Human Resource Community

Multinational PepsiCo has commissioned the launch of a new greenfield foods plant. It will be spread over 29 acres in Kosi Kalan, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. The decision comes after the company promised to contribute its fair share towards the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ Mission. The project is expected to be launched on a grand scale with a whopping investment of Rs 814 crore, the biggest investment by PepsiCo in the Indian manufacturing sphere. This opportunity will be a boon for people living in UP. The company said that the plant will create 1,500 direct and indirect job opportunities for the locals. They are also aiming to employ at least 30% of women at the plant. This will be the Company’s first ‘Make and Move’ factory in India, which will cater to the growing demand for Lay’s chips in the country and the state. PepsiCo has planned to source 1, 50,000 tonnes of potatoes from the state, annually, and will also connect with around 5,000 local farmers in the state for the same. India is a strategic market and an engine of growth for PepsiCo in Africa, the Middle East, and the South Asia (AMESA) region. “The plant will implement the best of what PepsiCo has to offer globally, in terms of technology, sustainability and diversity, and will contribute to the State’s overall development through employment opportunities and strong agri-linkages,” says Eugene Willemsen, CEO, Africa, Middle East and South Asia, PepsiCo. The plant was inaugurated by Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The ceremony was also addressed by Satish Mahana, infrastructure and industrial development minister, Uttar Pradesh government; Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary, minister – dairy development, animal husbandry, fisheries, Uttar Pradesh government; Navneet Singh Chahal, district magistrate, Mathura; Ahmed ElSheikh, president, PepsiCo India and Willemsen. Source: The article has been published by HR Katha with a few edits from the ArdorComm News Network team.

Technology so far hasdisrupted numerous industries which hasn’t left human resource behind the whole process of hiring has changed upside down today, along with that business dynamics are also evolving at a rapid speed, which has made it a challenge fir other companies s to keep up with the pace. I this new era of the technology-driven market and technology-supported hiring making human resourcesare all hi-tech. Here are few top Human resource startups ruling the market and making it tech-friendly. • Belong: An HR startup launched in 2014by a BITS Pilani alumniVijay Sharma, and it is a predictive hiring platform to find and engage impactful talent through data science and analytics. At present,belong is considered one of the top HR tech companies in India. It has clients like; Amazon. Reliance Jio, Cisco and ThoughtWorks. The machine-learning algorithm of Belongs helps businesses discover and target high-end talent engage candidates through personalized interactions, and it speeds up the hiring cycle. • Darwinbox: Darwinbox was established in 2005 by Jayanti Paleti, Chaitanya Peddi and Rohit Chennamaneni. It is a cloud-based HR solutions firm.As an end to end HR platform, it offers solutions for recruitment, core HR process, employee engagement, performance management, employee movement and more. Darwinbox allows its users with an AI platform to analyze the job description and employee profile. The right keywords help the recruiter arrive at aspecific ranking metric, which makes the recruitment fluent and effective. The firm serves over 100 clients, including Paytm, ekart, Spencer’s, Delhivery. • EdGE Networks: It was started in 2012 by Arjun Pratap. It provides an AI-powered platform that not only auto source, the auto engage, and auto screen the best candidate suitable for a profile but also give the best suitable career guidance t the candidates as per their best traits. • Monjin: Monjin was launched in 2014by Abhijit Kashyape. It is an on-demand interview platform that lets candidates showcase their skills and personality through digital and video assessment and helps the corporation find the right candidate. On Monjin,evaluation of candidates is not done through technology; senior industry individuals review the suitable employees for a company. Clients have access to interview videos to see the interviewer and candidate in one frame and analyze the best suitable employee pick for their company. • Mettl: Mettl as a company was started in 2009, with co-founder Ketan Kapoor and TonmoyShingal. It has a vision of applying technology for hiring practices in Indian and global level companies. It offers recruitment assessment programing test, psychometric tests, pre-built test library, an interview app, vocational skill assessment, remote proctoring and deep analytics in performance management. Currently this Gurugram based technology firm serves over 1800 plus companies. Source: Startuptalky.com

A technology-based global payroll and Human Resource solutions provider company Neeyamo has doubled its workforce during the pandemic. Neeyamo claimed that all the hirings for this have been done from tier II and Tier III cities. A more significant trend can be witnessed in other companies where corporates aim to hire from major cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, and different tier I cities. Rangarajan Sheshadri, the CEO, said, “The number of hirings has jumped off the roof. He added that almost all the hiring in our corporate and similar companies has only happened from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. At present, corporates believe that they need not depend on a level I city to hire the best talent. Hiring from Tier II and III cities will open new possibilities of finding a young and dynamic workforce. Also, the last 18 months have taught employees to be more comfortable in their hometowns only. Hence hiring a workforce from Tier II and III cities will give them more variety and availability of resources. Source: economicstimes.com

Amresh Singh joined as the Chief Human Resources Officer of GE South Asia, replacingSheebu David, who has moved out of GE doe another role. Singh will be handling responsibilities of Human Resource function, South Asia, and GE Grid solution technology. Singh has 25 years of experience in HR and has held various leadership roles in high-performing talent management, change management, leadership talent acquisition, industrial aqisition, compensation and merger and acquisitions, which makes him a versatile leader more apt for the role. Before joining GE, Amresh Singh was Chief Human Resource officer at Alstom, India, for 14 years. Singh holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and las and a postgraduate degree in Human Resource Management from Allahabad Varsity. Along with that, he has completed a management program at INSEAD. Source: theeconomicstimes.com

The bill is welcomed by all employees, especially those working in showrooms. They will be allowed to sit whenever they wish to. A Bill was tabled by the Tamil Nadu government that seeks a mandate for all shops and establishments to make provisions for their employees to sit. This Bill will especially benefit employees working at jewellery showrooms and garments shops, who end up standing for long hours. The Bill was presented in the Legislative Assembly on September 6, 2021 and sought relevant amendments in the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act, 1947, so that a subsection may be introduced for mandatory provision of seating facilities for employees. A similar amendment was made in the Kerala Shops and Establishments Act in 2018 to provide seating arrangements for employees. The proposed amendment in Section 22-A to the Act mandates all establishments to provide seating arrangements for staff so that they may sit whenever they get a chance to, during their duty hours, and do not end up standing all the time causing harm to their health. Source: The story has been published by HR Katha with a few edits from the ArdorComm News Network Team.    

Across India, many employees in various states seem to be awaiting redressal of minimum-wage issues. However, there is good news for the employees of the Puducherry government, which has announced that the minimum wages for its staff will be Rs 10,000 per month. The pension for martyrs will also be increased from Rs 9,000 per month to Rs 10,000 a month. Puducherry, which is a Union Territory with a legislative assembly, has been seeking statehood for some time now. Meanwhile, in West Bengal, the labour minister has created a six-member committee consisting of top labour-department officials and representatives from planters’ bodies as well as labourers’ unions to create a draft solution package to address the minimum wage issue of tea-plantation workers, which has been pend6.ing for a long time now. In Chandigarh, the employees of the National Health Mission (NHM) have decided to continue their indefinite strike demanding equal pay for equal work. They have been protesting for some time now, against the wage difference between the regular staff of NHM and the outsourced staff with similar designations and job descriptions. With no written assurance from the UT Adviser or the Chandigarh Administration regarding any resolution, the protestors have made up their minds to continue the strike indefinitely. Although the protestors were verbally assured by the UT Adviser that the wage disparity issue will be addressed and minimum wages will be implemented soon, the protestors are demanding a written assurance and refuse to call off the strike till their demand is met. Source: The article has been published by HR Katha with a few edits from the ArdorComm News Network Team.

When it comes to the workplace, there are different departments. All kinds of people work in a company. As an employer or a leader, you might have noticed a particular teammate performing exceptionally. But does it mean that he can be a good team leader? Let’s find out. A good leader will always notice the efforts of the whole team and the individuals in it. If you are stuck focusing on a single someone and end up giving good opportunities to selected people, then it might hinder the growth of other employees. For example, if a person working in sales has been performing really well during his tenure and the leaders decide to promote him as a team leader, he may fail to perform that task well. Good team leaders are people who are engaged in listening, collaborating and collecting different views and opinions. A person may succeed at doing his work individually, but being in a company means working with different individuals for a common goal.  Sailesh Menezes, senior director & head of human resources, India, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, in an exclusive talk with HR Katha said, “Leadership is about ensuring collective victory, as a unified team. Individual performance, on the other hand, involves a focus on ensuring one’s personal output isn’t compromised. As a team leader, one has to inspire the entire team to perform and give their best. Great individual performers who are unable to inspire performance in their teams cannot make good leaders,” points out Menezes. “A team is only as strong or as weak as its weakest link. Good leaders tend to bring up the performance of their teams along with their own,” he added further. Many leaders also believe that pushing someone too early into leadership roles might create more issues in the workplace. It takes time and effort to understand the company as a whole.  Menezes also said, “I have seen great individual performers struggling to get their teams in line with what they want to achieve. I think the mistake that the industry often makes is of assuming that a great individual performer automatically becomes a great leader. This also ends the careers of many individual performers, because they are promoted to a leadership role before they are even ready for it,” Therefore, categorization for leadership should depend on multiple parameters. Good individual performance is definitely an important aspect. In addition, leaders must consider factors like the achievement of goals along with the team and the involvement of all stakeholders in the overall success. 

Many firms see a spike in the attrition rates with a big shift towards digital services. The Indian IT sector is witnessing a multiyear growth phase due to the accelerated adoption of digital technologies for various digital services. During Covid-19. Because of this upsurge, a demand and supply mismatch can be seen in the digital skill with demand far outstripping the available pool of talent. Due to this the attrition rate at Wipro currently has increased to 15.5 percent from 11 percent., whereas in Infosys it is up to 13.9 percent from 7.8 percent and at the L&T Infotech it increased to 15.2 percent from 13.5 percent, on the other hand, TCS has managed to bring the attrition rate marginally to 8.6 percent from 8.9 percent. Sanjay Jalona, CEO & M, LTI said, “The market is extremely hot opportunities, attrition tare of everyone in the industry is high”. Source: thehindubusinessline.com

In a recent verdict the Madras High Court has stated that personal misunderstanding arising between a male and a female co-worker at the workplace cannot be deemed as sexual harassment. In a recent case, the Tamil Nadu Women’s Commission directed the Loyola College to pay a compensation of Rs 60 lakh to a woman employee of the college who was terminated in 2014. At the time it was established that the petitioner had been made to suffer at the College, for which she was to be compensated. The woman, Mary Rajasekaran, had filed a petition two years later, seeking permission from the College to take her back as a staff member. When all the records were re-examined, it was found that the first complaint filed by the petitioner, did not really indicate any allegations of sexual harassment leading to her termination. As per law, only unwelcome sexual behaviour in the form of physical contact and advances, or demand for sexual favours, making sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography or any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature tantamount to sexual harassment. It was found that Rajasekaran’s position was merely changed to some other post on consolidate pay, after there was some personal feud between her and her superior, who was a principal and a priest. Nothing in her initial complaint indicated she had been sexually harassed. It was only later, when some criminal investigation began against her son that she raised an allegation of sexual harassment, which seemed like an after-thought. Therefore, the HC ruled that the order directing the college to heavy damages is definitely “liable to be interfered and not maintainable” and against the very statue under which the Commission was constituted. Source: The news has been published by HR Katha with a few edits from the ArdorComm News Network team.