Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Present HR challenge is to retain talent'
Business Line - 23rd Jan 2006
Price reduction is the general trend in every industry. In marketing, it is suicidal in the long run. Instead, a marketer has to look at how to add value to the product. Only through value addition, a company can increase its revenues and bottom line in the long run, Mr V. A. George, President, India Cements Capital & Finance Ltd, told the students of VIT Business School.
Delivering a lecture under the Business Line Club series, Mr George said, "For instance, take the case of some of the players in the airlines and telecom companies. Their objective is to build market share and to gain market share they undercut prices thereby destabilising the industry."
Talking about the present trend in the human resources management, he said, if the human resources of an organisation is managed well, it can face the competition head on. The present HR challenge is to retain talent. "Delayed gratification is an old concept. `I will do this, and what can you pay me' is the order of the day."
Today human relations are more artificial and have hit very low trust levels. Companies need HR managers with empathy and right attitude to hear the untold stories of others which may be in their eyes, gestures, and mind and in their actions.
In his inaugural address, Mr G. Viswanathan, Chancellor, Vellore Institute of Technology, said India has a tradition of Business and Management. Even when no proper practices and policies were in place, Indians were doing business with the West and the East. Now the West has gained momentum and a majority of the East also has a place in the global business space. "What happened to us? Our challenge is to find out what happened to our tradition and regain our management excellence," he said.
Others present on the occasion were Mr Sankar Viswanathan, Pro-Chancellor (Academic), VIT University, Dr Anand A. Samuel, Dean - Management Studies, and Prof K.T. Rangamani, Co-ordinator, PG Studies.
Price reduction is the general trend in every industry. In marketing, it is suicidal in the long run. Instead, a marketer has to look at how to add value to the product. Only through value addition, a company can increase its revenues and bottom line in the long run, Mr V. A. George, President, India Cements Capital & Finance Ltd, told the students of VIT Business School.
Delivering a lecture under the Business Line Club series, Mr George said, "For instance, take the case of some of the players in the airlines and telecom companies. Their objective is to build market share and to gain market share they undercut prices thereby destabilising the industry."
Talking about the present trend in the human resources management, he said, if the human resources of an organisation is managed well, it can face the competition head on. The present HR challenge is to retain talent. "Delayed gratification is an old concept. `I will do this, and what can you pay me' is the order of the day."
Today human relations are more artificial and have hit very low trust levels. Companies need HR managers with empathy and right attitude to hear the untold stories of others which may be in their eyes, gestures, and mind and in their actions.
In his inaugural address, Mr G. Viswanathan, Chancellor, Vellore Institute of Technology, said India has a tradition of Business and Management. Even when no proper practices and policies were in place, Indians were doing business with the West and the East. Now the West has gained momentum and a majority of the East also has a place in the global business space. "What happened to us? Our challenge is to find out what happened to our tradition and regain our management excellence," he said.
Others present on the occasion were Mr Sankar Viswanathan, Pro-Chancellor (Academic), VIT University, Dr Anand A. Samuel, Dean - Management Studies, and Prof K.T. Rangamani, Co-ordinator, PG Studies.
Short of hands
Business Standard - 24th Jan 2006
IT-ITES: The IT-ITeS sector faces "employable" worker shortage, and the situation could worsen by 2010.
The shortage of skilled (read employable) IT workers is severe and will worsen by 2010. Nasscom has repeatedly cautioned that while technology jobs will double to 1.7 million over the next four years, the Indian IT industry could face a shortfall of around half-a-million workers over the same period.
Moreover, while the Indian ITeS-BPO industry is growing rapidly — having clocked export revenues of $6.3 billion in FY2005-06 —, only about 25 per cent of technical graduates and 10-15 per cent of general college graduates are suitable for employment in the offshore IT and BPO industries, respectively.
A study based on the perception of HR managers worldwide concluded that only one in four Indian engineering graduates is “actually employable.”
The Indian Software and Services sector (excluding ITeS-BPO) accounted for $17.3 billion in 2005-06 and employed 8.78 lakh workers. Over 1.2 lakh employees were added in the last fiscal.
Leading MNC IT companies have operations in India, accounting for 16 per cent of their delivery capabilities in offshore locations with India accounting for 70 per cent of the total offshore employee base. How does one fill the gap if a significant number of employees are “not employable”?
Nasscom, on its part, took a step in this direction when it announced the national rollout of the Nasscom Assessment of Competence (NAC) with the government of Rajasthan, making the state the first one to roll out NAC.
Nasscom and Hewitt, with active participation of ITeS-BPO industry players, designed NAC, a national assessment and certification programme, which is aimed at creating a robust and continuous pipeline of talent by transforming the “trainable” workforce into an “employable workforce”.
NAC aims to address the potential talent shortage by creating a robust and continuous pipeline of talent through a standard assessment and certification process.
TCS, too, recently unveiled its Talent Transformation (TCS T2) which aims to transform science graduates into global software professionals by getting graduates from disciplines other than engineering into the global technology services industry.
It is targeting 2,000 science graduates over the next year under this programme. One hopes this is just the start of many more such ventures.
SNIPPETS
Domestic shift
Even as the IT and ITeS sectors have traditionally been associated with exports, there is a welcome shift in thinking as this recent Nasscom and IDC study suggests.
It states the domestic IT services and ITeS-BPO sectors are slated to touch Rs 15,604 crore and Rs 6,608 crore respectively by the end of 2006, out of which only 45 per cent would go out to IT services providers while the rest would consist of training costs of in-house IT staff and associated overheads.
Unlike the IT services exports market where price arbitrage plays an important role, the domestic market will be driven more by access to specialist skills and helping businesses free up their scarce resources for focusing on core business activities.
The study notes that IT services and ITeS-BPO players urgently need to work together with customers, government and other stakeholders to remove some of the perceived inhibitors and help develop a conducive environment for healthy, long-term growth of the domestic industry.
Security act
The Union Cabinet has approved amendments to the Information Technology Act, 2000 aimed at checking information theft and online frauds.
The new provisions include greater emphasis on digital signatures, new security practices and procedures for e-governance and other technology applications. Parliamentary approval is awaited.
The amendments are aimed at preventing computer misuse such as voyeurism, identity theft, e-commerce frauds like phishing, frauds on online auction sites, sending offensive e-mail and multimedia offences.
Moreover, service providers or “intermediaries” shall not be liable under any law for any third-party information, data, or link made available, except when the intermediary has conspired or abetted in the commission of the unlawful act.
IT-ITES: The IT-ITeS sector faces "employable" worker shortage, and the situation could worsen by 2010.
The shortage of skilled (read employable) IT workers is severe and will worsen by 2010. Nasscom has repeatedly cautioned that while technology jobs will double to 1.7 million over the next four years, the Indian IT industry could face a shortfall of around half-a-million workers over the same period.
Moreover, while the Indian ITeS-BPO industry is growing rapidly — having clocked export revenues of $6.3 billion in FY2005-06 —, only about 25 per cent of technical graduates and 10-15 per cent of general college graduates are suitable for employment in the offshore IT and BPO industries, respectively.
A study based on the perception of HR managers worldwide concluded that only one in four Indian engineering graduates is “actually employable.”
The Indian Software and Services sector (excluding ITeS-BPO) accounted for $17.3 billion in 2005-06 and employed 8.78 lakh workers. Over 1.2 lakh employees were added in the last fiscal.
Leading MNC IT companies have operations in India, accounting for 16 per cent of their delivery capabilities in offshore locations with India accounting for 70 per cent of the total offshore employee base. How does one fill the gap if a significant number of employees are “not employable”?
Nasscom, on its part, took a step in this direction when it announced the national rollout of the Nasscom Assessment of Competence (NAC) with the government of Rajasthan, making the state the first one to roll out NAC.
Nasscom and Hewitt, with active participation of ITeS-BPO industry players, designed NAC, a national assessment and certification programme, which is aimed at creating a robust and continuous pipeline of talent by transforming the “trainable” workforce into an “employable workforce”.
NAC aims to address the potential talent shortage by creating a robust and continuous pipeline of talent through a standard assessment and certification process.
TCS, too, recently unveiled its Talent Transformation (TCS T2) which aims to transform science graduates into global software professionals by getting graduates from disciplines other than engineering into the global technology services industry.
It is targeting 2,000 science graduates over the next year under this programme. One hopes this is just the start of many more such ventures.
SNIPPETS
Domestic shift
Even as the IT and ITeS sectors have traditionally been associated with exports, there is a welcome shift in thinking as this recent Nasscom and IDC study suggests.
It states the domestic IT services and ITeS-BPO sectors are slated to touch Rs 15,604 crore and Rs 6,608 crore respectively by the end of 2006, out of which only 45 per cent would go out to IT services providers while the rest would consist of training costs of in-house IT staff and associated overheads.
Unlike the IT services exports market where price arbitrage plays an important role, the domestic market will be driven more by access to specialist skills and helping businesses free up their scarce resources for focusing on core business activities.
The study notes that IT services and ITeS-BPO players urgently need to work together with customers, government and other stakeholders to remove some of the perceived inhibitors and help develop a conducive environment for healthy, long-term growth of the domestic industry.
Security act
The Union Cabinet has approved amendments to the Information Technology Act, 2000 aimed at checking information theft and online frauds.
The new provisions include greater emphasis on digital signatures, new security practices and procedures for e-governance and other technology applications. Parliamentary approval is awaited.
The amendments are aimed at preventing computer misuse such as voyeurism, identity theft, e-commerce frauds like phishing, frauds on online auction sites, sending offensive e-mail and multimedia offences.
Moreover, service providers or “intermediaries” shall not be liable under any law for any third-party information, data, or link made available, except when the intermediary has conspired or abetted in the commission of the unlawful act.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
IT firms gear up to recruit, retain women
Business Standard - 23rd Jan 2006
Men have always outnumbered women in the IT workforce. The ratio of men to women was 76:24 in 2005 and has balanced out marginally.
It is likely to be 65:35 (men:women) in 2007. Given the bias, Nasscom recently announced it would institute awards for companies to recognise outstanding practices promoting gender empowerment.
While the percentage of women in the IT talent pool is steadily increasing, a majority of women are still at the bottom of the pyramid and there are few women in senior leadership positions. However, many Indian companies and MNCs are taking proactive steps to rectify the skewed numbers.
Capgemini India, for instance, is in a process of creating a Women’s Council to see it has policies that are women-friendly. Of the 1,600 workforce of Capgemini India, 18 to 20 per cent are women.
The company plans to increase this to 35- 40 per cent in the coming years, says Chandrasekhar Sripada, VP people relationships management, Capgemini Consulting India.
IBM India is another IT major that makes a conscious decision to hire women right at the recruitment level either from women only campuses or regular campuses. Of the 43,000 employees at IBM India, 26 per cent are women.
Organisations are also creating women-focused policies and are going all out to retain them as much a possible. And one of the ways to do this is also giving them enough space to grow.
At Intel, other than flexi hours and maternity leave, the company has a programme called Tele-communicating. This is a formal arrangement between the individual and her business head. Under this one can negotiate the time and the hours that they want to work. One can also arrange the kind of workload they would like to take.
Anish R South Asia Business Group, HR Manager says that for women employee on maternity leave Intel has gradual return to work programme wherein they can start work slowly either by working for a few hours or days.
The Women Leadership programme at IBM takes care of not only making women take on higher managerial posts but also technical jobs.
Kalpana Margabandhu, Program Director, IBM India Software Labs and Chairperson: “At IBM, these steps are more than just retention policy. We see this is as business imperatives as women are increasingly getting into the entrepreneurial role and as we have more women using our solution we need to have that reflected in your business too.”
Apart from the fact that women get a different perspective to the work environment, many feel that they are more loyal to the company, and do not make shifts easily as compared to men. No wonder than almost all the MNC companies ‘Diversity’ programmes are more focused on women.
Varda Pendse, Director, Cerebrus Consultant, opines women opt out of jobs on issues such as maternity or job hours thus organisations will have to cater in these issues while formulating an HR policy for them.
Rather she feels in a few years the scenario would completely change and hence taking that into consideration many organisations have already started creating policies for them.
Kiran Karnik, President Nasscom believes those who feel this focus is due to attrition issues are grossly mistaken, “We need to have affirmative action and hence Nasscom as a body has been asking companies to have HR policies that are conducive to women.”
Though there are companies that are doing their bit but these are just the top IT organisations. He also point out that let this initiative should not be equated with the reservation policy. As with reservations, it need not necessarily mean that merit is appreciated.
Men have always outnumbered women in the IT workforce. The ratio of men to women was 76:24 in 2005 and has balanced out marginally.
It is likely to be 65:35 (men:women) in 2007. Given the bias, Nasscom recently announced it would institute awards for companies to recognise outstanding practices promoting gender empowerment.
While the percentage of women in the IT talent pool is steadily increasing, a majority of women are still at the bottom of the pyramid and there are few women in senior leadership positions. However, many Indian companies and MNCs are taking proactive steps to rectify the skewed numbers.
Capgemini India, for instance, is in a process of creating a Women’s Council to see it has policies that are women-friendly. Of the 1,600 workforce of Capgemini India, 18 to 20 per cent are women.
The company plans to increase this to 35- 40 per cent in the coming years, says Chandrasekhar Sripada, VP people relationships management, Capgemini Consulting India.
IBM India is another IT major that makes a conscious decision to hire women right at the recruitment level either from women only campuses or regular campuses. Of the 43,000 employees at IBM India, 26 per cent are women.
Organisations are also creating women-focused policies and are going all out to retain them as much a possible. And one of the ways to do this is also giving them enough space to grow.
At Intel, other than flexi hours and maternity leave, the company has a programme called Tele-communicating. This is a formal arrangement between the individual and her business head. Under this one can negotiate the time and the hours that they want to work. One can also arrange the kind of workload they would like to take.
Anish R South Asia Business Group, HR Manager says that for women employee on maternity leave Intel has gradual return to work programme wherein they can start work slowly either by working for a few hours or days.
The Women Leadership programme at IBM takes care of not only making women take on higher managerial posts but also technical jobs.
Kalpana Margabandhu, Program Director, IBM India Software Labs and Chairperson: “At IBM, these steps are more than just retention policy. We see this is as business imperatives as women are increasingly getting into the entrepreneurial role and as we have more women using our solution we need to have that reflected in your business too.”
Apart from the fact that women get a different perspective to the work environment, many feel that they are more loyal to the company, and do not make shifts easily as compared to men. No wonder than almost all the MNC companies ‘Diversity’ programmes are more focused on women.
Varda Pendse, Director, Cerebrus Consultant, opines women opt out of jobs on issues such as maternity or job hours thus organisations will have to cater in these issues while formulating an HR policy for them.
Rather she feels in a few years the scenario would completely change and hence taking that into consideration many organisations have already started creating policies for them.
Kiran Karnik, President Nasscom believes those who feel this focus is due to attrition issues are grossly mistaken, “We need to have affirmative action and hence Nasscom as a body has been asking companies to have HR policies that are conducive to women.”
Though there are companies that are doing their bit but these are just the top IT organisations. He also point out that let this initiative should not be equated with the reservation policy. As with reservations, it need not necessarily mean that merit is appreciated.
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