Do the C-suite need to understand their employees’ well-being needs better? Are they not really aware how much their employees are struggling with their well-being? Going by the Deloitte survey report, both C-suite and employees are finding it challenging to make well-being their priority, and only work is to blame. The survey that covered 2,100 employees and C-level executives across the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia, shows that almost 70 per cent of the C-suite are contemplating switching to a job where their well-being will be better supported! While 65 per cent of employees self-reported their physical well-being as…
Author: Liji Narayan | HRKatha
Liji Narayan | HRKatha
HRKatha prides itself in being a good journalistic product and Liji deserves all the credit for it. Thanks to her, our readers get clean copies to read every morning while our writers are kept on their toes.
With cyber threats becoming more frequent and complex with each passing day, it doesn’t come as a surprise that cybersecurity is amongst the most sought-after skills. Employees should look to upskill and specialise in data privacy, cloud security, AI security, network security and other related areas as suggested by a recent report. What exactly are the cybersecurity skills most in demand? Networking and system administration, blockchain security, threat intelligence skills, cloud security, intrusion detection, penetration-testing skills, ethical hacking, DevOps skills, risk identification and management, and computer forensics skills appear to be the skills in high demand. Of course, additional skills…
The Government of Singapore has announced that all civil servants in Singapore will receive a mid-year bonus, or annual variable component (AVC) of 0.3 months. Junior-grade officers within the civil service will be eligible for a one-time payment of up to S$400. Additionally, civil servants in grades MX13(I) and MX14 will be paid S$200 over and above this. Civil servants in grades MX15 and MX16 or equivalent as well as employees in the Operations Support Scheme (OSS) Grades III and IV will be paid S$400. Last year, the mid-year bonus was of 0.35 months, a bit higher than this year’s.…
There were about 2.8 lakh software developers available in Ukraine before the war began say certain reports. Ace quality Ukrainian IT professionals have been serving firms in Canada, the US as well as countries of western Europe, including the UK, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. Most firms with a significant budget have been able to put together a team of developers sourced from Ukraine in a jiffy. With the pandemic-imposed move towards digitisation, talent from Ukraine was always in high demand. Having worked with various global companies in the areas of fintech, telecom, healthcare and automotive, Ukrainian youth have managed…
It is true that 5G will soon lead to an increase in digitisation across operations across sectors, including manufacturing, education and financial services. However, with this rapid digitisation, the need for expertise in the fields of data science, cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence and machine learning and so on will also surge. The most in-demand talent, according to a report, is that of cloud infrastructure engineers. About 71 per cent respondents of the survey admit that the demand for cloud infrastructure engineers will be the highest when it comes to 5G applications, followed by 69 per cent saying that demand for…
The hiring demand in India is the highest in the information technology sector, followed by finance and real estate, healthcare and life sciences, and the transport, logistics and automotive sectors, in that order. While the employment outlook is 47 per cent in the IT space, it is 41 per cent in the finance and real-estate space, and 33 per cent in the energy and utilities space. According to a study, in the industrials and materials segment, the employment outlook is 39 per cent, while the figure is 40 per cent each for the transport and logistics and the healthcare and…
Singapore may be the only nation with less than a 40 per cent chance of its employed people being seriously impacted by the increase in artificial intelligence (AI) work automation. In the Asia Pacific region, the three countries that are likely to be most affected by AI automation are Bhutan, Pakistan and India in that order. In Europe, it is Armenia that will see maximum impact of AI automation, followed by North Macedonia and Estonia. In the Africa region, Zambia, Angola and Uganda will see maximum jobs being affected by AI automation. In the Middle East region, Iran, Jordan and…
That human attention span has decreased over the past few decades is quite clear. While we all know that there are way too many distractions today than there were a couple of decades ago, there is scientific data to corroborate that too. As per research, in the 2000 to 2015 period, human attention span reduced by an alarming 25 per cent. That means, 15 years is all it took to shrink our attention span, which was about 12 seconds in year 2000 and came down to 8.25 seconds in 2015. Many would say the remote working culture imposed by the…
With the agriculture and agrochemicals industry having gone through major digital transformation, many interesting and lucrative jobs have emerged in the sector, which offer great salaries. According to a jobs and salary primer, the hottest profile in the sector is that of product manager, with a salary of about Rs 1.03 lakhs. The second hottest profile is that of exim manager, drawing a salary of about Rs 65,000. The third popular profile is that of senior UI/UX designer, with a salary of Rs 62,000. Application developers may earn a handsome salary too, of about Rs 54,500 per month. Agriculture drone…
The employees of Credit Suisse are planning to sue the Swiss financial regulator for cancelling their bonuses worth more than $400 million. Many senior managers from Credit Suisse group have reportedly approached law firms to initiate legal action on their behalf. Early this month, Credit Suisse Group had notified its staff that the delayed bonuses meant to replicate the value of bonds that were eliminated in the company’s urgent sale to UBS Group AG will also be reduced to zero. Over the past few years, many managing directors and directors at Credit Suisse have been given some portion of their…
The legality of moonlighting has been a topic of debate over the past year or so. While Wipro fired hundreds for moonlighting, Infosys allowed employees to take up side jobs provided they had their managers’ permission and did not let it affect their primary job. So what is it that makes side jobs so popular amongst the youngsters? What kind of side jobs do they take up and why? Deloitte’s Global 2023 Gen Z and Millennial Survey reveals some very interesting facts. More Gen Zs than Millennials are likely to pursue secondary jobs. A significant 66 per cent Gen Zs…
Manish Sinha, who was senior vice president – human resources, Mahindra & Mahindra Automotive, has been elevated to CHRO, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services. Indrajeet Sengupta has been chosen to step into Sinha’s shoes. Sinha, an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur, had joined Mahindra & Mahindra in February 2020. He began his professional journey as officer – HR, with Hero Hondo Motors in 1998. Two years later, he moved to Apollo Tyres, associate manager – HR, based out of Gurugram. His next stop was PepsiCo, where he served as sales HR manager from 2004 to 2006, and then got promoted to…
Amidst all the complaints of the boundaries between work and personal life being blurred due to the pandemic-imposed remote working practices, a recent survey reports an increase in overall satisfaction with work–life balance! What is even more heartening to note is that Indian Gen Zs and Millennials seem to be more satisfied with their work–life balance today than they ever were before the pandemic, as compared to their global counterparts. Even in terms of the impact that their organisations are having on the society, their DE&I efforts, and the measures taken by their employers for the health of the environment,…
About 86.4 per cent of the companies surveyed are likely to adopt digital platforms and apps in the next five years, as per the World Economic Forum’s ‘Future of Jobs’ report. About 80.9 per cent companies are likely to adopt education and workforce-development technologies, while 80 per cent companies will adopt big data analytics. Internet of Things and connected devices are likely to be embraced by 76.8 per cent of companies surveyed, while 76.6 per cent will embrace cloud computing. Encryption and cyber security rank sixth, with 75.6 per cent of companies ready to adopt these technologies, followed by 75.3…
Amidst all this talk of artificial intelligence set to eat up jobs, here’s a study that reveals how employees and business leaders are keen to enjoy the benefits of AI. And what benefits would that be? Surely not getting more work done with a smaller workforce. Absolutely not! The ‘2023 Work Trend Index: Annual Report’ by Microsoft says that business leaders are twice more likely to opt for ‘increasing employee productivity’ than ‘reducing headcount’ when asked which benefit of AI they would prefer in the workplace. The answers received from about 31,000 people from over 31 countries were a surprising…
Before 2027, six out of every 10 workers will need training. However, only half of them seem to have access to appropriate training opportunities today. During the period 2023-2027, the highest priority for skills training will be given to analytical thinking. That is, about 10 per cent of training initiatives, on average, will be focused on analytical thinking, says the Future of Jobs report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The second priority in terms of training aimed at developing the workforce, appears to be the promotion of creative thinking. About eight per cent of upskilling initiatives will be…
As per a survey, permanent employee appointments have come down in London and hiring decisions are being delayed. While the number of permanent hires has fallen, the number of short-term or temporary hires has gone up for the fourth consecutive month. Clearly, London prefers hiring temps, but the fact is that the rise in the number of permanent job candidates has also been the maximum in Britain’s capital. While job vacancies are rising, there seems to be a hiring slowdown, owing to rising inflation and a weak economic outlook, which is adding to the uncertainty. Also, the reduced number of…
There are many ways in which time and energy are wasted at and during work. Many businesses need to simply examine their processes closely to identify the ones that are outdated and inefficient. Even inefficient use of technology may waste time and energy. There may be too many meetings happening that are taking way too long to conclude. If these issues are addressed, businesses may not require shorter workweeks at all. What does a shorter workweek achieve in the first place? Many countries have been experimenting with a shorter workweek, including Britan, Canada, Australia, and the US. In fact, Britain…
While globally, 43 per cent of women professionals are working in hybrid model, in India alone, 43 per cent of the working women are following the hybrid model. Does that mean Indian women are improving at managing work-life balance? Surprisingly not! In fact, in 2022, only about 36 per cent women felt they were not supported in their efforts to balance their work responsibilities with other commitments, but in 2023, the figure has increased to 48 per cent. This year, women working in the hybrid mode in India are admitting that their experiences at work have become better than last…
In the information technology (IT) sector, it is now expected that a generalist should possess expertise in various new tools, including NoSQL database and cloud administration tools etc. No wonder generalist roles are becoming more complex than ever before. So what are the in-demand skills in the subfunctions of IT? While 48 per cent of the global IT talent is deployed in IT analysis and management, 16 per cent is required for system/IT administration and four per cent for database administration, says a tech skills transformation report. In system/IT administration, the key tech skills required in the OS administration subfunction…
When we hear that International Business Machines (IBM) is imposing a hiring freeze, the news does not really shock since companies around the world are pausing hiring considering the macroeconomic environment.. As per media reports, IBM is freezing hiring for about 7,800 roles, which it plans to replace with artificial intelligence (AI) in the near future. Now, that is certainly interesting news and adds fuel to the global debate over whether AI will take away jobs. This was revealed in an interview by Arvind Krishna, CEO, IBM, during an interview with Bloomberg. As per the CEO, the hiring freeze will…
Tech talent in the non-tech sector is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.53 per cent, increasing from 7.65 lakhs in financial year 2022 to about 11.15 lakhs in five years’ time. It is anticipated that the proportion of contract workers in tech roles within the non-tech sector will go up from the present 20 per cent to about 26 per cent by the end of FY 2027. That means, there is expected to be more dependency on temporary or contract techies. Growth will be fastest in the consulting and BFSI space by 2027, followed…
Can availability of data ever be unfavourable to business decision-making? One would think even the question is ridiculous. After all, we all know how important data is to the very process of decision-making. Surprisingly, a study reveals that a whopping 91 per cent business leaders feel the growing number of data sources has hampered the success of their organisations. A good 72 per cent admit that the volume of data is so overwhelming that it has stopped them from arriving at any decision at all! Interesting, you’d say? Wait till you see the other revelations made by the report titled…
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has embraced a unique strategy to allow its six lakh plus employees to not only upgrade themselves, internally, but also become eligible for better compensation on the basis of that skill upgradation. A fair strategy By offering its internal talent the opportunity to upskill themselves, TCS has identified a fair way to give hikes to the deserving and reduce internal disparity. The high-quality programmes offered inhouse give them employees a chance to enhance their skills and upgrade themselves, so that they become eligible for attractive hikes that may even result in doubling their salaries. That the…
About 44 per cent workers believe they are underpaid for their job, as per a global survey. Among the over 32,000 workers surveyed across 17 countries, 62 per cent are confident they will get a pay rise, while 41 per cent are sure they will receive a bonus in the next one year. However, most feel that this pay hike will come their way only if they switch jobs. About 83 per cent of workers hope to achieve a hike in salary over the next one year, either from their existing employer or by switching jobs. On average, they expect…
With layoffs taking place worldwide, are employees in India worried about job security? According to a survey, 57 per cent are definitely concerned about job security. Only 27 per cent are not worried about losing their jobs. A very small number (four per cent) feel their organisation is not planning any layoffs at all, while about 12 per cent are not sure whether they are worried about their job security amidst these layoffs. Contractual staff most vulnerable If and when layoffs do happen, it is the contract employees who will be most impacted. That is something most of those surveyed…