HRNV-JUNE-2018

HR NEWS & VIEWS

JUNE | 2018

NEXT-GEN HR COVER
Managing relationships
a RD study analysis INTERNATIONAL HR
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COMPANY UPDATES
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Managing
Relations

key to

HR success

HR CONTEXT

Human resource function is
one of the most critical and
sensitive function for any or-
ganisation. What it deals
with is one of the most com-
plex algorithms called
“PEOPLE” who cannot be
predicted on how they will
behave, and react under var-
ious situations and circum-
stances. No two individuals
are same and everyone will have a perception to think differently in
same circumstances.

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What HR misses out

Many times HR sees and believes it to be
an stand alone, isolated function. As they
perceive them to be the safeguards of any
organisation processes they do built in an
attitude of being a function to define and
draw boundaries for people to work with-
in. It is reflected in the way they build HR
processes that cuts across employee inter-
faces.

Understanding Business

HR many times seems to be away for the
organisational business. They seem to be
in their own world of things and have no
alignment with his the business functions.
It is imperative for each and every HR pro-
fessional to understand how does there
business process works, in a similar way
the business sees its. Business is a true dri-
ver of how HR defines it’s functions and it
is not the other way round.

Solutions Mindset

HR needs to make a paradigm shift from
being process provider to solution
provider. Business do struggle with various
problems and challenges from time to
time, whether internal or external. HR has
to be proactive and visionary in foreseeing
these and work on strategies that solves
real business problems.

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Manage Relationships

HR is more synonym with transactions. You
ask any HR groups you will find them fo-
cusing on transactional activities and
events from time to time. It is time for HR
to move beyond transactions. HR has to
develop a strong focus to build right rela-
tionships with key stakeholders. A rela-
tionship that can influence business deci-
sions in the right perspective and solve
real problems. Understanding various
stakeholders and managing the chemistry
between them and thrive in creating a
synergy amongst key leadership groups is
what a CEO will truly expect out of it’s HR
function.

Be a Partner

A true HR team is not a function but a
partner to business strategies. They work
in random with business and are equal
shareholders of success and failures. It is
not easy and needs a lot of in-depth un-
derstanding of business and people dy-
namics and needs high degree of maturity
handling difficult situations.

HUMAN RESOURCE FUNCTION IS ONE OF THE MOST IN-
FLUENCING FUNCTION, IF IT CAN BUILD IT’S CREDIBILITY

BY ADDING TRUE VALUE TO BUSINESS.

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NEXT-GEN STUDY

most people strongly
feel HR is evolving
with time

focus is moving
towards strategic
and transformational

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Business wants a
partner in solutions

Organisation building
is a key priority for
HR

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HR

Paul Strange INTERNATIONAL
HR Consultant
EUROPE HR

TELEWORKING – A FAILURE OR THE FUTURE?

I was speaking with a client – US based - recently about a programme to integrate a substantial
company into their own operations. They were consolidating their international real estate
portfolio and moving people to different offices, or to working more remotely from a newly distant
home office location. In some places, teleworking policy and practice had become an important
topic as employees lost easy access to a company workplace.

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Teleworking or telecommuting has been around for a long while, and is popular with professional staff in
Western countries. In the US, 43 percent of workers work remotely in some capacity, even if that
means telecommuting only once a week or less. It is also claimed that, in more than half of the largest
U.S. metro areas, telecommuting beats public transportation as the preferred commuting option.

In my experience, not all countries are so keen on teleworking. The culture of the country can influence
both the employer and the worker’s opinion of the practice. In Japan, people travel enormously long
distances to get to work in metro areas. The pull of the workplace is so strong.

Last year, Japan launched a scheme to promote working from home, in an effort to ease congestion
when Tokyo hosts the 2020 Olympics, as well as change a notoriously rigid work culture. 900
companies are participating in "Telework Day," to be held on July 24 each year from now until the
Olympics.

In Europe (EMEA), most countries now have established teleworking cultures. It is less popular with
employers in some Arab countries, where family distractions are thought to dominate and in Russia,
where employers do not like the practice. This despite having similar congestion problems to Japan in
metro areas. "Telecommuting is still seen here in the UAE and wider Middle East as a way for parents
to spend time with their children” said one HR manager. In these countries, teleworking is seen as a
perk, and not an employment tactic to increase engagement, productivity, or fill jobs.

In the US, there has also been push-back on the policy of teleworking. Yahoo has banned its staff from
"remote" working. "Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria
discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings," the staff memo said. "Speed and
quality are often sacrificed when we work from home." Last year, IBM asked all its marketing staff to
work in the office – a process they called ‘co-locating’. Here they wanted to encourage a more “iterative
process, where the effects of changes in a campaign can be understood live, and responded to in real-
time." To me this is one management fashion – a more agile style – coming up against teleworking
which is the opposite of an agile change management style.

My client thought that teleworking would aid retention, and help to avoid redundancies after office
closures. A good idea, though the opinion I shared with my client was a familiar one. Cultural norms
will strongly influence the use of teleworking, and understanding these first would assist them in local
employee consultation on the subject. I also think that teleworking is the future, as young workers
demand more flexible ways of working and technology supporting remote working improves.

BRITISH INDIAN TAKEAWAY SERVICE LANDS IN INDIA

There are reports that the UK food delivery service, Deliveroo, is to start up in India. It will compete with
local services like Swiggy, Zomato and UberEats.

Deliveroo, founded in London in 2013, operates in in 12 countries, including the UK, Italy, Spain,
Belgium, Singapore and Hong Kong. Its employment model is to have few employees! Riders are
freelancers with flexible working patterns, and the company has worked hard to avoid to avoid any
classification of its delivery staff as direct employees. This would attract employment taxes and
employment protection obligations which drive up its costs.

There is one new benefit that they are introducing this year. Accident insurance rarely attracts
employment taxes in any country, and does not change the legal status of freelancers to employees.
So Deliveroo is rolling this benefit out for its 35,000 riders in all countries.

In the UK, the service is often used to deliver the famous Indian takeaway meal. Its founder, David Shu,
still runs the company, and takes a shift delivering meals twice a month.

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Like other big companies, Lufthansa Group was used to customising software to suit the way it liked to
work. However, the choice of SuccessFactors, or similar cloud systems, does not allow for much
customisation. Here ‘customisation’ often means variation in standard HR processes to suit particular
stakeholders in the business. In a second lesson, Lufthansa learned that it is more important to have
your HR processes as standardised as possible throughout the company, before you jump in on to new
cloud technology. Here, the company learned to be realistic with what the technology can offer, and
adapt its underlying HR processes to fit. The customisation was on the company side, and not in the
HR technology to fit the customer.
My client has learned another lesson, and that is that Workday has to feed many downstream non-HR
functions, such as Finance and Procurement. People data is a common data commodity, and it is a fuel
to many internal systems. When a change was made to the central design, everything had to pause
while they tested and reassured non-HR functions that their systems would continue effectively.

SWITZERLAND’S CROSS-BORDER WORKFORCE
At the Salon des transfrontaliers, a jobs fair in Annemasse a French town near Geneva, there are 30
employers represented. It is organised by a European cross-border workers' group GTE in March this
year.
It should have employers from both France and Switzerland. There is no restriction for EU and Swiss
citizens to work in both countries. But there are only French employers there this time. Why?
Salaries on the Swiss side are much higher, and employers in the nearby Geneva area easily attract
workers who are French nationals and residents. For example, more than two-thirds of the nurses at the
Geneva University Hospitals are of French origin. French institutions offer training opportunities to
compete with Swiss hospitals, and this tactic is having some success.
Swiss authorities are unhappy with the influx of French workers, and discourage agencies such as GTE.
When French sports retailer Decathlon retailer announced a new large store expansion in Switzerland,
GTE were criticised for ‘pirate-like behaviour’ for helping French applicants. Cross-border workers from
France keep Geneva’s economy afloat, but they are regularly the target of criticism for taking local jobs.
At national level, Switzerland is phasing in a system of local hiring preferences from July to curb
immigration from the European Union. The new system requires employers to post job openings to
Swiss employment offices in sectors where the jobless rate hits 8% or more. Geneva, meanwhile,
already has a local preference system in place for jobs in 250 public administrations and state-funded
bodies such as hospitals.

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UPDATES

Over 39 lakh jobs created where job creation was sub- country as it includes job
in 7 months till March: changes also by employees.
EPFO Data stantial were electric, me- The EPFO has uploaded the
chanical or general engineer- data with disclaimers that
As many as 39.36 lakh new ing products followed by the data for most recent
jobs were created during 7- building and construction in- months are provisional as
month period ending March updation of employees
this year, as per the latest dustry, trading & commercial records is a continuous
retirement fund body EPFO's establishments and textiles. process and are likely to be
payroll data. According to The data clearly indicates updated in subsequent
the latest data, as many as that over half of the jobs months. The body also said
6.13 lakh new jobs were that this is age-band wise
created in the month of created in organized sector data of all non-zero contrib-
March this year, which is in the country were in Maha- utors that are registered un-
higher than 5.89 lakh pay- rashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gu- der the EPFO during particu-
rolls with the Employment jarat during the seven-month lar month. Source : Busi-
Provident Fund Organization nesstoday.in
(EPFO) in February this year. period till March this year.
The data shows that the half The first set of payroll data 13
of the payrolls were created was released by the EPFO
in the expert service seg- last month. Some of the ex-
ment across all age buckets
or groups. The segments perts had raised doubts over
construing job creation from
the statistics. They had said
that this data does not re-

flect true job creation in the

Mr. Vineet Sethi appointed CMO, NiYO Solutions

NiYO Solutions Inc., a new-age digital banking solution for the salaried employees, announced
the appointment of Mr. Vineet Sethi as the company's new Chief Marketing Officer. In this new
role, he will be responsible for driving NiYO's marketing efforts and establishing the brand's
leadership in the payroll and benefits sector. Mr. Sethi began his career as a Sales Manager at
ICICI Bank and has spent 12 years at Standard Chartered Bank, handling various roles in sales.
He was the Executive Director Head - Employee Banking in his last two years at the bank after
which he began his own startup, The Bag Talk- an e-commerce platform for bags. In his role at
NiYO, he will develop a roadmap for the company to reach the unorganized workforce, for
them to be included in the traditional banking system. "It is our great pleasure to welcome Vi-
neet onboard the NiYO team. He has been a great friend and colleague during our time at
Standard Chartered. We believe that his expertise and experience as a banker will prove to be
a great asset for NiYO. We strongly believe in hiring go-getters and problem-solvers. Vineet
joins the team in a senior management position and he is sure to inspire and guide the team in
the right direction, “said Mr. Vinay Bagri, CEO, and Co-founder, NiYO. Source : Business-stan-
dard.com

Barclays’s Mr. Bhavin Shukla quits, to join JP Morgan

Mr. Bhavin Shukla has resigned as director at Barclays India’s investment banking unit and will
join JP Morgan’s investment banking unit. At Barclays, Mr. Shukla held the role of head of Indi-
an infrastructure coverage. Mr. Shukla has resigned from Barclays India and is moving to JP
Morgan’s i-banking unit. He will be looking after coverage of infrastructure clients at JPMor-
gan. He has spent a decade at Barclays India. The move marks yet another senior management
exit at Barclays’s Indian investment banking unit. Last year, the bank’s managing director and
head of structured finance Mr. Anuj Kapoor quit to join UBS as the head of its investment
banking unit. Mr. Hardik Dalal, a director at Barclays, had quit last year to join Japanese bank
Mitsubishi UFJ. Source : Livemint.com

SBI to hire 10,300 employees this year as workforce reduced by 15,700 in FY18

Retirements and digitization has led to a reduction of around 15,762 employees at the coun-
try’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI). But the public sector bank is set to hire 10,300
employees before the end of March 2019. “Basically, we are replacing only about 75 percent
of the retirements that are taking place given the cost and operational efficiency helped by
digitization and the merger process. This year, we plan to recruit 2,000 probationary officers
(POs) and 8,300 clerical staff, of which 1,100 are from the reserved category which we have
to mandatorily recruit,” said Mr. Prashant Kumar, Corporate Development Officer at SBI. SBI
reported a massive Rs 7,718 crore loss for the January to March quarter in FY18 on May 22.
This is the second-highest loss witnessed in the banking sector, which saw its total staff
strength decline to 2, 64,041 as of March end 2018 from 2, 79,803 at the beginning of the

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TCS expands operations in Florida as part of Transamerica deal

India’s largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) said it has expanded oper-
ations in Florida, US, with over 430 employees joining the company as part of its deal with
Transamerica. TCS had in January signed an over $2 billion deal with Transamerica to admin-
ister the latter’s life insurance, annuity, supplemental health insurance, and workplace vol-
untary benefits products. It covered managing administration of more than 10 million poli-
cies. More than 430 former Transamerica employees now work for TCS at this new St Peters-
burg facility in Florida as part of recruiting and investing in more than 2,200 Transamerica
jobs across the US in multiple locations, the Indian software services giant said in a state-
ment. “TCS will occupy several floors of Transamerica’s building at 570 Carillon Parkway in St
Petersburg, as part of a multi-year agreement with Transamerica. The St Petersburg office is
a new US business center for TCS, adding to the over 1,000 employees already serving Ameri-
can businesses throughout the state,” it added. TCS said it has invested nearly $3 billion in
the US over the past three years and has been among the top two IT services job creators in
the country. Source : Livemint.com

Piramal Group looking to hire 1,000 people this fiscal

The Piramal Group is looking to hire over 1,000 people this fiscal year. About 100 of these are
likely to be from the country’s premier engineering and management institutes. The group
would be hiring from premier B schools and engineering colleges, including the IITs and the
IIMs. Last year, the company hired close to 90 students from engineering and management
schools up from 35 students the year before. Mr. Vikram Bector, President and CHRO, Piramal
Enterprises stated, “Almost 90% of the campus hiring is through PPO route. An internship
gives both the students and the company enough time to understand the compatibility quo-
tient. Most of the hiring is growth-based, mainly led by its verticals—pharmaceuticals and fi-
nancial services.” The current headcount of the $10 Bn group stands at 14,500. Source :
Peoplematters.in

Airtel Payments Bank appoints ex-ICICI executive Mr. A Biswas as MD, CEO

Airtel Payments Bank said that it has appointed former ICICI Bank senior executive Mr.
Anubrata Biswas as its Managing Director and CEO. We are delighted to have Anubrata on
board. I am confident that his experience will add immense value to the bank's agenda of fi-
nancial inclusion and digital leadership. I wish him the very best for his new assignment, Air-
tel Payments Bank, Chairman, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal said in a statement. In his new role, Mr.
Biswas will be responsible for driving Airtel Payments Bank's mission of taking convenient and
innovative digital banking services to the doorstep of every Indian, the statement said. Prior
to joining Airtel Payments Bank, Mr. Biswas was the joint general manager and retail business
head - South India, for ICICI Bank and was responsible for managing the retail banking busi-
ness across over 550 branches of the bank. The appointment of Mr. Biswas comes five months
after the exit of Mr. Shashi Arora, the first MD and CEO of Airtel Payments Bank





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