What you and I can learn from M.S.Dhoni's resignation?
What does M.S. Dhoni resignation from limited overs cricket captaincy of India mean? Why did he do it? After all the job comes with a lot of money, prestige and media coverage. In cricket crazy India, this is an important post.
New Year Resolutions
As we approach the last day of 2016, and are ready to step into the New Year 2017, one thing that most of us want is to change.
We are all fond of making New Year resolutions, that involve setting ourselves goals for a new and improved us.
June 7th, 2016
The Death of The Annual Performance Appraisal
The annual performance appraisal is slowly dying, though your company may not know it yet. It is a much hated exercise that is blamed for demotivating a large section of employees as well as their mangers who are made to do the evaluation.
Aligning HR and Business Strategy in a dynamic world.
Two news items in ET caught my eye today, the first was headlined Snapdeal establishes its data sciences centre in California the important paragraph in my opinion being 'The news comes about a month after ET reported the Snapdeal will is now focusing on adding and retaining high-quality users, de
How to Improve Employee Feedback
Interesting article in Harvard Business Review on employee feedback by James Detert of Cornell University & Ethan R. Burris of University of Texas. They both are in the schools of business and so very clued on to real world managerial challenges.
Career Management in 2016
As 2015 comes to a close and 2016 looms large in the horizon some thoughts on career management in the New Year.
1) The rapid changes being experienced in the business world makes it important that you have a deep understanding of the skills, knowledge & experience you bring to the table.
Careers
Gautam Ghosh has an interesting post labelled "Two Types of Careers" wherein he talks of careers that have been defined and followed by others and compares them to careers which are on the cutting edge. Do read and comment there.
That reminds me we have some new jobs posted at our site.
New Ventures
Have not been writing for a long time. One reason was that had nothing much to say, the other as was getting ready to and looking for new challenges. Have decided to add a bit of zing to my otherwise staid existence as a Human Resource consultant. I have signed up for a new venture "DressShop".
Clarity in Recruitment
In my opinion the clearer a company is about what would make a candidate successful in their company, the better would be the quality of their hires.
1The Tata Conundrum.
Should the Tata's go outside the family to look for a successor to Ratan Tata? Tata group has an iconic status in the country, as it is seen as the cleanest business enterprise in the country. It is seen as a company that does not pay bribes, speed money etc. to get it's work done.
2Why job hopping may be a positive
I always said Twitter was useful. Thanks to following Abhijit Bhaduri and Gautam Ghosh I was able to read an interesting article. Written by Penelope Trunk it has a different viewpoint on employee loyalty.
2Brand Me!
In this digital age, you are what the internet search results throw up when someone Googles you. (Okay does a Bling search on your name if you want to insist.)
It is true. your name is researched on the web, either before or after the interview.
Employer Branding
As the hiring landscape is becoming tougher in India, companies are investing time and money in their "employer brand". H R Heads in increasing numbers are getting interested in the concept and they are participating in surveys like "Great Places to Work" etc.to strengthen their company brand.
Meaning or Happiness or both
Interesting article in BusinessWeek on how people can find more happiness (short term satisfaction)and/or meaning (long-term benefit) in their lives. The article is written by Marshall and Kelly Goldsmith and has some interesting insights for employers.
Ravi Venkatesan interview on WSJ
Interesting interview, the two points that stood out for me were:
a)"The best companies will rotate their highest potential talent through places like India and China and Brazil as part of their development.
The job market uptick
There is a very upbeat report in the Economic Times that in essence says that by end of next year we should see a large number of jobs been created in India.
Once can read the entire article here.
Capitalisation as a form of highlighting
In my role as a recruitment consultant I read through many resumes everyday trying to differentiate the diamond from the paste imitation.
What I find strange is that many otherwise excellent candidates, with a list of achievements under their belt forget the basic rules of capitalization.
What personality characterstics predict CEO performance?
We all have the visions of the Imperial CEO e.g. Carly Fiorina, Bob Nardelli, Hank Greenberg as the ideal CEO.
Asking for help
Gautam Ghosh writes this beautiful post titled "Want me to help in your job search?"
He seems to be getting a number of e-mails asking for assistance in job searches,and his advice is three-fold,
*If you are taking my email id off this blog and mailing me as part of a mass mailer campaign without
A new blogger
V Rajesh "Retail Professional with extensive multi format exposure in India " as he labels himself on his LinkedIn profile has started this interesting blog "An Indian and a Retailer!"
I have read many of his posts and found them interesting.As someone who has been associated with the retail revolu
Overactive French Unions
"Taking the boss hostage? In France it is a labor tactic" is the headline for an article in the New York Times.
Larsen and Toubro rethinks it's hiring
I am told that L&T has put some of it's offers for GET on hold.
Is Slumdog Millionaire an Indian film or a British film?
Just in case you were in a cave the last two months, the film Slumdog Millionaire, based on a novel "Q&A" by the Indian author Vikas Swarup was optioned by Tessa Ross of Channel 4 turned into a film, by the British screen writer Simon Beaufoy directed by the British director Danny Boyle, with an all
3Hewitt survey on recruitment and salary trends in 2009
Hewitt in it's salary and recruitment trends in India has come out with some encouraging numbers. As reported in the Times of India.
"The survey says the average salary hike in India in 2009 will be 8.2% - the highest in the Asia Pacific region.
The tough economic times and what they will result in.
There is a Pramod Bhasin article in Wall Street journal titled "The elixir of youth" wherein he talks of how the young in his company Genpact are reacting to the downturn by suggesting new ideas to save cost.
Improving your chances of finding a better job or being successful in your current one1
On one of my LinkedIn groups, I read a request asking for help in “enhancing the number of offers one gets” so I decided to not only answer there, but to write out this post as a general guide to finding a job or in some cases a better job! So here goes:
This is unfortunately one of the toughest ti
A Layoff Tracker
Found this Layoff Tracker for Tech industry. The best part is that they have managed to update in the data in the last two days that I have been looking at it.
Is there anyone doing similar stuff for India? My bet is that most companies in India will not be reducing numbers via layoffs.
Leadership is about finding the right talent!
The Washington Post has an interesting discussion going titled "Over the Hill or just Overlooked?" The discussion uses the idea that a 37 year old quarterback has taken an American football team (the Arizona Cardinals) to the Superbowl.
Wage cuts, a way to avoid job cuts?
Very often I get into a debate about the need to cut jobs as a way to reduce costs. I am of the opinion, that companies need to ensure that they survive and have a healthy rate of return for their shareholders, if job cuts are the only way to do that, so be it.
2Mumbai attacks
As an ex-employee of the Taj group of Hotels (IHCL) and the Oberoi’s (EIH Ltd) I am saddened by the dastardly act of terrorists who have invaded these two fine institutions. As I write this, the terrorists are still inside and the army, the NSG and others are trying to neutralise them.
Negative Rumours
Gautam Ghosh has a blog-post on the above topic dated Nov.
Lower salaries!
The headlines say it all, economic slowdown is definitely going to impact salaries in the corporate sector. Airlines seem to hog the headlines as of now, but from what I hear, other industries are also be impacted.
Switching To Human Resources
I had written to Arvind Rajan Vice President of People Operations at LinkedIn after my last blog post, as I was interested in knowing what prompted him to switch careers.
Hiring for Skills or Leadership
It's been a long time since I last wrote a post. So excuse me if I am a little rusty.
I just read an interesting article in the WSJ. In the article Dan Nye CEO of LinkedIn talks about his decision to hire a generalist Arvind Rajan as the Head of Human Resources.