
Moderator - Pankaj Vaish Managing Partner Accenture Delivery Centre BPO

The panel had the following CEOs
S Ravi Kiran Managing Director Starcom
Gunith Chadha CEO Deustche Bank
Rajat Jain, MD Walt Disney Company I Pvt Ltd
Dr Abhijit Gangopadhyay Professor OB -XLRI
V Balaraman CEO Adrenalin eSystems Ltd

Delhi
Moderated by Nischae Suri Head Asia Pacific, Hewitt Associates

Panel had the following CEOs -
Yvonne Spalding COO Xansa I td
Ganesh Guruswamy Country Manager and Director Freescale Semiconductor
Ajit Kumar Senior Executive Accenture Delivery Centre India
V Balaraman CEO Adrenalin eSystems Ltd

Bangalore
Moderated by Sandee Arora, Lead Executive, Accenture Delivery Centre India

CEO panel consisted of the following :
Bhaskar Pramanik - President, Sun Microsystems
Sampath Iyengar Chief Executive Officer, PSI Data Systems
Amitava Roy, President Symphony Services
B Sambamurthy CMD Corporation Bank
V Balaraman CEO Adrenalin eSystems Ltd

After the initial pointers by the moderators the audience participated and had put questions to all the panelists.

After the panel discussion there were presentation on Innovative HR Practices: Case Study on the topic
Any Time Promotions by Nina Fernandes Mastek
Topic - Sapient Start by Binoo Wadhwa Director, People Strategy Sapient Corporation
Topic - Talent Development at SAP Satish Venkatachaliah VPHR Sap Labs India

Post lunch sessesion had a Panel discussion on - Change and the agile organisation

We talk freely of managing change. But isnt it a paradox? While you can prepare for the future, perhaps even predict it to an extent, how do you ensure that when the big change actually occurs, you will be able to handle it? Also, how do you make change acceptable to all? Three words can help an organisation maintain momentum even in times of change: clarity, courage and communication. Experts shed further light on a people managers role in adapting to and making the best of change.

Mumbai
Moderated by Sunit Mehra Managing Partner - Hunt Partners
The panel had the following -
Pankaj Bhargava Chief-HR Marico Ltd
Mona Cheriyan, General Manager Employee Engagaement & Europe Liaison I-flex solutions limited
Bijay Sahoo President HR Reliance Retail
Swaran Sehgal VP HR Edelweiss India
Unmesh Pawar Recruiting Lead Accenture Delivery Centre India

Delhi
Aquil Busrai Director HR IBM, Gurgaon.
Deepak Dhawan Global Head HR Exl Service
Manoj Varghese Director HR Google India
Rajan Sablok HR Lead Accentury Delivery Centre for BPO India
Chandan Chattaraj ED Xerox India.

Bangalore:
Ravi Parameshwar - Hewlett Packard
T Hari, Sr. Vice President- HR Satyam Computers
Varda Srinivasan VP HR Caritor India Ltd
Rahul Varma HR Lead Accenture India
Prof Ramnath IIM Bangalore

These meets were well attended by senior as well as middle level HR managers from the 3 metros.

Report filed by Editorial Team HRudaya - New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.