Hrnv may-2015

Dear Friends
This edition focuses on some key
aspect of key management practices,
Human well-being, Long term
planning, OD initiatives & Talent
Attraction.
Cover Story
Flexibility v/s Discipline – the
dilemma
May, 2015
HRNews & Views
Article
A Balanced Life…
Criticize me…
Career Moves…
Long Term Planning…
HR International
HR articles – Europe, US…
Advisory Board
Editor’s note …
Cover Story…
In this new generation workforce it is evidently becoming
important to redefine their operational methodologies and
align the balance between traditional approaches to a more
contemporary approach. In an effort to do so there is a
evident choice that tope leaderships…
Debabratta Dutta
Lt. UdaiPareek MadanSrinivasan
Syed Abbas Marcel Parker
SouravBasu
Company Updates
Latest happenings
Anil Noronha
Flexible v/s Discipline ..
the dilemma

CoverstoryAdvertisementArticlesTheTalkHRInternationalUpdate
Heartfulness : Living by the Heart
By tuning in to our heart, we learn to be centered in our highest self.
Strengthen that connection and cultivate an inner knowing that wisely directs and guides our lives.
Grow to face the challenges of life with courage and acceptance. Live by the heart, and become what
we‘re meant to be.
Explore and experience.
Feel the lightness and joy of your true nature. Heartfulness meditation is simply taking the time every
day to tune into that internal presence.
In a short while, you‘ll learn to remain connected to that gentle support throughout the day.
 Try Heartfulness on your own
 Try Heartfulness with the assistance of yogic transmission
www.heartfulness.org
There are no prerequisites other than basic mental health and an attitude of openness and wonder.
Heartfulness.org does not serve or represent any commercial purpose.
Copyright 2015, All rights reserved | Site is owned & operated by Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation,
Privacy Policy and Disclaimer

Flexibility v/s Discipline
the dilemma…
ArindamChakraborty
Director - Human
Resources & Admin.
LiveCareer
www.arichak.weebly.com
In this new generation workforce it is evidently becoming important to
redefine their operational methodologies and align the balance
between a traditional approach to a more contemporary approach.
In an effort to do so there is a evident choice that tope leaderships
needs to make about choosing between Flexibility & Discipline in an
effort to create an effective but vibrant workforce.
Changing times…
The workforce dynamics is changing and the evolving technologies are redefining the model of work across
organization. These are challenging the old methodologies and reinventing new practices to manage a
productive workforce.
• Flexibility
• Connectivity
• Speed
• Convenience
These are becoming some of the key buzzwords that are leading to
defining a workplace for people to thrive upon…
Employee’s Needs’ …
Employees are evidently becoming demanding and thus changing the rules of the games. The workforce is
vibrant and dynamic. They are increasingly experimenting and fearless, ready to challenge the status quo and
walk on the path no one dared to walk upon…
My
Space
My Time
My
way
My style
My
speed
High Results
Bindings
Handcuffed
Longer decision making time
Slowness

Organization’s fear …
In a traditional thought process the organizations are afraid of losing control. It is felt that the vibrant and flexible
workforce is not disciplined and will thus lead to be non-productive. Keys aspects which top leadership‘s holds
close to them are:
Much leadership thus creates a non-transparent blanket across them that bring in a gap between leadership and
employees. This brings in more of a unidirectional working approach where new ideas are not breaded and
innovation takes a back seat. Performance metrics will be as per required objective but such companies struggle to
survive the pace of time.
Focus is on way to manage people
Idea is to control people than deriving results …
Power
DecisionControl

The winning approach …
The organization's that thrives on creating successful set ups are always willing to create an environment that
inspires people. Some names that strikes mind quickly are … Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn…
WHAT THEY FOCUS UPON ?
Empowerment
Innovation
Experimentation
Collaboration
Transparency
Let people drive
MANAGE RESULTS …. NOT PEOPLE….
Create an environment that lead's people to be highly productive

A BALANCED LIFE
www.Heartfulness.org
If we study the arena of HR deeply, we find it is all about human relationships. In fact, research has shown that the people in any
organisation work better and are happier if they are appreciated as human beings rather than only seen as resources.
Productivity is much greater as a result. We also know about Daniel Goleman‘s research showing that Emotional Intelligence is
far more important in effective leadership in Fortune 500 CEOs than IQ, or the depth of experience on their resumes.
How does this affect HR policies in any company? First, it means that there must be concern for the quality of life of employees,
and this has been a big factor in the success of companies like Google and IBM. For example, Google‘s most successful
program so far is their self-development training called ‗Search Inside Yourself‘. This course has been taught at Google since
2007, and is based on the practice of meditation. For many participants it has been life-changing, both at work and in creating
work-life balance.
‗Search Inside Yourself‘ is based on Mindfulness meditation, which has been popular in the corporate world for the last ten years
as a way of giving employees tools to create useful mental habits, develop self-mastery and emotional intelligence, and train the
mind to be able to concentrate, discriminate and be more productive and successful in the workplace.
The next important wave in self-development programs in recent times in the corporate world is Heartfulness meditation, which
brings an evolutionary leap forward in consciousness. It incorporates all that Mindfulness meditation brings, plus a deeper
transformative factor. The basis of a balanced life is happiness, and real happiness can only come through nurturing the heart.
Happiness is never lasting if it is dependent on external things, like having more money, better promotions, bigger houses,
smarter cars etc, because that is the treadmill to more and more stress and ambition.
Happiness of a lasting quality is not dependent on these external, ephemeral acquisitions. As the Beatles wrote, ―Money can‘t
buy me love.‖ Love, courage, mutual trust and respect, hope, sincerity, self-acceptance, enthusiasm, and willingness to excel
and to grow – all these qualities come from the heart. And with Heartfulness meditation there is the support to develop these
qualities in the form of a meditative practice and transmission.
The heart is a mysterious and beautiful thing- the connecting point joining the mind, the body and the soul of a human being.
When we are able to listen to the heart and follow its guidance, a contented and balanced life is possible.
The life force of the heart flows into all aspects of daily life, as creativity, as enthusiasm, and as willpower to excel and overcome
all challenges, affecting the most mundane details to the most important decisions and discoveries that we make.
Our relationships are also dependent on the quality of our heart: are we soft-hearted and kind with our family members, friends
and work colleagues, or are we hard-hearted and cold? In the workplace, heartful HR can bring a company alive, and
employees become inspired, learn to work in unity and harmony, and overcome challenges together through an integrated
approach to problem-solving. The success of any company depends on its internal integration.1
For that, employees need work-
life balance.
And how do we find this balance? When we meditate on the heart at the centre of our being, we have the possibility to really
excel in the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of life. What better way to improve our quality of life and also the quality of our
workplaces!

Quotes:
Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.
Thomas Merton
Whatever we do, we must excel and that has nothing to do with ego. When we paint, are we excelling in that?
When we study, are we excelling in our studies? People say, I will not excel. I want to be humble and non-
egotistical. Don‘t have ego, but not at the cost of excelling. The purpose of life is this: we must excel in everything
that we do.
Kamlesh D. Patel
Nature is beautiful for two reasons. There‘s a blending of diverse units of existence into a grand and harmonious
picture of existence, and there is a total freedom for the individual units, to express their existence in many, many
divergent ways.
P. Rajagopalachari
Adopting the right attitude can turn a negative stress into a positive one.
Hans Selye
It is one of the greatest failings of human nature that we refuse to be happy and at peace with the world when it is
so easily possible, and then we chase these very values after we have created a world of unrest and hatred.
P. Rajagopalachari
The routine practice of meditation really aims at removing immoderation, by the action of our will, so as to keep up
the balance.
Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur
Try Heartfulness meditation on your own or with an experienced trainer.
Visit www.heartfulness.org

Ashutosh Mishra
Head - Human Resources
Bahrain National Gas Company
(B.S.C.) , Kingdom of Bahrain
Historians aren't sure who officially invented the annual ritual of grading our colleagues' performance, but one of the
earliest examples of formal appraisal comes from China's Wei Dynasty, around 230 AD, when an Imperial Rater
invented a nine-grade system to evaluate members of the official family. History's first formal review wasn't much more
popular than its recent iterations. ―The Imperial Rater seldom rates men according to their merits, but always according
to his likes and dislikes," Chinese philosopher Sin Yu once lamented, futilely.
Eighteen centuries and several million futile laments later, performance reviews are alive and well. They peaked,
perhaps, in the 1980‘s, when GE's Jack Welch used the ―Rank-and-Yank‖ method to cull the worst-performing 10
percent of his workforce. Today, evils might be less draconian, but are they any less pointless ?
Criticize me, Please !!
People are obsessed with how to give and receive feedback without
descending into awkwardness or crushing self-esteem. “One in four
employees dreads their performance review more than anything else
in their working lives,” write Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen in their
book, Thanks for the Feedback, That’s why some companies now refer
to it in more euphemistic terms: The “Performance Appraisal” process
or, worse, a “Midyear Check-in.” If you hate performance reviews—and
the "if" in that clause is ceremonial; you do hate them — don't blame
your boss. Blame the Wei Dynasty.

Stone and Heen—two lecturers at Harvard Law School‘s program on negotiation—argue that our modern system of giving and
receiving feedback is broken. It‘s often cluelessly delivered, poorly timed, and driven by the giver‘s own insecurities or ambition.
(An architect I know had a boss who once told her he couldn‘t think of a single thing she was good at, including ‗human
interaction‘). But even crudely put, self-serving feedback contains usable truths. Besides, it‘s the only kind many get, so it‘s best
to figure out how to use it. ―Receiving feedback well is a process of sorting and filtering—of learning how the other person sees
things; of trying on ideas that at first seem a poor fit; of experimenting,‖ Stone and Heen write. ―And of shelving or discarding
the parts of the feedback that in the end seem off or not what you need right now.‖ Much of their book is a description of all the
ways our defensive instincts manifest themselves, including ―I can‘t believe you of all people are saying that‖ and ―You‘re never
satisfied!‖ In identifying these reactions for what they are—―wrong spotting,‖ the authors call it—you can sift through the
annoying things people say for useful advice.
This doesn‘t only apply to work. Kids take high-stakes tests in school, then they and their teachers are judged on the results.
Social media quantifies feedback into likes and dislikes, ratings and four-and-a-half-star reviews, shares and favorites, and
even the responses to an online dating profile. The tirelessly hyped concept of Big Data is just lots and lots of bits of the same
thing.
"We'd rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism," wrote Norman Vincent Peale, the author of the 1962 book The Power
of Positive Thinking. It sounds like a glib aphorism, but that's actually pretty close to the research consensus. Criticism stinks.
―Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.‖
– John Maxwell
It‘s the time of year managers and employees alike dread most. Stress and anxiety levels rise as they mutter complaints about
performance reviews. To top it off, a recent Leadership IQ study (Source: https://www.leadershipiq.com/how-can-leaders-and-
managers-make-performance-reviews-more-meaningful/) found that only 13% of 48,000 leaders found reviews useful.
In a recent study at a Royal Government owned Oil & Gas Company of GCC country, an experiment was conducted to test
whether certain goal-oriented workers might value constructive criticism. Many people just like to be coddled and constantly told
how wonderful they are. Performance evaluations probably aren't their thing.
But what about workers who readily say they want to get better at their jobs—maybe they'd appreciate a critical nudge? Yeah,
right. After administering negative feedback to both groups, the researchers found that the first group hated the feedback round,
and the second group—employees with the strongest "learning-goal orientation"—was nearly as unhappy with the criticism.
Perhaps one specific group appreciates criticism: The workers least likely to be criticized.
One series of studies out of the University of Chicago found that people who are new to a job prefer bosses to act like
cheerleaders. When you're trying to feel out whether a new job "fits," you want to be told: "You fit !" But experienced workers
accept bosses who behave more like hard-knock coaches.
The problem with many good workers is, they know
how good they are. The problem with many bad
workers is, they don't know how bad they are.

Why would better workers want more criticism ? Maybe because they can take it. Maybe because they don't appreciate
feeling babied. Maybe it's the openness to evaluation that makes them good in the first place. Or maybe it's because
experts, unlike novices, aren't looking for positive reinforcement, at all. They're seeking mastery. Praise is fine at the
beginning, the researchers concluded, because it makes beginners feel more committed. But eventually, too much positive
feedback starts to feel kinda ... boring.
In the paper, "How Positive and Negative Feedback Motivate Goal Pursuit," Ayelet Fishbach, Tal Eyal , and Stacey R.
Finkelstein make a fascinating observation about the interplay between feedback and moods. In their words.....
When people attribute their mood to the feedback they received, the mood provides progress information and people are
more likely to adhere to their goals when they are in a bad mood. However, when people attribute their mood to a goal-
unrelated source, the mood signals to them whether to commit to a goal. In addition to general moods, distinct emotions
signal the level of attainment on speciﬁc goals, such that people infer from their emotional experience (e.g., pride versus
happiness) which of their simultaneous goals (e.g., long versus short-term) they neglected or towards which they made
sufficient progress.
... and in mine: Bosses shouldn't let a great worker feel too accomplished, or let a novice feel too hopeless. Overall, a good
group of workers will always feel happy but never quite feel done. Managers can encourage goal pursuit by offering
positive feedback to novices and increasing the negative feedback as the recipients gain expertise.
Effective performance reviews are an opportunity for honest and open communication. Although past performance is
discussed, you can inspire and engage employees by placing the focus on plans for the future. As leaders, you need to
change the perception of performance reviews from ineffective, uncomfortable and critical to collaborative and positive,
even when they communicate negative results.

Rahul Jain
AGM – Corporate HR
Dainik Bhaskar
Group
Make a 10 on 10 Career Move!!!
We all have changed jobs and will come to cross roads in future as
well. Here are Top 10 questions to ask before making a Career move
–
1. Am I making a mere job change? Or is it a Career progression
in terms of Higher Designation with higher span of control,
higher challenging responsibilities with larger team handling?
Is it a Lateral move or a next level growth move in career?
2. What are the further growth prospects and learning
opportunities in new role and organization?
3. By choice, am I making a move to an Established/New Set up Local Organization or MNC? Am I moving to
Growing/Stable/New Industry? Will this move enhance value of my Resume?
(Check the Brand name and its value, Industry Type and competition players in it, Size of the organization in terms of
Profitability, Growth rate, Headcount, Your Own team size and Industry/ Business sustainability in long run or
recession like turbulence situation)
4. Who will be my New Boss/Manager? What is his/her background? Who are the seniors and Leaders in Management
Team? Are these the one I would love to work with?
(Background can be viewed on Professional Networking Sites and details can be checked from your own network or
other Industry Professionals.)
5. What are the Organization Vision, Mission and Values? How is the organization culture? Does this match with your
own belief and way of working? Is the Organization structure flat or has a long Hierarchy with too many
Grades/Band? Where does your position stand in this Structure? What are the Designations used in Organization
Hierarchy in each Grade/Band? What decision making powers and authorities come along with new responsibilities
and designation?
6. What is the Compensation and Benefits offered? Is it as per the market range specified by compensation surveys
and percentile you are looking for? What are the Policies, Practices on employee recognition, welfare and facilities
offered?
7. What are the latest systems, software, Technology, Processes used in new organization?
8. What is the location of new organization? Does this match your location preference (if you have any proximity
criteria)? Where the new role may take you with a transfer situation in future? Is an international move possible (if
you have an interest to move out of home country) as career growth?
9. Is the new role matches your interest, aspiration, motivation and long term career goals?
10. Are you taking a long term Calculated Risk with this career progression move?
Views expressed by author here are based on HR experience of Mr. Rahul Jain and does not represent his present or
past Organization.

To get a better sense of the complexity of this undertaking, the comet is currently travelling at about 40 times the speed of a
bullet in an orbit around the sun.Like finding the proverbial ‗needIe in the haystack‘, the comet probe strived to land on a
celestial object that is a mere 2.5-mile wide rugged lump of ice and dustin four billion miles of space. And land it did on that
eventful Wednesday!
This brings me to wonder about the intense long term planning that goes behind every space mission like this, Mangalyaan
and many others. Programs of such aspiration, magnitude and cost can easily run into several years and require the best of
scientific talent working with unrelenting dedication and a passion for discovery and understanding the mysteries of our cosmos
in more depth.
Intertwined in this prospect of futuristic planning is what might probably be a most undervalued trait today– patience. It took 10
years to land Philae on its destination – over two days, it has managed to send back valuable housekeeping and science data,
but when its batteries ran out of power, it dropped to stand-by mode and contact has been lost. As it lays in the shadow of a
crater wall, the hope that sunlight might generate enough power to wake up the solar panels remains dim, so the ESA fears a
long silence, yet hopeful and patient for the comet to reach closer to the sun in the orbit.
How is long term planning and patience played out in the world of business? Global and large organizations usually have a
long-term business strategy and plan for the next 3-5 years, and anannual plan for the next financial year. The business cycles
are impacted by several factors such as the macroeconomic environment, governmental policies and regulations, nature of the
markets and so on, giving an ambiguous picture of the future.
Or so we think. In his best-seller ‗Zero to One‘, Peter Thiel, co-Founder of Paypal and Palantirputs forth an interesting definition
of the future – simply the set of all moments yet to come. What makes the future distinctive is not that it has not happened yet,
but that when it does happen, there would come a time when the world would look quite different.
All we need to do is to look around us and see how the technological innovations of the last decade has brought irrevocable
long-lasting change in front of our very eyes – the way we communicate, interact with each other, makes friends – the way we
lead our day to day lives is so different from barely a generation or two ago.
So, THE question is much of the future can/do we control? We may not be able to predict what is going to happen, but can we
build our ownfuture? Peter offers an insightful 2 X 2 way of understanding the different ways we seek to understand our future,
as below:
US (1950‘s – 1960‘s) US (1982 – present)
China, present Europe, present
On Long-term Planning, Patience
and the Future
On November 12, the European Space Agency (ESA) created waves
in the scientific and astronomical world and captured our collective
imaginations when it announced that Philaesuccessfully landed on
the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a ‘bumpy ride’ along
its cratered surface for what must have been a nerve-wrecking
kilometer for the project team. The first spacecraft to land on a
comet, it took 10 years for Philae and its Rosetta mothership to
complete itsepic journey.
OPTIMISTIC
PESSIMISTIC
MadanSrinivasan
Vice President HR,
MindTree
United Kiingdom
DEFINITE INDEFINITE

A definite optimist is she who has a defined vision of the future and creates long term plans to achieve it, which is where the
US was in the 50s – 60‘s, when the entire nation showed the world what it could achieve through personal and collective
capitalistic endeavor.
Over the past more than three decades, US appears to be uncertain about the future, neither seems keen to define it. They
retain the optimism, but are not taking any concrete actions to shape the future, and instead rely on chance. Thus, they have
landed in a phase of indefinite optimism.
A defined pessimist believes the future can be known, but since it will be bleak, he must prepare for it. Thus, China has a 20-
year plan to be ‗like the US‘ in every respect – so they may not be as confident of ‗taking over the world‘ as several nations
think they would.
Every culture which has a myth of decline from a ‗golden age‘ usually end up being pessimists. The future is not only bleak
for an indefinite pessimist, he has no idea what to do about it.
In which quadrant will India feature? I believe as a nation, we are largelyindefinite optimists. The optimism comes after slowly
and sometimes painfully rising as an economic and world power, although we have much to catch up on. We are right now
well into the implementation of the 12
th
Five Year Plan which has specific programs in 26 areas, such as agriculture and
water resources, environment and forest and science and technology. Interestingly, there are two steering committees
handling multilevel planning and perspective planning.But are five-year plans sufficient in building the India of the future, or
should we look at longer time horizons, that the Five Year Plans would roll into?
While we have discussed these four categories from the perspectives of nations, do they apply to workplaces? I‘d say yes,
and sure that you would have encountered colleagues who demonstrate characteristics of one of the four types. How we plan
(short-term or long-term), how we think we can predict the future and how much patience we show for achievement and
results is as much a personal choice as governed by factors such as the industry sector, the leadership style of the CEO, etc.
Moving back to the world of astronomy where we started, they would be definite optimists? How else would they lay hope on
re-establishing communications with Philae while supporting with actions such as seeking to change the position of the
lander to help its solar panels get illuminated. Our best wishes with them!

Partha P. Patnaik
Head – HR
Prolifics
Many organizations have adopted various forms of Management by Objectives (MBO) where the focus is on goals or outcomes
rather than just activities. Hence, if an initiative does not materialize, it affects the entire HR department‘s goal sheet. Since in
such transparent systems there is no option to pass the blame to some other department or person, it is always a good idea to
take the responsibility and come up with corrective and preventive measures to ensure that such incidents do not recur.
To mend such problems, the following steps can be taken:
1. Do a ‗root cause‘ analysis – the first step is always to find out why the initiative had failed; methodologies like the Five
Why‘s, Pareto analysis, Fishbone (Cause- Effect/Ishikawa) diagrams can help.
2. Have a corrective action plan – to remove the root cause and clearly assign tasks. Things like who, when, what and
how needs to be made clear to bring accountability into the process.
3. Periodic/Milestone reviews and follow ups – have a plan to check the progress or execution of the incentive on a
periodic basis or based on the agreed milestones. Have frequent follow up meetings or provide feedback wherever
deviations are noticed.
4. Update to all stakeholders – all employees and relevant stakeholders (like customers, suppliers etc.) need to be
informed about the initiative and its progress or effect. Transparency, accountability, and increased chances of success
in execution can then be maintained.
5. Training – is highly essential to ensure that the new defined process is understood and followed properly. For example
in our organization, our training programs ensure that all employees have awareness of the quality system and are
process oriented.
Whenever an employee related initiative fails, due to whatever reasons, all stakeholders are a little worse off. For the employee
it might also create a perception of ‗false promises‘ or ‗lack of interest‘ from the Management. However, if the processes are
transparent and there is collective accountability, chances of the initiative succeeding are high. By removing the ―us vs. them‖
mindset, HR can help ensure all initiatives succeed. This in effect makes the organization a better place to work in and also
positively impacts employee loyalty.
Implementing organizational initiatives - the changing role of HR
HR has traditionally played mostly a support role in most organizations and the general perception remains that HR is just the
execution wing of the Senior Management‘s decisions or initiatives. However, recent developments shows that HR is gradually
moving to a more strategic role in organizations, wherein HR advises the Management on the initiatives to introduce and/or
prioritize based on either the industry norms/benchmarks or feedback received from the employees. Hence HR is now actively
involved in all the stages of the initiative, right from planning to execution.
Proper communication and explanation is the key for the success of any initiative. Similarly, celebrating successes is also the
key to spreading the message of policy adoption. In our organization, HR runs the internal global newsletter that provides a very
convenient and accessible forum to explain policy benefits, successes and the occasional hiccups!
In most organizations HR personnel together with the Senior
Management are jointly responsible for creating all employee
related initiatives. However the charge of properly
communicating and executing the same remains primarily with
HR, hence even if HR personnel are not directly responsible for
an initiative going wrong, they definitely remain accountable for
it.
Organizational Initiatives and the HR
Department

Though HR actively advises the Senior Management on the type of initiatives or employee policies that needs to be included for
maintaining a good work environment and organizational culture, it is the Management which decides and finalizes the same.
Post such decisions however, it becomes the responsibility of HR to ensure that all initiatives are executed properly and in a
timely manner. Whenever an employee policy backfires or a good work culture is not being maintained, HR remains primarily
accountable for the same.
In our organization, employee satisfaction is in the goal sheets of HR department as well as all Senior Managers. It is one of the
four mother strategies adopted in finalizing our corporate goals. HR is always represented in the weekly corporate management
meeting. Any employee policy/initiative is developed and formalized jointly with Senior Management. Execution of these
policies/initiatives is the responsibility of HR at the organizational level and of the respective managers at the departmental level.
Controlling and managing an initiative headed towards failure - a real life example.
Though I am yet to experience an initiative that has completely failed, I have experienced many cases where
corrections/changes had to be made to HR policies/initiatives to ensure their success. To cite an example of 2008-09, we had
revised our appraisal process to tie all salary hikes and incentives to performance outcomes based on Key Result Areas (KRAs)
mutually agreed between the employee and his/her reporting Manager. The appraisal cycle was also changed from July to April
that year. However, neither the Senior Management nor HR was prepared for the turn of events (global economic recession)
that happened right afterwards.
Since most of the KRA‘s were linked to the customer, many employees who were handling customers in countries that were in
recession were starting to get apprehensive about their jobs. The general mindset was that the appraisal will be used to either
get rid of the low/not-important performers (at worst) or give no salary hike but a tentative job security (at best). With the
recession affecting some of our strategic business units, the Management was also debating about postponing the appraisal
cycle back to July or scrapping it altogether for the current year. However after many internal discussions involving the Senior
Management and HR, it was agreed that postponing or scrapping the appraisals would have a very negative impact on all
employees. After doing some research on the industry and competitors, a new method of salary increment was devised. It
comprised of a unique combination of variable and incentive based pay linking the individual and the overall organization‘s
(instead of country/region) performance. The critical part was then about communicating it in a proper manner to all staff so that
there was a collective agreement that the process was fair and transparent. First the Senior-Managers/Department-Heads were
communicated about the new scheme and their feedback taken. Once an agreement was reached with them, HR
communicated this scheme to all Managers followed by a general meeting with all staff.
By having a tiered formal communication, there was a joint responsibility from all levels of management to ensure that the
initiative was a success and there was a collective buy-in on this scheme. Employees were also encouraged to have both formal
channels (HR, reporting Manager‘s) and informal channels (team members) of communications to have a better understanding
of the new appraisal processes.

European HR ways…
Paul Strange,
HR Consultant
In this column, I hope to share with
you some aspects on HR
professionals in Europe.
OFFICEPUTSCHIPSUNDERSTAFF'SSKIN
I am working for a banking client in the City of London at the
moment. A few days ago, I approached a door with a security
pass, a notebook, a tablet, a phone and a cup of water.
Trying to swipe the card, and hold the other things was too
much for me, and I dropped the water on the floor!
It is now normal for us to have a security pass, and several
other devices in our possession in the course of a day‘s
work. Epicenter, a new hi-tech office block in Sweden, has
shown us the next step forward in reducing the things we
have to carry from meeting to meeting. There tenants of the
building can arrange for their staff to have a microchip
inserted under the skin of a hand. This chip replaces the
security pass, and allows the person to open secure doors
with a wave of the hand. They can also use it to get access to
secure documents from the photocopier, and pay for food in
the canteen.
This is like having a smart card embedded in your hand, and
may not seem really necessary. I am not likely to lose my
right hand, but I only forget my security card sometimes.
However, it may be step towards a future when we use this
technology to access main systems, monitor your health, and
when we might be use this as a tracker for your location.
SQUEEZE IN THE MIDDLE IS HURTING CAREER
PROGRESION
A reduction in the proportion of job opportunities in ‗middle
skills‘ is hurting career progression. There has been a
hollowing out of middle-skilled jobs, with most European
countries seeing an increase in the number of low-skilled, low
paid jobs as well as in the number of highly-skilled workers.
This may now close routes that those in low-skilled work were
previously able to advance through.
This is the conclusion of recent research sponsored
by JPMorgan Chase. It found that between 2000 and 2010
the number of low-skilled jobs rose by over 10 per cent, and
highly-skilled by over 15 per cent, while the number of mid-
skilled roles shrunk.
Some European countries are better than others in
addressing this issue at national level. The research
looked at four measures of labour market progression:
occupational progression, employment earnings, hours and
contracts.
HR International…
HR in Europe

Countries such as Sweden and Norway, which have a commitment to stable, secure employment and skills development, do
not necessarily have higher rate of progression. The Netherlands and the UK, which has flexible labour markets are middle-
ranked on progression.
Belgium is the top-ranked country, as over 1 in 5 workers attain a higher skilled occupation over a four-year period.
Belgium‘s high rates of progression are supported by an even spread of jobs across skill levels including a greater share of
employee jobs in the middle of the income distribution. Over 40 per of its jobs are mid-skilled occupations, while in the UK
the equivalent figure is around 25 per cent. Belgium has a large manufacturing sector, which tends employ more mid-skilled
workers, as does its business services, retail and hospitality sectors.
The report suggests a number of ways that employers can adapt in order to fill highly-skilled vacancies.
· engagement with the education and training system in order to equip labour market entrants with those skills that
are in demand
· greater provision of in-work training to their current workforce
· designing career pathways so that individuals can progress within and across employers from a wider variety of
starting occupations
- creation (by governments) of labour market institutions to support progression.
NEW GREEK GOVERNMENT PROMISING EMPLOYMENT BOOST
The new government in Greece is promising a boost to the ailing labour market, including an 'employment programme for
300,000 new jobs'. There are also plans to bring back labour laws which protected workers which were scrapped by the last
government. The estimated first-year cost is €3 billion.
Unemployment in Greece has been above 25 per cent since July 2012 and shows little sign of declining.
In one of its first acts, it has re-employed 600 cleaning women in government offices in Athens. They had been made
redundant in 2013 by the previous government. New Prime Minister, Mr Tsipras, has pledged to reinstate thousands of
public servants who lost their posts under budget cuts demanded by the EU and International Monetary Fund in return for a
€240 billion (£180 billion) bail-out.
TWEET LED TO THE SACK – FIRST UK LAW CASE
A few years ago, a retail manager was dismissed from his job for offensive tweets that he posted on his personal Twitter
account. In the first UK case involving tweets as a communication medium, the labour court recently agreed with the
dismissal, and rejected his appeal.
Most Twitter accounts are personal and the tweets were ―offensive, threatening and obscene‖ but not related to work.
However, it is common for Twitter account holders to have a number of ‗followers‘ – other Twitter users who link themselves
to another account and see all the tweets of that individual. The man was a well known employee of the company, he had a
number of followers who were fellow employees. One of these people reported him to the company.

The appeal court found that the offensive tweets could be read by the 65 retail stores who followed him, as well as any
customers who picked up on his account, and not just by his social acquaintances. He knew this, and did not try to restrict
his Twitter account or use another account to keep his personal views amongst his friends and family. The man had not
posted criticism of his employer or anything that might reveal he was an employee of the company on his Twitter account.
But this was no defence to his actions. His right to freedom of expression must not infringe upon their employment and must
be ―balanced against the employer‘s desire to remove or reduce reputational risk from social media communications‖.
OK – I agree with this. But contrast this with the next story from another European country and where the criticisms were not
in the public domain.
BLACKMAIL? NO – JUST FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.
The next story, from Latvia, is of a university professor who was unhappy with a reorganisation that might threaten his job.
Professor Rubin sent many derogatory and otherwise critical emails to his bosses, and threatened to make his accusations
of mis-management public unless reorganisation plans were changed. His employer thought he had gone too far, and they
dismissed him instead. This was a fair dismissal under Latvian law.
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides that everyone has the right to freedom of expression,
which includes the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public
authority. There are some limitations to this.
His appeal reached the European Court of Human Rights. They found in the Professor‘s favour, and declared that sending
emails criticising management was a breach of his freedom of expression.

Company Updates
Leadership Crisis in IIMs across the Nation
The would-be IIMs will be shocked to hear that IIMs are facing real challenges in their professional lives. IIMs in Ranchi,
Kozhikode, Lucknow and Raipur are having vacancies in the director‘s profile. The hunt is on, yet only one could be placed
till now. "No one wants to be a director today," says a former IIM director. "The institutes are facing a governance issue,
which includes political and government interference. The faculty takes pot shots at directors. There is a lot of blame game.
This is hurting the momentum," he adds. Successful academicians from IIM consider leadership struggles, government and
political interference, lack of succession planning, low pay scale, remote location and absence of clear mission as core
reasons for IIM distraction in such job profiles. Since 2010, IIM Ranchi is functioning as a two storey building. The human
resource department announced the development of six new IIMs, though none has come into existence till now. "There are
many challenges in developing new IIMs. A close industry interaction is a must for budding managers. Institutions
established in remote parts of the country will face tough challenges on that front," says Prof MJ Xavier of IIM
Ranchi.Source: Jobs.siliconindia.com
Infosys gives 15-20% salary hikes to top performers
Infosys, the country's second largest software services will give 15-20 percent salary hike to the top performers, say
sources. The intention behind this move clearly seems to be to curb attrition, which the company has been struggling with it.
The company said they would give out pay hikes in the range of 6.5 percent to 9 percent to employees in India for the
financial year 2015-16. While the overall average wage hike would be effective from April 1, which is 1-2.5 percent for onsite
and 6.5 percent for offshore, higher performers would get a hike of 9.5 percent and the top performers would get 15-20
percent hike. For this, per team one to two percent of the top most employees have been scrutinized say sources. This step
would not only encourage people to work better by increasing utilisation but also help the company contain attrition. This is
the highest hike by company had done in the last three years for top performers.Source: Moneycontrol.com
Ford to look at upskilling its employees
The Global Business Services operation of Ford Motor Pvt Ltd, headquartered in Chennai, is looking at upskilling its
employees through giving them work on commodity designs for global market, said a senior official from the company.
Speaking to reporters in the sidelines Segue Sessions, a sill building and career come-back event for women professionals
organised by Avtar Career Creators and sponsored by companies including Ford, Mr. David Dubensky, president and
managing director, Ford Motor Pvt Ltd, formerly known as Ford Business Service Centre Pvt Ltd said, "Right now product
development is one big area that we support. We are just in the process of hiring in that area now to support commodity
designs globally." "It means a particular commodity that is used on every product around the world or on many products
around the world and you design that one time. That is something that we are looking to do here to enhance the skill set of
the people," he said. The company is evaluating expanding the scope of its work in different areas. It routinely work with the
global functions to try to determine strategically what it should be doing out of this Global Business Service centre. At
present, the company mostly work in a digital innovation space and it is starting its journey to enhance the skill set of the
team, he said. He refused to divulge more on the plans saying that the company is in the process of firming up those
plans.Source: Business-standard.com
Videocon Tele plans campus hiring from top academic institutes
Videocon Telecom said it plans to hire freshers from top academic institutes such as IIMs, ISB, SP Jain, XLRI and IITs this
year. The company, however, did not specify how many freshers it wants to hire. "We have plans to go to top business
schools and engineering colleges including IIMs, ISB, S.P. Jain, XLRI, IITs amongst other leading institutes this year for
campus placements to strengthen its employee eminence," Videocon Telecom Director and CEO Mr. Arvind Bali said in a
statement. The company which restarted its operation in January 2013 is hiring professionals for its existing business
operations and for UP (East), UP (West), Bihar and Jharkhand where it plans to start services this year. Videocon has
earmarked Rs 1,200 crore for 4G services roll out in these states. Source: Business-standard.com
SA-based PayU embarks on major expansion, to hire 1,000 in India
Driven by increasing internet usage for making payments and online purchases, mobile wallet companies such as Paytm,
Oxigen, Citrus and MobiKwik have been on a hiring drive in recent weeks. The latest company to join this expansion drive is
payment solutions provider PayU. The Johannesburg-listed company, promoted by the Naspers Group, is set to hire about
500 people in the next three to four months in the country. The $60-billion (`3,60,000-crore) PayU, which provides payment
solutions to several e-commerce companies such as Jabong, Bookmyshow, Groupon among others in India, plans to hire
1,000 people by 2015-16.―Aggressive hiring is the need of the hour as we are seeing tremendous growth in business,‖PayU
India CEO Mr. Nitin Gupta said. ―By 2015-16, we will add 1,000 people to the current strength of 500.‖ PayU, which serves
over 65,000 businesses and merchants in India, plans to hire people across functions such as sales, technology, marketing,
business development and operations. The company is also looking to add over 15,000 businesses every month against its
current expansion rate of 4,500 new businesses added per month.Source: Hindustantimes.com

TCS Expected to Offer 8-10% Pay Hike: Analyst
Among the frontline IT companies, Infosys has kicked off the pay hikes of 2015-16 by announcing an average raise of 6.5-9
per cent for its employees in India. This is the first wage hike to be rolled out since Mr. Vishal Sikka took over as the chief
executive officer of Infosys in August last year. Infosys pay hike is effective from April 1. After Infosys, the focus now shifts to
India's biggest outsourcer TCS. The Tata Company typically announces pay hikes in the April-June quarter. TCS is expected
to announce an 8-10 per cent pay increase for its India staff, says Ms. Ankita Somani, an analyst at MSFL Research. TCS
last year announced a 10 per cent pay raise for onshore employees, she said. Commenting on the Infosys pay hike, Ms.
Somani said that though the quantum was less than expected, "the company is trying to compensate the salary revision after
giving 100 per cent variable payouts in the second quarter and the third quarter". However, if the attrition rate spikes at
Infosys, says Ms. Somani, the company's management may take decisions around variable pay hikes, rather than fixed pay.
"We have seen that as soon as the attrition increases, the company tries to manage it through variable pay hikes. That has
been happening for three quarters now," she said. The attrition rate at Infosys is likely to cool off, she said. Infosys's attrition
rate (on last 12 months basis) stood at 20.4 per cent in the December quarter. The wage hike is likely to impact the Infosys
margins by 2 per cent in the June quarter, she added. Many IT companies, including TCS, have warned about their fourth-
quarter earnings, citing issues like client specific issues, demand momentum, slowdown in ramp--ups and weakness in
some verticals.Source: Profit.ndtv.com
Aviation tech startup Team Indus ropes in Mr. Nandan Nilekani as an investor, advisor
Bangalore-based Axiom Research Labs Pvt Ltd, the company behind aviation technology venture Team Indus, has raised
an undisclosed amount of funding from Infosys co-founder and the man behind UIDAI Mr. Nandan Nilekani. Mr. Nilekani will
also be involved with the firm as an advisor. Team Indus, India's lone entrant to the prestigious $30-million Google Lunar
XPrize, is set to close a pre-Series a funding round of nearly $1.5 million (about Rs 9 crore) from investors, including Mr.
Nilekani, the report said. In January, the company won $1 million (Rs 6.15 crore) from Google Lunar XPRIZE, a global
competition to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration.Source: Vccircle.com
Hiring activity sees 10% growth in Feb 2015 over Feb 2014: Naukri Jobspeak
Naukri Job Speak Index for the month of February 2015 was at 1639, recording a 10% increase in hiring activity over
February 2014. The sectors which recorded maximum increase were Banking and Finance Services (BFSI) and IT at 77%
and 76% year-on-year (YoY) increase in February 2015. Geographically, Pune and Hyderabad were leading the tally and
registered a yoy growth of 36% and 24% in February 2015 as reflected by the Naukri Job Speak Index.
Source: Naukri.com
Flipkart aims to generate 20 lakh jobs in 2015
Domestic eCommerce major Flipkart said it will generate over 20 lakh jobs through its marketplace and ancillary services
this year. The Bangalore-based firm expects 60 per cent of this employment to be generated in the logistics and
warehousing sector. ―Sellers on our marketplace have been directly responsible for driving employment within their own
communities. In fact, e-commerce support facilities like merchandizing, buying, packaging and cataloguing have generated
more than 75,000 jobs in the last one year,‖ Flipkart Senior Vice President (Marketplace) Mr. Ankit Nagori said in a
statement. Going by past trends, Flipkart is confident that it will ―generate close to two million jobs this year‖, he added. The
rapid development of the e-commerce ecosystem in India will contribute towards the generation of employment across
sectors. Last year, over half a million jobs are estimated to have been created in the e-commerce space. Flipkart said the
marketplace model has opened up opportunities in metros and non-metro cities. ―This year, nearly 50-60 per cent of
employment will be created in tier II and III cities. For instance, cities like Jaipur and Baroda have already become the
ancillary industry hubs (cataloguing and packaging) and they will continue to generate more opportunities in the future,‖
Flipkart said. Source: Financialexpress.com
IIT-Kharagpur to launch short term courses for working professionals from April
Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur is launching short-term courses on niche subjects via video conferencing for
students of engineering colleges and working professionals from April, it said in a statement. "The Institute is launching a
unique first of its kind 'Knowledge Dissemination Programme' for faculty and students of engineering colleges, working
professionals from research and development organisations and industry with effect from April 2015," the institute said in a
statement. The programme intends to cover niche topics through 13 short modular courses of 10 hours duration. "The
courses under this Dissemination Programme course are targeted towards students and faculty members of TEQIP-II
Institutions, IIT Kharagpur students, entrepreneurs, working professionals from R and D organisations, and industry all over
the country," the statement said. Source: Businesstoday.intoday.in
Mercer India appoints Mr. Anish Sarkar as Consulting Head
Mr. Anish Sarkar joins Mercer from the Capgemini Group, where he was the senior vice president and head of consulting for
India. Mr. Sarkar will focus on driving a number of strategic growth initiatives to broaden the service and solution offerings
beyond the compensation space (which will continue to be led by Mr. Shanthi Naresh), with a strong focus on the retirement,
benefits and investments offerings delivered by Mercer, the company said. "A core area of activity will be to bring Mercer's
global solutions to the local market and to work closely with our sister companies (Marsh and Oliver Wyman) to bring
seamless services to market across all MMC companies. There will also be an emphasis on identifying potential inorganic
growth opportunities in India including strategic business alliances," Mercer said in a statement. Source: Business-
standard.com

Rocket Internet moves Mr. Saurabh Kochhar from Printvenue to Foodpanda as CEO for India & CBO of global
business
Foodpanda.com, a Rocket Internet-backed global, multi-location online food ordering marketplace (which operates under
Hellofood brand in some markets), has appointed Mr. Saurabh Kochhar as India chief executive officer (CEO) and the chief
business officer (CBO) for its global operations. In his new role, Mr. Kochhar‘s key focus areas will be the strategic growth of
the company. He will be responsible for restructuring the sales force, introducing new target markets, fostering more
partnerships with restaurants in newer geographies, and improving global marketing collaborations. ―Food as a whole is an
amazing opportunity in India, and globally. I see an aggressive growth in this segment and hopefully would be able to make
a material difference in this journey,‖ said Mr. Kochhar. He has over eight years of experience and prior to moving to
Foodpanda, he was the founder and managing director (MD) of PrintVenue, a printing solutions startup also backed by
Rocket-Internet. Before setting up PrintVenue in 2012, Mr. Kochhar had earlier worked at companies like McKinsey & Co
and Oracle India Pvt Ltd. An IIM-Calcutta alumnus, he also holds a B.Tech degree in electronics and communication from
IIT-Roorkee.Source: Techcircle.vccircle.com
Oracle to hire 300 for selling cloud in India
Technology major Oracle Corp seeks to hire 300 sales staffers in India for its cloud computing business, which is growing
‗better than expected‘, a senior company official said. Cloud is a method of delivering information technology services in
which resources are retrieved from the internet through web-based tools and applications, rather than a direct connection to
a server. ―The intention is to hire about 1,000 sales people in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) just to focus on the software-as-a-
service, platform-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service business. As India is leading growth in APAC, 30 per cent of
our cloud sales hiring will be here,‖ said Mr. Shailender Kumar, Managing Director of Oracle India.Source:
Thehindubusinessline.com
Google poaches Morgan Stanley's CFO
Google Inc hired Morgan Stanley Chief Financial Officer Ms. Ruth Porat as its own finance chief, a sign Google is aiming to
rein in costs as it invests in new businesses such as self-driving cars and internet-connected eyeglasses. Ms. Porat has
helped execute a sweeping cost-cutting strategy across several business lines at Morgan Stanley. The bank cut its
expenses, excluding compensation, to 29 per cent of its revenue last year, down from 34 per cent in 2012. Google's costs
have jumped as the company embarked on an increasing number of ambitious projects. Last year, the company's revenue
grew 19 per cent, while total expenses rose 23.4 per cent, a trend that alarmed some analysts."You want someone to come
in there and push back against the free spenders," said Mr. Colin Gillis, an equity research analyst at BGC Partners, a
brokerage, adding that investors hope Porat will be that person. Google's shares rose as much as 2.5 per cent after Ms.
Porat's appointment was announced by both companies. She will start her new job on May 26. Ms. Porat is the latest among
a string of Wall Street executives to leave an industry that is increasingly regulated to move into the more free-wheeling
technology sector, where fortunes can be built fast but businesses can also become irrelevant overnight. Source:
Indiatoday.intoday.in
Wipro appoints IBM, TCS veteran Mr. Natarajan Srinivasan
Wipro has hired IBM and TCS veteran Mr. Natarajan Srinivasan as its global head of SAP, says report. A report said that Mr.
Srinivasan will be based in Bengaluru and report to newly elevated president Mr. Bhanumurthy BM. Wipro confirmed that Mr.
Natarajan Srinivasan joined Wipro in January this year as a vice president and global SAP practice head, company
reportedly said. Earlier this week, Wipro hired former TCS veteran Mr. Abid Ali Neemuchwala as its chief operating
officer.Source: Indiainfoline.com

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