Kiran Ahuja is a civil rights lawyer and activist who will hold a leading position in the US presidential transition team. She is set to be the head of team for the federal administration human resources agency, the federal investigation office for civil service and protection of whistleblowers. This agency-review team ensures that a smooth transition of power takes place for the Biden-Harris duo. Review teams differ from the COVID advisory board, where two other American Indians also hold leading positions. The former exist to help in the transition only. Earlier, Ahuja was the CEO of Philanthropy Northwest, for over…
Author: HRK News Bureau
Remote.com, the human resources technology platform has secured $35 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital. Angel investors Aaron Levie, Kevin and Julia Hartz, as well as Zach Weinberg have also contributed. General Catalyst and Two Sigma Ventures, who had previously invested in Remote are also set to participate. In April, Remote had raised $ 11 million from seed funding, and has made $46 million so far. With WFH and mixed working options becoming mainstream, Remote.com, which provides international taxes, benefits, compliance services and payroll, is set to expand its global coverage. Co-founded by Job…
For two consecutive years, the Government will cover the 24 per cent that employees and their employers contribute towards the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) every month. Only those employees who earn not more than Rs 15,000 a month and are hired after October 1, 2020 can claim this benefit. This also includes employees who were laid off post March 1, 2020 and were rehired. However, only those companies and their employees can seek this benefit with an employee count no more than 1000. For those organisations with a larger employee headcount, the benefit will directly be given to the employees…
Strategists and Deutsche Bank have proposed a five per cent tax for those who permanently work from home, because of company policy and not government lockdown. The remote-working mode was introduced in an attempt to cope with the losses induced by the pandemic. This gave birth to flexible work options for many corporate sectors around the globe. If passed, this five per cent levy will raise at least $ 48 billion annually in the US and about $ 18.8 billion for Germany! Remote working is set to be the ‘new normal’ once the pandemic is curbed. With the commuting and…
Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) is looking for suitable project engineers, project officers, trainee engineers and trainee officers to fill 549 vacancies. These are contractual jobs at BEL’s Bengaluru office. Interested candidates have to apply before November 25. An MBA or MSW in HR/ PG degree/ PG diploma in human resource management, personnel management, industrial relations, along with two years of work experience is a must for those applying for the post of project officer (HR). The maximum age limit for these posts is 28 years. Graduate engineers, who are 28 years old or less, with two years of work experience…
The Government of India has announced the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana (ABRY), to create more jobs. The scheme will offer employment generation incentives to all companies registered under the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), if they hire new employees. Those who were not covered under EPFO earlier or were rendered jobless during the pandemic (in the March to September period) will benefit. It will be effective for the October 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 period. To avail the benefits of the scheme, companies with less than 50 employees must hire at least two new employees, and those with over…
After a successful tenure of over six years at Cognizant, Smriti Ahuja has moved to Times Internet as chief people officer. Ahuja was earlier global HR & learning head, BPS, Cognizant, for over four years, before she became global head, organisation effectiveness in November, 2018. Human resource strategy, enterprise learning, leadership development, talent acquisition, analytics, talent management and HR strategy are her forte. She has had the opportunity to work with Genpact, where she essayed the role of global head-leadership development, for almost five years before starting out as a consultant and coach in 2008. As a consultant and coach,…
Employees across all levels at BankBazaar.com will receive hikes and promotions, w.e.f January 1, 2021. The fintech company is confident of growth in the coming year and also plans to expand its workforce in Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai. It is gearing up to add about 500 people, by March 2021, to its current 1,000-strong team. It is the usual practice for the Company to give hikes of eight per cent and above. This year, the increments were delayed due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic. However, the hikes this year will be in line with what was given in…
Just when sales were picking up, Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s plant, on the outskirts of Bangalore, has been forced to declare a lockout. The move was a result of a workers’ agitation following the suspension of an employee for indiscipline. The union went on a strike demanding that the suspended worker be reinstated, since an enquiry was still pending in his case. The Company, however, maintains that the worker in question was suspended for misconduct, which is against the Company’s service policy. It also points out that the strike is illegal and it is unlawful for the protesting workers to be…
Cabin crew at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways have been told to expect more layoffs, via an internal mail. The Airline has decided to ground its Airbus A380 jets indefinitely, as the demand in air travel is unlikely to recover any time soon. These jets have been idle since the coronavirus outbreak in March. The Airline is trying to trim down its workforce, which, given the current situation, is too large. Though the exact number of employees who will be rendered jobless has not been made public, about a 1,000 cabin crew, including pilots, senior cabin staff and cabin managers from…
Employees of 35 banks, including public-sector banks, certain foreign banks as well as a few very old private banks, will receive a 15 per cent hike in salaries. A bipartite agreement has been signed by the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and Workmen Unions. This hike in wages will increase the annual wage burden of the banking sector to Rs 7,900 crore. For Grade A officers at public-sector banks, this 15 per cent hike means an addition of just Rs 1,100 to their individual salaries, and, it merges the dearness allowance (DA) of 6352 points. Therefore, most of the hike consists…
Royal Dutch Shell will shrink the workforce at its oil refinery in Singapore. It will also reduce the crude-processing capacity at the refinery by 50 per cent. The objective is to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions to net zero over the next three decades. The refinery at Pulau Bukom, which is capable of processing 500,000 barrels of oil a day, is undergoing a major restructuring as part of a cost-cutting exercise by Shell. The Company plans to pay more attention to the renewable energy business and power division, and cut down on the oil and gas business. The focus will…
Cadila Pharmaceuticals has appointed Sanjeev Dixit as the global president – human capital management. This appointment comes close on the heels of A Thiru being appointed global president, HR by the pharmaceutical major in September this year. Dixit has vast experience in the HR domain, which he entered back in 1997, when he joined Hindalco Industries as officer-HR for a period of over three years. From there he moved to Philips Lighting in 2001, where he served as deputy manager-Hr for almost four years. For over a year, he also led the talent management & development function at PT Indorama…
Social e-commerce platform, Meesho, has announced a share buy back scheme for its employees. The Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is worth about Rs 37 crore, and all employees from all levels are allowed to vest all their shares, if they wish to. This the second time Meesho is offering such an initiative. The Company has experienced a surge in entrerpreneurs on its platform ever since the pandemic. It now boasts of more than 70 lakh entrepreneurs on its platform. This is the Company’s way of acknowledging the efforts and contributions of its employees. The Bengaluru-based company, which is backed…
Scaler, the upskilling platform by InterviewBit, has appointed, Naren Krishna as the business unit head of the Career division. In his new role, Krishna, who is a serial entrepreneur, will work to position Scaler as the preferred destination for quality engineering talent from across India. Working closely with the founders, as well as the operations and peoples teams, Krishna will focus on strengthening the relationship with leading technology organisations across the globe. Naren is backed by six years of experience in the hiring space. He has founded and scaled two unique HR-tech startups — Stockroom.io and Equiv.in— where he was…
TresVista has taken several employee-friendly measures in the right direction, to support them through the pandemic, and sail through the remote-working situation. The Bangalore-based company, which provides high-end outsourced support to organisations, asset managers, and businessmen, is offering caregivers’ leave, support for employees who test positive for COVID-19 and one-time reimbursement for whatever the employees procure to set up their ‘home office’ Keeping the health and well-being of employees as the priority, Sudeep Mishra, MD and co-founder, TresVista, states, “With our people working tirelessly to take us forward, it is our privilege to be able to help and assure them…
Following in the footsteps of Haryana, the Government of Himachal Pradesh is seriously planning to reserve 70 per cent jobs for local youth. Unemployment has always been a concern for the state, mainly because the youth prefer to move out of the state in search of better pay and white-collar jobs, rather than work in the local industries. This has resulted in acute paucity of skilled labour in the state, which forces industries to recruit skilled labour from other regions, which they do at cheaper rates. If it is made mandatory for industries to hire locals for their workforce, the…
By March 30, General Motors intends to recruit 3,000 techies, for its virtual product testing and software as a service (SaaS) development teams. Of these, about 500 to 1,000 will be working remotely for its electric and autonomous vehicles development teams. Most of the openings will be at the Company’s technical centre near Detroit, Michigan. The Company is on the lookout for electrical system and infotainment software engineers, as well as developers for platforms, such as Java, Android and, iOS. It will also focus on increasing diversity in the workforce, while hiring for positions at its technical centres, including those…
Swiggy, which was forced to lay off its employees in May and July this year, due to the pandemic-induced lockdown and slump, is now recovering fast and how. It is offering its employees an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) liquidity programme, worth about seven to nine million dollars. Existing as well as former employees, who were laid off during the pandemic, will benefit from this programme. This means, about 40 per cent of the employees at Swiggy will be able to avail of the scheme. Earlier, the food delivery startup had rolled out such a programme in June, 2018, when…
AGI Glaspac has managed to raise finances to the tune of Rs 220 crore for manufacturing special glass at its new plant in Telangana. The plant will provide about 600 direct jobs and 4,000 indirect jobs. The container glass manufacturing company will be producing glass for various cosmetic, perfume, personal care and spirit companies, as well as companies offering carbonated water. The capital raised will be invested in the construction of the plant, in its machinery and utilities, in obtaining a new furnace and setting up a new team which will develop the recently launched AGI Speciality-Glass Division. The 14,700…
Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has taken a step in the right direction to ensure the physical and mental well-being of its employees. It has rolled out the ‘Shorter Working Period Scheme’, which will allow employees to balance their domestic and professional life. Starting November, all regular employees up to grade E-7 or the mid-management level, who have completed 10 years of service, can choose to work for three days in a week, or every alternate day, or for four hours every working day, or just 50 per cent of the working days in a month with a variable structure.…
Before Diwali, the permanent, contractual, as well as daily wage staff working for the Madhya Pradesh government will receive advance bonus for November 2020 to March 2021 period. However, only the employees whose salary is Rs 40,000 or less will be able to avail this bonus. The state government has decided to clear all arrears under the 7th Pay Commission. A notification has been issued to this effect and 25 per cent amount of the third and last instalment of arrears of the state government staff will be disbursed this month itself. This advance and clearance of arrears will place…
The new Bill that ensures 75 per cent job quota for locals of Haryana, which has been passed by the state Assembly, has set organisations and businesses thinking and worrying. As per the Bill, all private firms, trusts, partnership firms, societies, trusts and so on, will have to ensure that 75 per cent local people are hired for jobs that offer salary less than Rs 50,000 a month. However, this will be quite a challenge, given the fact that at times even at job fests, employers are not able to find suitable candidates. Those businesses that require skilled workers urgently,…
Mark S Luckie, former Facebook employee, had accused the social-media company of nurturing a system of work and culture that fans communal divisions and bias. He has complained that Facebook failed to take down harmful content posted on its platforms, particularly during the riots that took place in northeast Delhi. The Delhi Assembly’s Committee on Peace and Harmony has, therefore, summoned Mark S Luckie, to appear for proceedings in this matter. A digital strategist, journalist and author, Luckie worked with Facebook in the 2017-2018 period. He alleges that the bias in the functioning of Facebook makes it difficult for minority…
Avtar, the Chennai-based diversity hiring company, has launched a job portal that will cater exclusively to women, members of the the LGBTQ community, persons with disabilities (PwD) and veterans from the army. It will try to ensure that not just women but even army veterans can fulfil their desire for a second career. The portal, which is called Avtar.com, aims to help by offering employment opportunities to those members of the society, who are underrepresented when it comes to jobs in organisations. In the past two decades now, Avtar has managed to successfully help over 50,000 women get jobs across…
Employees of diagnostic company, Metropolis Healthcare, have received their annual increments for the year 2020. The Company has also recruited more than 200 new employees in the April to September period. In addition, Ameera Shah, MD, Metropolis Healthcare has rewarded the employees with a bonus from her own personal account in appreciation of their work and commitment during the ongoing pandemic. Given the fact that Metropolis Healthcare operates 12 COVID approved labs across the country, and is conducting thousands of tests daily for the public, the Company has been ensuring regular testing and medical assistance to all its employees and…