Spotify, the global audio streaming platform — which reportedly already has a workforce of over 8,000, globally— plans to go slow in terms of hiring, but not freeze hiring altogether. In fact, it will reduce hiring by 25 per cent considering the uncertain market conditions. It wasn’t long ago that the Company’s CEO had expressed his hopes of Spotify achieving $100 billion revenue over a period of 10 years. Last year, the Company had posted $11.4 billion in revenue. Spotify has invested heavily in its audiobook and podcasting services recently. It had pumped in about a billion dollars on its…
Author: HRK News Bureau
The much publicised virtual meeting wherein Elon Musk, CEO, addressed the employees of Twitter, took place on 16 June, 2022. During the meeting, Musk indicated that only exceptional performers may be allowed to work from home. Presently, employees at Twitter have the freedom to work from home or office, as and when they choose. On earlier occasions, Musk had thought this level of flexibility at Twitter to be overly generous. At Tesla, he has already told employees that they should return to office full time or be prepared to quit. Musk, however, made it clear to Twitter staff that he…
It hasn’t been long since Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla had expressed concern over the state of the economy and that a 10 per cent cut in jobs may be required at the Company. The Company had already decided on a hiring pause earlier, fearing recession. Now, going by certain posts on LinkedIn, there are media reports saying that the job cuts at Tesla that Musk had mentioned have already begun. With about one lakh employees in its workforce, if Tesla is going ahead with laying off 10 per cent, about 10,000 people may be rendered jobless. According to Business Insider,…
Recordent, a fintech firm that caters to the SME segment in India, has taken an innovative initiative. It will give an opportunity to its employees to become CEO for one day. Under this programme called ‘CEO of the Day’, one employee will be selected to become the CEO for the Company for an entire day, every month. The CEO will change roles with the employee to get an idea of the reality and the challenges of the organisation at the ground level. “So many times, as employees, we think ‘if I was the CEO, I would change this or do…
In a major reform of the defence policy, candidates will now be recruited to the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, for a short term of four years, on contract. The scheme is called Agnipath and those recruited within it will be called Agniveers. The hiring will be for personnel below officer rank or PBOR in the Armed Forces. This is the Defence Ministry’s attempt at reducing the rising cost incurred in paying salaries and pensions. Till now, the Army used to recruit youngsters under the short service commission, initially for a period of 10 years, which can be…
Indeed, the worldwide employment website for job listings, has roped in Priscilla Koranteng as its chief people officer. In her new role, she will be part of the global hiring platform’s senior leadership team and will report to Chris Hyams, CEO, Indeed. Before joining Indeed, Koranteng was the vice president – global human resources, talent management and chief equity diversity officer, Kellogg Company, for a little less than three years. A certified conflicts resolution professional and a professional coach, Koranteng is an alumna of the London School of Economics and Political Science. She began her journey in the HR domain…
EnKash, the commercial payments platform, is about to take its team strength from 120 to 250 by 2023. In this hiring exercise, it will offer opportunities to freshers as well as experienced professionals along with people who wish to return to the active workforce after a career break. By financial year 2023-24, the cash flow management and corporate cards startup hopes to have a 500-strong team. In a bid to align its growth strategy and hiring plans with an eye on costs, EnKash is looking for innovative talent with entrepreneurial skills that can cater to the needs of its user…
PickMyWork, the Indian digital distribution network — that helps digital companies acquire end customers (individual users as well as shops) — has announced its intention to expand its agent network by 10X and empower over one lakh agents. The network currently has 10,000 gig workers and merchants. This network allows PickMyWork to support consumer tech companies looking to reach end users and merchants. “We aim at supporting consumer tech companies while also creating income opportunities in tier 2 and tier 3 cities,” said Kajal Malik co-founder & CSO, PickMyWork. PickMyWork is trying to create earning opportunities for workers —especially those…
Capegemini has elevated Aarti Srivastava as CHRO for its India operations. A seasoned human resources professional, Srivastava brings with her more than two decades of diverse experience in handling people at various levels. She was previously CHRO for the business services global business line at Capgemini. She takes over from Pallavi Tyagi, who has been promoted to a global strategic role within the Company’s group HR function. Having begun her career with Shaw Wallace as a management trainee in 2003, Srivastava joined Tata Consultancy Services as HR generalist in 2004. Less than two years later, she moved to eFunds Corporation,…
Smytten, the tech-enabled product discovery and trial platform, is planning to expand its present team which is already about 300 strong. The Company that focusses on revolutionising the pre-purchase experience for online consumers will hire aggressively for its offices in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. It is also planning to scale up its leadership team as part of its ambitious growth plans. We are aiming to double our current employee strength and hire across many key functions. A large part of the hiring will be for our offices across Ahmedabad & Bengaluru. We are also open to young talent fresh out of…
Amdocs has appointed Reetu Raina as VP & global head of talent management. She moves to the multinational software and services company, from Quick Heal, where she was the CHRO. With more than 22 years of experience in the human resources industry, Raina has come a long way transforming workforce planning and building efficiency and processes for the organisations she has worked for. In fact, it will not be incorrect to say that she is one of the very few leaders who brought diversity to the organisations she has been associated with. Elaborating on her latest assignment at Amdocs, she…
The Ministry of Home Affairs has initiated a process to fill vacancies across Central government departments on a mission mode. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given instructions that over the next one and a half years, all vacancies across departments should be filled, and employment given to 10 lakh people. On Twitter, this has been called a ‘people-centric’ decision by Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, which will “bring a lot of cheer and optimism for India’s youth”. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in the country dipped further to 4.2 per cent in 2020-21, even though millions were rendered jobless…
A women employee of Domino’s, the pizza delivery chain, was brutally thrashed by four women, who alleged that she stared at them. That is not all, this local gang from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, even recorded the act on camera and posted it on social media without any fear of the law or repercussions. In the video, the employee, Nandini Yadav, is seen pleading with the women to stop, while one of them decides to hit her with a bamboo stick. The women appear to be least affected by the victim’s threats to call the police. In fact, they are seen…
Manuj Khurana, who had joined Tesla India as policy and business development executive in March 2021, is reported to have quit the Company because Tesla’s entry into the Indian market has been deferred. That means, the hopes of the resultant employment generation here have also been dashed, at least temporarily. Not only was Khurana the first employee of Tesla in India, but he was the brain behind the Company’s India-entry strategy. He was the one who followed up with the Indian government and managed to persuade them to reduce the import tax on electric cars down to 40 per cent.…
Clover Infotech, the IT services and consulting company, plans to hire 2500 freshers, to be able to cater to the increasing demand for trained tech resources capable of handling transaction-oriented environments, such as banking. It will tap talent pool of tier-2 and tier-3 cities such as Shirpur, Dhule, Akola, and Jalgaon, in addition to Mumbai, Pune, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Cochin where its key customers across the banking and financial services space exist. Clover Academy, the training and knowledge arm of Clover Infotech, will be conducting placement drives at various campuses as part of a structured hiring process.…
That most employees across the globe are unwilling to return to office full time is becoming clearer by the day. Howard Schultz, CEO, Starbucks has admitted to pleading to his employees to return to work full time, but in vain. He even offered to get down on his knees and do ‘push-ups’ for the employees to concede. However, it looks like employees do not wish to return to full-time work from office. At an event recently, he shared that his employees are only willing to return to office for two or three days a week. However, the coffee chain realises…
Simplilearn, the online boot camp for digital economy skills training, is set to add about 800 people to its workforce this year. Amidst the growing demand for reskilling and upskilling, the Company is further strengthening its teams in India and globally. Having received funding from Blackstone about the same time last year, Simplilearn has been strategically using the finance to enhance the workforce and marketing. Maximum hiring has been in the product, tech, and marketing teams. In fact, the tech team has grown from 60 to 200. Efforts are on to hunt for talent at the CXO, vice president, and…
Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla, will address the employees of Twitter for the first time since his bid to acquire the social-media company earlier this year. The virtual meeting is scheduled for 16 June, 2022 as informed by Parag Agrawal, CEO, Twitter, to his employees. It is reported by Business Insider that Musk will be taking questions directly from the employees during this maiden interaction. Last week media reports said that Musk’s deal with Twitter, to purchase the latter had been put on hold because he had threatened to drop the deal altogether. He had warned that he may not go…
Uflex, the Indian multinational that offers flexible packaging materials and solutions, is celebrating the achievements of the women working at its plants across the globe, through #BreakingTheBarrier series. Following the positive response to the earlier India edition, it has now come up with the global edition called #BreakingTheBarrierGlobally. Through this series, the Company recognises the exceptional women who have made an indelible mark with outstanding accomplishments within its global workforce. Chandan Chattaraj, president – human resources (India & Global), UFlex, elaborated how “packaging, has suffered from a lack of gender diversity for many years” primarily due to the “nature of…
Upholding its commitment towards creating a more inclusive workplace for its LGBTQ+ employees, Lenovo has signed the Declaration of Amsterdam on the occasion of International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT). Many organisations have signed this Declaration earlier, which was created with the aim of ensuring meaningful progress for LGBTIQ+ people across the world and remove any kind of discrimination, harassment and discomfort these employees may face at work. This is yet another step by Lenovo towards becoming a more inclusive organisation. Bhavya Misra, director, human resources, Lenovo India, elaborated “Lenovo has always strived to be an inclusive organisation”…
In a class action discrimination lawsuit, Google has agreed to pay $118 million to about 15,300 women employees in the US across 236 job roles. Additionally, an independent labour economist and expert will be appointed to evaluate the hiring and pay-equity practices at the company. Kelly Ellis, Holly Pease, Kelli Wisuri, and Heidi Lamar, who worked with Google had filed a lawsuit against the Company in 2017 accusing Google of paying women employees less than their male counterparts. They had pointed out a level processing issue at the tech company. Ellis worked with Google as a software engineer for four…
Paypal India has hired Priti Acharya as the new director & India head of talent acquisition. She will lead the talent-acquisition strategy for Paypal India, relying on her two decades long professional experience. Acharya has moved from Falabella, a multinational firm which owns chains of departmental stores, globally. At Falabella, she headed talent acquisition as well as campus and lateral hiring activities. After completing her graduation and post graduation in English Literature, Acharya commenced her career as a communicative English trainer. Five years into the field, Acharya decided to make a career change and entered the area of recruitment when…
FarEye, the SaaS-based logistics startup, which had a 750-strong workforce, has let go 250 employees across its offices in India, North America and Europe as part of an organisational restructuring exercise. The affected employees belong to the sales, talent acquisition, product and engineering, quality analysis, professional services and development teams. The surprised employees, who were given the unfortunate layoff news just when they were awaiting appraisals, were informed personally by their managers of this difficult decision. Inc42 reports that FarEye has promised to pay the affected employees two months’ salary, depending on their serving the notice period. It was only…
When Blake Lemoine, an engineer at Google, started engaging in chats with the language model for dialogue applications or LaMDA, little did he know that the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot would be conversing with him on varied topics, including religion, robotics, consciousness and the well-being of humanity, just as a human being. Lemoine believes that the bot had become conscious and truly “sentient”, possessing the ability to influence people and even transform their views. However, on making his beliefs public, and for revealing his chats with LaMDA, Lemoine was asked to go on leave. While it is said that research…
PayU, the digital payments company, has revamped its insurance policy to include employees from the LGBQT community. Its expanded medical insurance policy will include hormone therapy for the employees in need of the treatment. The revised insurance coverage now includes gender affirmation surgery as well as pre-and post-care benefits too. This is the Company’s way of showing support to all employees, regardless of their personal choices. Essentially, “we are not just welcoming and encouraging everyone to be their unique self but celebrating their uniqueness at PayU,” said Priya Cherian, chief people officer, PayU. By revamping its insurance policy to cover…
Lattice, a San Francisco-based company is offering funds to the tune of $100,000 to employees who decide to leave the Company and set up their own business within a year. This is rather unique at a time when companies are doing everything possible to retain their employees. This funding is offered in return for two per cent stake in the employee’s business / startup. The stake may be decreased if the startup manages to obtain a valuation of over $5 million. Inc. magazine reports that Jack Altman and Eric Koslow, co-founders, Lattice, had initiated this fund in 2020, calling it…