An article in Finanical Express talks about how e-retailers will use an additional 50,000 temporary workers this festive season to be able to meet delivery schedules; along with inputs from Sudeep Sen.

E-retailers will use an additional 50,000 temporary workers this festive season to be able to meet delivery schedules, according to Rishi Das, co-founder & CEO, HirePro, a recruitment firm.

The festival season begins in September and goes up to December. While the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has not estimated the exact scale of transaction that will take place during this period, it expects it to be around 50% of the total sales during the festival season.

However, if one goes by the hiring pattern of temporary workers by the e-commerce companies it seems they expect the sales to be even higher.

Although e-commerce companies have already engage around 90,000 delivery boys between them, the demand for deliveries is expected to pick up 20%, with the festival of Ganpati on September 5, Dussehra on October 10 and Diwali on October 29 and Christmas in December, Das told FE.

Temping will increase during these four months. All e-commerce companies are working on this model of hiring flexi-temp. At least 30% more hiring will happen during this year. “The concept of flexi-temp is still a new concept as far as Indian e-commerce companies are concerned. They started exploring this model only in the last six months,” Das said.

Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Roadrunnr, a food delivery company, have sounded out recruitment firms for extra help. A lot of people who buy on e-commerce platforms prefer delivery during the evening hours or on weekends. “E-commerce players, who were employing delivery boys for full day are now rethinking on their delivery strategy by opting to engage temporary workers,” Das said.

They are hiring extra workers on a temporary basis only to meet the additional demand for delivery during the festival season. This will enable them not only to meet the extra delivery schedules but also help them cut costs, he said.

The e-commerce sector as a whole has employed around 20,000 people in technology cum corporate roles, while another 1,00,000 are engaged in the customer support. This excludes people engaged in the packaging and cataloging services. During the current year alone, the sector is set to recruit around 5,000 technical staff.

Online marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and hyper-local delivery start-up Roadrunnr are among other e-commerce players that have placed orders with staffing companies including HirePro for supply of flexi temps to meet the surge in orders for the upcoming festive season.

Besides HirePro, other staffing companies like TeamLease, Quess Corp are engaged in the supply of professionals to e-commerce sector.
Sudeep Sen, assistant vice president, TeamLease Services also believes that the temporary hiring by e-commerce companies is set to witness 20% jump this year.

“The jobs on offer are at fulfillment centres or warehouses for various jobs in the packing, sorting, pickers, packers, data entry and delivery executives. An estimated 12,000 additional people are being hired for these roles,” he said.

Another staffing firm Million Minds has specialised in supply of temporary workers who come with their own motorcycles to work as delivery boys. These workers could be either students, government employees or anyone who is willing to work during evening hours or weekends and earn extra income.
Flexi Temp workers are paid up to R1,000 per day depending on the number of deliveries they carry out.

This article was publisshed in Finanical Express

An article in ET Wealth, talks about how students are taking up online jobs to earn and learn; along with inputs from Neeti Sharma.
Studying, making money and gaining experience, all at once. With a world of jobs and business opportunities opening up online, a number of students are earning and learning simultaneously.

Three years ago, while pursuing a bachelor’s degree, Pune resident Gaurav Jaju, 26, taught science to students at home to earn some money. The experience helped. Now doing a master’s degree in pharmacy, Jaju conducts online lectures for students in his free time. He is registered on a site, through which students and their parents contact him for lessons. Not only is he gaining valuable teaching experience, he earns up to Rs 15,000 a month in this manner.

Mumbai-based management student Tito Idicula, 26, also realised the earning potential of online opportunities early. In 2015, while pursuing his postgraduation, he skipped the chance to do an internship and instead co-founded an edu-tech firm, Programming Hub, with like-minded friends. The startup provides a one-stop solution for learning programming languages.

Tito Idicula, 26, Mumbai. HIS EARNING MOVE: The student of e business co-founded a startup, which has won a mentorship under the Google Launchpad accelerator program. The founders expect to generate around Rs 1 crore from advertising revenue. Idicula divided his time between the startup and studies. In May 2016, the efforts paid off when the startup earned a six-month mentorship under the Google Launchpad Accelerator Program. For Idicula, it has been a dream run. He feels it was a wise decision to start an online venture where the earning potential from advertisements is immense.

Online jobs or business ideas are available to suit the interest, expertise and field of study of students. Says Santanu Paul, CEO and MD of online technology-enabled experiential learning platform TalentSprint: “Online work is critical for Indian students. It is an important way for them to enhance their employability and attractiveness in the job market. It is also a wonderful way to financial independence.”

The earning (earn and learn) opportunities include blogging, tutoring, research, surveys, digital marketing, website development, designing, photo editing and selling. Neeti Sharma, Senior VP at human resource outsourcing and staffing firm TeamLease Services says, “You need to pick a suitable job based on your skills, knowledge and aptitude. Keep in mind whatever you do now will shape your career and life after completion of education.”

Take the case of 26 year-old Bibhas Hazari. A student at IIM-Raipur, Hazari’s hobby is photography and photo editing. Now, despite being a full-time student, Hazari makes anything between Rs 2,000 and Rs 6,000 selling his photographs on popular websites. “These websites are one of the best platforms to showcase our talent, create a brand and earn,” he says.

Students looking for assignments and project-based tasks in the information technology, finance or marketing space need to first register on sites like freelancer.in, upwork. com and fiverr.com. “These sites allow students to broadcast their capabilities and skills to a global customer audience and bid for specific assignments and projects where they can make a contribution, while earning valuable pocket money and improving their professional resumes in the process,” says Paul.

Students can create their profiles according to their expertise on the site to gain attention. The advantage of gaining any kind of online job experience is obvious. If an employer has to choose between a fresh graduate with a non-descript resume and a fresh graduate with a resume that shows a track record of freelance work, the latter would have the upper hand.

However, students do need to be careful of frauds. Complaints about fake job sites, nonpayment after completion of project and bank account details compromised abound. Websites seeking a deposit even before offering a job opening need to be avoided. “Before you take up an online job, understand the company that you will be working for. Do your due diligence and talk to people from similar fields to get genuine feedback,” cautions Sharma.

This article was published in Economic Times

Women in SMEs occupy many different positions, which is typically not the norm with large companies, she said, adding that small organisations are more supportive of women trying out new roles. In larger companies, the process of creating job descriptions follows standardised global principles, which often keeps out talent experimentation, she noted.

According to Saundarya, SMEs are among the first to look at hiring women who are on breaks. “It is often very easy for a woman who has demonstrated good performance to avail of leave, sabbaticals, soft loans and other benefits, which might take a very long and often very bureaucratic process in large organisations,” she added.

“The nimbleness and agility demonstrated by small organisations when it comes to decision-making around people practices serve as a big benefit for women employees.” Echoing her point, GlobalHunt Managing Director Sunil Goel said flexi work hours, work from home, flexible leaves and child care services, besides rejoining flexibility even after a long break, are acting as pull factors.

Smaller organisations, he said, are not only attracting women at mid and junior levels, but witnessing significant contribution by women employees at the helm.

TeamLease Services Senior Vice-President Kunal Sen said the e-commerce boom has led to a number of women becoming entrepreneurs, especially in consumer (fashion) and technology sectors.

Women are perceived to be suited for roles that are either process-oriented or deal in staff functions.

This article was published in Economic Times

“The requirement will be more during the harvesting period,” said SP Shukla, an agricultural sector analyst.

The temporary staff work as field assistants in most of the cases. There are some temporary workers who help in logistics and in administrative activities. Those who work as field assistants are generally graduates in agriculture science. “Companies generally want temporary staff from local areas so that they can communicate in the local language,” said Sen, who manages temp staff for a number of companies.

GV Radhakrishna, global HR business partner at Advanta Seeds, expects this year to be a better one compared with the past two years for agri business. “But companies are assessing the manpower needs with microscope and moving very carefully with the new additions … We are also taking a cautious approach,” he said. Advanta Seeds procures temp staff from TeamLease.

“Fluent local language communication skills, ability to convince farmers and the channel partners, learning ability, adaptability and mobility are some of the qualities that we look at while hiring temporary workers. During drought situations, most of the companies have optimised the headcount in both full-time and temp. It has not gone up at a high scale, it is picking up slowly now,” said Radhakrishna

This article was publisshed in Economic Times

The cadre restructuring has the usual whacky ideas; it revives the post of deputy provident fund commissioner (same work profile as assistant provident fund commissioner but with a higher grade pay), opens offices without adopting India Stack (paperless, presence-less and cashless,) and much else. Instead of a cadre restructuring, EPFO needs five changes: governance, competition, employee anchoring, tax restructuring, and an employee contribution review. Let’s look at each one in more detail. Governance is the most important because the Board of Trustees of EPFO is a geriatric ward that is not representative of today’s provident fund payers. If we applied the “prudent man” role of ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of the US) then the current trustees of EPFO are guilty of gross negligence. A new governance structure would have a smaller board, term limits, and shift policy functions to the ministry of labour/finance and regulatory functions to PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority).

Competition is key; EPFO’s monopoly has made it fat and inefficient. Even if we don’t want private sector competition in the first phase, we must create the option for employees to pay their monthly contributions into the National Pension System. Employee anchoring is important because employment has shifted from being a lifetime contract to a taxicab relationship and benefits need to be linked to employees rather than employer so they are portable. An average 20-year-old is expected to have five jobs before she is 50. Employers should be required to pay monthly provident fund contributions into an account linked to the Aadhaar number of every employee.

The provident fund currently offers irrational tax advantages to high-wage employees; any employee with a salary of more than Rs.15,000 per month income should be subject to tax at the time of withdrawal for the period their income was more than the threshold. A contribution review is required because the current regime does not recognize that employee benefits in a cost-to-company world for salaries reduce take home salary rather than increasing gross salary. The new regime must recognize that low-wage employees, by definition, cannot be forced to save more than their savings. We must make the monthly employee contribution (12%) voluntary while the employer contribution to provident funds continues.

Productivity thrives on competition and monopolies create monsters. EPFO has become a monster with huge vested interests in its continuation and expansion. The eliminating of its monopoly, however difficult, is the right thing to do for social security, formal employment, and employee welfare. Hopefully, policy makers will weigh in on this battle of right against might.

Human resource experts are of the opinion that online job sites are losing marketshare in recent times to social, mobile and analytical platforms in recruitment.

“They are. Because the problem of sourcing is already solved. Earlier Naukri.com, monster.com used to be the sites where one could find people. Now one can find people on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, CoCubes and the like,” assessment platform CoCubes Technologies Co-Founder and CEO Harpreet Singh Grover said.

Grover believes that “in the short run, one might not see an impact but as synergies between LinkedIn and Microsoft increase, this could get more and more people on LinkedIn, which then could be a threat to other online recruitment sites.”

Global executive recruitment firm Antal International India Managing Director Joseph Devasia noted that “job sites are surely facing stiff competition from the new-age social, mobile recruiting platforms, hence they probably need to evolve faster.”

Devasia further noted these deals are “very strategic moves for those businesses who could not capitalise on their customer base and create a social relevant business”.

Link to the original article: “/>http://goo.gl/AnQAxg

New law applicable to establishments employing more than 10 persons
The Maternity Bill in India, which was cleared by the Cabinet on Wednesday, got passed in Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The Bill provides for 26 weeks maternity leave in India, an increase from present 12 weeks The law will be applicable to all establishments employing 10 or more persons..

Most of the members supported the Bill. The members also demanded that surrogate mothers should get similar treatment in the Bill. Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said the matter would be looked into. According to Dattatreya, the benefit is applicable for two surviving children. He said 1.8 million women workers in the organised sector will get the benefit of the amendment.

“The very purpose of this Bill is to increase the participation of women in the workforce, which is decreasing day by day,” Dattatreya said. He said at the moment, only Canada (50 weeks) and Norway (44 weeks) offer more numbers of days than India.

Intervening in the debate, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said the Bill has its roots in malnutrition, as breastfeeding the child is recommended, which is not possible unless the mother is in physical proximity of the child.

Members also demanded that paternity leave should also be established, as parenting should be considered as an equal responsibility of father and mother.

Welcoming the passage of the Bill, Sonal Arora, Vice President, Teamlease Servcies, said: “The step of extending the maternity leave in india benefit to a period of 26 weeks was long due,” adding that “more than 25 per cent of Indian women in the private sector opt out of their career after child birth.”

This article was published in Hindu Business Line

Many progressive companies like Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Flipkart, HCL Technologies, PwC, Accenture, Procter & Gamble (P&G), Godrej and Tata Group voluntarily offer around 6 months of paid maternity leave to employees. The objective is to enhance gender diversity levels. N S Rajan, group executive council member & group chief HR officer, Tata Sons, said, “Our goal is to have 2,30,000 women employees by 2020. We are not just talking of compliance around gender diversity, or a mandate which needs adherence. We are talking of a group-wide commitment to celebrating the importance of gender diversity. Our endeavour is to remove hurdles in the way of career growth of women — be it unconscious bias or policy shortfalls.”

In fact, most companies offer more than the stipulated requirement. At PwC, in case of any medical exigency, an additional four weeks of leave is offered. “We have had examples in our office where women employees, even in client-facing roles, have worked from home for six months at a stretch and have still met all their deliverables,” said Jagjit Singh, chief people officer, PwC India.

Sonali Roychowdhury, head (HR), P&G India, said, “On top of the maternity leave, employees also have an option of adding an additional six weeks of paid vacation leave.”

B P Biddappa, executive director (HR), HUL, said, “It will enable women across India to integrate their personal and professional aspirations. I believe this amendment will help drive family-friendly policies that help women build seamless and satisfying careers.”

Prince Augustin, EVP (group human capital & leadership development), Mahindra & Mahindra, said the company is geared for the stipulated leave as it had recently enhanced its leave beyond the one provided under the Act. The company has also put a ‘work out of home’ policy in place.

However, despite the best efforts, statistics reveal that more than 25% of Indian women in the private sector opt out of their career after child birth. “I’m sure this will facilitate the return of some very capable women back into the corporate corridors after their maternity break,” said Sumit Mitra, head (HR and corporate services), Godrej Industries and associate companies. A major concern, however, is regarding the status quo on parental laws. “The government should have revised parental laws to weed out inherent biases. By not doing so, the message that is going out is ‘child rearing is a woman’s job alone’,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder & senior VP of TeamLease Services.

Another concern is whether the move could be counter-productive with smaller enterprises becoming wary of hiring women. “Only a grand total of 25.5% of all employable women are in the workforce. They would range in the age group of 25 to 60. Of this group, a policy such as this will address itself to about 35% of the leave needs of the population. This shrinks the total number of beneficiaries to a rather small number. On the other hand, if the government were to encourage companies to hire more women by providing incentives for such hiring (a la Japan, which actually gives tax rebates for the hiring of second-career women), you might find the number of 25.5% jumping up by about 10 percentage points,” said Rajesh.

An NSSO report shows that close to 38% of women who are currently in the workforce are employed by small and medium enterprises.

This article was published in Times of India:http://goo.gl/1EFeV1

“Managers expect an immediate response to queries on WhatsApp (if the message is read). That’s unfair and we are undertaking sensitisation drives among employees and managers … The app is not an official channel of communication,” said Biplob Banerjee, executive vice-president, human resource, at Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, the operator of Dunkin’ Donuts and Domino’s Pizza in India.

Banerjee, however, uses WhatsApp to send short and crisp videos on company policies to the employees.

Apart from Jubilant, Adidas India, Amway India, Hero Cycles, and RPG Group are firms that have introduced office policies on WhatsApp.

Some firms are stricter. Adidas has mentioned in its social media policy that SMS and other mobile messaging tools cannot substitute an official channel, such as mails.

“We encourage employees to use internal communication and messaging platforms for work-related interactions. WhatsApp can’t be that,” said Arijit Sengupta, senior HR director, Adidas Group India.

The companies think WhatsApp may never become an official communication tool as it is not connected to a company’s server, like in the case of emails and several enterprise chat apps.

“If used irresponsibly, it could lead to a grapevine of communication and gossip, wasting employees’ time,” said a Hero Cycles spokesperson.

Shantanu Das, head of HR at Amway India, believes WhatsApp can be an efficient tool if used moderately.

“It enhances team-bonding, and breaks barriers of hierarchy, gives liberty to an executive to share his views with the senior leadership in a free and frank way,” he said.

This article was published in Hindustan Times

Companies will have a single number for every operation (today companies have 27 different numbers issued under various Acts and by various regulators). Most employers in India will be formal (today, of the 60 million enterprises in India, only 8.5 million have a tax registration, only 1.5 million pay Provident Fund or £31 and only 1 million are companies). Less than 10 per cent of our labour force will be employed in agriculture (today, 50 per cent of our labour force on farms generates only 15 per cent of GDP).

About 20 per cent of our labour force will work in manufacturing (today only 11 per cent does and that is the same as post-industrial USA. We will never reach the peak levels of 40 per cent, 33 per cent and 27 per cent reached by the UK, China and the US respectively). The working poor will disappear (today, 40 per cent of our labour force makes enough money to live but not enough money to pull out of poverty). It is still early to say but, unlike the only comparable nation of size and poverty, China, where jobs came from manufacturing, exports and large companies, India will probably see the largest job creation in services, domestic con sumption and medium and small companies.

When I landed for my MBA in the US in 1994, there was a front page article in The Wall Street Journal, which said that “India was more interesting than important”. I hope that journalist is eating the newspaper on which she wrote that; what is happening in India is not ‘once in a decade’ or ‘once in a millennium’ event. Poverty is about productivity and, by 2050, we will have transformed our enterprises and individuals to put poverty in the museum it belongs to. We are not on the right track, but this is not a given; we must stay the course in fixing the sins of omission (what the government does not do), as much as the sins of commission (what the government does wrong). But I am optimistic because we finally have an economy, society and government that recognises a job changes a life in ways that no subsidy ever can.

Dr Rajiv Chatterjee, consulting orthopaedic surgeon, Columbia Asia Hospital, Calcutta, prescribes daily exercise. “One should brisk walk, run or skip rope. Swimming is also a very good option,” he says.

Another suggestion from Dr Pal is that instead of putting all the items in one large backpack, they can be packaged in several smaller bags. “Also, their bikes should be fitted with carry boxes to avoid carrying backpacks while driving,” he adds. Care should also be taken to remain hydrated, in order to avoid an electrolyte imbalance, which can cause dizziness and lead to road accidents.

Flipkart claims its men are given shorter routes to optimise deliveries in an area, thereby making sure they don’t carry a lot of weight. Besides, all Flipkart delivery hubs have energy drinks, such as glucose, for the employees to have in case of extreme weather conditions.

Given the circumstances, better safe than sorry.

This article was published in Telegraph India

Giving your first interview can be quite unnerving. I remember the first interview I gave for a campus placement. After clearing two rounds comprising of a group discussion and a role play, the final stage was an interview with the panel.

It started off with a volley of questions beginning with a quintessential one “tell us about yourself” to “why did I choose my area of specialization”, so on and so forth. I was going strong till a question hit me – why should we hire you?

My traits were not good enough a reason for them to be convinced to find a right fit in me. Well, I did not make it, but it did prepare me for my next interview which I cracked and did land up in a decent job to begin my career.

Be prepared

So, to begin with my first tip is to be prepared for the interview. Do a research about the organization, industry and to an extent about the interviewer. It’s important to know the organization you are applying to. A glitzy brand may not have much to offer, hence it’s important to know the structure, culture, balance sheet, and it’s potential to grow.

You could even go through the press releases to know what’s latest with that organization.  On a macro level, you should do a thorough research about the industry trends that may impacts the organization and its future.

Your first job is an entry point into a career, hence it’s important to make an intelligent decision which a research can help. If you can study a bit about the interviewer, incase you happened to know who that person is going to be, it can put you at ease to an extent.  But rather than checking the facebook profile, it would be prudent to go through a Linkedin profile.

Don’t put a mask, be authentic

My second advice is to be authentic and not to fake. By putting a mask, you are fooling yourself and it will not take you far.  You need to put your best foot forward, but be genuine. Interview is a way to enter into a professional relationship. Your true self will be visible soon once you start working which can be detrimental to your career.

Know yourself

Interview is a selling process. As a candidate you are selling yourself for that position. At the same time, the organization is also selling the position to you to take up. My third tip is to know thy self and the position you are applying for. If you have to sell yourself to get that job, then you should be clear of how you can add value to the role.

”Being in a sales job, if you can’t articulate the message, you have killed your prospects right there. It’s the first five minutes of your sales meeting that determines its future course”

Hence to answer the question – “why should we hire you”, you need to align your traits, knowledge and skills with the role to be the right fit. Whether it’s your first or future interviews, you need to master the answer to this question, which is the key deciding factor for an interviewer. Do an introspection, identify not just your strengths but also your weak areas and take steps to overcome. Upon asking, you should be able to specify the measures taken by you, it displays your strive for improvement.

Articulate your point of view

The fourth tip to make an impression in an interview is to articulate your point of view. Communication skill plays a vital role. Apart from taking care of your verbs and adjectives, one should have clarity of thought while expressing.

Personally, I am very particular about this aspect. Being in a sales job, if you can’t articulate the message, you have killed your prospects right there. It’s the first five minutes of your sales meeting that determines its future course. Not only in sales, in any functional area, communicating internally or externally, clarity is a must.

Ask questions

Interview is an evaluation process. While you are being evaluated for the position, you should also appraise the same. My fifth tip is to ask questions or probe the interviewer. Your pre interview research will give you enough insight into the organization and the position; it should also give you enough queries to be clarified.

Please be particular about your questions, they could be direct or hard hitting but should not come across frivolous. Nature of your questions showcases your intellect, ability to reason out and inquisitiveness.

Some of the don’ts to take care of are – don’t try to discover a connection, don’t try to flatter, don’t be overconfident, don’t dress shabbily, don’t be late and most importantly don’t jump to compensation.

The basic objective of the Job interview is to find the right fit. The only differentiating factor between the first and the subsequent ones is the experience.

While in your first interview process you get evaluated on in-depth knowledge, attitude and potential to learn; in the subsequent ones what counts is your experience, rest of the parameters remain the same.  Don’t get disheartened if you don’t make it at one shot, just introspect and work upon. With a right attitude and an aptitude you can crack the code to get your dream job.