Re-skill must for IT Professionals

As the time changes so does the technologies.

What was hot in 2000s and 2005 is no longer relevant in todays fast changing IT Products /Services landscape.  Read the current trends to see the paradigm shift in tech stack !!

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/threat-of-job-loss-it-executives-re-skill-themselves-in-newer-technologies/articleshow/25663748.cms

Raghav
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Difference between Variable & Fixed Pay

Question :

Raghav Sir,

My query is basically with respect to the demarcation between fixed and variable pay.Often during salary negotiation interviews the HR is keen to know only about one's fixed pay out of total CTC rather than considering variable pay too.They state that the hike according to industry standards will be given on fixed pay and variable would not be considered as that depends on company to company. So is a hike always given on fixed component or on the total CTC? This is because I am presently having two offers in hand both with a near about similar fixed salary but one has a very large variable component than the other which is creating a confusion in my mind as to which offer to accept?

Raghav Replies :

Generally Salary has 2 components - one being fixed salary and variable pay.  As a thumb rule for executive and non-managerial positions it is in the ration of 80 : 20% of the CTC. For higher positions the VP component can be as high as 40% of the salary while fixed component could be 60%

If you are confident of achieving the targets you should go for the offer which gives you max Variables, while if you feel it is risky accept the one which has lesser VP

HR Wheel

HR Wheel

Q : What is HR Wheel and its importance.

Raghav :

HR Wheel depicts the entire HR function and hence is a diagram which represent the core HR activities.

The diagram on the left shows all facets of HR and is shown in the wheel format.

How to develop Leaders - Infosys Experience

Matthew Frank Barney had a personal connection with India that goes back to 1997. The 41-year-old American met his Bengali wife, Shreya, in a "romantic semi-conductor factory" in Orlando. Last year, Barney also sealed a professional connection with India. He, Shreya and their two young kids moved to Mysore, where Barney joined Infosys Technologies for an assignment that will have a great bearing on how this iconic Indian software company is run and perceived for generations to come.

Barney is the head of leadership development at Infosys Leadership Institute. Never in the storied 29-year history of Infosys has so much hinged on this responsibility. The seven founders, each of them pillars in their own right, have built and run a company that is solid in its business construct and has values that are unimpeachable. But they are leaving, one by one.

Ashok Arora left in 1989 and NS Raghavan in 2000. Last year, Nandan Nilekani went to work for the government. In the next five years, the remaining four — NR Narayana Murthy, S 'Kris' Gopalakrishnan, SD Shibulal and K Dinesh — will also walk away from Infosys, in deference to Murthy's decree that all founders retire from operational roles by the age of 60 and from the board by 65. Says Barney: "It's an inflexion point for Infosys, and we need to prepare for it."

In his earlier assignments, Barney helped some of the world's top companies, including Motorola, AT&T and Lucent Technologies, to identify their next set of leaders. But, with Infosys, he's working for the first time with founders seeking to pass on the baton.

In July, Barney kicked off a hunt to identify 750 leaders, across levels, in Infosys — the largest such exercise the company has ever undertaken. It's not a random, one-time exercise to meet a pressing need.

It's a formal, structured response that is intended to become an integral part of the company. It will, continuously, identify the sparks in the company and groom them to become leaders.

Infosys has plenty of leaders, says TVS Mohandas Pai, who heads HR in Infosys and who brought in Barney.

"We believe we have around 100 leaders who can be CEOs of companies of different sizes," says Pai. "That doesn't mean, though, all of them can become the CEO of Infosys." What Infosys lacked all these years was a system that could efficiently identify, organise and hone that leadership, especially in the lower ranks. Which is what Barney and his seven-member team are putting in place.

To explain that system, one needs to start at the top. At the top, there is a 13-member board. Five of its

members are 'executive members', which means they also hold operational roles in Infosys . CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan and COO SD Shibulal are both members of the board.

Below the board is a four-member executive council: Subhash B Dhar, Chandra Shekar Kakal, BG Srinivas, and Ashok Vemuri. The highest decision-making body below the board, the executive council is the grooming place for the next CEO, CFO and COO.

But the beehive of activity is below the executive council. Out here, Barney has created a three-tiered pyramid that is intended to identify leaders at all levels from the 115,000 employees in Infosys.

At the first level, or tier-I, Infosys is looking to identify 50 Infoscians who can join the board in three to five years. "We want each leader to be outrageously successful before they even come to my process," says Barney of this set. At this leadership level, people typically have about 15 years of experience, and are geographical heads or business unit heads.

"We need to make sure that the person is passionate about business," says CEO Kris, of this elite pool. "Also, the person should know Infosys well. That's why we have always been saying that the leaders should come from inside and they should have a successful track-record."

At the second level, the hunt is for leaders capable of graduating to tier-I or running a business unit in three to five years. The target number is 150. The candidates here are vice-presidents and those reporting to unit heads, and have about 10 years of experience.

At the last level, the search is for leaders capable of graduating to tier-II position. This pool, which is intended to be 550-strong, is chosen from business and technology managers who are associate vice-presidents or below. They have about 5-7 years of experience. They are like the Suresh Rainas of the Indian cricket team.

Before Barney and this three-tiered structure, Infosys was identifying and grooming leaders, but it was more unstructured and the leadership pool was smaller. But as the company grew and its operations became more complex, as it went beyond its founders, the imperative for a leadership system increased.

"They are the first among major Indian companies to go through this transition," says John McCarthy, senior vice-president and principal analyst, Forrester Research. "It's always a challenge when you move the original management out. So far, they have done it in a transparent and orderly manner." But a CEO of a leading rival says the founders will be missed. "Infy is surely ahead in terms of planning its transition, but it will miss Murthy's vision and Nandan's ability to win and retain large accounts like BT," he says.

Professor David V Day, who is helping Infosys as an external consultant to identify sustainable leadership models, advises against benchmarking to the past. "First of all, you can never replace such visionary founders like Mr Murthy and others — they are really one of a kind. You first have to let go of the assumption that they are going to be fully replaced," he says. "The challenge then is how are we going to develop leaders we are going to need not just now, but also in the future."

Barney has some answers. "Beginning this year, we will have the 'tier top-off' process every year," he says. The 'tier top-off' is essentially a routine measurement of the numerical deficiency in the company's leadership pools. The last time, Infosys did such an exercise, it was 2007 and its leadership pool was about 50.

Barney and his seven-member team are now looking to do this annually, with a target size of 750. At every level, currently, Infosys is short. Against its earmarked number of 50 leaders in tier-I , Infosys has identified 37. Down the ranks, the vacuum increases. In tier-II, the number sought is 150 and it has identified 120. In tier-III , against 550, it has identified only 200.

At each level, the method of identifying talent is different. Tier-I is self-nominated. Infoscians who think they are up to it can apply. Their candidature is decided after an interview with the board. For tier-II, it's the tier-I leaders who work with the members of the Infosys Leadership Institute and the heads of business units to identify potential leaders.

Tier-III is through a computer-adapted assessment tool. "The tier-I leaders are fewer and relatively easier to find," says Barney, who speaks fluent Bangla. "But when I get to tier-III , there are nearly 10,000 people who can apply. With the tool, I can do it in less than half the time we did the same process."

Next comes the grooming

Infosys draws on several resources to groom leaders. These include mentoring, leadership workshops and simulation exercises. Mentoring is a big part of the initiation, and it runs through Infosys. Murthy mentors the board. The board members, including other founders, mentor 6-8 leaders at any point of time from the tier-I pool, which includes the four members of the executive council.

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humour to destroy the ego

Anupam Kher

The biggest stumbling block we face in the goal to self-realisation is the ego. It feeds on itself and grows as we meet with success in the material sense. The ego manifests itself when we are not prepared to see the other person’s point of view and then, admit our fault. We like to think that we are always correct. In our belief, it reduces our stature if we admit our mistake. Such an attitude is not necessarily attached to success; parents have egos with their children, seniors have egos with their juniors. And I may be criticised here, but in the Asian way of life, it is normally husbands who have very large egos vis-à-vis their wives.

As a parent, how many times have you admitted to your child that you may have been wrong in rebuking him? As an older sibling, how many times have you apologised to your younger brother or sister for having been unfair with him/ her? Not many times, I am sure. There is no cure for this attitude except to follow the dictum of every wise man: Destroy the ego.

There are many ways to gradually de-emphasise your ego. Many group therapy classes abound in which participants criticise your behaviour, habits, attitudes, etc., in a bid to sensitise you to your drawbacks. Such classes are expensive, monetarily and emotionally, and sometimes prove to be a bit too harsh for some to handle.

I have a much more relaxed approach to handling the ego; add a dash of humour to the entire exercise. In my classes, instead of dissecting the individual, which makes him feel like a wet rag and resentful at the end of it, I encourage participants to make the approach very humorous. Such humour takes the sting out of the analytical process and yet gets the message across. Apart from classroom exercises, my cardinal rule to everyone is: Never take yourself seriously. We all develop egos because we acquire a very serious image of ourselves as we grow older and we do not like to be made fun of. We are very conscious of our ‘image’. But it is this projection of the image that makes us false and stressed. We will not laugh at jokes in the midst of people we consider our social ‘inferiors’ because we feel it would bring us down to their level.

On the other hand, we will laugh at things we do not understand merely because our ‘superiors’ laughed and we don’t wish to project an image of an ignoramus.
Just observe a child, see how it laughs without a care in the world. It does not care who is watching it, nor does it care if it is making a funny face. It is laughing because it is living the moment and it is a genuine feeling. Sadly, as we grow older, we are more conscious of the false values around us and we lose that spontaneity. I will return to the topic of humour again. Meanwhile, learn to laugh, as it increases your face value!

The writer is a renowned film and theatre actor

Source DC

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Do we need perfectionists ??

So how are perfectionists perceived at work? “Those who admire perfectionism would steadfastly appreciate, understand and applaud a perfectionist. To these people, perfectionists are seen as those who challenge the barriers. Others would look at perfectionists as fastidious, fussy and individualistic people,” believes Arun Rao, vice president - HR, AppLabs.

Pradeep Menon, chief people officer, Cellcast India feels that envy is often behind the negative reactions perfectionists are treated to from coworkers.

“Perfectionists are dreaded by their team as they relentlessly pursue perfection but at the end of the day, their creations speak for themselves,” he adds.

Elaborating further on how Cellcast views this issue, he says, “We have put a very different entry selection mechanism at Cellcast; we not only evaluate people on their past qualifications and work, but also look for signs of having displayed an interest in perfection.

Past successes and qualifications are no measure for future success but with the right attitude, we can get closer to success. This attitude towards perfection is then nurtured at Cellcast.”

But perfectionists can’t be perfect, can they? Menon certainly thinks so. “I don’t see any cons; it is pros all the way and every organisation should value such contributors,” he avers.

Rao takes a more balanced viewpoint, “The pros are - world beating output, very high levels of customer delight and a high level of intrinsic motivation among the workforce. Some of the cons could be a lack of team play; perfectionism may lead to too many individual players leading to the possibility of missing timelines more often than never and there would be a high demand of time and organisational attention.”

Thus, perfectionism, as a personal trait, is extremely praise-worthy . However, the desire for perfection from others should be limited to a motivating and guiding influence, coupled with respect for the fact that not every individual can be as totally driven to perfection as you are.

Source ET

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Worst Words To Say At Work

Linnda Durre, Forbes.com

Let's look at some specific words and phrases that are used by some people to buy time, avoid giving answers and escape commitment. If you use these words and phrases yourself, take a scalpel and cut them out of your thinking, speaking and writing. Words like these only weaken you and make you sound noncommittal, undependable and untrustworthy.

"Try" Try is a weasel word. "Well, I'll try," some people say. It's a cop-out. They're just giving you lip service when they probably have no real intention of doing what you ask. Remember what Yoda says to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: "Do or do not--there is no try." Take Yoda's advice. Give it your all when you attempt something. And if it doesn't work, start over.Put passion into your work and give it your best effort, so you can know that you did all you could to make it happen. So if the outcome you were expecting didn't come to fruition, it's not because you didn't do everything you could to make it happen. It just wasn't the right time for it or it wasn't meant to be.

"Whatever" This word is a trusted favorite of people who want to dismiss you, diminish what you say or get rid of you quickly. "Whatever," they will say as an all-purpose response to your earnest request. It's an insult and a verbal slap in the face. It's a way to respond to a person without actually responding. When you say whatever after another person has said his or her piece, you have essentially put up a wall between the two of you and halted any progress in communicating. It's a word to avoid.

"Maybe" and "I don't know" People will sometimes avoid making a decision and hide behind words and phrases like "maybe" and "I don't know." There's a difference between legitimately not knowing something and using words like these as excuses. Sometimes during a confrontation people will claim not to know something or offer the noncommittal response "maybe," just to avoid being put on the spot. If that seems to be the case, ask, "When do you think you will know?" or "How can you find out?" Don't let the person off the hook so easily.

"I'll get back to you" When people need to buy time or avoid revealing a project's status, they will say, "I'll get back to you," and they usually never do. If people say they will get back to you, always clarify. Ask them when they will get back to you, and make sure they specify the day and time. If they don't, then pin them down to a day and time and hold them to it. If they won't give you a day or time, tell them you'll call in a day or week and follow up. Make sure you call and get the information you need.

"If" Projects depend on everyone doing his or her part. People who use if are usually playing the blame game and betting against themselves. They like to set conditions, rather than assuming a successful outcome. People who rely on conditional responses are fortifying themselves against potential failure. They will say, "If Bob finishes his part, then I can do my part." They're laying the groundwork for a "no fault" excuse and for not finishing their work.

There are always alternatives, other routes and ways to get the job done. Excuse makers usually have the energy of a slug, the vision of Mr. Magoo and the spine of a jellyfish. You don't want them on your mountain climbing team up K-2 or Mount Everest.

"Yes, but ..." This is another excuse. You might give your team members suggestions or solutions and they come back to you with "Yes, but . . ." as a response. They don't really want answers, help, or solutions. You need to call the "Yes, but . . ." people out on their avoidance tactic by saying something like: "You know, Jackie, every time I offer you a suggestion you say, 'Yes, but . . . ,' which makes me think you don't really want to solve this problem. That's not going to work. If you want to play the victim, go right ahead, but I'm not going to allow you to keep this up and I may have to report you." After a response like that, you can be assured that the next words you hear will not be, "Yes, but . . ."!

"I guess ..." This is usually said in a weak, soft-spoken, shoulder-shrugging manner. It's another attempt to shirk responsibility--a phrase is only muttered when people half agree with you, but want to leave enough leeway to say, "Well, I didn't really know. . . . I was only guessing." If you use this phrase, cut it out of your vocabulary.

"We'll see ..."

How many times did we hear our parents say this? We knew they were buying time, avoiding a fight or confrontation or really saying no. It's better to be decisive and honest by saying, "I need more information. Please present your case or send me the data--both pro and con--so I can make an informed decision." That way the interested parties will contribute to an in-depth, well-researched "verdict."

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Indian workforce is most mobile in world

a Foi Randstad, India’s largest HR services company, part of Randstad, world’s second largest HR services company released the first wave of their Ma Foi Randstad Work Monitor.

The Ma Foi Randstad Work Monitor is a quarterly review of “mental mobility status” of employees i.e. their readiness to change jobs. As part of this process, the state of mind of workers is studied in 23 countries across 5 continents, compared amongst countries and finally presented in the form of an index. The index shows the extent to which employees are thinking of changing their jobs in a short-term while compared to other countries in the world.

Apart from the Mobility Index, the survey deals with trust of employees in the job market, fear of job loss, job change and readiness to change in job. In addition to these 4 aspects, the survey also covers related aspects like satisfaction levels and personal motivation levels of the employees.

Below are some of the key insights from the Work Monitor:

Mobility index:

India’s mobility index is 140 and the highest in the world followed by Mexico, China and Turkey. And the lowest mobility among Luxembourg, Italy and Hungary. This index shows that Indians are most open about shifting their jobs in the next 6 months.

People in the age group of 35 to 55 are comparatively less open about a job change. This trend is quite different in countries like China and UK where the highest mobility is in the age group of 25 - 34. For Germany and the US, we see high mobility index amongst age group of 18 – 24.

Again, highly qualified people have exhibited lesser mobility than others in India. This trend is different in countries like UK, US and Germany.

Employees in the salary bracket of Rs. 5 – 10 lacs are the least mobile in India while in the US; the professionals in junior to mid career (USD 45000 – 50000 salary brackets) levels are the most mobile. Similarly, in the UK, mid to senior level professionals (GBP 52000 – 87000) are highly mobile.

Employees in Bangalore are the most mobile in India which means that they are most open for a job change in the next 6 months.

Factual job changes:

The 8 reasons for employees looking for change. These are - organizational circumstances, better employment opportunity, personal desire for change, personal ambitions to get into senior levels of management, personal ambitions in specific areas, personal circumstances, dissatisfaction with present employer and employer being dissatisfied with employee.

Mobility in the last few months was largely affected due to economic crisis. There has been extremely limited movement due to lack of better opportunities in the market. For most of the young employees, mobility has been due to their personal desire for better careers and ambition; dissatisfaction with the present employer played a lower role in their mobility.

In the recent past, most people in the age group of 25 to 34 have changed jobs for better employment opportunities.

Looking at a salary wise comparison, the major reason for job change in the higher income brackets is due to organizational circumstance.

Trust in market conditions:

Over 80% of the Indians are certain about finding a different job in the short-term. The people aged 25 to 44 are confident of finding jobs in the short-term. However, the younger people in the age group of 18 – 24 exhibit slightly low levels of confidence.

In the US, confidence level of people in age group of 25 – 44 is the highest. And in the UK, the confidence is high for the age group of 18 – 34.

People in the private sector are more confident of finding jobs within or outside their industry compared to those employed in the govt sector.

Fear of job loss:

The economic climate over the past few months has led to a greater fear of job losses across the globe and it is more common in the western world.

15% of the employees are more frightened about the job loss. And an additional 57% exhibit partial fear. This situation has been unprecedented in India.

Interestingly, China shows similar figures too. In countries like US, UK, Germany where job losses are not a new phenomenon, 7% to 10% of the workers are certain about losing their jobs in the short-term.

City-wise comparison in India show that people in Chennai are the most frightened about the job loss. People in the age group of 35 – 44 fear the most about job losses and people with mid-level qualifications (typically graduates and undergraduates) are more worried about losing the jobs than the others.

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Things to do in 2010

In 2009, your dragon boss breathed down your neck every other day; your clients sent you a dozen mails an hour and your colleagues... well, let's just say if you start talking about them you'll SCREAM. In 2010, nothing's changed! So much for keeping your fingers crossed and hoping for new beginnings, huh? Well, if things haven't changed around you, may be it's time you did. Here are some tips you could use to stay spirited this year. Stick to timings You work till 8 pm every night so you figure you can walk in at 11 am. Not cool. You may be the best at your job but if you can't adhere to office rules, you'll only get on the wrong side of your boss. Also, coming in on time means you'll be able to leave on time. So you'll have more time to spend with family and friends after work. Lighten up Stop being such a grouch at work. We all know you go to office to work and so does everyone else. But that doesn't mean you need to tell people to turn it down when their voices are just above a whisper or start telling on your colleagues when they spend five extra minutes on a phone call. If you are finding it hard to gel with your colleagues, here are a few tips that might help you fit in at work. Stop b**ching Quit gossiping about your boss behind his back. Gossiping only makes you feel worse at the end of the day. So if you can't find something good to say about your boss, don’t say anything at all. Sure he can be a pain but if you could do better, you might have been 'boss' instead! Also, whatever it is that you b**ch, it's going to reach your bosses ears anyway. [There are enough snitches who want to get into your bosses good books!] So, refrain. Clear the clutter Piles of paper, tattered files and general clutter are just not conducive to work. Clear it all out and spruce up your desk a little. Bring in some funky knick-knacks and make your workspace a little colourful. Trust us; you'll feel a lot perkier at work! For more ideas you can check out Our Office Survival Kit for 2010! It's office property, not yours! Your company is doing well and they are paying you peanuts (or so you think). So you can afford to rip them off a little, right? No, you can't! Stop printing unnecessary stuff and taking home stationery for your kids. It's stealing for crying out loud. Don't faff It's okay to surf the Internet, play a game or listen to music once in a while but not at the cost of your work. If you think that's distracting you from putting in your 100 per cent, (hate to sound preachy but) it's time to turn it off! Also, try and keep your personal life out of the office as far as possible, except in case of an emergency, of course. Learn something new If you didn't get a promotion last year, the fact that you don't brown-nose your boss may not be the only reason. Have you taken on new tasks, developed a new skill, contributed to making things easier at work? Well, it's about time you did. Take our word for it - turn over a new leaf this year and you'll definitely start seeing things around you change for the better! Source : ET Bought to you by HRI Foundation 303 Motherland Building 3rd Main 3rd Cross Kamanahalli BANGALORE 560084 www.twitter.com/Raghav_HRGuru

Substitute for hardwork

The vice-chairman and gardener of MindTree and author of three business bestsellers, Subroto Bagchi believes that no matter how privileged you are there is no substitute for hard work. Here he shares his story of success.

We were raised in the tribal districts of Orissa where I studied in government schools, until Class 11. But as compared to countless other men and women in this country, I actually feel privileged due to my upbringing.

Most children walked bare feet, some wore rubber slippers, and if anyone ever wore shoes, the other children shunned them as snobs. Only in Class 11, my father could afford to buy me a cycle.

He told me that if I promised to score more than 90 per cent marks in optional mathematics in my final examination, I could have the cycle. The deal was done, I had the bike. It was my life's first forward trade.

But the reason I said I feel a lot more privileged compared to many other similarly situated people is that I had the opportunity to be groomed by parents and elder brothers who created a sense of higher purpose in everything I did. From the time that I was a little boy, I was asked to build very large, sometimes global ambitions. I was constantly told that there is a larger world out there and if I did my English, science and mathematics right, I could have it all.

There was no time for self-pity! But sometimes, we complained. We cited examples of children who went to English medium boarding schools, of children whose parents could afford to buy them cricket bats and children who lived in big cities. My mother, herself a matriculate of the 1930s but who took as much care to hold aloft the value of education as my father, would immediately hold aloft the example of a boy, a few years senior to me, who used to come from ten miles away.

His name was Maguni Barik. He did not have a father. His illiterate, widowed mother literally had no support. Maguni Barik had one pair of school uniform. But despite all that, Maguni Barik made it to the best 10 list among all high school students in the state in his year of graduation. He was not only among the poorest students, his name in Oriya literally means, the one seeking alms!

There was no arguing against that one. We would simply shut up and go back to our books. I wonder where Maguni Barik is today. But I know that the likes of him are all around. All we need to do is look.

From ordinary upbringing, today I have the privilege of co-founding and leading MindTree, which has emerged as one of India's [ Images ] most admired companies. Here, I am not alone. People like me and more importantly, people like Maguni Barik are celebrated.

We are together stepping into a future in which what you know is more important than who you know. More than ever before, the future belongs to us. This would not have happened but for the emphasis on education at an early life and an abiding sense of vision that substituted for everything else.

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Indians most confident on senior mgmt effectiveness

Friends,

Indian employees have emerged as the most confident lot in the world, when it comes to the belief in the effectiveness of companies' senior leadership teams, says a survey by global HR solutions provider Kenexa. According to the survey, a firm's senior leadership team has a significant impact on its employees' overall opinions of the company and engagement levels.

Employees in India reported the highest rating of 69 per cent for "leadership effectiveness", followed by Brazil (59 per cent), the United States (54 per cent), China (53 per cent) and Canada (52 per cent), the report revealed.

"Employees in India view their senior leadership team as effective, if it quickly responds to marketplace opportunities and competitive threats, keeps employees well informed about organisational issues, strives to serve interests of multiple stakeholders," the report stated. Meanwhile, workers in Japan reported the lowest ratings (33 per cent), it added.

Moreover, employees with positive opinions of their leadership team state a much higher intention to stay with the organisation versus those who are dissatisfied.

"Those teams that demonstrate a strong emphasis on gaining employees' confidence through their decisions & actions and have ability to deal with the firm's challenges are those that will build more engaged workforces and outperform competitors," Kenexa Research Institute executive director Jack Wiley said.

Source : ET

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Apple's Steve Jobs named CEO of the decade

SAN FRANCISCO: He single-handedly saved Apple, wrought a revolution in online music, created a world-beating smartphone and led Pixar to

Steve Jobs through the years | Why India should have at least four Steve Jobs
dominate computer animation.

So it's no surprise that Apple chief executive Steve Jobs was named CEO of the decade on Thursday by Fortune magazine, which said that Jobs' success in reordering four industries - computers, music, movies and mobile telephones - was "unheard of."

"It's often noted that he's a showman, a born salesman, a magician who creates a famed reality-distortion field, a tyrannical perfectionist," the report said. "It's totally accurate, of course, and the descriptions contribute to his legend."

Comparing Jobs favourably to Henry Ford, PanAm's Juan Trippe and Conrad Hilton, the report said: "In the past decade, Jobs and Apple have entered and changed the industries of music, movies and cell phones. The company has also remained in the computer business, where it continues to innovate as it has done for decades. Remaking any one business is a career-defining achievement; four is unheard of."

The report surveyed Jobs' achievements since he returned to Apple in 1997, 12 years after being ousted from the company he founded.

It took him several years to get the company back in shape. Even as he introduced his long-term digital lifestyle strategy and the revolutionary iTunes software and music player in 2000, the company was facing bankruptcy.

It now has 34,000 employees and is valued at over $170 billion. During this period he also nurtured computer animation shop Pixar, which he sold to Disney in 2006 for $7.5 billion, making him the largest shareholder in the entertainment conglomerate.

Raghav
Founder HRinIndia
www.hrinindia.in

HRI Foundation
303 Motherland Building
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BANGALORE 560084

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Indians design Boeing / Airbus

Indian aviation expertise is now no longer confined to the cockpit and the crew. Domestic talent is now being tapped for the design and system integration of aircraft as well. Aerospace majors such as Airbus and Boeing have formed partnerships with the IISc, IITs and IIM-Bangalore to develop their next-generation air-birds, including A380s, A350s and the 787 Dreamliner.

Chief executive officer of Airbus Engineering Centre India (AECI) Eugen Welte told ET that their company had decided to set up operations in India to source talent and develop competency here. “Of the 130 people recruited here, 120 are engineers and the company will increase the number to 400 by 2012,” he said.

“As part of our internationalisation strategy, we will offshore 20% of our work by 2020, and India will get a big share of this followed by Russia and China”, said Mr Welte.

According to Joellle Willaume, head of the engineering division at AECI, the projects are focused on high-end technology. “Young people can bring in a lot in terms of innovation. We will be going to IISc and IITs for campus recruitment by December-end or early January to recruit more hands. We are also sending engineers to Europe to gain more expertise from teams there,” she said.

Arpita Sen, a 24-year-old graduate from IIT-Kanpur, is one of the young engineers, whose dream of joining the aerospace industry came true when Airbus recruited her. At AECI, Ms Sen plays a key role in engineering design of planes in the areas of system integration and flight control. “I have been applying all what I learnt at the IIT here”, says Ms Sen.

Tarun Jain, a 26-year-old graduate from IISc, is working at AECI on design work in fluid dynamics and aero-design framework. He is also assisting in the work of aero data production and airplane design. “We are working on designing an antenna to provide internet service in planes,” she said.

Srinivasan Bhaskaran (35), who leads a team of 20 people works on developing high-end tools to support the system design of Airbus in their day-to-day activity. “We work on weight reduction and maintaining redundancies on the A350,” he says.

Chugh Krishnan, a 32-year-old graduate from IISc is working on reducing the drag of the aircraft at AECI, which has influence on the fuel consumption of the aircraft and creating a comfortable environment such as ventilation for the passengers inside the plane.

Boeing, which started its Indian lab in Bangalore with 30 engineers, said that this lab was the third of its kind outside the US where engineers work on multiple projects involving advanced design, autonomous and network-centric systems, spacecraft designs and new structure and material technologies.

Boeing has stated that another 100 engineers will collaborate with its various projects being carried out with premier Indian academia and research and development (R&D) institutions. The Boeing lab will be partnering with IISc to develop and integrate advanced structural technologies to enable future aerospace structures. It will also be working with National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) for analysing and testing aircraft landing gear.

Mr Welte of Airbus said that due to availability of this talent pool, India can play a major role for future projects such as building planes which are 30% more efficient than today’s craft. “We are going to start strong R&D activity in India. We will look at future materials which can reduce fuel consumption, noise and weight”, Mr Welte said.

Cost saing at what Cost ?

More than six months into the slowdown, India Inc has firmly pressed the cost control button, and this applies to everything from business class travel to lavish parties. No industry exemplifies this change more than the once booming IT industry. Talk to any Indian IT company today and the magic word is 'cost saving'.

Tata Consultancy Services, for example, reduced its operating expenses from 16.37% of its revenues last year to 14.58% of its revenues this year, a decrease of 1.79%. TCS made it work with various cost saving measures it undertook last year. Interestingly during the year some IT companies went to the extent of making it an agenda to save one dollar a day. What paid up for TCS was a reduction in discretionary spending. It saw reduction of costs in software, hardware and material procured for rendering systems integration projects by 0.48% and in recruitments and training by 0.33%. However, it saved the most with reduction in cost of software licences procured by 0.62%. Travel and conveyance was another area where it reduced expenses, by 0.34%. TCS saw its reserves and surplus touching Rs 13,248.39 crore this year, an increase of 22.59% over last year's Rs 10,806.95 crore due to accretion of profits.

The other side of the story is that some of these companies never paid any heed towards costs at all during the boom. Many IT companies extended their limits to retain engineers. Some paid variable components every month instead of yearly or quarterly, while others offered incentives in the form of travel and parties. But it began to change when clients started observing and demanding value for every penny they paid. At one end, margins were hurting, and on the other, increasing expenditures were hurting. IT companies did not only have to then curb lavishness but had to make strategic choices in the way they were hiring and utilising their assets. Like TCS which said it will hire 70% freshers going ahead, a strategy it never tried before but that is paying off well for the company.

It seems the global economic slowdown may perversely come as a blessing in disguise for some companies that are finally beginning to view cost savings as a constant endeavour.

Source : indian express.com

Will linking of CEOs compensation to Cos Performance help ?

New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) A majority of Indian firms believe that there is a need to evaluate the performance of the top management and board members and to link the salaries of chief executives to corporate performance, said a report released by auditing major KPMG Wednesday.

The report, 'The State of Corporate Governance in India: 2008', prepared on the basis of a corporate governance poll conducted by KPMG in India, said about 85 percent of the respondents said linking CEO remuneration to company performance would help improve corporate governance.

'CEO performance evaluation process should be introduced when the company is performing well. Evaluation of CEO performance sends a clear message that the CEO is accountable to the board and introduces a healthy balance of power,' the report said.

About 71 percent of executives said India did not have stringent penalty for poor corporate governance comparing to developed countries, the report said.

'There are a few areas where regulation could be strengthened such as limiting the number of directorships, mandating greater role for nomination committees in independent director appointments and instituting swift and stringent punishments,' said Neville Dumasia, executive director and head of governance, risk and compliance services at KPMG.

The poll has also highlighted that there is a need for greater empowerment of independent directors and measures to protect minority shareholder interests.

'So long as we continue to have a process wherein independent director appointments are largely driven by promoters, empowerment of independent directors and protecting minority shareholder interests will continue to be areas of concern,' said Richard Rekhy, chief operating officer and head of advisory services at KPMG India.

Raghav
Founder HRinIndia
www.hrinindia.in

# +91.988.008.0321
raghav@hrinindia.in

No.10 Mariott Hotels

MARRIOTT HOTELS INDIA

Industry: Hospitality
Employees: 3,250
Workplace locations: 4
Business units: 5
Unique roles: 27

BUSINESS IS tough, which is even more reason for Marriott to hone its workforce. “Our values get stronger during such times,” says Rajeev Menon, Vice-President for Marriott in India, Malaysia, Maldives and Pakistan. The company’s pyramid organisation structure has associates (its front-end staff ) at the top. They are the company’s biggest asset, says Menon. “So, we have already paid bonuses and the increment has been 8-10%,” he says.

Once a year, associates take an online survey of 42 questions on personal leadership, teamwork, worklife balance, personal growth and rewards. “The survey helps us understand associates and improve their performance,” says Gurmeet Singh, Area Director of HR for India, Maldives and Pakistan.

Marriott runs 14 different training programmes for its employees, and the investment on training is on the no-compromise list. New recruits undergo a week-long training, and follow ups after 60 days and 90 days on the job. There’s an online programme to develop skills of associates and a portal that facilitates their personal development. At the managerial level, Marriott employees are categorised into three bands: red (entry level), blue (department-head level) and purple (divisionalhead level). Across these bands, the company runs a talent development and succession plan. “We have groomed about 80% of our associates to the red band,” says Singh.

With an average increment of 8-10%, Marriott is not a big paymaster, and its 30% attrition rate is a cause for concern. “But we don’t lose employees due to monetary issues. It’s mainly to foreign competition and luxury cruises,” says Nayna Panjanani, Director of HR at JW Marriott (a division of Marriott, in Mumbai). “Many do come back.” Adds Singh: “We focus more on recognition than on rewards.” Every May, Marriott hosts an associate appreciation week, which is a time to thank its associates. “Th e executive committee is on the floor serving them,” says Panjanani.

Source : outlook business

Housework lessens earnings of women and men

Washington, Mar 8 (ANI): Doing housework not only affects salaries of women but reduces men's wages as well, says a new study.

Conducted by Vanderbilt professor of law and economics Joni Hersch, the study also found that women's salaries are negatively impacted by housework regardless of profession.

In the study, the researchers used time diary data from the American Time Use Survey, which provided detailed information on all activities performed over a 24-hour period.

In the analysis, Hersch defined housework to include activities like cleaning, cooking, childcare, pet care, house, lawn and garden maintenance, grocery shopping, and household management.

It was found that the total time expended by women on these activities was more than the time spent by men, and the bulk of women's total housework time was spent on cleaning and cooking.

On the whole, Hersch found that women spent 53 percent more time on housework than men.

Also, they found that married women completed an average of 97 minutes per day on housework and unmarried women spent an average of 67 minutes a day on housework. Men completed an average of 29 minutes per day, regardless of marital status.

Each extra hour spent on daily housework was found to reduce average wages by about 24 cents per hour for women and about 21 cents per hour for men.

Hersch said the most surprising finding was that housework had a negative impact on the salaries of women, regardless of their occupation.

"The effect is not limited to a few occupations, such as those requiring physical effort. Rather, the effect spans most of the occupations in which women are employed," said Hersch.

It was found that 85 percent of the women in the sample were employed in occupations that suffered a housework-wage penalty, including highly compensated women in managerial and professional positions.

On the other hand, housework was found to reduce men's wages in only some occupations - management, business, financial operations and sales-related occupations.

These careers employed only 24 percent of the men in the sample Hersch used.

Although this study shows that wages are lower for those who do more housework, and women do far more housework than men, Hersch said only a small part of the pay gap between men and women is explained by housework.

The study is published in an upcoming issue of the Review of Economics of the Household. (ANI)

Salary hikes will be minimail for 2009

Brace up for a bad increment season. The annual Salary Increase Survey by human resource firm Hewitt Associates, India Inc will see salaries rising by only 8.2 per cent – the lowest in six years.

It could be worse. Hewitt warns that another 2 percentage pints could be snipped off the raise. Those who get this should consider themselves lucky – sort of. For, at the top management levels, there could actually be a salary contraction by as much as 40 per cent.

In most cases the raise will not even cover the inflation rate if the consumer price index were to be taken as the yardstick. (On this basis, inflation was 10.8 per cent in January.) In other words, your ‘real’ income in 2009 could be less than last year.
Some sectors that handed out the best raises last year will be the stingiest. Among them are retail (expected to give only 5.3 per cent raise), infotech (5.7 per cent), banking & financial services (6.3 per cent), oil & gas (7.3 per cent) and entertainment & publishing (7.5 per cent). The last three were expected in the 2008 Hewitt report to be the most generous, handing out raises of 17.5 per cent, 16.2 per cent and 16.9 per cent, respectively.

Ravi Dhariwal, CEO, Bennett Coleman, declined to comment to Financial Chronicle on why media was seen as tightfisted this year. A K Balyan, human resources director of ONGC only said, “I don’t know how they (Hewitt) have arrived on these figures.”
Ganesh Natarajan, Nasscom chairman, said, “The raises in IT will be in the range of 7 to 8 per cent, which is as high as any other service sector.”
Among the sectors Hewitt expects to be most generous this year are pharmaceutical (giving an average raise of 13 per cent), telecom (11.3 per cent), fast moving consumer goods and durables (11 per cent), chemicals (10.9 per cent) and hospitals (10.8 per cent).

Many in these industries disagreed with the findings of the report. Amar Lulla, Cipla joint managing director, said, “I don’t think salary hikes will be so much. At the most they will be around 5 to 7 per cent (in pharmaceutical sector).”
Harpal Singh, Fortis Healthcare chairman, thought salaries in healthcare would grow by between 7 and 11 per cent. Dabur and Britannia did not respond to our queries.
Surprisingly, Hewitt does not have data on the real estate sector, which, it said last year, would see a 25 per cent salary hike. The reality was far from this. Pradeep Jain, chairman of Parshvnath Developers, is on record that salaries at the senior management level in real estate companies had, in fact, gone down by between 15 and 20 per cent.

The report indicates that 16 per cent of 480 companies surveyed have frozen salaries and 12.6 per cent are considering retrenchment, according to Sandeep Chaudhury of Hewitt.

The report also says that salaries at the top levels are the most vulnerable. The management may have to take actually take a cut of 40 per cent, and senior and middle management will their pay shrink by 39 per cent.


Author - Ronojoy Banerjee,Jayashree Maji also contributed to this article.
Source : mydigitalfc.com

Pay rises in US for 2009

Someone Is Getting a Raise—but Perhaps Not You

To the employees who thought 2009 was the year of the pay freeze: You were wrong, at least so far.

Contrary to the sour economic mood, employers are giving salary increases averaging 3.1 percent in 2009, according to a survey of 1,000 employers by human resources organization WorldatWork. Only 10 percent of employers are freezing salaries of their workers, both WorldatWork and Hewitt Associates report in separate surveys of employers.

Still, wage growth is slowing and is expected to slow further. Companies projected lower salary increases in December than the 3.8 percent increase they had anticipated when WorldatWork surveyed companies in April about projected salary increases for 2009. As companies revise their budgets, they are lowering raises. Still, it’s better than nothing—which is what about one in 10 employers say they will give non-executive-level employees this year, according to the study.

“Organizations are scaling back, but there seems to be a very clear effort to reward employees,” said Alison Avalos, practice leader for Scottsdale, Arizona-based WorldatWork. “If you have a job … you’re in a good position to receive a pay increase this year.”

In another survey, Hewitt Associates reported that 50 percent of U.S. employers are cutting salary increases for 2009. Perhaps more important, 35 percent are laying off workers and 39 percent have instituted hiring freezes.

Other economic indicators paint a much gloomier picture: The Dow Jones industrial average has dipped to below 8,000 from a high of 14,000 in October 2007; the Consumer Confidence Index dropped to another historic low in January, the Conference Board reported January 27; and the Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported last month that in 2008, salaries increased an average of 2.6 percent, less than the projection for 2009 by WorldatWork.

Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein said changes in wages often lag behind declines in the economy and lost jobs.

“With a loss of half a million jobs in November and again in December, and very likely in January, wage growth will slow even more over the next few months,” Goldstein wrote in an e-mail.

According to WorldatWork, executives were more likely to take a pay freeze. About 17 percent of employers surveyed said executives would not receive a raise in 2009.

Across industries and regions, businesses reduced the raises they originally planned to give employees. Half the businesses responding to the survey said their company’s financial performance was worse than in 2007 and that they anticipated a decline in business this year.

Contrary to expectations, hard-hit industries such as manufacturing and finance were no more likely to reduce payouts than other industries, despite receiving federal bailout money.

“It seems those industries are no more affected than any other,” Avalos said. “Everyone has scaled down to the same degree.”

Manufacturing companies said in April that white-collar workers would receive a 3.8 percent raise for 2009, equal to the national average. In December, when the latest survey was taken, the industry reported that white-collar workers would receive an average 2.9 percent raise.

Financial companies projected in April that they would increase salaries for white-collar workers an average of 3.9 percent; as of December that number was 3.2 percent, in both cases just above the national average.

Depending on how one looks at it, the small percentage of workers who had their pay frozen will not see their overall buying power drastically reduced. The Consumer Price Index, a major indicator for gauging inflation reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, rose 0.1 percent as of the end of 2008 compared with a year earlier, as the drop in fuel prices brought overall costs down.

—Jeremy Smerd

Source : Workforce Management

'IBM offers jobs in India to laid-off workers'

'IBM offers jobs in India to laid-off workers'

Software giant IBM is offering its recently laid-off employees jobs in 'growth markets' like India and Russia through a new programme and will help with moving costs as well as provide visa assistance, media reports said.

Through the 'Project Match' programme, IBM is offering its outgoing workers in the US and Canada a chance to take an IBM job in India, Nigeria and Russia, CNN quoted an IBM internal document.

The company would help ex-employees "locate potential job opportunities in growth markets where (their) skills are in demand."

Should (the employees) accept a position in one of these countries, IBM offers financial assistance to offset moving costs, provides immigration support, such as visa assistance, and other support to help ease the transition of an international move," the document read.

IBM is also offering jobs in China, Brazil, the Czech Republic, South Africa, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates.

Source : Financial Express