Pinnacle Industries has announced the largest women-only recruitment campaign in an attempt to widen the pool of women in the workforce, in the automotive manufacturing sector. Aptly called ‘EvolutioNARI’, the initiative aims to provide a platform for talented and experienced women professionals and engineers, who have been on a sabbatical or career break, to return to active professional life. Women engineers and professionals whose careers may have taken a back seat due to family commitments or other personal reasons can now hope to restart their career, hone their skills and even upskill themselves as an active part of the corporate…
Author: HRK News Bureau
Come March 2023 and Infosys will have a new group head – human resources. Shaji Mathew will step into the shoes of Krish Shankar, who has been bearing this responsibility since 2015. Mathew has been serving as executive vice president and global head of delivery – banking, financial services, insurance (BFSI), healthcare and life sciences since 2019. His tryst with Infosys began way back in 1992, when he joined as a software engineer – delivery manager. By 2004, he was the divisional manager – insurance healthcare and life sciences. In 2007, he was elevated to associate vice president, head of…
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has made it clear that it has no intentions of laying off staff. In fact, the Indian information technology (IT) multinational is all set to focus on grooming talent and is keen to hire those laid off by startups. Milind Lakkad, chief human resources officer, TCS, reportedly indicated that the IT major will soon announce increments as per its normal practice. According to Lakkad, the Company has been hiring cautiously and considers it its responsibility to ensure that the people it hires remain productive for the organisation and keep adding value to it. If a skills…
Lotus Petal Foundation’s training & placement programme, Jeevika, is all set to train and place over 6000 rural and urban youth of the country by 2025. Almost 65 per cent of the youth in India are in the working age group, and that is why, the Government of India is committed to equip the workforce with employable skills and knowledge. Gurgaon-based, Lotus Petal Foundation is offering multiple six-month courses at its Dhunela campus with 100 per cent placement. These courses will ensure skill training and employability of the youth in numerous industry roles. The courses are certified by the National…
With ambitious plans to expand its business in South East Asia (SEA), Akrivia HCM, the Indian enterprise HRMS platform, is on the lookout for talent. It is all set to hire over 500 people in the engineering, implementation and support functions in 2023. Engineering talent with expertise in full stack development, data engineering, DevOps and other cutting-edge technologies will be preferred by this Visakhapatnam-based startup. The company, which offers multi-country localisations to unite the entire employee lifecycle in-house, has been steadily expanding into Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, as well as Qatar. Rahul Varma Kalidindi, CEO…
Escalating the strikes seems to be the last option facing NHS nurses in UK where earlier strikes have failed to make an impact. More than 120 NHS unions will see more strike action in this dispute over pay and staffing. Accusing the government of refusing to engage in negotiations, it said it will increase financial support for its workers by taking industrial action. The nurses are demanding a pay rise of 5 per cent above inflation to cover the crisis of cost of living. It is a dire situation for the nurses, many of whom are dependent on food banks.…
After already having fired 90 per cent of 200 employees in India, Elon Musk has now shut down two out of its three offices in the country. The staff members have been asked to work from home. Apart from Delhi, Musk has shut the Twitter office in Mumbai as well. The Bengaluru office continues to function. This office comprises mostly engineers, who report to the Twitter headquarters in the US. It appears like Musk has shifted focus from the India market, at least for the time being. The two India offices have been shut down as part of the Company’s…
Borzo, formerly known as WeFast, the global intra-city courier delivery service, has tied up with an insurance company to offer medical insurance benefits to all its delivery partners. This tie-up will benefit over 50,000 gig delivery partners in Borzo’s fleet and facilitate the company’s vision to offer health benefits and enrich each partner’s life. The courier company is onboarding delivery partners aggressively in different markets as part of its expansion plans. The delivery partners will be able to choose different plans based on their needs and convenience on the insurance company’s interface. This initiative will allow Borzo’s gig delivery partners…
With support from Syndicom, a trade union, about 250 employees from Google’s Zurich office walked out in protest of the recent layoffs. In January, the tech giant had revealed its plans to axe six per cent of its jobs, globally, causing about 12,000 employees to be rendered jobless. The disgruntled employees left their workstations before lunch hour and gathered holding placards outside a Google office in Zurich. The 5,000-strong workforce in Switzerland are seeking an assurance from Google that no more jobs will be axed. It is reported that the employees have also been wishing to hold talks regarding job…
SoftGrid Computers, an IT company based in Indore, has implemented an innovative system where their computers automatically shut down at the end of an employee’s shift, leaving no option but to leave the office. The message, “Warning!!! Your shift time is over. The office system will shut down in 10 mins. Please go home,” appears on the screen as a reminder. Tanvi Khandelwal, an HR professional at the company, shared this initiative on her LinkedIn page, hailing it as a “fantastic” move towards boosting employee well-being and happiness. Khandelwal suggests that such a culture eliminates the need for “Monday Motivation”…
Come April 2023, and Vistara pilots and cabin crew will enjoy an eight per cent increment in pay. The hike will be added to their base flying allowance or BFA. The airline has witnessed a surge in demand from flyers post COVID. However, unfortunately, at a time when it needs more hands, quite a few of its pilots have quit and accepted offers from other airlines, primarily from the Gulf. It is reported that about 30 pilots have put in their papers in the last six months. While the airline denies having lost its pilots and cabin crew to poachers,…
After launching Bard in a rush, Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, has probably realised that there is stiff competition from rival ChatGPT, and that more work is required to enhance Bard. Pichai has asked employees to spend at least two to four hours to test Bard, the AI-powered chatbot and help improve its technology and features. The launch was not completely successful with Bard giving a wrong response during the presentation. Not only did this disaster cause stocks of Google to fall, but left investors and other stakeholders in a sweat. Apparently, the chatbot gave a factually incorrect answer when it…
HR Katha, India’a leading online HR platform connecting HR professionals, will organise The Great HR Debate on Feb 17, 2023 at The Lalit Ashok Bengaluru. The Great HR Debate aims to create a uniform consensus on the future of HR by hosting inspiring keynote speakers for interactive sessions, panel discussions and much more. The one-day conference will offer an opportunity for HR professionals to gain insight from renowned industry experts and engage in meaningful dialogue with their peers. “In a world where technology is rapidly changing and customer needs are rapidly evolving, HR teams must be agile and flexible to…
About 700 employees of KPMG, the professional services firm, may be affected as the organisation gears to axe two per cent of its workforce in the US. This is the first time one of the Big 4 is axing jobs even though many financial institutions and firms have been cutting jobs of late considering the stormy macroeconomic environment. As reported by FT, KPMG’s business continues to be strong despite the uncertainty surrounding some divisions. Recently, KPMG was in the news for its new centre of excellence in Saudi Arabia. This CoE is being given information technology support by Microsoft, Ericsson…
When some employees of Deutsche Bank used WhatsApp for business communication, they would never have imagined it would lead to pay cuts. A probe across the industry has revealed that staff are misusing the messaging service, as a result of which the Bank ended up paying over two million dollars in fine. To penalise the said staff, Deutsche Bank is cutting the bonuses of the employees found guilty. The concerned employees, the Bank says, have used devices and messaging apps that are not authorised by the bank and violated company policies. Therefore, their variable pay will be cut substantially. While…
After incurring losses for about three quarters, IndiGo has finally made a profit. As a result, the airline has restored the yearly increments for 4,500 pilots. The increments will come into effect starting 1 April 2023. The airline is flying at least 1,600 flights every day and more pilots are being trained to fulfil the surge in demand for flights. Business has certainly been looking up with the demand for air travel going post lifting of COVID-related restrictions. This is, therefore, the right time to restore increments. For captains, the increment is Rs 10,000 per month, while for first officers…
In France, a nationwide strike is on in protest of the retirement age being raised by two years, to the age of 64. Services have been cancelled by many airlines including Ryanair and British Airways. Eurostar has also cancelled a couple of trains, which has affected people travelling to and from the country. In Germany, with ground staff, aviation security staff and public service employees at seven airports — including the busiest airport, Frankfurt — going on strike, 17 February 2023 will witness a lot of disruption. The strike is being organised under the aegis of a Berlin-based German union,…
Starbucks, the popular coffee chain, has been found guilty of engaging in unfair labour practices by the National Labour Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB, a federal agency responsible for enforcing US labour law, found that the company illegally threatened, interrogated and terminated employees who were in favour of unionisation at one of its Philadelphia locations. Investigations by a three-member panel of the NLRB found that Starbucks prohibited staff from raising workplace complaints, watched them when they engaged in collective action, and discriminated against those who tried to unionise or support labour groups. The panel ordered the company to refrain from…
During a company-wide meeting over the phone that lasted two hours, Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce, acknowledged that the decision to terminate the employment of thousands of individuals was not a wise move. Reportedly, during an interview with The New York Times, Benioff admitted that the call was not a wise decision. Apparently, they were only trying to clarify something that was difficult for the employees to even comprehend. According to Benioff, discussing such a matter with a large group of people on a call could not have been productive, and the company ended up bearing the consequences. In January 2023,…
For the first time ever, a group of employees at the Tesla plant in New York are planning to form a union. The electric carmaker has managed to avoid formation of unions at its US plants till now. The workers have written to the management stating formation of a union will allow their voice to be heard at the workplace. Expecting a neutral stand from their employer, the employees feel they have been ignored till now and unionisation will lend them the power to negotiate fair labour. In a press release issued on 14 February, the workers sought “a seat…
The Delhi Police announced that they plan to recruit over 6,000 officers, including 3,000 women, to enhance law enforcement in the country’s capital. The announcement was made during a meeting on women’s safety chaired by LG VK Saxena on Thursday. As reported by India Today, the LG’s Office released a statement saying that Saxena highlighted the significance of augmenting the percentage of women police officers in the police force. Furthermore, the LG directed for greater and more visible policing, expedited construction of structures for fast-track courts handling women’s safety concerns, and incorporation of street lighting with the 311 app. According…
On February 13, 2023, contract employees and workers at NLC Tamil Nadu Power Limited (NTPL) in Thoothukudi, a joint venture between Neyveli Lignite Corporation India Limited (NLCIL) and the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO), initiated a strike. They are demanding permanent positions, weekly holidays, overtime pay, and social welfare benefits, following the tripartite agreement established by NLCIL in 2020 that emphasises ‘equal pay for equal work.’ The Central Organisation of Tamil Nadu Electricity Employees (COTEE) is leading the strike and seeking enforcement of the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner’s (DCLC) decisions to safeguard workers’ rights. NLCIL is a government-owned…
With the goal to empower Indian youth and sustain its growth path, mPokket, a digital lending platform, aims to increase its workforce by March 2023 in all areas. mPokket believes in inclusivity, a work culture that values its people, and a goal of empowering India’s youth through job creation and upskilling, aligning with the company’s values. The Kolkata-headquartered company presently has 2,700 personnel, including those at its Bangalore branch. mPokket intends to recruit a broad range of young individuals for several job roles, including technology, product, data analytics, and digital customer experts, as part of its hiring approach. Their technology…
Air India’s decision to buy 220 Boeing aircraft, manufactured in the US, will apparently support at least one million jobs across 44 states of the US. This is reportedly Boeing’s third-biggest order in terms of money and the second biggest in terms of volume. This huge order from India will be a stepping stone to the US becoming the global leader in manufacturing, revealed US President Joe Biden, who said that not all of the one million jobs created via this order will require a college degree. It is also well timed, amidst growing criticism that Indians are hogging all…
The State Department announced on Friday, that they will now permit certain holders of work visas to renew their visas without the requirement of leaving the country. The initial report on the pilot program was made by the Bloomberg Government, however, the exact number of renewal applicants that can be accommodated by the pilot program is yet to be known. As per reports, a trial program planned by the State Department aims to allow H-1B and L-1 visa holders, who work in the US, to renew their status within the country. H-1B visas are commonly utilised by the technology sector…
The Singapore government has decided to allow its employees to avail four weeks of paid paternity leave. This is double that of the two weeks that was allowed earlier. The revised policy will apply to fathers of Singaporean children born on or after 1 Jan 1, 2024. This benefit was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong while revealing the budget. Employers who voluntarily choose to grant the additional two weeks’ leave will be reimbursed for the same by the Government. This measure will help employers to adapt conveniently amidst the tough economic conditions and labour challenges of the present.…