Human Resource Community

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.

The portal aims at keeping a record of all unorganized workers in its database toregister them for social-security benefits. India is a country where poverty runs rampant. The pandemic was a recent eye-opener to recognize thevoice of the people working in the unorganized sector in the country. The migrant crisis compelled usto think of the state of the unorganized workers.According to Financial Express, around 80% of our country’s population is employed in the informalsector. Of the 80% of people working in the unorganized sector, 40% work in agriculture. To keep a track of the unorganized workers in India, the government launched the e-Shram portal onAugust 26, 2021. Around 38 crore Indian unorganized workers will be registered in the portal includingthose working as labourers, street vendors, migrant workers, and domestic workers.A toll-free number- ‘14434’ was also launched by the government to address the issues related tounorganized workers or their queries. The portal will register all unorganized workers to provide themsocial-security benefits as per government guidelines.Workers can register themselves using their Aadhar and bank account numbers to register themselveson the portal. Once the registration process is complete, they will receive a unique e-Shram card witha 12-digit number. This card will help them avail various government policies and benefits.The details of all unorganized workers will be shared by all departments of respective states in thecountry.

In the surge of the upcoming hybrid workplace, employees’ benefits are again put behind filters.  A lot of company’s current benefits might not be as beneficial as it was before the pandemic. With this change, many employees are putting a lot of expectations from benefits proposition. As stated by Lauren Mason, a principal at Mercer, amanagement consulting firm. “Employees values have shifted quite significantly because of the stressors of pandemic and around child care and other concerns, as well just re-evaluating life circumstances”. This way a lot of new factors will get into consideration while calculating employees’ benefits. A lot of new factors are needed to be taken into consideration. As after facing off the pandemic and surviving it through various means. What we look at around us is a hybrid workforce altogether. Source: Wallstreetjournal

Now employers will be able to claim their tax credit based on the wages of employees, who are taking off to assist their family and household members, or even to people who look to the employees for caregiving help, to get vaccinated for COVID-19.This announcement was made by the treasury department and IRS for eligible employees to take paid leave tax credits under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). So that leaves can be provided to each employee getting the vaccineand also for the time required to recover from that vaccine, through September 30, 2021. Under this, the eligible employers generally will have less than 500 employees. The employers who were voluntarily giving sick leave or family leave will be able to claim tax credits equal to the wages paid for providing paid time off. Along with that, the employers are also allowed to claim tax credits for other wage-relatedexpenses, such as health plan expenses. This credit facility was created under the Families first Coronavirus Response Actand amended and extended by COVID-19 related tax relief act of 2020, which was then further extended underARPA till September 30.  Source: shrm.org