Human Resource Community

Amazon is reportedly preparing to layoff 1,000 employees in India as part of organizational-wide role eliminations, CEO Andy Jassy announced in a statement on January 5, 2023. Given that Amazon employs 100,000 people in India, the 1,000 jobs that would be lost would account for 1% of all employment there. Jassy claims that the company disclosed its “painful choice” to eliminate many positions across its Devices and Books businesses in November. For a chosen number of PXT organisation employees, it also made a voluntary reduction offer. He also revealed the choice to eliminate 18,000 employees in 2023. Many teams will be impacted, but the PXT and Amazon Stores groups will see the majority of the roles terminated, he continued. The Amazon CEO continued by stating that although in theory the company would delay such statements until after speaking with anybody who might be impacted, the announcement had already been made as a result of an inside leak. He said the company would begin getting in touch with the impacted employees on January 18. “Normally, we hold off on discussing these results until we can get in touch with the people who will be directly impacted. But since one of our team members released this information to the outside world, we felt it would be preferable to break the news early so you could hear the specifics from me. Beginning on January 18, we plan to speak with affected workers (or, as appropriate in Europe, employee representation bodies),” said Jassy. Amazon has reported 18,000 job cuts, which are the company’s largest to date and more than other tech giants have disclosed, but the company still employs 1.5 million people worldwide, significantly more than any other internet company. Jassy says that Amazon has endured difficult and turbulent economies in the past and will do so in the future.

As the rollout of the high-speed service unleashes a “compounding impact” on recruiting for both non-niche skills and technical skills, NLB Services predicts that the 5G rollout will increase hiring in the telecom sector in 2023. The need for specialised telecom technology skills increased by approximately 20% in 2022 when compared to 2021, according to a statement from the global staffing and recruiting firm. It predicted that future recruiting demands will not be limited to the telecom industry alone. In order to expand up their service capabilities for 5G, NLB Services predicted that industries like healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and automotive would also look to hire tech talent. Among the most important job profiles in non-telecom sectors are data scientists and cybersecurity specialists. According to NLB Services, “In the last year, there has been a 15-20 per cent rise in demand for technology talent in the telecom and allied sectors, and the trend is expected to create a new record 25-30 per cent in the coming year.” Some of the most sought-after job roles at the moment earning roughly 10% to 12% better pay packages, according to the report, include cybersecurity, cloud computing, data science, and data analytics. It referred to 2022 as a “momentous year” for the Indian telecom industry as the 5G concept started to take shape and “green shoots in the job market.” “Leading telecom players have already rolled out 5G services in over 50 towns across India and are expected to cover most parts of the country in the next two years. This clearly indicates a compounding impact on hiring as well both for non-niche skills and technical skills,” it pointed out. NLB Services is a provider of transformative workforce solutions that was established in 2007.

The American multinational automotive and clean energy company Tesla is believed to have directed employees not to discuss salary and working conditions, and has thus been accused in violation of US labour laws. The maker of electric vehicles is accused of ordering its staff members not to bring complaints about their salary or other working conditions to the attention of senior managers. The staff are also requested not to talk about their salaries with others. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been notified of the complaint.  These incidents allegedly occurred between December 2021 and January 2022, according to the complaint. Additionally, it is said that Tesla has instructed its staff to keep hiring, suspending, and firing decisions confidential. The firing of two US-based Telsa employees who complained to the NLRB that they were wrongfully terminated for criticising Musk shows that the company does not appreciate criticism of Musk. According to other reports, two female employees of Twitter filed a class-action lawsuit against the company accusing it of breaching federal and state of California laws that forbid gender discrimination at work. 57% of female employees have been let go by Musk, compared to 47% of male employees. Other grievances against Twitter have also been filed with the NLRB.

With its one-time cash payout of 700 million dollars, the Walmart-owned e-commerce firm Flipkart would benefit at least 25,000 current and former employees, according to sources. As a result, Flipkart will become one of the most significant examples of wealth creation in India’s thriving start-up sector. Last week, Flipkart revealed that it would pay up to 700 million dollars in one-time discretionary cash payouts to over 25,000 of its past and current employees who hold employee stock options. The top 20 Flipkart employees, who were among the company’s first and most experienced employees, will receive up to 200 million dollars of the compensation, sources told Moneycontrol. One of the largest wealth-creation opportunities in the country has been provided by the private sector to date to Flipkart’s employees. Software giant Infosys led the way in employee stock programmes among publicly listed companies, rewarding non-founder employees with around 19% of outstanding equity, or roughly Rs 1.3 lakh crore.

The United Arab Emirates is expanding the Golden Visa programme in order to attract more workers. This includes scientists, researchers, and experienced people. The list of employees also includes eminent scholars and clerics, elite specialists in industry and the fourth industrial revolution, and experts in the fields of health and education. A long-term residence visa called the UAE Golden Visa allows foreigners with special talents to live, work, or study in the UAE. These advantages include a long-term renewable residence visa good for five or ten years, the benefit of not needing a sponsor, the opportunity to stay outside the UAE for longer than the standard period of six months while still maintaining their residence visa’s validity, the capacity to sponsor an infinite number of people, and the ability to sponsor their family members, including wives and children regardless of their ages. Workers who wish to apply for this UAE golden visa must possess an employment agreement that has been approved in the UAE and documentary evidence demonstrating that they hold a level 1 or level 2 occupation according to the MOHRE’s (Ministry of Human Resources & Emiratization) system of occupational classification. For jobs needing this employment certificate, a bachelor’s degree or an equivalent qualification must be attested. It is also necessary to submit a wage certificate from the employer together with a bank statement from the last six months showing a monthly salary of at least AED 30,000.

The NATO Building Integrity (NATO BI) initiative published the new Human Resource Management (HRM) toolkit for the public sector on October 24, 2022. The toolkit, created by the Norwegian Center for Integrity in the Defence Sector (CIDS), provides an interactive manual for fostering integrity in the public sector. It includes systematic planning manuals for human resources staff, employee questionnaires, and practical managerial competency assessments. The development of transparent, accountable, and democratic institutions depends on HRM. NATO BI aims to assist allies and partner nations on advancing good governance and putting these values into practise in the defence and related service sectors. According to NATO, effective HR management systems are essential to a well-functioning defence and security sector because they create leadership cultures that can be relied upon and trusted. Integrity building should be incorporated into every aspect of any institution, including job design, recruitment, and selection processes, as well as organisational culture. The newly created toolkit tries to create a link between organisational principles and practises in various circumstances. The HRM toolkit can now be used in compliance with NATO BI principles thanks to the publication of the “Glossary of Human Resource Management in the Public Sector.” Its goal is to support public sector employees and managers, as well as members of civil society organisations and the media, in creating institutional resilience. The toolkit will be made available in Arabic, Georgian, Ukrainian, and Spanish in addition to the two official languages of NATO (English and French).

Through an exchange filing on December 21, 2022, Tech Mahindra announced that it would issue employee stock options for shares valued Rs 7,58,450. A total of 1,51,690 equity shares worth Rs 5 each would be distributed across two ESOP 2014 and ESOP 2018 schemes. Following this new issue, 973,778,993 shares totaling Rs 4,868,894,665 have been issued. Earlier this month, the company announced its collaboration with Airtel to enable a private 5G network at Mahindra’s Chakan facility. On December 12, 2022, Tech Mahindra granted stock options worth more than 6 lakh rupees to its employees. On Wednesday, Tech Mahindra shares were up 0.91 percent at Rs 1,027.20. Tech Mahindra is part of the Mahindra Group. The company is based in Pune, while Mumbai serves as its registered office. It is a global provider of consulting and IT services based in India. More than 158,000 people work at Tech Mahindra in 90 different countries.

According to media reports, the government employees under the 7th Pay Commission will get a hike in their dearness allowance (DA) by March 2023. Additionally, if these reports are to be believed, the centre also intends to increase the dearness relief (DR) for pensioners. Generally, the DA and DR are revised twice a year between January and July. So, as the new year is around the corner, the central government employees are anticipated to get a 3 to 5 per cent hike in their DA for March 2023. The media reports further suggest that the central government employees will also receive the long pending 18-month DA arrears soon. In the previous DA increment in September 2022, about 48 lakh central government employees and 68 lakh pensioners benefitted. The Centre increased DA by 4% in September 2022, bringing the total increase to 38%. Prior to this, the 7th Pay Commission raised the 34 percent DA received by central government employees in March 2022 by 3%. However, the decision to increase the DA will be determined based on the inflation rate and the 7th CPC’s recommendations. There is a potential that the DA will be hiked further if the inflation rate is high at the time.

Organizations with a strong ethics culture can motivate their employees and people around them to speak honestly and with integrity. TATA Group-owned Air India has chosen to develop an ethics governance structure in order to boost the airline’s ethics culture. The airline has also announced the formation of committees at the regional and apex levels. The apex committee would be led by Campbell Wilson, managing director and CEO of Air India. Air India’s chief ethics counsellor (CEC), chief human resource officer (CHRO), chief financial officer (CFO), and chief operations officer (COO) are also members of the committee. The apex committee would be in charge of formalising any ethics or related guidelines, as well as approving policies, forms, and procedures pertaining to ethics guidelines. According to the internal document, regional ethics committees can escalate issues to the apex committee if they arise. One of the committee’s major responsibilities will be to create a “positive ethics culture” through continual engagement, AI engagement, and ethics training. This mission will also be supported by local ethics counsellors (LECs) and regional ethics champions. Gurjot Malhi has been appointed as the new CEC. Previously, he was the CEC of Vistara, where he attempted to establish a system along the same lines. Malhi has been at Tata Steel for almost a decade. He has served as an advisor to the managing director of Tata Steel, as well as an advisor to Tata Sons in Bombay House and the CEO of Vistara.

Vedantu, the edtech unicorn, has laid off 385 employees, bringing the total number of layoffs this year to almost 1,000. Senior executives will also face pay cuts. Vedantu laid off 624 staff in May of this year, followed by another 100 three months later. The Company is trying to rationalise while focusing on rapid growth. As part of this cost-cutting and rationalisation effort, the Company’s leadership, including the founders, will take a 50% pay cut. Vedantu recently paid $40 million for Deeksha. The latter is a platform established in Karnataka that assists students in preparing for board and competitive exams. This was a first step toward going hybrid. In Muzaffarpur, the company had lately constructed a ‘hybrid’ coaching centre. Given the global economic uncertainty, Vedantu has merely done what other companies are doing today. Fear of a recession and inflationary conditions are affecting businesses worldwide, causing them to cut costs. As the need for online coaching has decreased following the pandemic and schools have reopened, most edtech platforms have established physical coaching centres across the country. Vedantu became a unicorn in September 2021, after raising $100 million in a Series E funding round led by ABC World Asia. Tiger Global, Coatue Management, GGV Capital, and WestBridge were among the other investors. Vedantu was founded in 2011 by Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, and Anand Prakash, alumni of IIT-Delhi.