Parsvnath SEZ Ltd. appoints three independent directors

Parsvnath Developers Limited is one of the leading real estate companies in India. The Parsvnath Group has a diverse business portfolio of commercial complexes, shopping malls, integrated townships and group housing. Besides strengthening its position in core operations of real estate, Parsvnath Developers is striving to bradbase its product offerings by catering to emerging markets and segments

Parsvnath SEZ Ltd. plans to develop 17 SEZ, having a total saleable area of 367 million sq ft, in various segments like pharma, gems and jewellery, IT/ITES, biotech, handicrafts, leather, food processing and automotive sectors apart from multi-product SEZs. Out of the planned SEZs, four have already been notified by the Centre at Indore, Gurgaon, Dehra Dun and Nanded. Parsvnath Developers has appointed R J Kamath, D N Davar and B K Goswami as independent directors of Parsvnath SEZ Ltd.

D N Davar is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers and a fellow of the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank. He was also the former Chairman of IFCI Ltd, the company said in a statement.

B K Goswami, prior to joining Parsvnath has worked at apex levels with the Centre, state governments and several other government undertakings, it added.

R J Kamath, is former Chairman of the Andhra Bank and Canara Bank.

Cultural Fit

 
Most HR professionals today recognize the importance of Cultural Fit. What is Cultural Fit? It becomes useful to first explore the broader concept of fit and the reasons why culture fit is particularly important.
Fit is typically defined in two ways:
• Job fit
• Organization fit.
Job fit refers to the degree to which the candidate’s skills and experience arerelevant to the job and the degree to which the candidate finds the role’s activities and responsibilities satisfying.
Organizational fit refers to the candidate’s compatibility with the organization’s values and mode of operation.
While organization fit covers a range of organizational attributes the most common and frequently cited element centers on the congruence between individual and organizational values. This is referred to as culture fit.
Research over the years has shown that individuals selected on the basis of culture fit will contribute faster, perform better and stay longer. In today’s business scenario knowledge, intellectual capital, individual and organizational qualities represent the competitive value proposition for most companies.
Culture fit cannot be developed in any individual. Provided someone fits into the organization, and demonstrates the ability to grow and develop, their knowledge and skills will change and grow over time. Values and motivations on the other hand are almost impossible to change.
Though most of the HR Managers understand the significance of Culture Fit, but the tight labor market often leads them to make decisions quickly and choose individuals who may not be right. Internally, they cite time pressures; lack of available tools, skills and resources as the reasons for not assessing cultural fit.
Assessing cultural fit is not as difficult as many would think. It requires establishing strong processes and tools that are understood and effectively practiced by all managers.
The first step is to secure the Top Management buying. This starts with demonstrating a sound return on investment.
The next step is to put in place sound and efficient processes that support the assessment of culture fit. This is where the HR function plays a critical role.
Finally, the individual’s rankings are compared with the organization profiles to identify areas of alignment and potential mismatch. This information is often carried forward to first or second interviews.
Recruiting for cultural fit is very important. Organizational culture today is being threatened by hiring processes. What is encouraging though is the recognition that the issue of culture fit is an important one. The HR function needs to take a strategic stance on the same.


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Socially Responsible Recruitment

 
A society is likely to be prosperous when business firms are innovative, competitive, productive, profit and socially responsible. Therefore, the business community is continuously challenged to inculcate all these characteristics.
Today, issues like environmental damage, unsafe working environment, and faulty products leading to customers’ inconvenience are getting attention. Customers are becoming conscious about the social image of the companies from which they buy their goods and services. This requires organizations to operate in an economically, socially and environmentally friendly manner.
With the introduction of the concept that there is something called “common good” or the general welfare of the society, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged. The basic premise of the concept of CSR is the claim that business is also a social institution.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility can be defined as a concept that requires companies to integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. Companies have a number of stakeholders like employees, suppliers, customers, creditors, shareholders, key government agencies, etc.
It also highlights that company’s need to answer two aspects of their operations:
• The quality of their management
• The nature and quantity of their impact on society in various areas.
“Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.”
CSR and Human Resources
Organizations are currently highlighting their focus on safety, health and training and development of their employees.
Telewest, a company of the UK declares, “We invest in the development and training of our people encouraging them to focus their learning around business needs and to pursue appropriate development opportunities. Telewest is committed to ensure that the safety of our customers and staff remains a top priority. It is paramount that safe working practices linked with a safe working environment are maintained at all times to protect the health, safety and welfare of all those affected by our activities.”
Recruitment – Social Implications
According to Edward Flippo recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organizations. He views recruitment as a positive activity of hiring because it increases the number of applicants per job opening. This is valid for corporate jobs in India too.
According to the literature on human resources, the aim of an effective recruitment program is to attract the best people for the job and aid the recruiter by making a wide choice available. Thus, at the time of recruitment, companies have to make attempts to attract as many applicants as possible so that it can hire the best people. If the recruitment effort is not effective, there is a possibility that the company may employ persons with less caliber even when persons with more caliber are willing to work in the company at the salary or wage levels that the company is paying. Hence, human resources professionals are suggested to utilize all possible channels to inform potential candidates regarding their requirement for employment.
At the recruitment stage, HR professionals should try to inform the public at large through all possible channels regarding their requirement of employees with specific competence potential. Such an open policy will encourage many candidates to develop their competence to higher levels so that they can get better jobs. When persons in a society develop their competencies to a higher level, the society will benefit due to the increased productivity, even though the concerned persons do not get a job with higher responsibility and higher pay immediately. This is because improvement in competence gets reflected in the present job also.
Today, companies are narrowing the choice to a group of persons based on religion, caste, region or educational institutes.
Hence, it is proposed that HR departments articulate a recruitment policy that aims at informing as large a number of persons as possible about the manpower requirements of the company and a selection process that is fair to all persons with competencies required for a vacancy in a corporate concern in the interest of the society.


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Cisco - Innovative Recruitment methods

 
In 1995, Cisco, found that despite hiring an average of 1,000 people every three months during the year, the company still had hundreds of openings. The recruitment pressure further increased the following year, when Cisco hired more than 1,000 employees every quarter. When Cisco’s sales soared, the company planned to double its workforce.
The management realized that it had to adopt innovative recruitment practices to bring in the best people. They adopted the first of its kind online recruitment called the ‘Friends program’. Cisco recruiters also began to target passive job seekers. These were the people who were content and successful in their existing jobs.
Background
Cisco was founded in 1984 by a group of computer scientists at Stanford, who designed operating software called IOS (Internet Operating System).
In 1985, the company started a customer support site from where customers could download software. In 1990, Cisco installed a bug report database in its site. The database contained information about potential software problems to help customers and developers.
By 1991, Cisco’s support center was receiving around 3,000 calls a month which increased to 12,000 by 1992. In 1993, Cisco installed an Internet-based system for large multinational corporate customers. In 1994, Cisco launched Cisco Information Online, a public website which offered company and product information. By 1995, it introduced applications for selling products or services on its website. This was done mainly to transfer paper, fax, e-mails and CD-ROM distribution of technical documentations and training materials to the web to save time for employees, customers and trading partners, besides broadening Cisco’s market reach.
In 1996, the company introduced a new Internet initiative, ‘Networked Strategy’ to leverage its enterprise network to foster interactive relationships with prospective customers, partners, suppliers and employees. In early 2000, Cisco introduced the Integrated Commerce Solution (ICS), which provided a dedicated server fully integrated into the customers’ or resellers’ intranet and back-end ERP systems.
In mid-2000, Cisco entered into a distribution agreement with FedEx to manage orders and maintain inventory levels in a cost-effective way. ‘The Cisco City’ in San Jose, emerged as one of the biggest Internet economy industrial parks with around 13,000 employees.
Cisco believed it required the best people in the industry to remain the Leader.
Recruitment
The company followed a policy of hiring ‘top 10-15%’ people in the networking industry. This was a mechanism to remain the industry leader.
Its vision statement was, “Attracting, growing and retaining great talent is critical to sustaining Cisco’s competitive advantage.”
The company began to use newer techniques like the ‘build-the-buzz’ strategy, which was centered on the primary market for its products, i.e., the Internet.
Cisco’s recruiting team identified the candidates whom they felt the company ‘should hire,’ and then figured out the way those potential candidates did their job hunting and designed hiring processes to attract them to the company. The recruiters targeted even passive job seekers–people who were happy and successful in their current jobs.
Cisco changed the way it wanted advertisements in newspapers. It listed specific job openings and featured its Internet address in its ads and invited prospective candidates to apply. This helped in directing all job seekers to its website where it could inexpensively post hundreds of openings and provides information regarding them.
Since most people visited Cisco’s website from their jobs, the company could identify their place of work. The company attracted happily employed people through focus groups. These focus groups targeted senior engineers and marketing professionals in other companies and found out how they spent their free time. These insights helped the recruiters.
The website also offered features through which applicants could fill their resumes online or create one with the help of Cisco’s resume builder.
The focus group’s exercise ensured that a candidate would approach the company if he had been informed by a friend about better opportunities at Cisco. This led to the launch of the friends program in April 1996. Cisco also organized art fairs, beer festivals and certain annual events in which people from Silicon Valley participated. These places proved to be very ‘fruitful hunting venues’ as they attracted young achievers from various successful infotech companies. Cisco recruiters mingled with the crowd, collected business cards from prospective candidates and spoke to them informally about their careers.
More than 1,000 Cisco employees volunteered for the Friends program, attracted by the referral fee, which started at $500 and a lottery ticket for a free trip to Hawaii for each prospect they befriended and who was ultimately hired.
In this program, Cisco employees were matched up with people who approached the company as prospects and who shared similar backgrounds and skills. The Cisco employees then called the prospects to inform them in their own words about life at the company.
Cisco also found that applicants and recruiters were not totally comfortable with, the time-consuming recruiting process. To speed up the process, Cisco hired in house headhunters to identify qualified candidates for managers.
It encouraged internal referrals for recruitment through a program called ‘Amazing People.’ This facilitated the employees to refer their friends’ and acquaintances for positions within Cisco. Employees earned a referral bonus if the company hired the person they referred. After streamlining its recruitment policies in 1996, Cisco conducted an Employee survey to find out how the new recruits felt on their first day at work.
This exercise stemmed from the company’s belief that new employees typically treated the first day as ‘the most important eight hours in the world.’ Cisco launched Fast Start, an employee orientation initiative. It installed software, which tracked the hiring process and alerted the team about the new recruit’s arrival. As a result, every new recruit started with a fully functional workspace and a whole day of training in desktop tools.
Fast Start not only eliminated all problems but it also enabled new recruits to know about ‘life inside the company.’ Every new recruit was assigned a ‘buddy’ who clarified all doubts and answered questions about Cisco. New recruits also had a two-day course called the ‘Cisco Business Essentials,’ which covered company’s history and business units. The managers of the new recruits received an automatically generated e-mail two weeks after their new recruit arrival. It reminded them to review their departmental initiatives and personal goals.
Reaping the Benefits
Cisco believed that its new recruitment philosophy should also be made a part of the overall corporate culture. Cisco’s job site was recording around 500,000 hits per month. The company generated a stream of reports about who visited the site. Cisco’s hiring cycle also came down to 45 days. The recruitment costs were also below the industry average. Referral rates at Cisco were twice the industry norm. The retention rate of the Company had also increased.
Analysts claimed that Cisco’s innovative and aggressive recruiting initiatives were to a large extent responsible for the company’s expansion at 40% per year and recruiting 250 employees every week.
Industry observers feel that other players should also modify their recruitment policies to take advantage, like Cisco did.

For HR Cases visit: http://hrcases.blogspot.com/

Rajan Anandan appointed as MD Sales Marketing and Services business, Microsoft India

Rajan Anandan, has been appointed as the Managing Director of Sales Marketing and Services business of Microsoft India Pvt Ltd. He will report directly to Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman of Microsoft India. Rajan Anandan will have the key responsibility of growing the sales and marketing operations for Microsoft India. He will be responsible for growing Microsoft's products and services businesses and also play a key role in driving the company's partnerships and strategic alliances.

Rajan Anandan has been appointed to fill the gap caused by the departure of Neelam Dhawan, who left Microsoft in June this year after three-and-a-half years, to take the role of Managing Director of HP India. He was leading Dell India from May 2006 and has quit his job in early June this year . Rajan Anandan has been replaced by Sameer garde at Dell.

Rajan Anandan, who has over 16 years of working experience in the industry working with the likes of McKinsey and Dell, has quit his job in early June this year. Rajan Anandan has also served a stint as the Executive Assistant to Michael Dell, Chairman, Dell Computers. He is one of the most talented executives in the India IT industry today. He has the right mix of strategy and execution which is essential for growth for any business. He is alumnus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and also holds a Master’s degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Stanford University.

Rajan Anandan is also an angel investor. He has recently invested in a Sri Lankan managed IT services company Eureka Technology Partners.

Psychometric Testing

The use of personality tests and aptitude tests to select both executive and staff level employees is quite popular. It is necessary to have reliable and valid tools that are able to discriminate between the most potentially-effective employee and the one who will not fit the job. Business Minds, Criterion Partnership, The Morrisby Organisation, Oxford Psychologists Press, Psytech International, SHL Group are the one of the best companies in Psychometric Testing. Many of the test companies offer ability tests, personality test, aptitude test which assess the specific tasks necessary in particular jobs. In India companies today use psychometrics for hiring junior management and middle management. In India this approach is mostly made use of by companies such as Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, i-flex Solutions, Raymonds, Ericsson and Thermax.

Psychometric assessment is an objective and scientific tool that is able to contribute to the validity and successful outcome of the recruitment, selection and development process. The Psychometric tests are developed for specific role. There are tests for MBA aspirations which assess verbal and numerical checking skills, for the clerical jobs there are test which is designed to check the verbal, numerical, office vocabulary, and the ability to plan and organise. The companies also have tests for technical jobs such as technical checking and faultfinding, knowledge of electronics, and the ability to comprehend diagrams. The other global firms in the field of Psychometric Testing are ASE, Development Strategy and Assessment, Knight Chapman Psychological, worldwide, Selby Millsmith, The Test Agency.

In the current recruitment scenario where attracting and retaining the right talent has become the biggest challenge, HR Executives are constantly on the look out for innovative methods to achieve their objectives. Psychometrics is the science of objective assessment of employees. It is one method mostly being employed by many Indian companies today to retain talent.

The key to Telecommuting

Telecommuting, e-commuting, e-work, telework, working at home (WAH), or working from home is a work arrangement in which employees enjoy flexibility in working locations and hours.
Many work from home, while others do that occasionally also referred to as nomad workers or web commuters. This lot utilizes mobile telecommunications technology to work from other locations.

Telework is a broader term, referring to substituting telecommunications for any form of work-related travel, thereby eliminating the distance restrictions of telecommuting. All telecommuters are teleworkers but not all teleworkers are telecommuters. Teleworking has numerous benefits. Some of which include increased productivity, retention and morale. A telework program can lead to problems if not executed correctly.

A formal telework program has a framework in place where organizations have thought of the various benefits and risks. Most companies don’t like taking any risks and prefer to supply the equipment, as it is easier to enforce the policy decisions on corporate equipment. If a teleworker is working three-plus days from a home office or other remote location, then the company should pay for everything. The equipments would include - the laptop, the printer, and the phone line as well.

IT support would also be required to be looked into. Occasional teleworkers can bring their laptop back to the office for IT support, but then they should also be provided with an appropriate level of remote IT support. Employers should put together policy guidelines and rules of practice about what they’re going to cover and not cover. They should also take care of another issue which is updating software and hardware.

Published by: http://hrcases.wordpress.com/ July 28, 2008

Google - Brain Drain

Google Inc. is an American public corporation. It earns revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, web-based e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies.
The company was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Bring while they were students at Stanford University. Its initial public offering made it worth US$23 billion.

Google has continued its growth through a series of new product developments, acquisitions, and partnerships. Environmentalism, philanthropy, and positive employee relations have been important tenets during Google’s growth, the latter resulting in being identified multiple times as Fortune Magazine’s #1 Best Place to Work.

In recent times, Google has witnessed a loss of high profile departures, including Sheryl Sandburg who moved to Facebook and Doug Merrill who joined EMI. Earlier, executives such as Ethan Beard and Chris Sacca also moved away from the Organization. However, over all Google still continues to suck talent with more than 6,000 employees joining it last year.

The company is now witnessing a drain of some of its entrepreneurial energy that drove its early growth. Some former Google Executives believe that the company has lost two vital ingredients of its culture: the anything-goes approach of a start-up environment and the chance to strike it rich. Thus, the fading of its start-up culture poses threat for Google’s ability to attract and retain the right sort of talent.

Published at http://hrcases.wordpress.com/ on August 5, 2008 by hrcases

Bihar to appoint 92,000 teachers

Bihar government has given the go-ahead to the state Human Resource Department to start the process for recruitment of 80,000 primary teachers and 12,000 secondary and higher seecondary teachers after modifying the existing rules. This is one of the great moves of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in recent times. He is taking small steps but calculated and confident steps towards the scripting the brand new Bihar story.

The cabinet also decided to award "Bihar Gaurav Samman" carrying cash prize and a certificate to the students from the state securing high ranks in all-India competitive examination as well as international science competitions like Maths and Physics Olympiad. Bihar Gaurav Samman will be awarded to any aspirant from Bihar securing the first rank in the UPSC, IIT, CAT etc. The Bihar Gaurav Samman award money would be a cash prize of INR One lakh, while those securing next five ranks would get a cash prize of INR 50,000 each.

Reliance Capital appoints Sanjay Jain as Chief Marketing Officer

Sanjay Jain has been appointed as the Chief Marketing Officer of the Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Capital. Sanjay will work closely with all Reliance Capital companies and lead marketing team in brand building, marketing strategies and corporate communication to create a strong identity and bond with customers.

Jain has 17 years of experience. In his earlier stints, he has worked in diverse sectors and companies like Times Of India Group, Ogilvy and Coca-Cola Co. Sanjay Jain before joining Reliance Capital was associated with Bajaj Allianz where he was responsible for creating a strong visible identity for brands Bajaj Allianz & Allianz.

Reliance Capital, is part of the Reliance - Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company. It is one of India's leading and fastest growing private sector financial services companies, and ranks among the top 3 private sector financial services and banking groups, in terms of net worth. Reliance Capital has interests in asset management and mutual funds, life and general insurance, private equity and proprietary investments, stock broking, depository services, distribution of financial products, consumer finance and other activities in financial services.

Religare Appoints Vikas Agnihotri as CEO

Religare Macquarie Wealth Management Limited is a 50:50 joint venture between Religare Wealth Management Services and Macquarie Banking and Financial Services Group.

Religare Macquarie Wealth Management appointed Vikas Agnihotri as its Chief Executive Officer. He will be reporting to the six member Religare Macquarie Wealth Management Limited board which has an equal representation from both Religare and Macquarie

Vivek Agnihotri will oversee the business operations based out of its head office in Mumbai and shall be responsible for taking decision on designing strategies and implementations. He will also review the operations management and ensure that the company is represented with integrity before institutions, analysts and investors.

Vivek Agnihotri joins Religare Macquarie Wealth Management Limited from Deutsche Bank where he was in the capacity of Commercial Director Private and Business clients. He has worked for almost two decades in the financial market of the country. Prior to Deutsche, he was working with Standard Chartered bank in various senior leadership positions such as sales director–consumer banking, head of service consumer, regional head branch banking–west and national manager of channel development & projects.

Aditya Birla Financial Services Group appoints G V Gopalakrishnan

The Aditya Birla Financial Services Group, today has appointed G V Gopalakrishnan as its Chief Operating Officer (COO). He will oversee the operations and the technology functions for and across the financial service business, a press release issued here stated.

Gopalakrishnan comes with rich experience that will help us prepare a strong foundation in operations and technology, across our financial businesses. Gopalakrishnan was Executive Vice-President, Information Technology, at HDFC Bank and his experience there was diverse across retail technology, retail assets, credit cards, corporate Internet banking, wholesale, capital markets and various strategic initiatives. Prior to HDFC Bank, Gopalakrishnan was with Standard Chartered Bank.

The Aditya Birla Financial Services Group has a presence across various financial verticals that include life insurance, mutual funds, distribution and wealth management, security based lending, insurance broking and advisory services and private equity.

Suzlon Appoints Sumant Sinha as Chief Operating Officer

Sumant Sinha, the scion of a well-known Indian political family (Sumant Sinha is son of former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha) and an investment banker by trade, joined wind power major Suzlon Energy as its Chief Operating Officer.

Sumant Sinha has over 10 years of experience in international finance which includes a career with Citicorp Securities in New York and London and ING Barings in New York. Sumant Sinha before joining Suzlon Energy worked as CEO Aditya Birla Retail and has also held the position of CFO for the Aditya Birla Group. Sumant Sinha has an excellent track-record in both the Indian and international environments which will help Suzlon execute its global plans more effectively.

In1995, Suzlon Energy started operation with just 20 people. Today company has over 13,000 people, operations across the America, Asia, Australia and Europe, fully integrated manufacturing units in three continents. Today Suzlon is being ranked the 5th leading wind power equipment manufacturer with a global market share of 10.5%.

K R Kamath appointed as Allahabad Bank CMD

Allahabad Bank is the oldest public sector bank in India. It was set up in 1865 by a group of Europeans with a seed capital of INR 2 lakhs. In 2007, Bank's business crossed INR.1,00,000 crores mark.

Bank of India Executive Director, K R Kamath has been appointed as the Chairman & Managing Director of Kolkata-based Allahabad Bank. The appointment has come after A C Mahajan, who was earlier serving as CMD of Allahabad Bank, took over as the chief of Canara Bank last month.

K R Kamath was a General Manager in Corporation Bank since 2002.At Corporation Bank he was in charge of Information Technology, Information Security, Management Information System and Integrated Risk Management.

K R Kamath is known for his conceptual clarity, communication skills and ability to build strong result oriented teams. He has been one of the key members of the Team that has conceptualised and initiated steps to implement Organisational Transformation Project of Corporation Bank.

Apollo Tyres appoints CFO and CRT

Apollo Tyres was started in 1975. Apollo Tyres commissioned its first plant in Perambra, Cochin, Kerala. In 2006 the company acquired Dunlop Tyres International of South Africa. The company now has four manufacturing units in India, two in South Africa and two in Zimbabwe. In early 2008, the company announced plans to open a manufacturing plant in Hungary.

Apollo Tyres has aggressive growth plans. Apollo Tyres to achieve it aggressive target has created two new positions. These two posts were created recently as part of expansion plans in the domestic and global markets. Apollo Tyres has appointed Salil Gupta as the Chief Financial Officer and Peter Becker as Chief of Research & Technology of the company.

Peter Becker based out of Germany who brings with him rich product technology experience would be responsible for establishing an R&D facility there keeping in mind the mobility needs of the European customers.

Salil Gupta brings with him knowledge of managing diverse businesses. Gupta would be overseeing the finance, taxation and accounts functions. Earlier, Mr Salil Gupta served at Dentsu India at a similar position and has also worked with KPMG as Director, Tax and Regulatory Services.

Three Executive Directors promoted as bank heads

Executive Directors of three leading public-sector banks were elevated as heads of state-owned banks on Saturday.

• Union Bank of India's Executive Director, R S Reddy has been named as CMD of Andhra Bank.
• Central Bank of India's Executive Director, Albert Tauro has been appointed as the CMD of Vijaya Bank.
• Bank of India's Executive Director, K R Kamath has been appointed as the Chairman & Managing Director of Allahabad Bank.

Beginning of the Banks in news:

Union Bank of India was inaugurated by Mahatama Gandhi and the Bank commenced its operations in 1920.
Allahabad Bank is the oldest public sector bank in India. It was set up in 1865 by a group of Europeans with a seed capital of Rs 2 lakhs. In 2007, Bank's business crossed Rs.1,00,000 crores mark.
Bank of India was founded on September 7, 1906 by a group of eminent businessmen from Mumbai. In July 1969 Bank of India was nationalized along with 13 other banks.
Central Bank of India was established in 1911 by Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala. It was the first Indian commercial bank, which was wholly owned and managed by Indians. Sir Pherozeshah Mehta was the first Chairman of the Bank. In 1969, Central Bank of India was nationalized along with 13 other banks.
Vijaya Bank, was established on 23rd October 1931 by late Shri A.B.Shetty and other enterprising farmers in Mangalore, Karnataka. The objective behind establishment of the Bank was essentially to promote banking habit, thrift and enterpreneurship among the farming community of Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka State. The bank became a scheduled bank in 1958.
Andhra Bank was founded by Dr.Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya. The bank commenced business on 28th November 1923 with a paid up capital of Rs 1 lakh and an authorised capital of Rs 10 lakh.

Reference: The Hindu, www.hinduonnet.com, Sunday, August 3, 2008

George Joseph is new CMD of Syndicate Bank

George Joseph has taken over as Chairman and Managing Director of Syndicate Bank. Prior to this, he was the Executive Director of Syndicate Bank since April 2006. During his tenure as Executive Director of the Syndicate Bank, George Joseph grew the business from INR 91,284 crore to INR 1,60,368 crore.

George Joseph is a commerce graduate with first rank from Kerala University. He stood first among the Indian candidates and 11th in the world in AIB Examination (London) of the Institute of Bankers, London. He is also a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Banking & Finance. George Joseph joined Canara Bank as Probationary Officer in 1969 and served the Bank in various capacities. While at Canara Bank, he was deputed to Bahrain as Chief Executive of the Exchange Company under Canara Bank management. George Joseph had served Canara Bank for over 36 years. Before joining Syndicate Bank.

Syndicate Bank was established in 1925 in Udupi, the abode of Lord Krishna in coastal Karnataka with a capital of INR. 8000 by three visionaries - Sri Upendra Ananth Pai, a businessman, Sri Vaman Kudva, an engineer and Dr.T M A Pai, a physician - who shared a strong commitment to social welfare.

Shailendra Bhandari to head Tata Capital PE business

Currently, there are a host of Indian entities which have entered the private equity business including ICICI, Kotak Mahindra, Reliance Capital, IDFC, IL&FS, ICICI Ventures. Tata group company Tata Capital has also planned to enter the private equity business. Tata group company Tata Capital appointed Shailendra Bhandari, the former managing director and CEO of Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBoP), as head of its private equity business. Mr Shailendra Bhandari will report to Praveen P Kadle, managing director, Tata Capital.

Tata Capital is a non-banking finance company. Tata Capital is likely to launch a mid-sized fund of around $500 million. This fund is likely to be followed by a spate of other fund launches in a quick succession. One of it is also likely to be a fund targeting the small and medium enterprises. Sources said that Tata’s have ambitions to scale up the private equity fund business to a reasonably large size over the next few years.

Shailendra Bhandari has over three decades of experience in the financial services sector. He is former Citi banker, was part of the core team led by Aditya Puri in setting up HDFC Bank. He headed ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, before he was chosen by Rana Talwar’s Sabre Capital to head the beleaguered Centurion Bank. Shailendra Bhandari along with Mr Talwar at Centurion Bank made three acquisitions – BankMuscat’s India operations, Bank of Punjab, and Lord Krishna Bank.

Motorola Appoints Sanjay Jha as head of handset division

Motorola has appointed 45 year yong Sanjay Jha, the chief operating officer of Qualcomm, to head its handset division. Sanjay Jha would report directly to the Board. He will also be co-chief executive of the parent company, sharing the responsibility with incumbent Greg Brown. He has also been named CEO of its Broadband Mobility Solutions unit, which includes its Home & Networks Mobility and Enterprise Mobility Solutions businesses.

Sanjay Jha at Qualcomm oversaw Corporate Research and Development and QUALCOMM Flarion Technologies. He also served as president of its chipset and software division QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies. Sanjay Jha served Qualcomm for 14 years.

The great HR Concerns

HR as a function is fast changing, especially in the new economy companies like IT, and BPO. The HR managers here have a multi-task responsibility and they need to manage it well. Earlier the role of HR Managers was confined to administrative functions like looking after manpower requirements and maintaining rolls for the organization. Now it has come out of the shells of administration and operations and is playing more meaningful role. HR in the emerged business scenario is more strategic. The changed role has lot of issues and challenges that are foremost on the minds of HR professionals.

Some of the problems that the knowledge economy faces today are
Managing people
Motivation to adopt change
Recruitment
Training and development
Building trust
Performance management
Compensation management
Talent management and development.
Retention

In the booming economy, growing industries is already under stress on account of persistent problems like attrition, confidentiality, loyalty, etc. Managing human resource in the knowledge based economy is not a cakewalk for HR managers. Today it is a multi-task responsibility, where managers are performing a variety of responsibilities.

Expatriates in Indian Companies

The booming Indian economy is not only offering attractive opportunities to the domestic talents but also offering jobs to foreign workforce. The number of foreigners seeking jobs in India is increasing every year and it is not only the middle and senior level but also young graduates, are taking up jobs in India.

The sectors that offer jobs to expats are information technology, BPO, Pharma, Retail, Telecom, Aviation, and Hospitality. Moreover Indian companies like Infosys, and Wipro inviting summer interns from premier universities like Stanford and Harvard to work with them.

The rate of unemployment is increasing in industrialized economies while the growth opportunities are increasing in South Asian countries including India and China. India, being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, offers growth opportunities to the expats. Moreover the compensation offered to then by Indian companies is better than their home countries.

The Indian companies offer attractive leadership positions to experienced expatriates who bring in global perspective with them. Most of the entrepreneurs also believe that expat managers have more abilities when compared to their Indian counterparts. This trend of expats occupying key positions and leadership roles is hitting the Indian corporate these days. They argue that an expats occupying key role doesn’t come with the commitment to stay for a long term with the company; they have poor understanding of Indian markets and environment; their ability to deal with diverse workforce is always doubtful. For all those who are challenging expats leadership quality must acknowledge that expats demonstrate a higher risk taking ability; they are transparent and accountable; they acts as key source of innovations; they are mostly not the part of corporate politics; they promote harmony and responsibility in the company.

Indian workforce are impacting UAE construction boom

Why would anyone want to leave there homeland and go abroad when the opportunity and remuneration offered to the workforce is at par. The boom in Indian economy has opened the doors of opportunity in few industries at homeland and the construction industry is one among them.

The UAE construction industry is facing brunt of the rapid economic growth, improved career opportunities and higher wages in the Indian construction industry. The UAE construction industry is facing an acute shortage of construction workforce as Indian workers, as a result of economic boom and rising salaries prefer to stay home. This has impacted UAE construction industry in a big way as roughly 43 per cent of all foreign workers in the UAE are Indians.

The regional and international players in India are trying to attract the talent pool by offering attractive salaries and benefits. The salary in Indian construction industry is increasing at roughly 14- 15 percent in comparison to the UAE construction industry where its growing at 10-11 percent. Moreover the declining value of the UAE Dirham against the Indian Rupee is adding to the wages issue.

The UAE construction companies have to offer much more attractive salaries and benefits to the Indian workforce, to attract them, to retain them। It’s high time, acknowledge the change.

Reference: http://www.financialexpress.com, Shortage of Indian workers hits UAE construction boom, July 17, 2008

No to Women Boss - ASSOCHAM

Its official now, we prefer male boss over a female boss. ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India) recently concluded survey - “Preference of Bosses in Emerging Corporate Culture” which declares that more than 68% men and women prefer male bosses at their work.

The survey result which was based on the 2,500 executives feedback suggest that about 68 percent showed preference for male bosses saying male bosses give more operational freedom at work and are faster in decision-making, while the remaining 32 percent did not have any preference. More interestingly, of the 68 percent executives who voted for male bosses, two-thirds were female. The respondents argued that women approach work with more emotion than men. Also, motherhood and family responsibilities keep them from accomplishing assigned work leading to discontentment among the juniors.

The study also shows that women in the workplace do not just prefer male bosses over female bosses; they also feel more comfortable with male co-workers. Men choices were more evenly split, with 17 percent choosing male co-workers and 16 percent choosing female co-workers.

The survey, which comprised 67 per cent women and 33 per cent men, also found out :

Women have to work twice as hard to prove themselves.
Women picked a male boss rather than a female boss,
More men would rather work for men than women; 50 percent of men chose a male boss and 12 percent picked a female boss
Most women, 77 percent, agree that it is still difficult for women to get ahead in the workplace; only 43 percent of men feels that way.
A majority of women, 56 percent, feel that at one time or another they have been disadvantaged in the workplace because of their gender, while 25 percent of men feel the same way.
The better the bosses, the longer the stability factor is yet another key findings of the survey. On working with strict bosses, majority of the executives said they would opt for an early exist as today there are immense opportunities available

Reference: http://www.assocham.org, Male Bosses in Preference, Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Attrition in hospitalityIndustry

A study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India reveals that the attrition rate in the hospitality industry in India is set to double to nearly 50% by 2010, up from the earlier 25% growing at an alarming rate of 10% per annum.

The hospitality industry is facing attrition problem from the growing hospitality industry in India and talent pool in India eager to test foreign waters for more lucrative opportunities. Moreover, the hospitality industry talent pool is also exploring better opportunities in industries like BPO, Banking, Call centers etc

The rising attrition rates are posing a major threat to the hotel groups. As per estimates about 80% of people prefer going to UK and Dubai to join the food and retail industry. These are the preferred destination for the hospitality industry professionals to start a career in hospitality industry.

The government and education institutions are working towards bridging the gap but top level management of the hospitality industry should also work towards solving the problem. The hospitality industry to retain people should work on the deferred compensation schemes, improved salary packages, better incentives, attractive perks etc.

Reference: http://www.financialexpress.com, High attrition hits hospitality sector, February 18, 2008

Attrition Hits the Cement Industry

Any fast growing industry has its own flip side and attrition is one of them. The same is true for the Indian cement industry.

Capacity expansion of existing companies and entrance of new players have added fuel to the job market. This is the dream time for professional working in the cement industry. The professionals are happy with the emerged situation as they are in position to demand good compensation and benefits but the employers are facing problem to retain and attract good talent. Attrition in cement industry has increased in recent times. The attrition in junior level employees is high in comparison with the middle and senior level employees. The attrition rate at Ambuja Cements is up to 15 per cent and at UltraTech Cement attrition is around 15-18 per cent. The situation is almost same with other cement manufacturers in India.

The 189-million tonne domestic cement industry is gearing up to tackle attrition in the industry. Ambuja Cements to put a check on the high attrition has increased compensation packages and are even inducting graduate engineers and diploma-holding engineers as trainees. UltraTech Cement has introduced deferred compensation schemes and improved salary packages. Moreover, to beat the attrition and talent crunch in the industry, In the last two years, Ambuja Cements hired over 300 engineers from regional colleges across the country and allocated them to different units.

Reference: http://www.business-standard.com Cement firms gear up to tackle attrition, Chandan Kishore Kant / Mumbai May 13, 2008

Tech Mahindra appoints Damodaran as additional director

Tech Mahindra is a global systems integrator and business transformation consulting firm focused on the communications industry. For over two decades, Tech Mahindra has been the chosen transformation partner for wireline, wireless and broadband operators in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America. Tech Mahindra has grown rapidly to become the 6th largest software exporter in India (NASSCOM 2007) and the second largest telecom software provider from India (Voice & Data 2007).

Telecommunications services and solutions provider Tech Mahindra has appointed Meleveetil Damodaran, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, as its additional director with effect from July 22. The Tech Mahindra Board strength, with the induction of Damodaran, would stand at 12.

Meleveetil Damodaran is the Ex-chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the country's financial market watchdog, before which he had headed the IDBI Bank. He belongs to the Indian Administrative Service, Manipur-Tripura cadre.

KPMG India key appointments

KPMG was established in India in September 1993. It has built a significant competitive presence in the country. KPMG operates from its offices in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, and offers its clients a full range of services various domain including financial and business advisory, tax and regulatory, and risk advisory services.

The KPMG to strengthen its presence and market share has restructured its leadership team. The firm as part of strengthening its existing leadership and executive team in the country has made various key appointments
Pradip Kanakia – Head of markets
Abizer Diwanji – Head of financial services
Harishanker Subramaniam – Head of Infrastructure & Government
Sudhir Kapadia – Head of consumer markets
Rajesh Jain – Head of information, communication and entertainment
Yezdi Nagporewalla – Head of industrial markets

Hope the consulting firm KPMG strengthen its presence in India post these appointments.

Rajat Monga is new Yes Bank President

Yes Bank India, founded under the initiative of Rana Kapoor and Ashok Kapur, is known for comprehensive banking and providing financial solutions to its customers. Yes Bank currently has 80 operational branches and plans to open another 37 in the coming months, it added.

Yes Bank has appointed Rajat Monga as President for financial markets. He was previously with Rabo India Finance as its treasurer.

Rajat Monga, currently Yes Bank's Chief Financial Officer, also worked with the labs and operations at Attributor. Rajat Monga at Attributor was responsible for development of many of Attributor’s core architectural principles. Prior to Attributor, Rajat played a lead role in Search at eBay. He also has extensive experience designing and building complex scalable systems at Quova, Arzoo and Morgan Stanley.

Rajat received his B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

Exit interview is important

In current business environment when attrition rate is high, in few cases like BPO it is as high as 30 percent, companies are curious to know why employees make that final decision.

Human resources departments, to understand the reasons behind attrition conduct exit interviews. These exits interviews help them gather data which are effectively used in improving working conditions and retaining employees. This is an effort to understand why employees leave an organization. Companies across globe are taking exit interviews seriously and making effective changes on the feedback. Some companies are even taking services of specialized HR companies to conduct exit interviews. Interestingly, the outgoing-employees tend to be more open and speak their mind when a third-party conducts exit interview.

Feedback from exit interviews is helping companies come up with systemic remedies. A few basic exit interview questions which are asked by human resources managers:
Why are you leaving?
What did you like least about your position?
What did you like most about your position?
How do you feel about the company operations?
How do you feel about the company management practice?
Under what conditions would you have stayed?
How did you feel about your pay and other benefits?
How did you feel you were managed during your length of employment?

Exit interviews reveal a lot about the culture of a company, the management style, the compensation and opportunities for growth. A hidden purpose is to help employers avoid costly litigation down the road, caused by "disgruntled" employees.

Indians second largest group of skilled migrants in Australia

Indians second largest group of skilled migrants in Australia

Indians have become the second largest group of skilled migrants to Australia. This migration happened under the temporary skilled migration programme during 2007-2008. Under the scheme almost a quarter of the temporary workers came from the UK, and India came second with 14 percent followed by the Philippines at nine percent and South Africa at six percent.

Australia, to meet the severe national skills shortages, offered 110,570 visas under the temporary skilled migration programme last year, a 27 percent increase on the previous year's 87,310.

Source : The Economic Times

Harvard Professor Tarun Khanna to Join GVK BIO Board

GVK Biosciences, Asia's leading Contract Research Organization, delivers integrated research services to big Pharma and Biotech companies globally. The company accelerates the Drug Discoveryand Development process of its customers through science and innovation. GVK Biosciences, Asia's leading Contract Research Organization, has more than 1,300 employees spread across different facilities in Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Gurgaon.

Asia's leading Contract research Organisation GVK Biosciences has appointed Tarun Khanna to its Board of Directors. Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School, where he has been a member of the Strategy group since 1993. He also lectures and consults with companies and governments worldwide.

Tarun Khanna holds a BS degree from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Dr. Khanna heads the Strategy course in the Harvard MBA program and the Strategy, Leadership & Governance Executive Education program.

Siddhanta Sharma to join InterGlobe Group

Siddhanta Sharma will join InterGlobe Group, as Executive Director, Corporate Affairs. In the new role, he will take care of the group's general aviation, hospitality business and group's travel management business for international airlines and cruises. He will also take care of distribution business of Travelport's Galileo GDS.

Siddhanta Sharma former CEO of budget carrier SpiceJet, brings with him a wealth of knowledge, understanding and management experience across industries including domestic aviation. He recently resigned as CEO of SpiceJet citing personal reasons. He will relinquish his office in SpiceJet on July 31. Previously, he has been Managing Director-India of ABF Grain Products engaged in commodities business.

InterGlobe Group, the parent company of low-cost airline IndiGo has business interest in air transport, hospitality, travel and tourism. InterGlobe Enterprises is a diversified international corporation:
Air transport management - InterGlobe Air Transport
Travel distribution - Galileo India
Integrated travel & technology solutions- InterGlobe Technologies
Hotels - InterGlobe Hotels
Operational technology consulting for Indian travel industry - InterGlobe Technology Quotient
Largest cruise representation in India- InterGlobe Cruises
Domestic Airline - IndiGo
Complete destination management company - InterGlobe Holidays
InterGlobe General Aviation - InterGlobe General Aviation.

Rakesh Sarin is new Wartsila India MD

Rakesh Sarin is new Wartsila India MD

Wartsila, Power solutions provider, operates from 150 locations in 70 countries and has a total headcount of 16,000 professionals across the globe. Wärtsilä is one of the first Finnish companies to enter the Indian market. In 1986 Wartsila India was formed as a listed company. In 1989 it established a manufacturing unit at Khopoli near Mumbai.. Over the years, Wärtsilä extended its offering to the market by not just supplying equipment but by positioning itself as a turnkey solutions provider.

Wartsila India has over 1000 employees in India and a total installed base of 4500 MW (power plants and marine engines). Wartsila India has appointed Rakesh Sarin as new Managing Director in the country.

Rakesh Sarin who joined Power solutions provider, Wartsila India in 1998 has served the organization in various capacities. Sarin, at present, heads the global marketing and sales process development of the company. He is also on the board of global power plants management team of Wartsila Corporation.

PepsiCo India - Approach to Tap Female Talent

PepsiCo India has taken an unusual approach to recruiting. The company has teamed up with JobStreet.com, to exclusively target women who wish to return to the corporate world.

From the time this initiative was made effective, the Web site has received a huge response from female candidates.

The Job opportunities offered include part-time and full-time options.
These are basically into consulting and sales and marketing. Most importantly, they allow the applicants to work from home or have flexible schedules.

The percentage of female employees has increased dramatically in the company and currently comprises 33 percent of top management positions and 15 percent of the remainder of the workforce.

PepsiCo India along with JobStreet.com is working to expand the initiative to other multinational companies such as Microsoft India and IBM India.

Source: Diversity Executive Magazine

How I landed into my dream job

I always wanted to be a Journalist. My parents had different plans, and I was sent to do an MBA. The MBA degree landed me in a Corporate with a decent job, but I was not happy. In search of perfect mach I changed two companies in four months. Finally at half of the salary I joined University Press, where I started business writing. I worked with the University Press for three years before responsibility called a quit. In my case, I discovered my strengths in a much early stage. The decision of quitting corporate and joining University press at half of the salary was not an easy decision. I could do that with ease because I had limited family responsibilities.

The mantras of success are start exploring your dream role early, and have clarity of thoughts. It is also important because by doing so you are giving yourself more scope for self- discovery in pursuing your passion. In my case I did not rely merely on my qualification, academic performance, skill, aptitude and a good luck. I worked hard to realize my dreams.

Ten action point which helped me get my dream job(s)
1. Explore options early in life.
2. Give yourself time to analyze options and develop clarity
3. Announce your dream role to every one – friends, relatives, job portals, recruitment consultants.
4. Explain what exactly you are looking from the job, and what you can offer to employer
5. Enrich your understanding of the industries and the companies which can offer you, your dream role.
6. Average to strong working knowledge of English both, written and oral, is essential in the global workplace. Not to forget that one of the regional language or Hindi is a must in case of India.
7. In this era of rapid change learn to unlearn old and learn new. People who have desire to keep up-to-date are in great demand.
8. Cultivate a range of IT skills to enhance your flexibility for a wider variety of dream jobs.
9. Demonstration of teamwork and enthusiasm not only in action but also through body language is must.
10. Every job demands formal attire that fits well.


I always believed that everything in this world is at your arms length if you have patience, persistence and planning.

Common Interview Questions

This list of Common Interview Questions is based on the interviews I have attended in the past. I suggest you to review these typical interview questions and think about how you would answer them.

Here is the list:

1. Tell me about yourself
2. Why did you leave your last job? Why are you looking forward for the change? What has disappointed you in current job?
3. What experience do you bring in to the table in this field? Why should we hire you?
4. Why do you want to work for this organization? What do you know about this organization?
5. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
6. What is your definition of the dream job? What are you looking from this job?
7. Are you applying for other jobs?
8. What is your greatest strength? What makes you feel that you would be asset to the organization? How can you be an asset to this organization?
9. Can you work under pressure?
10. Do you consider yourself successful?
11. Do you know anyone who works for us?
12. Are you a team player?
13. What will your co-workers and supervisor say about you? How much your co-workers and supervisor will rate you on scale of five? Explain why?
14. What irritates you about your co-workers and boss? What qualities do you look for in your co-workers and boss?
15. How long would you expect to work for us if hired? When are you planning to retire?
16. What is your philosophy towards work?
17. Have you ever had to fire anyone? Why did you do it?
18. Have you ever been asked to leave a position?
19. What is more important to you: the money or the work?
20. What makes you feel that you would do well at this job? What motivates you to do your best on the job?
21. What is your work style? What is your management style?
22. What is important work ethics or getting things done?
23. What is your salary expectation?
24. Would you be willing to relocate if required?
25. Do you have any questions for me?

These are the top twenty-five questions around which the HR round of the interview process resolves. Once you have answers of these questions there is nothing stopping you.

Salary Survey - 2008

The HR function is a critical element for growth of any company. It has become strategic, because capital is now an easily available commodity, but people are not. So, the only constraint to growth is people. And that is a not a new problem for the Indian Industry. Emmay HR and BW have conducted this year’s Salary Survey, comprehensively by covering costs, compensation and benefits across 12 sectors.

Though HR has moved up the value chain, there is still conflict with other functions such as finance and marketing on the importance given to it. The rising importance of HR was first noticed when key professionals were hired or shifted to the function. Many top companies today have HR heads that are top performers and are not necessarily from within the HR function. And it’s happening in the opposite direction as well, with HR heads also moving into business roles in progressive companies. S.V. Krishnan, who headed Satyam Computers’ largest business unit, was chosen to lead Satyam’s HR function in 2007. He replaced Hari T, who moved on to a strategic role as head of marketing.

This changing role of HR in Indian companies has led to a recalibration of budgetary planning.Planning an HR budget? It is a complex job, as there are several new components to it. That level of involvement has come about because an HR budget today has to factor in components such as recruitment costs, retention costs, alternative compensation plans, and employer branding initiatives.

Recruitment costs have gone up immensely. Today, it’s about hiring the right recruitment agency. The cost of hiring such agencies includes a retainer fee and 30 per cent of the new employee’s annual salary. A new component in HR budgets is training cost. Expanding companies are hiring entry-level employees from other sectors. These employees need training before they can be deployed.

The need for training has been driven upon companies due to soaring levels of attrition. Sectors such as IT and BPO have traditionally witnessed 25-35 per cent attrition rate. Nowadays companies also have to invest in employer branding to help attract and retain employees. Wooing employees through offline and mainline media advertising is a new challenge for HR heads in other sectors.

Conclusion

The job market has imposed discipline on companies in terms of planning HR budgets. It has forced them to plan long-term to reduce regular and rising training expenses. Most companies today have in in-house training facilities. The growing companies have realized that they not only need to attract and recruit good talent, but simultaneously build a social architecture that allows these employees to achieve their goals within the company. This seems impossible without a strong HR function and the top management’s involvement.

Source: Businessworld Issue 29 January - 04 February 2008

What Does Employee Engagement Really Mean?

In 2006, The Conference Board published "Employee Engagement, A Review of Current Research and Its Implications". According to this report, twelve major studies on employee engagement had been published. The Conference Board considered the responses from top research firms such as Gallup, Towers Perrin, Blessing White, the Corporate Leadership Council and others, and came up with a blended definition.

Accordingly, employee engagement was defined as, a heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organization, that influences him or her to exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work.

The Employee Engagement is the Conference Board's synthesis of 8 key drivers of engagement. These offer concrete targets for development:

Trust and integrity – how well managers communicate and 'walk the talk'.
Nature of the job –Is it mentally stimulating day-to-day?
Line of sight between employee performance and company performance – Does the employee understand how their work contributes to the company's performance?
Career Growth opportunities –Are there future opportunities for growth?
Pride about the company – How much self-esteem does the employee feel by being associated with their company?
Coworkers/team members – significantly influence one's level of engagement
Employee development – Is the company making an effort to develop the employee's skills?
Relationship with one's manager – Does the employee value his or her relationship with his or her manager?


Source: www.conference-board.org
Please read: Conference Board study by John Gibbons, Employee Engagement: A Review of Current Research and Its Implications.

Employee Engagement - Excerpts from the Gallup Survey

Tim Rutledge, In his book, Getting Engaged: The New Workplace Loyalty, explains that truly engaged employees are attracted to, and inspired by, their work ("I want to do this"), committed ("I am dedicated to the success of what I am doing"), and fascinated ("I love what I am doing"). An engaged employee is a person who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work. Employee engagement is viewed as managing discretionary effort, that is, when employees have choices, they will act in a way that furthers their organization's interests.

According to the Gallup Management Journal’s Employee Engagement Index 29% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs, 54% are not-engaged, and 17% are actively disengaged. The statistics on workforce engagement are surprising. Almost two third of the workers are either moderately engaged or not engaged, it is hard to ignore this wake up call.

Actively engaged employees: Today, employee engagement has become a growing management concern. Engaged workers make more money for the company. They contribute towards a healthy working environment. They stay with the organization longer and are more committed to quality and growth than are the other two groups of not-engaged and actively disengaged workers. Engaged employees usually need the least amount of attention from managers because they’re doing what they are needed to do. The challenge for managers comes when the signs of disengaging appear from an engaged worker. The symptoms need to be addressed immediately. Great managers spend most of their time with the most productive and talented people because they have the most potential.

Employees are usually hired to do three things:
1. Achieve the business outcomes of their roles
2. Contribute to creating a productive workplace
3. Drive customer engagement

A Manager should spend ample amount of time with his subordinates. He should get the individual to view his or her role from a broader perspective instead of from a narrow task-oriented point of view. They can help employees clarify how they can achieve their outcomes. Measurement of outcomes also becomes crucial. Good measurement includes regular feedback, aligns with outcomes and matches the expectations for the role. An effective leaders help the people to design and own their own goals, targets and milestones. Great managers provide coaching to facilitate progress of their subordinates.

Not-engaged employees: A special mention here is required of the Not-engaged employees. These employees tend to concentrate on tasks rather than the goals. They want to be told what to do. They have no real aspirations of their own. These employees tend to feel that their contributions are being overlooked. As a result they hang back and do the minimum because they don’t believe anyone cares. Effective managers take time out to have a dialogue about an employee’s strengths and how these can make a difference, leading to employee commitment.

Actively disengaged employees: They act out their discontent and sow seeds of negativity at every opportunity. They are indifferent to company goals and mission. The Gallup Organization estimates that there are 22 million actively disengaged employees that cost the American economy up to $350 billion per year in lost productivity, including absence, illness and other problems that result when workers are unhappy at work. Good managers will identify those who are disengaged and explore the reasons behind the disconnect to determine interventions can be made use of. Those who are actively disengaged may refuse to become part of any solution.

What employees want?

Here is a summary of what workers responding to the a Gallup survey said they what they want from their managers;
• Focus me
• Know me
• Care about me
• Hear me
• Help me feel proud
• Help me review my contributions
• Equip me
• Help me see my value
• Help me grow
• Help me see my importance
• Help me build mutual trust
• Challenge me

And how do you do that?

• Provide feedback and guidance
• Make real time to discuss problems
• Seek ideas and input from everyone
• Provide the resources to solve problems or to do a job well
• Give real recognition and/or reward
• Provide opportunities for people to develop their potential
• Keep the pressure to perform and achieve more with less realistic
• Provide opportunities for social interaction
• Train people how to resolve interpersonal conflicts
• Promote joy and appropriate humor within the office
• Be flexible; help people to actively balance work and home responsibilities

Yahoo! built out of Alliances, Acquisitions (and looking for Merger)

In 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo, the two young PhD computer science students from the Stanford University, started compiling list of their favorite websites as a hobby. They also listed them on websites. They developed Web-searching software which helped in web search and indexing sites. They categorized and subcategorized their websites for better search result. The website in the early days was categorized under Art, Business, Computers, Economy, and Education and also subcategorized each of the categories soon became too cumbersome, as the number of websites in their list increased. Jerry Yang and David Filo named the search list Yahoo.

By January 1995, Yahoo, had 10,000 websites and was getting one million hits a day. However, the indexing was still done by humans. During the same time, Yahoo had to be moved out of the Stanford University server where it was hosted.

By this time, Yahoo had gained fame and respect and venture capitalists showed interests in investing in Yahoo against a pie of Yahoo. The industry had recognized the potential of Yahoo and AOL wanted to buy Yahoo for $2 million. However, both Yang and Filo declined the offer. The media covered these events in detail which helped Yahoo gain visibility. The feature story in Newsweek during that time coined the expression ‘did a Yahoo.’ This coinage was later modified to become the company’s famous slogan ‘Do You Yahoo!?’

Launch
In March 1995, Yang, Filo and Tim Brady (a friend of Yang) wrote the business plan for Yahoo. The business plan put forth the vision of Yahoo; to become the ‘TV Guide of the Internet.’ The business plan also focused on advertisers to help generate its revenues, without charging any fees from the users.

The plan also stressed the importance of Yahoo’s independence, editorial impartiality, brand equity and free service for the end users. The business plan also listed that the second-biggest source of income should be through licensing deals.
The business plan announced Filo as president and CEO, and Yang as chairman and CFO.

In March 1995, Yahoo was incorporated and in April the company got its first $1 mn venture funding from Sequoia Capital. As soon as venture funding was received, the founders put an interim management in place at Yahoo. Yahoo launched its website in early August 1995.

Yahoo Expansion

In April 1996, Yahoo launched Yahoo Japan as a joint venture with Softbank, with Yahoo and Softbank owning 40% and 60% respectively. However, in all other cases it always held the majority stake. In Europe, Yahoo launched as Yahoo Europe in United Kingdom, Germany and France along with rest of Western Europe with Ziff Davis Yahoo held 70% of the equity stake while Ziff Davis held only 30%.

Yahoo forged strategic alliances with different companies like Procter & Gamble, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Nabisco, Pepsi, Microsoft, and Real Networks. To improve its pure search capability, Yahoo licensed AltaVista’s search engine and to broaden its distribution, Yahoo forged deals with Compaq and Gateway which allowed Yahoo to put its button on the desktops of Compaq and Gateway PCs. However, Yahoo and MTV alliance to create, a music search engine failed soon after its creation.

Yahoo initially started as a search engine, but with alliances and joint ventures it slowly developed as a portal. Mostly growth happened through acquisitions. Some of the companies acquired by Yahoo were Flickr, Konfabulator, Upcoming.org, Del.icio.us, and Webjay. The new Yahoo search engine was built on the acquired technology from Inktomi and Overture. The new search engine created the best search technology for consumers and an effective advertising platform for the advertisers. Yahoo also launched Yahoo 360, a social networking service.

In long run, Yahoo has become a victim of success. The company had adopted the model of being a one-stop portal, offering all the services on its web site. Yahoo’s homepage had links to a host of products and services like e-mail, music, mobile, small business services, health, finance, games, movies, personals, etc.

Acquired Companies

2002 Hotjobs, Inktomi
2003 Overture,
2004 3721 Internet Assistant, Kelkoo, Oddpost, The All-Seeing Eye, Music Match, Stata Labs Inc, WUF Networks
2005 Verdisoft, Ludicorp Research, (Flickr), Stadeon, TeRespondo, Dialpad
2005 blo.gs, Konfabulator, Alibaba, Upcoming.org, Whereonearth, del.icio.us
2006 Searchfox, Meedio, Gmarket, Jumpcut.com, Adlnterax, Right Media, Kenet Works, Bix.com, Wretch

Strategic Alliances and Joint Ventures

During the same time, Yahoo initiated strategic partnerships. Yang’s objective of strategic partnerships was, to leverage relationships for future financing, rather than raising money. They zeroed on Reuters, and struck a distribution and revenue sharing deal with Reuters. The success of the yahoo – Reuters deal led Yahoo to bring together a pilot program of six advertisers like GM and Visa, each of which paid $20,000 per month.

As the number of paid advertisers along with the daily visitors in Yahoo’s website increased, few companies showed interests in investing in Yahoo. Reuters, computer-magazine publisher Ziff Davis, Japanese software publisher and distributor giant Softbank invested in Yahoo against a portion of its equity
stake. Reuters invested $1 mn for a 2.5% stake, Ziff Davis and Softbank each invested $2 mn for 5% stakes.

In 1999 when the dotcoms started to collapse in 1999, and the advertising market shrank, Yahoo had to search new ways other than advertising to make money. Yahoo started charging for some of its existing services, like auctions and personals and introduced new paid services, like extra storage space for email and photos, registration of personal domain names and tools for building personal Web pages. In 1999, Yahoo also entered the ecommerce business by introducing Yahoo Shopping where 9000 merchants joined. Yahoo also partnered with Kmart’s retail website, BlueLight.com, to provide free Internet access to the users, with the objective of attracting large number of new Net-savvy customers.

What employees want !

Today, employees not only wish for tangible rewards from their employers but also for intangibles, such as respect, trust, and fairness. Some of these factors are listed below:

Sense of Purpose - People need to know what the organization’s core purpose is and what it is trying to achieve. And then they need to know how their particular job fits into the whole. Unless there is clarity on all of these, it does not allow employees to perform to their potential.

Appreciation - It doesn’t cost the employer anything to praise his/her employees for excellent performance.

Individual Growth - Today’s workers want training, want to take on new challenges, and want to advance based on their new abilities. Individual Growth gives a feel of job satisfaction to the employees.

Trust - People need guidance, but they also need to know that their boss trusts them to be able to get a job done.
Respect -Respect plays an important part in job satisfaction. It allows them to know that they are overall appreciated for what they are, and what they do.

Organization Culture - Employees want a flexible work environment. That means an environment which allows them to perform and excel, and also one which provides for work – life balance.
Compatible Co-workers - Working with people you enjoy is also very important. Compatible co-workers bring out more out of any employee’s performance.

Good Boss – “People don’t leave companies, they leave bosses.” – This is an old saying. Employees wish to work with a manager whom they can respect and learn from. Successful organizations retain their best people, by providing a mix of all of the above.