It is apparent that the most significant changes to recruitment involve the development of professional employment organisations (P.E.O.’s), the use of email and the internet for sourcing jobs and candidates and the continuing trend towards contractors and temporary staff.
The recruitment industry is gearing up for these changes by developing strategic alliances and global partnering to ensure access to the best candidates world wide.
Professionalism, technical competence and the development of world best practice are the hallmarks of successful recruitment consultancies. Organisations hiring staff continue to undergo massive change in striving to be competitive and profitable.
Many organisations have moved to outsourcing all of their non-core activities.
P.E.O.’s have emerged to manage multiple employee groups for companies outsourcing the human resource function. All employees from unskilled positions through to the CEO can, and are, outsourced.
This concept is quite different to the typical approach used by most temp agencies. Organisations of any size can benefit from this approach and employees, particularly those working in smaller companies, have much to gain from the combined benefits that a P.E.O. can offer as a large employer.
Increasingly, recruitment agencies are moving towards sourcing candidates through internet job boards enabling recruitment activity to occur in real time. The ability to recruit internationally has been a huge development and boon for organisations using these services.
In Asia, the concept of “a job for life” is rapidly becoming a vague memory as large scale retrenchment occurs and unemployment figures rise. The growth in temporary and contract positions is a continuing trend and one that is already emerging as a significant growth area in Australia.
Unfortunately, in Australia this growth has also brought with it unparalleled growth in the number of temporary hire firms, many of which lack the professionalism and skills required.
As there is no licensing requirement for recruitment firms, virtually anyone can set up a business with little accountability for their actions. The closest we have to licensing in Australia is membership to the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (R.C.S.A.), the peak industry body throughout Australia and New Zealand.
This is a professional development and self regulatory body made up of member firms which adhere to a strict code of ethics and conduct. The dismantling of the former Commonwealth Employment Service has resulted in confusion in the marketplace and inaccurate perceptions which pool all employment services under the one umbrella.
The fact is that only a very small number of private employment agencies are part of the new “Job Network”. The important philosophical difference between these services and the vast majority of private agencies is the focus.
Job Network agencies are contracted to find jobs for unemployed job seekers, therefore their key focus is on the job seeker.
Private agencies provide a service to employers using their skill, expertise, recruitment systems and networks to source the right candidates whether currently employed or not for their client companies.
The focus in this case is on the employer. This distinction may be subtle but it represents a quantum difference in the two approaches and, consequently, the quality of the service provided to meet the expectations of employers.
Information technology is a major growth area and positions will continue to emerge globally for skilled and qualified personnel. It is pleasing to note that Australia is at the forefront in many areas within the recruitment profession.
In particular, we have a strong emphasis on delivering a quality service and in ensuring the technical competence of consultants. Our industrial relations environment has meant that in Australia there has been an emphasis on ensuring that the right staff are sourced which has resulted in quality recruitment techniques that are now in demand by overseas firms.
*source: jobseekersadvice.com
Showing posts with label HR-Recruitment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HR-Recruitment. Show all posts
Friday, September 18, 2009
Recent trends in Recruitment
The following trends are being seen in recruitment:
OUTSOURCING
In India, the HR processes are being outsourced from more than a decade now. A company may draw required personnel from outsourcing firms. The outsourcing firms help the organisation by the initial screening of the candidates according to the needs of the organisation and creating a suitable pool of talent for the final selection by the organisation. Outsourcing firms develop their human resource pool by employing people for them and make available personnel to various companies as per their needs. In turn, the outsourcing firms or the intermediaries charge the organisations for their services.
Advantages of outsourcing are:
1. Company need not plan for human resources much in advance.
2. Value creation, operational flexibility and competitive advantage
3. Turning the management's focus to strategic level processes of HRM
4. Company is free from salary negotiations, weeding the unsuitable resumes/candidates.
5. Company can save a lot of its resources and time
POACHING/RAIDING
“Buying talent” (rather than developing it) is the latest mantra being followed by the organisations today. Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person already working with another reputed company in the same or different industry; the organisation might be a competitor in the industry. A company can attract talent from another firm by offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions, better than the current employer of the candidate. But it is seen as an unethical practice and not openly talked about. Indian software and the retail sector are the sectors facing the most severe brunt of poaching today. It has become a challenge for human resource managers to face and tackle poaching, as it weakens the competitive strength of the firm.
E-RECRUITMENT
Many big organizations use Internet as a source of recruitment. E-recruitment is the use of technology to assist the recruitment process. They advertise job vacancies through worldwide web. The job seekers send their applications or curriculum vitae i.e. CV through e mail using the Internet. Alternatively job seekers place their CV’s in worldwide web, which can be drawn by prospective employees depending upon their requirements.
Advantages of recruitment are:
1. Low cost.
2. No intermediaries
3. Reduction in time for recruitment.
4. Recruitment of right type of people.
5. Efficiency of recruitment process.
OUTSOURCING
In India, the HR processes are being outsourced from more than a decade now. A company may draw required personnel from outsourcing firms. The outsourcing firms help the organisation by the initial screening of the candidates according to the needs of the organisation and creating a suitable pool of talent for the final selection by the organisation. Outsourcing firms develop their human resource pool by employing people for them and make available personnel to various companies as per their needs. In turn, the outsourcing firms or the intermediaries charge the organisations for their services.
Advantages of outsourcing are:
1. Company need not plan for human resources much in advance.
2. Value creation, operational flexibility and competitive advantage
3. Turning the management's focus to strategic level processes of HRM
4. Company is free from salary negotiations, weeding the unsuitable resumes/candidates.
5. Company can save a lot of its resources and time
POACHING/RAIDING
“Buying talent” (rather than developing it) is the latest mantra being followed by the organisations today. Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person already working with another reputed company in the same or different industry; the organisation might be a competitor in the industry. A company can attract talent from another firm by offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions, better than the current employer of the candidate. But it is seen as an unethical practice and not openly talked about. Indian software and the retail sector are the sectors facing the most severe brunt of poaching today. It has become a challenge for human resource managers to face and tackle poaching, as it weakens the competitive strength of the firm.
E-RECRUITMENT
Many big organizations use Internet as a source of recruitment. E-recruitment is the use of technology to assist the recruitment process. They advertise job vacancies through worldwide web. The job seekers send their applications or curriculum vitae i.e. CV through e mail using the Internet. Alternatively job seekers place their CV’s in worldwide web, which can be drawn by prospective employees depending upon their requirements.
Advantages of recruitment are:
1. Low cost.
2. No intermediaries
3. Reduction in time for recruitment.
4. Recruitment of right type of people.
5. Efficiency of recruitment process.
India’s Best Places to Work
Software application developer RMSI has come up trumps as India’s best workplace in a study on India’s Best Companies to Work For 2009 released on Tuesday night. The Noida-based firm is followed by Intel and Federal Express at No 2 and No 3 spots, respectively. Aviva, Google, Qualcomm, Marriott, AmEx, NetApp and NTPC are others that make up the dream list of the Top 10 in that order. Jointly rolled out by The Economic Times and The Great Places to Work(R) Institute India, the study — in its sixth year — picked up 50 best workplaces in India.
The Best workplaces were honoured at a gala award ceremony in Mumbai, attended by Who’s Who of the HR fraternity in the country. It can’t get bigger than this. As many as 373 companies registered for the study from across 25 industry verticals to sniff out the best companies to work for in India, making it the largest of its kind ever.
While top companies celebrate, others can take heart, too. For this year, the survey has unleashed as many as seven special categories such as excellence in CSR, where IT behemoth Infosys makes a dent. Similarly, in terms of management credibility, HDFC rules supreme. And if that’s not enough, many more have made their mark within their respective industry verticals by notching up pole position, even if they don’t figure in the Top 25. Take the case of Monsanto — the agro-input major may not figure in the Top 25, but has emerged as a clear leader among five participants from the agro-based/dairy/poultry industry.
Speaking at the event, Prasenjit Bhattacharya, CEO of Great Place to Work(R) Institute, said: “To the best of my knowledge, this is the only study to have got the registration figures certified by an independent third-party audit firm.” This year, the study was certified by Suresh Surana & Associates, the sixth-largest accounting and consultancy firm in India. Mr Bhattacharya added that India’s Best Companies to Work For study will shortly become the largest study of its kind in the world.
“If you want to benchmark your workplace culture with the best in your industry in the country and globally, you cannot afford to miss this study.” Apart from a more equitable distribution, the study uniquely relied on employee feedback with as much as two-third weightage given to this mechanism. In other words, the study not only observed, recorded and highlighted some of the best HR practices in the country, but also reviewed these practices as seen from the prism of employees.
When compared with the top 100 companies in the US, the top 50 Indian companies are not far behind. A wide swathe of metrics, from corporate governance to work-life balance, and from empowerment to equity, offers axiomatic proof. Without doubt, the study highlights that India can only grow if it leverages its human and intellectual capital.
The Top 25 -1. RMSI
2. Intel India
3. FedEx
4. Aviva Life Insurance
5. Google India
6. Qualcomm India Pvt. Ltd.
7. Marriott Hotels India
8. American Express
9. NetApp India
10. NTPC
11. Bharti Airtel
12. Agilent Technologies
13. Classic Stripes Ltd.
14. ITC Ltd. - Hotels Division
15. Godrej Consumer Products Ltd.
16. Hilti India Pvt. Ltd.
17. Corbus India Pvt. Ltd.
18. Tavant Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
19. Mindtree Ltd.
20. iNautix Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.
21. Sabre Travel Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
22. Johnson & Johnson Ltd.
23. Silver Spark Apparels Ltd.
24. Titan Industries Ltd.
25. Mando India Ltd.
*Source - Economic Times
The Best workplaces were honoured at a gala award ceremony in Mumbai, attended by Who’s Who of the HR fraternity in the country. It can’t get bigger than this. As many as 373 companies registered for the study from across 25 industry verticals to sniff out the best companies to work for in India, making it the largest of its kind ever.
While top companies celebrate, others can take heart, too. For this year, the survey has unleashed as many as seven special categories such as excellence in CSR, where IT behemoth Infosys makes a dent. Similarly, in terms of management credibility, HDFC rules supreme. And if that’s not enough, many more have made their mark within their respective industry verticals by notching up pole position, even if they don’t figure in the Top 25. Take the case of Monsanto — the agro-input major may not figure in the Top 25, but has emerged as a clear leader among five participants from the agro-based/dairy/poultry industry.
Speaking at the event, Prasenjit Bhattacharya, CEO of Great Place to Work(R) Institute, said: “To the best of my knowledge, this is the only study to have got the registration figures certified by an independent third-party audit firm.” This year, the study was certified by Suresh Surana & Associates, the sixth-largest accounting and consultancy firm in India. Mr Bhattacharya added that India’s Best Companies to Work For study will shortly become the largest study of its kind in the world.
“If you want to benchmark your workplace culture with the best in your industry in the country and globally, you cannot afford to miss this study.” Apart from a more equitable distribution, the study uniquely relied on employee feedback with as much as two-third weightage given to this mechanism. In other words, the study not only observed, recorded and highlighted some of the best HR practices in the country, but also reviewed these practices as seen from the prism of employees.
When compared with the top 100 companies in the US, the top 50 Indian companies are not far behind. A wide swathe of metrics, from corporate governance to work-life balance, and from empowerment to equity, offers axiomatic proof. Without doubt, the study highlights that India can only grow if it leverages its human and intellectual capital.
The Top 25 -1. RMSI
2. Intel India
3. FedEx
4. Aviva Life Insurance
5. Google India
6. Qualcomm India Pvt. Ltd.
7. Marriott Hotels India
8. American Express
9. NetApp India
10. NTPC
11. Bharti Airtel
12. Agilent Technologies
13. Classic Stripes Ltd.
14. ITC Ltd. - Hotels Division
15. Godrej Consumer Products Ltd.
16. Hilti India Pvt. Ltd.
17. Corbus India Pvt. Ltd.
18. Tavant Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
19. Mindtree Ltd.
20. iNautix Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.
21. Sabre Travel Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
22. Johnson & Johnson Ltd.
23. Silver Spark Apparels Ltd.
24. Titan Industries Ltd.
25. Mando India Ltd.
*Source - Economic Times
Monday, August 4, 2008
Newspaper vs Internet
Hey, listen all those who have predicted the demise of print media. Newspapers are not going to be perished under the onslaught of Internet-powered media. Instead, global newspaper circulation is rising, mainly due to the demand in Asia and South America.
According to officials at an international newspaper conference, circulation of paid newspapers rose 2.6 per cent worldwide in 2007, with the biggest jump in India and China.
According to a report by the World Associated of Newspapers, China is now the largest market for newspapers with 107 million copies sold daily.
The study also shows a slump in readership in the US and Europe, where traditional dailies struggle to survive amid free newspapers and web portals.
Officials feel that the findings should be a cause of optimism about the industry.
"They say newspapers and print are dead. Well, I just don't see it," the association's president, Timothy Balding, said at the conference, which was attended by more than 1,800 publishers, editors and other senior newspapers executives at the three-day conference.
Newspapers are doing brisk business in Asia, home to 74 of the world's 100 largest-selling dailies. But there's been a decline in readership in the West, with circulation falling three per cent in the US last year and 1.9 per cent in Europe.
Over the last five years, circulation has been down eight per cent in the US. The report also said that while newspaper advertising revenue rose in all regions, it showed a downward trend in the US, where it fell three per cent last year.
Online ad revenue up
Internet advertising revenue worldwide increased 32 per cent.
Research presented at the conference predicted an increasing shift from print to online media, with the editors are increasingly aware of the need to develop multimedia platforms in order to reach new audiences.
People in the industry talk of "1-2-3 filing," which means presenting news alert headline first for breaking news, followed by a short present-tense story mainly for the web and broadcasters, and the third step being adding details and format stories in ways most appropriate for different news platforms.
Is online the emerging media?
A study by Associated Press showed that the news consumption patterns of young adults are different from that of the previous generations.
"People don't walk out to the driveway to collect their newspaper. They open their e-mail," Jim Kennedy, AP's director of strategic planning, said while presenting the study.
The research project also showed that young adults face troubles over being flooded with facts and updates as well as in-depth reports.
A worldwide survey of 704 newspaper editors by Zogby International and Reuters showed 44 per cent believed that most people would be reading their news online in 10 years, up from 41 per cent in a similar study last year.
A survey of Nordic newspaper editors showed they see free newspapers as their main competitors, followed by the Internet.
According to the report, free dailies account for nearly seven per cent of global newspaper circulation and 23 per cent of circulation in Europe.
According to officials at an international newspaper conference, circulation of paid newspapers rose 2.6 per cent worldwide in 2007, with the biggest jump in India and China.
According to a report by the World Associated of Newspapers, China is now the largest market for newspapers with 107 million copies sold daily.
The study also shows a slump in readership in the US and Europe, where traditional dailies struggle to survive amid free newspapers and web portals.
Officials feel that the findings should be a cause of optimism about the industry.
"They say newspapers and print are dead. Well, I just don't see it," the association's president, Timothy Balding, said at the conference, which was attended by more than 1,800 publishers, editors and other senior newspapers executives at the three-day conference.
Newspapers are doing brisk business in Asia, home to 74 of the world's 100 largest-selling dailies. But there's been a decline in readership in the West, with circulation falling three per cent in the US last year and 1.9 per cent in Europe.
Over the last five years, circulation has been down eight per cent in the US. The report also said that while newspaper advertising revenue rose in all regions, it showed a downward trend in the US, where it fell three per cent last year.
Online ad revenue up
Internet advertising revenue worldwide increased 32 per cent.
Research presented at the conference predicted an increasing shift from print to online media, with the editors are increasingly aware of the need to develop multimedia platforms in order to reach new audiences.
People in the industry talk of "1-2-3 filing," which means presenting news alert headline first for breaking news, followed by a short present-tense story mainly for the web and broadcasters, and the third step being adding details and format stories in ways most appropriate for different news platforms.
Is online the emerging media?
A study by Associated Press showed that the news consumption patterns of young adults are different from that of the previous generations.
"People don't walk out to the driveway to collect their newspaper. They open their e-mail," Jim Kennedy, AP's director of strategic planning, said while presenting the study.
The research project also showed that young adults face troubles over being flooded with facts and updates as well as in-depth reports.
A worldwide survey of 704 newspaper editors by Zogby International and Reuters showed 44 per cent believed that most people would be reading their news online in 10 years, up from 41 per cent in a similar study last year.
A survey of Nordic newspaper editors showed they see free newspapers as their main competitors, followed by the Internet.
According to the report, free dailies account for nearly seven per cent of global newspaper circulation and 23 per cent of circulation in Europe.
Shortage of Skilled Workers
An acute shortage of skilled workers is posing a major threat to the Indian economy. The Planning Commission estimates that only 20 percent of the 12.8 million entering the work force annually get some formal training.
The plan panel has assessed that in an economy growing at the rate of "over nine percent", skill development poses major challenges. At the same time, it opens up "unprecedented doors of opportunity" if the process of skill enhancement is carried out in an integrated manner.
"Time is just running out. The task of skill development must be taken seriously," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia warned recently, adding that public-private partnership was needed to meet the requirement of skilled workers.
The Planning Commission has estimated that the ageing economy phenomenon would globally create "a skilled manpower shortage of about 46 million by 2020". If India can get its skill development act right, it will have a skilled manpower surplus of around 47 million.
"India should have 500 million skilled technicians by 2022. The task is onerous, but not impossible. Persistent efforts are needed to build capacity with focus on the workers in unorganised sector," says Harmit Sethi, Director, Skill Development, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Skilled workers not only mean enhanced output but also increase their employability manifold. They can go overseas looking for jobs, as all of them may not get one in the country. Or they can be self-employed.
"The organised sector accommodates only 16 percent of the total work force while the rest is in unorganised sector. There are around 300 million workers in the unorganised sector. There is a need to transform them into an asset by enhancing their skills," Sethi told IANS.
"The government is making concerted efforts to develop skills among unorganised sector workers. The skill development initiative (SDI) scheme is a new strategic framework for skill development called modular employable skills (MES) framework," said Pillai.
"SDI will cater to the requirements of school dropouts and unorganised sector workers in a big way. The ministry trained over 24,000 people under the scheme in 2007-08 against the target of 10,000," she added.
Sethi said that the government and private sector were making adequate efforts to develop skills. He called for incentives or tax rebates for industry employing skilled manpower.
The government May 15 approved the setting up of a National Skill Development Corp (NSDC) to cater to the needs of skilled personnel of the private sector in different fields. A total of Rs.10 billion has been provided for the initiative. This will later go up to Rs.150 billion.
NSDC, created at the recommendation of the Planning Commission, will put special emphasis on nearly two dozen high-growth, high-employment sectors like automobile, heath care services, banking, organised retail, insurance, construction, pharmaceuticals, food processing, textile, media, entertainment and tourism.
The ministry of labour and employment spent Rs.10.9 billion on training and skill development in the last fiscal against Rs.1.01 billion in 2006-07. Around 400 industrial training institutes (ITIs) are being developed as centres of excellence in the country.
Apart from the ministry of labour and employment, the ministries of rural development and human resource development are set to contribute a lot towards skill development through vocational educational system, said an official in the plan panel
The plan panel has assessed that in an economy growing at the rate of "over nine percent", skill development poses major challenges. At the same time, it opens up "unprecedented doors of opportunity" if the process of skill enhancement is carried out in an integrated manner.
"Time is just running out. The task of skill development must be taken seriously," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia warned recently, adding that public-private partnership was needed to meet the requirement of skilled workers.
The Planning Commission has estimated that the ageing economy phenomenon would globally create "a skilled manpower shortage of about 46 million by 2020". If India can get its skill development act right, it will have a skilled manpower surplus of around 47 million.
"India should have 500 million skilled technicians by 2022. The task is onerous, but not impossible. Persistent efforts are needed to build capacity with focus on the workers in unorganised sector," says Harmit Sethi, Director, Skill Development, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Skilled workers not only mean enhanced output but also increase their employability manifold. They can go overseas looking for jobs, as all of them may not get one in the country. Or they can be self-employed.
"The organised sector accommodates only 16 percent of the total work force while the rest is in unorganised sector. There are around 300 million workers in the unorganised sector. There is a need to transform them into an asset by enhancing their skills," Sethi told IANS.
"The government is making concerted efforts to develop skills among unorganised sector workers. The skill development initiative (SDI) scheme is a new strategic framework for skill development called modular employable skills (MES) framework," said Pillai.
"SDI will cater to the requirements of school dropouts and unorganised sector workers in a big way. The ministry trained over 24,000 people under the scheme in 2007-08 against the target of 10,000," she added.
Sethi said that the government and private sector were making adequate efforts to develop skills. He called for incentives or tax rebates for industry employing skilled manpower.
The government May 15 approved the setting up of a National Skill Development Corp (NSDC) to cater to the needs of skilled personnel of the private sector in different fields. A total of Rs.10 billion has been provided for the initiative. This will later go up to Rs.150 billion.
NSDC, created at the recommendation of the Planning Commission, will put special emphasis on nearly two dozen high-growth, high-employment sectors like automobile, heath care services, banking, organised retail, insurance, construction, pharmaceuticals, food processing, textile, media, entertainment and tourism.
The ministry of labour and employment spent Rs.10.9 billion on training and skill development in the last fiscal against Rs.1.01 billion in 2006-07. Around 400 industrial training institutes (ITIs) are being developed as centres of excellence in the country.
Apart from the ministry of labour and employment, the ministries of rural development and human resource development are set to contribute a lot towards skill development through vocational educational system, said an official in the plan panel
The Power of Newspapers
Newspapers can be an important component in any advertiser's media mix.
Newspapers give advertisers significant local reach. They are the voice of their community.
• On an average weekday, 50% of U.S. adults read a newspaper and 2.3 people read each copy of a newspaper.1
• On an average Sunday, 57% of U.S. adults read a newspaper – that's more than watch the Super Bowl.1
• Newspapers are the #1 source for local news.2
Newspapers help advertisers reach an attractive demographic.3
• Readers tend to be highly educated and affluent, have higher Internet penetration and shop online more frequently.
• Readers say that the newspaper is "an important part of their daily routine," and that "reading the newspaper is relaxing to me."
Newspapers are a key resource for shopping information that drives consumers to make purchases – online and offline.3
• 84% say they visited a retail store as a result of newspaper advertising.
• 60% said they visited a website to learn more about a product or service seen in a newspaper ad.
• 50% said they bought something online after seeing a newspaper ad.
Newspapers are relevant throughout the purchase cycle.
Consumers refer to newspaper ads whether they're gathering product information or deciding which merchant offers the best price.
Steps to building a newspaper campaign
1. Choose newspapers based on geography, circulation size, ad size availability, section availability, and other criteria.
2. Select day(s)-of-week, desired section, and ad size for each desired publication.
Newspapers give advertisers significant local reach. They are the voice of their community.
• On an average weekday, 50% of U.S. adults read a newspaper and 2.3 people read each copy of a newspaper.1
• On an average Sunday, 57% of U.S. adults read a newspaper – that's more than watch the Super Bowl.1
• Newspapers are the #1 source for local news.2
Newspapers help advertisers reach an attractive demographic.3
• Readers tend to be highly educated and affluent, have higher Internet penetration and shop online more frequently.
• Readers say that the newspaper is "an important part of their daily routine," and that "reading the newspaper is relaxing to me."
Newspapers are a key resource for shopping information that drives consumers to make purchases – online and offline.3
• 84% say they visited a retail store as a result of newspaper advertising.
• 60% said they visited a website to learn more about a product or service seen in a newspaper ad.
• 50% said they bought something online after seeing a newspaper ad.
Newspapers are relevant throughout the purchase cycle.
Consumers refer to newspaper ads whether they're gathering product information or deciding which merchant offers the best price.
Steps to building a newspaper campaign
1. Choose newspapers based on geography, circulation size, ad size availability, section availability, and other criteria.
2. Select day(s)-of-week, desired section, and ad size for each desired publication.
Internet is rivaling TV and print
Study confirms the Internet is rivaling TV and print
Data has traditionally been lacking for marketers who want to understand the media consumption habits of consumers in Asia and how people in the region perceive each medium with regards to their personal and business needs. A new study sheds valuable light on the topic.
Microsoft Advertising conducted a media consumption study via Synovate AsiaBUS service, surveying over 11,000 people aged 15-64 in 10 markets in Asia Pacific: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
The research findings confirm the Internet has become a mainstream medium that now rivals traditional media such as television, newspapers and radio. The survey also reveals that the Internet excels over other media in attracting key demographics for advertisers.
Key audiences spending more time online
The AsiaBUS Study shows people spend 15 hours a week on the Internet, challenging the leading position of TV (18 hours). Respondents also report spending far less time reading newspapers and magazines, 5 hours and 3 hours respectively, though radio still accounts for quite a significant share of media time (12 hours).
Looking at media consumption across demographics, a few groups show higher engagement with the Internet than with other media. For example, those aged 25 to 34 spend the most time on the Internet, 18.5 hours per week versus 17 hours on TV. Two other groups show an even stronger preference for the Internet: University graduates and Top/Middle management, both of which are prime targets for advertisers given their higher purchasing power, and personal and business decision making power.
Internet is top source for information
Besides exploring media consumption habits, the study also examines perceptions of these media. What comes out very strongly is that the Internet is regarded as the top information source, be it for personal or business interests. The Internet is the first place people look for information and gives the depth of information they want.
The Internet's outstanding information gathering capabilities also helps consumers decide what to buy. People feel the Internet keeps them ahead of the game, describing the Internet as an active medium which puts them in control.
With all these advantages, it is not surprising to see that people are planning to use the Internet more than other media in the future.
Advertisers look no further: online is "in"
The AsiaBUS Study confirms once and for all that the Internet has clearly assumed its rightful place as a mainstream medium in consumers' thoughts and actions. With the Internet's importance continuing to rise even more in the future, advertisers will be turning online more and more to engage with prime target audiences.
Data has traditionally been lacking for marketers who want to understand the media consumption habits of consumers in Asia and how people in the region perceive each medium with regards to their personal and business needs. A new study sheds valuable light on the topic.
Microsoft Advertising conducted a media consumption study via Synovate AsiaBUS service, surveying over 11,000 people aged 15-64 in 10 markets in Asia Pacific: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
The research findings confirm the Internet has become a mainstream medium that now rivals traditional media such as television, newspapers and radio. The survey also reveals that the Internet excels over other media in attracting key demographics for advertisers.
Key audiences spending more time online
The AsiaBUS Study shows people spend 15 hours a week on the Internet, challenging the leading position of TV (18 hours). Respondents also report spending far less time reading newspapers and magazines, 5 hours and 3 hours respectively, though radio still accounts for quite a significant share of media time (12 hours).
Looking at media consumption across demographics, a few groups show higher engagement with the Internet than with other media. For example, those aged 25 to 34 spend the most time on the Internet, 18.5 hours per week versus 17 hours on TV. Two other groups show an even stronger preference for the Internet: University graduates and Top/Middle management, both of which are prime targets for advertisers given their higher purchasing power, and personal and business decision making power.
Internet is top source for information
Besides exploring media consumption habits, the study also examines perceptions of these media. What comes out very strongly is that the Internet is regarded as the top information source, be it for personal or business interests. The Internet is the first place people look for information and gives the depth of information they want.
The Internet's outstanding information gathering capabilities also helps consumers decide what to buy. People feel the Internet keeps them ahead of the game, describing the Internet as an active medium which puts them in control.
With all these advantages, it is not surprising to see that people are planning to use the Internet more than other media in the future.
Advertisers look no further: online is "in"
The AsiaBUS Study confirms once and for all that the Internet has clearly assumed its rightful place as a mainstream medium in consumers' thoughts and actions. With the Internet's importance continuing to rise even more in the future, advertisers will be turning online more and more to engage with prime target audiences.
Friday, June 20, 2008
The first day… at a job
A lot has been done to woo potential candidates before they sign on the dotted line. But what after that? According to a survey, 70-80 per cent employees leave in the first 90 days of their work. Are firms waking up and smelling the coffee?
On his first day to work at ‘SSS’ Computers, 23 year old Venu Sharma had sweaty palms and an itchy neck. The mild apprehension of how his first day at work would be was worrying him. But, surprise surprise! A badge with a smiley face and ‘Just Joined’ stamped on it was given to him. “I can’t tell you how good I felt that day. There were unknown faces coming up to me and offering help. This practice we have, called ‘Just Joined’ is a great HR practice,” gushes Shastry, senior analyst, ‘SSS’. “Moreover, all the process related information was shared with me right on day one to make things easier. I felt settled from the first day itself,” he adds.
Shastry’s experience is not just a matter of co-incidence but rather a result of good planning and strategizing by the organization. Archana Ravishankar, VP – people development and HR operations, ‘SSS’ elaborates, “Every new recruit has expectations when s/he joins an organization. They need some amount of welcoming and hand-holding in the new eco-system. If that doesn’t happen because the employers are too busy to pay attention to this, the joinee gets disenchanted. That’s why we are proactive even in the post-hiring stage.”
Realizing the importance of smooth integration of joinees, ‘SSS’ runs interesting practices for their campus and lateral recruits. ‘Just Joined’ and ‘FOUR’ are amongst them. FOUR stands for - F for first connect, O for orientation and UR for your perception.
Phase one is the ‘first connect’ stage when a business unit wise induction is conducted. This is followed by ‘Orientation’ done after 30 days of joining. Within orientation, there’s a major discussion on company policies with the senior managers and HR. Moreover, new joinees are given a list of 10 people from
their business unit whom they can reach for work-related issues. At this stage, they are also introduced to the performance management system (competencies needed, KRAs.) Finally, comes the last phase of UR - your perception-where there’s an informal discussion after 60 days. This is conducted by the delivery head of the unit and the immediate head/project manager to assess the joinee’s understanding of his/her job role and expectations.
Yet another unique practice which ‘SSS’ has for its joinees is ‘Fresh Eyes’. This initiative allows new joinees to share their experiences every quarter.
Another such firm which has unique initiatives for its new entrants is UST Global. “We have two separate orientation programmes – The ‘Prelude’ for freshers straight out of college and the ‘Vista’ is for lateral entrants,” Vijay Shekar, global HR head, UST Global points out. Typically, orientation translates to long lectures and tedious paperwork. Not so with UST. It is just a prelude where the new joinee gets a peep into the company culture, core values and senior management.
Once the employee gets allocated to a team or a project, the managers take this activity forward. Lateral entrants are paired with a “Buddy”, who’s an experienced associate with the organization.
“The idea behind having a buddy is to help the new entrant “get around”. The buddy also takes up the responsibility of introducing him/her to all the team mates and ensure that s/he is comfortable,” notes Shekar.
Financial Technologies has also implemented similar practices. Apart from ensuring that the joinee gets all the entitlements on the first day (mobile connection, blackberrys, laptops), the firm also takes care of painful chores like form filling. Each joinee is also given his/her business card on the very first day.
Dr. Suraj Chandra - group head, HR, First Technologies notes, “We communicate to all departments about the new recruit joining on a given date. This further enables these departments to make timely arrangements.” This proactive approach of the firm stems from its core principle of “glorious entry and gracious exit”.
The feel good factor is enhanced by sending welcome e-mail to the joinee along with a welcome note on his work-station.
Citing his own example, Sudarshan, CFO, ABCD (a sister concern) validates, “I’ve not experienced this kind of reception. On the first day itself, an officer was put in charge to help me out. He helped in form filling and other administrative tasks. This kind of documentation usually does not happen on the 1st day in most firms.” Suraj says these measures have paid off. “We have gained immensely through our new joinee initiatives. Our retention has gone up by 80-90 per cent in the last one and a half years,” opines Suraj.
Like they say a good beginning is half the job done.
On his first day to work at ‘SSS’ Computers, 23 year old Venu Sharma had sweaty palms and an itchy neck. The mild apprehension of how his first day at work would be was worrying him. But, surprise surprise! A badge with a smiley face and ‘Just Joined’ stamped on it was given to him. “I can’t tell you how good I felt that day. There were unknown faces coming up to me and offering help. This practice we have, called ‘Just Joined’ is a great HR practice,” gushes Shastry, senior analyst, ‘SSS’. “Moreover, all the process related information was shared with me right on day one to make things easier. I felt settled from the first day itself,” he adds.
Shastry’s experience is not just a matter of co-incidence but rather a result of good planning and strategizing by the organization. Archana Ravishankar, VP – people development and HR operations, ‘SSS’ elaborates, “Every new recruit has expectations when s/he joins an organization. They need some amount of welcoming and hand-holding in the new eco-system. If that doesn’t happen because the employers are too busy to pay attention to this, the joinee gets disenchanted. That’s why we are proactive even in the post-hiring stage.”
Realizing the importance of smooth integration of joinees, ‘SSS’ runs interesting practices for their campus and lateral recruits. ‘Just Joined’ and ‘FOUR’ are amongst them. FOUR stands for - F for first connect, O for orientation and UR for your perception.
Phase one is the ‘first connect’ stage when a business unit wise induction is conducted. This is followed by ‘Orientation’ done after 30 days of joining. Within orientation, there’s a major discussion on company policies with the senior managers and HR. Moreover, new joinees are given a list of 10 people from
their business unit whom they can reach for work-related issues. At this stage, they are also introduced to the performance management system (competencies needed, KRAs.) Finally, comes the last phase of UR - your perception-where there’s an informal discussion after 60 days. This is conducted by the delivery head of the unit and the immediate head/project manager to assess the joinee’s understanding of his/her job role and expectations.
Yet another unique practice which ‘SSS’ has for its joinees is ‘Fresh Eyes’. This initiative allows new joinees to share their experiences every quarter.
Another such firm which has unique initiatives for its new entrants is UST Global. “We have two separate orientation programmes – The ‘Prelude’ for freshers straight out of college and the ‘Vista’ is for lateral entrants,” Vijay Shekar, global HR head, UST Global points out. Typically, orientation translates to long lectures and tedious paperwork. Not so with UST. It is just a prelude where the new joinee gets a peep into the company culture, core values and senior management.
Once the employee gets allocated to a team or a project, the managers take this activity forward. Lateral entrants are paired with a “Buddy”, who’s an experienced associate with the organization.
“The idea behind having a buddy is to help the new entrant “get around”. The buddy also takes up the responsibility of introducing him/her to all the team mates and ensure that s/he is comfortable,” notes Shekar.
Financial Technologies has also implemented similar practices. Apart from ensuring that the joinee gets all the entitlements on the first day (mobile connection, blackberrys, laptops), the firm also takes care of painful chores like form filling. Each joinee is also given his/her business card on the very first day.
Dr. Suraj Chandra - group head, HR, First Technologies notes, “We communicate to all departments about the new recruit joining on a given date. This further enables these departments to make timely arrangements.” This proactive approach of the firm stems from its core principle of “glorious entry and gracious exit”.
The feel good factor is enhanced by sending welcome e-mail to the joinee along with a welcome note on his work-station.
Citing his own example, Sudarshan, CFO, ABCD (a sister concern) validates, “I’ve not experienced this kind of reception. On the first day itself, an officer was put in charge to help me out. He helped in form filling and other administrative tasks. This kind of documentation usually does not happen on the 1st day in most firms.” Suraj says these measures have paid off. “We have gained immensely through our new joinee initiatives. Our retention has gone up by 80-90 per cent in the last one and a half years,” opines Suraj.
Like they say a good beginning is half the job done.
The IT industry is on a hiring spree.
WAITING TO EXHALE
The IT industry is on a hiring spree. Firms are constantly hiring people thereby increasing the number of employees on the bench, all in anticipation of the projects that might come to them in future
It’sand a well China known are fact on top that of India the outsourcing list and are approached by the US, UK, countries from Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand for their software related projects. India and China are known to have various favourable factors like highly-skilled manpower, worldclass institutes, cost effective markets, proximity to markets and round-the-clock advantage.
However, nothing is predictable including the working of the Information Technology (IT) industry. There is always an element of volatility and fluctuation regarding the projects that are outsourced to various organisations across the globe, including various firms in India. With this rise in outsourcing, the IT sector is on a hiring spree to meet requirements that might come up in the future.
The major reason behind this hiring spree by IT firms is because of the growth in business, which is ignited by the market boom across the world. In its 4th year of unprecedented boom cycle, economies around the world are booming, the customers need for outsourcing has increased and there has been an increasing demand of talent in the industries. In order to address the growing rate of inflation, IT firms are planning to introduce alternative measures by increasing work hours, increasing the employee strength of the company etc.
WAITING TO PLAY
Once hired, these new recruits are ‘benched’ for a certain period of time and are not given any project to work on. However, organisations know that they will be given some kind of work/project for all the recruits at some point in the next several months. Many firms involved in the hiring spree are the cash rich companies who can afford to pay these employees to just sit on the bench for some months.
Organisations have their own way of managing the benched employees. Once they are recruited, they are put on training of new skills or are placed in various in-house projects. In many of the big IT firms, the percentage of on-bench employees is nearly half of the total head count, if not more. Instead of ‘bench’, organisations call them the ‘under deployed talent’ which comes to about 20 per cent of the total head count. It includes people working on in-house projects, undergoing training, people earmarked for future project, talent undergoing trainings for new skills and back up for projects.
As per many industrial sources, there is no need for the employees on bench to be sceptical about their job as there is no discrimination in IT firms. They get equal payment and other benefits at par with their counterparts. Organisations don’t discriminate between anyone in the organisation in terms of salary or any other benefit. Every employee is given equal opportunities to nurture their career. Various opportunities to choose a career of their choice are offered on ‘internal job opportunities’ forum across the organisation. Identifying the skill matrix of the internal talent pool and putting to good use during business exigency optimises the manpower utilisation at any given point. Better resource and manpower redeployment management would be one of the key to the success of future workforce planning.
THE HUNTING GAME
Some overseas projects force companies to recruit many people at a short notice. Such brisk hiring mostly results in the employment of those who are not adequately qualified or entry of candidates with fake CVs, etc. In order to avoid such repercussions, companies focus on the advance ramping up of the talent pool.
Organisations have realised that it is best to be equipped with a buffer or a pipeline of suitable candidates to avoid any last minute surprises. Organisation, which has gone on rampant panic hiring spree to manage their short-term business needs without considering the flip side of lay-offs has lead to negativity of the market credibility. If a company is more efficient, it can avoid such unpleasantries and image tarnishing for themselves.
To get the right person for the job is a big challenge that all the companies face as recruitment is a tedious process. With only a quarter of the talent pool employable, evaluating and identifying the right candidate presents a major challenge. Owing to the scale, interviews lose validity as a reliable selection tool and scientifically designed assessments have become the backbone of the selection processes. With the talent pools hugely dispersed, reaching out to multiple locations within a limited time frame severely tests the bandwidth of recruitment teams while challenging the standardisation of processes in multi-location recruitment drive. Given the facts, it is impossible for firms to avoid people on bench. Only way out is hiring more people, as no firm wants to be pushed off the market due to lack of enough manpower to handle a new project.
The IT industry is on a hiring spree. Firms are constantly hiring people thereby increasing the number of employees on the bench, all in anticipation of the projects that might come to them in future
It’sand a well China known are fact on top that of India the outsourcing list and are approached by the US, UK, countries from Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand for their software related projects. India and China are known to have various favourable factors like highly-skilled manpower, worldclass institutes, cost effective markets, proximity to markets and round-the-clock advantage.
However, nothing is predictable including the working of the Information Technology (IT) industry. There is always an element of volatility and fluctuation regarding the projects that are outsourced to various organisations across the globe, including various firms in India. With this rise in outsourcing, the IT sector is on a hiring spree to meet requirements that might come up in the future.
The major reason behind this hiring spree by IT firms is because of the growth in business, which is ignited by the market boom across the world. In its 4th year of unprecedented boom cycle, economies around the world are booming, the customers need for outsourcing has increased and there has been an increasing demand of talent in the industries. In order to address the growing rate of inflation, IT firms are planning to introduce alternative measures by increasing work hours, increasing the employee strength of the company etc.
WAITING TO PLAY
Once hired, these new recruits are ‘benched’ for a certain period of time and are not given any project to work on. However, organisations know that they will be given some kind of work/project for all the recruits at some point in the next several months. Many firms involved in the hiring spree are the cash rich companies who can afford to pay these employees to just sit on the bench for some months.
Organisations have their own way of managing the benched employees. Once they are recruited, they are put on training of new skills or are placed in various in-house projects. In many of the big IT firms, the percentage of on-bench employees is nearly half of the total head count, if not more. Instead of ‘bench’, organisations call them the ‘under deployed talent’ which comes to about 20 per cent of the total head count. It includes people working on in-house projects, undergoing training, people earmarked for future project, talent undergoing trainings for new skills and back up for projects.
As per many industrial sources, there is no need for the employees on bench to be sceptical about their job as there is no discrimination in IT firms. They get equal payment and other benefits at par with their counterparts. Organisations don’t discriminate between anyone in the organisation in terms of salary or any other benefit. Every employee is given equal opportunities to nurture their career. Various opportunities to choose a career of their choice are offered on ‘internal job opportunities’ forum across the organisation. Identifying the skill matrix of the internal talent pool and putting to good use during business exigency optimises the manpower utilisation at any given point. Better resource and manpower redeployment management would be one of the key to the success of future workforce planning.
THE HUNTING GAME
Some overseas projects force companies to recruit many people at a short notice. Such brisk hiring mostly results in the employment of those who are not adequately qualified or entry of candidates with fake CVs, etc. In order to avoid such repercussions, companies focus on the advance ramping up of the talent pool.
Organisations have realised that it is best to be equipped with a buffer or a pipeline of suitable candidates to avoid any last minute surprises. Organisation, which has gone on rampant panic hiring spree to manage their short-term business needs without considering the flip side of lay-offs has lead to negativity of the market credibility. If a company is more efficient, it can avoid such unpleasantries and image tarnishing for themselves.
To get the right person for the job is a big challenge that all the companies face as recruitment is a tedious process. With only a quarter of the talent pool employable, evaluating and identifying the right candidate presents a major challenge. Owing to the scale, interviews lose validity as a reliable selection tool and scientifically designed assessments have become the backbone of the selection processes. With the talent pools hugely dispersed, reaching out to multiple locations within a limited time frame severely tests the bandwidth of recruitment teams while challenging the standardisation of processes in multi-location recruitment drive. Given the facts, it is impossible for firms to avoid people on bench. Only way out is hiring more people, as no firm wants to be pushed off the market due to lack of enough manpower to handle a new project.
10 things to look for while hiring winners
Like most industries, ours also is a talent deficient industry. You do get people, but it is always a challenge to get the right person for the right job. Now who’s the right person for the right job? Besides the usual stuff like relevant experience, etc., there’s a checklist I use for figuring that one:
1. Is the person really hungry for the job? How needy is he? Does he live with his parents, because of which he has little need to retain the job? Or is he ‘just-married’, who has to ensure that the home fires continue to burn? Does the candidate’s spouse also work? If the spouse is the wife, then this is a good sign, because, mostly, husbands are unlikely to live off their wives, but if the spouse is the husband, then you need to explore further for other signs, though exceptions, too, have come my way. There’s this young-ish copywriter who’d worked in the Gulf and joined us. He came in one day, and didn’t turn up the following morning. When we explored, we figured out that he’s done this repeatedly, and subsequent to his not reporting for work, his poor wife makes the calls to her husband’s office to make excuses for him. If a candidate is not hungry, he ends up wasting your time by first accepting your offer and then not joining.
2. Is the person ambitious? Is he considering change because he’s not being given a clear understanding of which direction his career is headed in? Is he leaving because he’s doing the same job over and over again, and the learning has stopped? These are interesting signs to look for.
3. Has the person bothered to read up about the company he’s seeking to join? What’s his level of knowledge and how clearly or vaguely does he articulate it?
4. Is he curious to find out what he will be expected to do/deliver in his new job role? Or is he just looking for a new job, for the sake of moving on from one place to another, as a means of increasing his remuneration?
5. How willing is he to learn if he doesn’t know something? Is he the type who is prone to remaining in his comfort zone, or is he open to taking on new challenges which go beyond what he’s done till now? Does he have the conviction to follow this through? What has he done in the past which reflects this trait? For such people, I sometimes make an exception of not even looking at relevant experience.
6. Ask him for a few things that he’s proud of during his professional life. This is a sound reflection of the kind of things he will be good at. Some candidates are proud of doing some operational job well, while others are proud of more cerebral stuff. That gives you a good fix of where you can slot him, or whether you can slot him at all.
7. Ask him for things he's done during his professional life which he wishes he’d done better. Beware of those who don’t have anything to share. This is one disconcerting question which reveals the candidate’s true self – his candour, his nervousness, his confidence and his conviction in himself. Of all the things mentioned above, this one probably reveals the most about the candidate.
8. Does he ask questions? You need to wary of those who don’t.
9. Does he turn the interview into a chat, or does it remain an interview? How well does he pick up the conversation strings and build on them to his advantage? Such articulate people will always remain an asset in our business.
10. And last but not least, go with your gut feel. There are enough seemingly sound candidates whom I have rejected because my gut feel told me to, and I have discovered later that they weren’t as sound as they were coming across. Similarly, there are enough candidates I have picked up on gut feel, which some others would have rejected. And more often than not, these gambles have paid off. Reason: If such a candidate’s credentials don’t seem right and he knows it, just the faith you show in him makes him start to deliver at near-100 per cent efficiency. This is a near-100per cent fail-safe observation.
1. Is the person really hungry for the job? How needy is he? Does he live with his parents, because of which he has little need to retain the job? Or is he ‘just-married’, who has to ensure that the home fires continue to burn? Does the candidate’s spouse also work? If the spouse is the wife, then this is a good sign, because, mostly, husbands are unlikely to live off their wives, but if the spouse is the husband, then you need to explore further for other signs, though exceptions, too, have come my way. There’s this young-ish copywriter who’d worked in the Gulf and joined us. He came in one day, and didn’t turn up the following morning. When we explored, we figured out that he’s done this repeatedly, and subsequent to his not reporting for work, his poor wife makes the calls to her husband’s office to make excuses for him. If a candidate is not hungry, he ends up wasting your time by first accepting your offer and then not joining.
2. Is the person ambitious? Is he considering change because he’s not being given a clear understanding of which direction his career is headed in? Is he leaving because he’s doing the same job over and over again, and the learning has stopped? These are interesting signs to look for.
3. Has the person bothered to read up about the company he’s seeking to join? What’s his level of knowledge and how clearly or vaguely does he articulate it?
4. Is he curious to find out what he will be expected to do/deliver in his new job role? Or is he just looking for a new job, for the sake of moving on from one place to another, as a means of increasing his remuneration?
5. How willing is he to learn if he doesn’t know something? Is he the type who is prone to remaining in his comfort zone, or is he open to taking on new challenges which go beyond what he’s done till now? Does he have the conviction to follow this through? What has he done in the past which reflects this trait? For such people, I sometimes make an exception of not even looking at relevant experience.
6. Ask him for a few things that he’s proud of during his professional life. This is a sound reflection of the kind of things he will be good at. Some candidates are proud of doing some operational job well, while others are proud of more cerebral stuff. That gives you a good fix of where you can slot him, or whether you can slot him at all.
7. Ask him for things he's done during his professional life which he wishes he’d done better. Beware of those who don’t have anything to share. This is one disconcerting question which reveals the candidate’s true self – his candour, his nervousness, his confidence and his conviction in himself. Of all the things mentioned above, this one probably reveals the most about the candidate.
8. Does he ask questions? You need to wary of those who don’t.
9. Does he turn the interview into a chat, or does it remain an interview? How well does he pick up the conversation strings and build on them to his advantage? Such articulate people will always remain an asset in our business.
10. And last but not least, go with your gut feel. There are enough seemingly sound candidates whom I have rejected because my gut feel told me to, and I have discovered later that they weren’t as sound as they were coming across. Similarly, there are enough candidates I have picked up on gut feel, which some others would have rejected. And more often than not, these gambles have paid off. Reason: If such a candidate’s credentials don’t seem right and he knows it, just the faith you show in him makes him start to deliver at near-100 per cent efficiency. This is a near-100per cent fail-safe observation.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Best practices for JIT recruitment
JIT - Just in Time hiring
In order to achieve efficient hiring an organisation must…
In order to achieve efficient hiring an organisation must…
- Prepare accurate manpower planning forecasts
- Provide the staffing department with adequate time for tasks such as hiring managers to designing accurate job descriptions
- Create a plan to brand the organisation as an ‘employer of choice’ and retain it
- Ensure adequate resources are provided to staffing efforts both in terms of manpower, sources of hires, tools to evaluate and assess potential talent. Technology with applicant management and skill and behaviour profiling must be utilised
- Ensure hiring managers are able to allocate adequate time and resources towards interviewing and other selection efforts
- Create an effective reporting structure with metrics in order to measure the effectiveness of the hiring programme and make timely changes as may be required
- An ambient workplace with effective management of resources will result in bringing the best out of existing talent, making them give that little extra and meet with organisational targets reducing the load on quick hiring.
India's IT Labor Pinch
A scarcity of young, college-educated engineers has turned recruitment in India's fast-growing tech sector into a free-for-all
A few years ago, it would have been unheard of for job recruiters to pay a visit to India's Government Engineering College in Ujjain. The college, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, isn't anywhere near the top of the nation's technical school rankings, and it's not part of the traditional circuit during the job-hunting season. But these days, corporate types are swarming the Government Engineering College campus, and they're starting to pop up in surprising locales at lesser-known schools.
Consider Shreyans Mehta, who joined Tata Consultancy Services last August. The 23-year-old GEC grad had his pick from some of the big names in India's technology sector, including Infosys Technologies and Wipro, but decided to go with TCS, India's largest tech company. "It's a dream come true for me," he says, beaming.
Boom Times
It's certainly a good time to be a young, college-educated techie in India. The country now accounts for 28% of information-technology and outsourcing jobs among 28 developing countries, according to a recent Nasscom-McKinsey report. And it's adding new jobs fast as India builds itself into a global technology-outsourcing hub.
The result: Businesses are whipping themselves into a hiring frenzy. India's Big Three—TCS, Infosys and Wipro—are looking to add a combined 100,000 to their workforce globally. Similarly hungry for talent are giant multinationals such as Cisco Systems, Accenture and IBM, which have been beefing up their India-based software development and services.
Cisco aims to staff its Globalization Center in Bangalore with 4,000 new hires. IBM has announced plans for 100,000 new jobs by 2010, while consulting firm Accenture will add another 8,000 to its head count of 27,000 in the next six months. Electronic Data Systems, which acquired Indian company MphasiS BFL in June 2006, is expected to double its staff of 17,000 software engineers and outsourcing jobs in the next two years. "If you have a business growing 40% year-on-year, boosting manpower is only a given," says Alok Shende, vice-president at research firm Frost and Sullivan.
Hiring Hunt
The competition has become fierce as companies fight over the most qualified college grads. "It has been tough to get people," admits Amitabh Ray, IBM India's vice-president for global delivery application services and consulting.
Corporate recruiters say the process used to be a simple matter of flying to the top colleges and meeting with grads who had the best grade-point averages. Not anymore. "Now we travel by train and rickety three-wheelers to way-out destinations to unearth talent," says a human resource manager at an IT company.
You would think that finding talent in the world's second-most populous nation wouldn't be too hard. An estimated 7 million Indians enter the workforce every year. (In China, it's more than double that, at 18 million.) But there are few engineers among them. That's partly because fewer than 8 million of the country's 200 million students make it through high school, and even fewer finish college. At the nation's 1,200 technical colleges, just 400,000 engineers graduate each year, estimates the National Association of Software & Services Companies, an industry trade body. Among those, only a fourth have the skills to immediately start work at a multinational or major Indian IT firm. Contrast that to 35% of engineers in Malaysia and 50% in Poland and Hungary who can perform the offshore IT jobs that are now migrating to countries where labor costs are low.
Outreach Efforts
Some companies are starting their recruiting efforts early, interviewing college students a year or two before they get a degree. Asha Bhat, 23, who attended Bangalore's Ramayya Engineering College, says that while still in her third year, she went to hear the presentations of visitors from Dell, IBM, EDS, Accenture and i-Flex Solutions before finally choosing IBM.
Other companies are sending managers as guest lecturers or to help educators improve curricula. For instance, Infosys has begun sharing its training manual with some colleges, while TCS sponsors a masters program at IIT Kharagpur in the eastern state of West Bengal. The wealth of new programs has made it an exciting time to be a human resources chief in India. "It's a bit like changing your car wheels when the car is in motion," says Prathik Kumar, executive vice-president of human resources at Wipro Technologies, India's third-largest software exporter.
Even Kumar's boss, Chairman Azim Premji, has been pitching in. Premji says he's been extending his search to more campuses overseas. Premji travels to colleges in the U.S., Japan and Europe, and plans to add Australia to his itinerary soon. "Now it's a huge thing to have the India stint on your resumé," he says.
Application Overload
The downside to such aggressive recruiting is the deluge of job applications. Last year Infosys received 1.3 million, but picked just 26,000, or 2%. "It's a tough task to filter" through all the applications, says Infosys CEO S. Gopalakrishnan.
And even as companies continue to ramp up their recruitment, they will have to find ways to retain talent. "It's a universal management challenge," says Jerry Rao, EDS vice-president. At many companies that will mean training programs, work opportunities overseas and the fast track for the best and brightest. Says TCS Executive Vice-President S. Padmanabhan: "Everyone here has a new role in 10 to 12 months."
A few years ago, it would have been unheard of for job recruiters to pay a visit to India's Government Engineering College in Ujjain. The college, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, isn't anywhere near the top of the nation's technical school rankings, and it's not part of the traditional circuit during the job-hunting season. But these days, corporate types are swarming the Government Engineering College campus, and they're starting to pop up in surprising locales at lesser-known schools.
Consider Shreyans Mehta, who joined Tata Consultancy Services last August. The 23-year-old GEC grad had his pick from some of the big names in India's technology sector, including Infosys Technologies and Wipro, but decided to go with TCS, India's largest tech company. "It's a dream come true for me," he says, beaming.
Boom Times
It's certainly a good time to be a young, college-educated techie in India. The country now accounts for 28% of information-technology and outsourcing jobs among 28 developing countries, according to a recent Nasscom-McKinsey report. And it's adding new jobs fast as India builds itself into a global technology-outsourcing hub.
The result: Businesses are whipping themselves into a hiring frenzy. India's Big Three—TCS, Infosys and Wipro—are looking to add a combined 100,000 to their workforce globally. Similarly hungry for talent are giant multinationals such as Cisco Systems, Accenture and IBM, which have been beefing up their India-based software development and services.
Cisco aims to staff its Globalization Center in Bangalore with 4,000 new hires. IBM has announced plans for 100,000 new jobs by 2010, while consulting firm Accenture will add another 8,000 to its head count of 27,000 in the next six months. Electronic Data Systems, which acquired Indian company MphasiS BFL in June 2006, is expected to double its staff of 17,000 software engineers and outsourcing jobs in the next two years. "If you have a business growing 40% year-on-year, boosting manpower is only a given," says Alok Shende, vice-president at research firm Frost and Sullivan.
Hiring Hunt
The competition has become fierce as companies fight over the most qualified college grads. "It has been tough to get people," admits Amitabh Ray, IBM India's vice-president for global delivery application services and consulting.
Corporate recruiters say the process used to be a simple matter of flying to the top colleges and meeting with grads who had the best grade-point averages. Not anymore. "Now we travel by train and rickety three-wheelers to way-out destinations to unearth talent," says a human resource manager at an IT company.
You would think that finding talent in the world's second-most populous nation wouldn't be too hard. An estimated 7 million Indians enter the workforce every year. (In China, it's more than double that, at 18 million.) But there are few engineers among them. That's partly because fewer than 8 million of the country's 200 million students make it through high school, and even fewer finish college. At the nation's 1,200 technical colleges, just 400,000 engineers graduate each year, estimates the National Association of Software & Services Companies, an industry trade body. Among those, only a fourth have the skills to immediately start work at a multinational or major Indian IT firm. Contrast that to 35% of engineers in Malaysia and 50% in Poland and Hungary who can perform the offshore IT jobs that are now migrating to countries where labor costs are low.
Outreach Efforts
Some companies are starting their recruiting efforts early, interviewing college students a year or two before they get a degree. Asha Bhat, 23, who attended Bangalore's Ramayya Engineering College, says that while still in her third year, she went to hear the presentations of visitors from Dell, IBM, EDS, Accenture and i-Flex Solutions before finally choosing IBM.
Other companies are sending managers as guest lecturers or to help educators improve curricula. For instance, Infosys has begun sharing its training manual with some colleges, while TCS sponsors a masters program at IIT Kharagpur in the eastern state of West Bengal. The wealth of new programs has made it an exciting time to be a human resources chief in India. "It's a bit like changing your car wheels when the car is in motion," says Prathik Kumar, executive vice-president of human resources at Wipro Technologies, India's third-largest software exporter.
Even Kumar's boss, Chairman Azim Premji, has been pitching in. Premji says he's been extending his search to more campuses overseas. Premji travels to colleges in the U.S., Japan and Europe, and plans to add Australia to his itinerary soon. "Now it's a huge thing to have the India stint on your resumé," he says.
Application Overload
The downside to such aggressive recruiting is the deluge of job applications. Last year Infosys received 1.3 million, but picked just 26,000, or 2%. "It's a tough task to filter" through all the applications, says Infosys CEO S. Gopalakrishnan.
And even as companies continue to ramp up their recruitment, they will have to find ways to retain talent. "It's a universal management challenge," says Jerry Rao, EDS vice-president. At many companies that will mean training programs, work opportunities overseas and the fast track for the best and brightest. Says TCS Executive Vice-President S. Padmanabhan: "Everyone here has a new role in 10 to 12 months."
Networking Sites - Marketing in the New Age Media
SOCIAL networking is not only for the gum-chewing, game-playing, post-industrial .mp3 generation. It is pervasive and will change the way marketers, media owners, and users interact. Facebook claims 54 million active users. 45% of their users are (age) over 35 LinkedIn has 15 million subscribers and the average user (age) is around 39 Second Life has over 10 million residents, and over $1-million in business was transacted in the last 24 hours. There are more out there like Hi5, Orkut, Bebo vying to be a part of this gigantic virtual gabfest. Social networking sites provide you with the tools to create your online personal profile, stay in touch with your friends, and play games, watch videos, download music, be a pundit, musician, and artist. The sites broadly fall into four categories with differing service goals: Social: Sites like MySpace, and Orkut , primarily created as an online hang-out. The users are there to catch up with their online friends, share music, videos and views. Social+business: Facebook started as a way for Harvard students to stay in touch, but is now being used by professionals to stay in touch with their colleagues and friends. Second Life enables anyone, including businesses, to build their interactive environment, kind of like a 3D website with amazing graphics capability.
Business: Linkedin.com provides professionals a means to stay connected, get answers, and be a passive job-seeker.
Affinity networks: These provide all the collaboration tools of their bigger peers but target users with special interests. E.g. fashion-networks.com provides a networking hub for the apparel industry.
These networks are still is their early adoption phase and sorting out various teething issues like privacy, profitability and so on. So, why should you be interested? India is estimated to have 30 million internet users. A study by JuxtConsult of 10,000 households indicates 22% of users spend over two hours a day online as opposed to just 14%, who spend that amount of time watching TV.
Collaborative networks mark a milestone in New Age Media because: The ability to collaborate, in real-time, with vast groups of like-minded people changes the dynamics of influencer management. Perceptions are no longer shaped by marketing communications, but by what their friends, and friend’s friends say about you. It is the complete democratisation of opinion when you can reach thousands of people at a mouse-click, for free. E.g., a best employer survey is not all that relevant if I can call upon my network of 20,000 LinkedIn friends and friends-of-friends to share their first-hand views of the organi-.
Customer relationship management can never be the same again. Your customers can share tips, views, and cribs in realtime on Facebook. They can do it without you (and probably do), but it would be so much better if you joined that conversation or provided an alternative forum
Conversations are the key to success in this transparent, all-social, all-talking, allsharing world. You cannot engage with your prospects by shouting at them –– it has to be a dialogue, and it has to be in a format that they see value in. The consumer has complete choice to ignore your marketing message. Unlike TV or radio where advertising subsidised the service, these networks are free. So if you have a presence on Second Life, your avatar must wait to be asked for information before it can start selling. Or your visitor will just fly away to the next virtual world.
Collaborative networks are still in their early-adopter phase, and it is a good time to explore the medium and develop expertise. Here are three things that organisations might consider:
- You have to be in it to win it. Just as the early websites were brochureware, you may want to start with a stripped down presence on these sites and then work your way to a more full-fledged option once you are comfortable with the nuances of the medium.
- Engage in conversations, don’t advertise. The key to success is pullmarketing, not push. Offer something ––at least a virtual T-shirt –– to attract people to your site, and once they visit, structure the conversation around their specific interests.
- Be focused. The virtual world is infinite. Be clear about your positioning and whether your primary audience is your employees, potential employees, customers, media or prospects.
- by Jessie Paul, Chief marketing officer, Wipro Technologies
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Newspapers won't perish under cyber threat
While newspaper circulation shows a dip in the West, it is showing an upward trend in Asia
Hey, listen all those who have predicted the demise of print media. Newspapers are not going to be perished under the onslaught of Internet-powered media. Instead, global newspaper circulation is rising, mainly due to the demand in Asia and South America.According to officials at an international newspaper conference, circulation of paid newspapers rose 2.6 per cent worldwide in 2007, with the biggest jump in India and China.According to a report by the World Associated of Newspapers, China is now the largest market for newspapers with 107 million copies sold daily.The study also shows a slump in readership in the US and Europe, where traditional dailies struggle to survive amid free newspapers and web portals.Officials feel that the findings should be a cause of optimism about the industry."They say newspapers and print are dead. Well, I just don't see it," the association's president, Timothy Balding, said at the conference, which was attended by more than 1,800 publishers, editors and other senior newspapers executives at the three-day conference.Newspapers are doing brisk business in Asia, home to 74 of the world's 100 largest-selling dailies. But there's been a decline in readership in the West, with circulation falling three per cent in the US last year and 1.9 per cent in Europe.Over the last five years, circulation has been down eight per cent in the US. The report also said that while newspaper advertising revenue rose in all regions, it showed a downward trend in the US, where it fell three per cent last year.
Online ad revenue up
Internet advertising revenue worldwide increased 32 per cent.Research presented at the conference predicted an increasing shift from print to online media, with the editors are increasingly aware of the need to develop multimedia platforms in order to reach new audiences.People in the industry talk of "1-2-3 filing," which means presenting news alert headline first for breaking news, followed by a short present-tense story mainly for the web and broadcasters, and the third step being adding details and format stories in ways most appropriate for different news platforms.
Is online the emerging media?
A study by Associated Press showed that the news consumption patterns of young adults are different from that of the previous generations."People don't walk out to the driveway to collect their newspaper. They open their e-mail," Jim Kennedy, AP's director of strategic planning, said while presenting the study.The research project also showed that young adults face troubles over being flooded with facts and updates as well as in-depth reports.A worldwide survey of 704 newspaper editors by Zogby International and Reuters showed 44 per cent believed that most people would be reading their news online in 10 years, up from 41 per cent in a similar study last year.A survey of Nordic newspaper editors showed they see free newspapers as their main competitors, followed by the Internet.According to the report, free dailies account for nearly seven per cent of global newspaper circulation and 23 per cent of circulation in Europe.
Hey, listen all those who have predicted the demise of print media. Newspapers are not going to be perished under the onslaught of Internet-powered media. Instead, global newspaper circulation is rising, mainly due to the demand in Asia and South America.According to officials at an international newspaper conference, circulation of paid newspapers rose 2.6 per cent worldwide in 2007, with the biggest jump in India and China.According to a report by the World Associated of Newspapers, China is now the largest market for newspapers with 107 million copies sold daily.The study also shows a slump in readership in the US and Europe, where traditional dailies struggle to survive amid free newspapers and web portals.Officials feel that the findings should be a cause of optimism about the industry."They say newspapers and print are dead. Well, I just don't see it," the association's president, Timothy Balding, said at the conference, which was attended by more than 1,800 publishers, editors and other senior newspapers executives at the three-day conference.Newspapers are doing brisk business in Asia, home to 74 of the world's 100 largest-selling dailies. But there's been a decline in readership in the West, with circulation falling three per cent in the US last year and 1.9 per cent in Europe.Over the last five years, circulation has been down eight per cent in the US. The report also said that while newspaper advertising revenue rose in all regions, it showed a downward trend in the US, where it fell three per cent last year.
Online ad revenue up
Internet advertising revenue worldwide increased 32 per cent.Research presented at the conference predicted an increasing shift from print to online media, with the editors are increasingly aware of the need to develop multimedia platforms in order to reach new audiences.People in the industry talk of "1-2-3 filing," which means presenting news alert headline first for breaking news, followed by a short present-tense story mainly for the web and broadcasters, and the third step being adding details and format stories in ways most appropriate for different news platforms.
Is online the emerging media?
A study by Associated Press showed that the news consumption patterns of young adults are different from that of the previous generations."People don't walk out to the driveway to collect their newspaper. They open their e-mail," Jim Kennedy, AP's director of strategic planning, said while presenting the study.The research project also showed that young adults face troubles over being flooded with facts and updates as well as in-depth reports.A worldwide survey of 704 newspaper editors by Zogby International and Reuters showed 44 per cent believed that most people would be reading their news online in 10 years, up from 41 per cent in a similar study last year.A survey of Nordic newspaper editors showed they see free newspapers as their main competitors, followed by the Internet.According to the report, free dailies account for nearly seven per cent of global newspaper circulation and 23 per cent of circulation in Europe.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Recruitment is of the most crucial roles of the human resource professionals
The level of performance of and organisation depends on the effectiveness of its recruitment function. Organisations have developed and follow recruitment strategies to hire the best talent for their organisation and to utilize their resources optimally. A successful recruitment strategy should be well planned and practical to attract more and good talent to apply in the organisation.
For formulating an effective and successful recruitment strategy, the strategy should cover the following elements:
1. Identifying and prioritizing jobs - Requirements keep arising at various levels in every organisation; it is almost a never-ending process. It is impossible to fill all the positions immediately. Therefore, there is a need to identify the positions requiring immediate attention and action. To maintain the quality of the recruitment activities, it is useful to prioritize the vacancies whether to focus on all vacancies equally or focusing on key jobs first.
2. Candidates to target - The recruitment process can be effective only if the organisation completely understands the requirements of the type of candidates that are required and will be beneficial for the organisation. This covers the following parameters as well:
o Performance level required - Different strategies are required for focusing on hiring high performers and average performers.
o Experience level required - the strategy should be clear as to what is the experience level required by the organisation. The candidate’s experience can range from being a fresher to experienced senior professionals.
o Category of the candidate - the strategy should clearly define the target candidate. He/she can be from the same industry, different industry, unemployed, top performers of the industry etc.
3. Sources of recruitment - The strategy should define various sources (external and internal) of recruitment. Which are the sources to be used and focused for the recruitment purposes for various positions. Employee referral is one of the most effective sources of recruitment.
4. Trained recruiters - The recruitment professionals conducting the interviews and the other recruitment activities should be well-trained and experienced to conduct the activities. They should also be aware of the major parameters and skills (e.g.: behavioural, technical etc.) to focus while interviewing and selecting a candidate.
5. How to evaluate the candidates - The various parameters and the ways to judge them i.e. the entire recruitment process should be planned in advance. Like the rounds of technical interviews, HR interviews, written tests, psychometric tests etc.
For formulating an effective and successful recruitment strategy, the strategy should cover the following elements:
1. Identifying and prioritizing jobs - Requirements keep arising at various levels in every organisation; it is almost a never-ending process. It is impossible to fill all the positions immediately. Therefore, there is a need to identify the positions requiring immediate attention and action. To maintain the quality of the recruitment activities, it is useful to prioritize the vacancies whether to focus on all vacancies equally or focusing on key jobs first.
2. Candidates to target - The recruitment process can be effective only if the organisation completely understands the requirements of the type of candidates that are required and will be beneficial for the organisation. This covers the following parameters as well:
o Performance level required - Different strategies are required for focusing on hiring high performers and average performers.
o Experience level required - the strategy should be clear as to what is the experience level required by the organisation. The candidate’s experience can range from being a fresher to experienced senior professionals.
o Category of the candidate - the strategy should clearly define the target candidate. He/she can be from the same industry, different industry, unemployed, top performers of the industry etc.
3. Sources of recruitment - The strategy should define various sources (external and internal) of recruitment. Which are the sources to be used and focused for the recruitment purposes for various positions. Employee referral is one of the most effective sources of recruitment.
4. Trained recruiters - The recruitment professionals conducting the interviews and the other recruitment activities should be well-trained and experienced to conduct the activities. They should also be aware of the major parameters and skills (e.g.: behavioural, technical etc.) to focus while interviewing and selecting a candidate.
5. How to evaluate the candidates - The various parameters and the ways to judge them i.e. the entire recruitment process should be planned in advance. Like the rounds of technical interviews, HR interviews, written tests, psychometric tests etc.
Job sites' share in lateral hiring remains stagnant
Companies say referrals a better option.
Reasons citedJob sites are not updated regularly and hence there is no real increase in the number of registered candidates in the database.Companies feel new talent is not being registered at the job site and look at other channels for their requirement.
The share of third party job sites in lateral hiring has remained stagnant between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of total lateral hiring, according to large information technology companies.
"Contribution from job sites has remained at about 20 per cent over the last two years," says Mr Achuthan Nair, Vice President - Resourcing, Wipro Technologies. He attributes this to a better understanding of hiring costs.
Two large IT companies that did not wish to be named said they had not seen any rise in contribution from job sites.
Mr T. Sridhar, Senior Vice-President, Cognizant Technology Solutions, says there has been a marginal dip in the resumes sourced from job sites. "Jobsites are not updated regularly and hence there is no real increase in the number of registered candidates in the database," he says.
Mr Ambarish Raghuvanshi, Chief Financial Officer, Naukri.com, says despite the stagnant 20 per cent contribution, demand for hiring from job sites has not diminished. "We get about 3,000 resumes a day (more than past daily averages) for jobs in IT services companies," he says.
IT majors do not expect sourcing from third party Web sites to increase in future. But they are buoyant about employee referrals.
In most companies, over 50 per cent of lateral hiring (about 25 per cent of total hiring) is through referrals.
Of the 11,000 people hired by Wipro Technologies in the last six months, 16 per cent was through referrals.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has hired 1,920 of the 16,000 people this year through referrals.
Though referrals contribute less than 1.5 per cent of lateral hiring, Mr Shantanu Dhar, Deputy General Manager - Human Resources, HCL Technologies, says the company plans to increase this percentage and will hire about 1,100 employees through referrals this year.
Referrals provide candidates with right skills and experience. Referred applications are processed within 30 days while regular applications take 60-90 days, say sources. Processing costs are reduced by at least 12 per cent, say senior consultants in industry.
Companies are encouraging referrals by compensating employees for every referred candidate hired. Cognizant pays between Rs 5,000 and Rs 50,000 per candidate depending on the level at which the referral is made.
Infosys Technologies has reward mechanisms to suit referrals at different levels and TCS has a `Buddy Lao' (Bring a buddy) scheme.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
What makes you tick?
“When the heart of a man decides on a destination, his mind will design the map to get him there“
You might be wondering why you need to know what you want in life. Well… nothing comes by chance in life. You need to have a clear picture of where you are going. If you don’t have a clear picture of what you have in life, you will only settle for just anything that comes your way. Everything will be attractive to you and you will always say yes to every opportunity that comes your way.
The story of Neil Armstrong has been told times without number. He stood and looked at the moon and he said to his mother, ‘One day I’m going to go there’. Everybody laughed. He was less than 10 years old and there he was telling people that one day he’d go to the moon. I could imagine what kind of rejections he would have received from people. Many would have told him to forget about it, as space travel didn’t exist at that time never mind traveling to the moon.
Motto:
DREAM, PLAN, PREPARE, PERFORM, PERSIST…
How to work towards achieving the goal?
Developing a vision
Communicating
Setting goals
Setting priorities
Developing a work plan – right plan of action
Setting performance expectations
Managing performance
Preparing financial and progress reports
What the team should have?
§ Teamwork is vital for success of any organizationBelieve in “none of us is as good as all of us”
"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships." --Michael Jordan
§ Enthusiastic - Enthusiasm is infectious and spreads through the team, increasing the energy level and creativity.
§ Has a "can do" attitude.
§ Commitment
§ Competence
§ Creative innovation
§ Co-ordination
§ Confidence
You might be wondering why you need to know what you want in life. Well… nothing comes by chance in life. You need to have a clear picture of where you are going. If you don’t have a clear picture of what you have in life, you will only settle for just anything that comes your way. Everything will be attractive to you and you will always say yes to every opportunity that comes your way.
The story of Neil Armstrong has been told times without number. He stood and looked at the moon and he said to his mother, ‘One day I’m going to go there’. Everybody laughed. He was less than 10 years old and there he was telling people that one day he’d go to the moon. I could imagine what kind of rejections he would have received from people. Many would have told him to forget about it, as space travel didn’t exist at that time never mind traveling to the moon.
Motto:
DREAM, PLAN, PREPARE, PERFORM, PERSIST…
How to work towards achieving the goal?
Developing a vision
Communicating
Setting goals
Setting priorities
Developing a work plan – right plan of action
Setting performance expectations
Managing performance
Preparing financial and progress reports
What the team should have?
§ Teamwork is vital for success of any organizationBelieve in “none of us is as good as all of us”
"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships." --Michael Jordan
§ Enthusiastic - Enthusiasm is infectious and spreads through the team, increasing the energy level and creativity.
§ Has a "can do" attitude.
§ Commitment
§ Competence
§ Creative innovation
§ Co-ordination
§ Confidence
Social Networking in India
Social networking in India is growing and how. According to a report by IAMAI, of the total Internet user base of over 23 million in India, 8-9 per cent of users were active on social networking sites, with Orkut (having significant user base from India) making it to the Top 10 most recalled brands among Internet users in the world.
According to a report released by eMarketer on the 2007 ad spending on social networking sites, non-US spending was $335 million and by 2010 this figure is expected to rise to $970 million. There is no definite figure forthcoming on India’s contribution to this non-US spending figure. Industry experts felt there were several constraints in terms of usage deterring the influx of ad revenues in the social networking domain.
On the competition side, some Indian sites like Fropper.com, Desimartini.com, Yo4ya.com, and others are already vying to grab a larger share of the online user base in India. These sites are likely to give the likes of Orkut, Youtube, Facebook, Myspace and other popular international websites a run for their money in years to come.
Given the nascent stage of this new medium, a few Indian websites are focusing on providing user-friendly applications. Fropper.com features ‘easy blogs’ to attract new users and build communities around them, while for advertising, Microsoft recently launched Sponsored Spaces on Windows Live Spaces as one of their new ad platforms. The company boasts of an ‘easy-to-buy, easy-to-sell’ approach that it brings to its advertising solutions.
However, the general belief among advertisers in the online business is that the Web is just a new medium with a lot of buzz, and that it has no such potential to replace or affect the existence of any of the traditional media like the television, radio and print.
Roadblocks to advertising on social networking Rajnish, Head of Sales and Marketing, MSN India, said that the stability aspect of the users was a major hurdle. He added, “Currently, users are moving from site to site, and there is not much stickiness seen in their usage pattern. Until the user base becomes more stable and mature, it will be harder for advertisers to target a specific audience and thus, monetisation of content for the bloggers will take some time to kick off.”
Navin Mittal, Head, Fropper.com, pointed out that advertisers were averse to investing on social networks as Internet in India was still low in usage. Another problem deterring ads on social networking sites is that there are very few professional bloggers who blog for a living in India. It also becomes difficult for Indian bloggers to earn over the Net as the foundation has to be set in terms of creating a fan following via whatever work they do on the social networking sites.
Rehan Khan, Founder, Yo4ya.com, said that in the initial stages of the business, most websites concentrated on quality content by getting more users, engaging and binding them together in a community so that they could produce far better content on the Internet. “Advertising is secondary because until you have quality content that gets in more readership, there is no question of advertisers knocking at your door,” he added.
Split-up ratio among users and service providers The general ratio of users and services providers is 50:50. There have been a few entrants in the market such as Weblo.com, which deals in selling profiles and cities for real cash. The company plans to give 66 cents for every 10,000 impressions, and $10 for every 1,000 impressions once one crosses the 10,000 barrier.
However, Rajnish has a different view on this. He said, “It’s hard to say what the ratio would be in terms of revenue generation right now as we are yet to reach that level of functioning.”
Effect on existing models Experts believe that existing models of advertising in India are undergoing a change with growth of the online medium. Moreover, with the introduction of newer online technologies and services, the trend, which is spotted by the industry players, is that traditional models of advertising are slowly and gradually diminishing in terms of value proposition. The fact remains that advertising on social networks is more or less aligned with online advertising, and with most online advertising offering greater degree of personalisation, future looks only bright and promising for advertisers and also for the bloggers who can earn and gain popularity at the same time
According to a report released by eMarketer on the 2007 ad spending on social networking sites, non-US spending was $335 million and by 2010 this figure is expected to rise to $970 million. There is no definite figure forthcoming on India’s contribution to this non-US spending figure. Industry experts felt there were several constraints in terms of usage deterring the influx of ad revenues in the social networking domain.
On the competition side, some Indian sites like Fropper.com, Desimartini.com, Yo4ya.com, and others are already vying to grab a larger share of the online user base in India. These sites are likely to give the likes of Orkut, Youtube, Facebook, Myspace and other popular international websites a run for their money in years to come.
Given the nascent stage of this new medium, a few Indian websites are focusing on providing user-friendly applications. Fropper.com features ‘easy blogs’ to attract new users and build communities around them, while for advertising, Microsoft recently launched Sponsored Spaces on Windows Live Spaces as one of their new ad platforms. The company boasts of an ‘easy-to-buy, easy-to-sell’ approach that it brings to its advertising solutions.
However, the general belief among advertisers in the online business is that the Web is just a new medium with a lot of buzz, and that it has no such potential to replace or affect the existence of any of the traditional media like the television, radio and print.
Roadblocks to advertising on social networking Rajnish, Head of Sales and Marketing, MSN India, said that the stability aspect of the users was a major hurdle. He added, “Currently, users are moving from site to site, and there is not much stickiness seen in their usage pattern. Until the user base becomes more stable and mature, it will be harder for advertisers to target a specific audience and thus, monetisation of content for the bloggers will take some time to kick off.”
Navin Mittal, Head, Fropper.com, pointed out that advertisers were averse to investing on social networks as Internet in India was still low in usage. Another problem deterring ads on social networking sites is that there are very few professional bloggers who blog for a living in India. It also becomes difficult for Indian bloggers to earn over the Net as the foundation has to be set in terms of creating a fan following via whatever work they do on the social networking sites.
Rehan Khan, Founder, Yo4ya.com, said that in the initial stages of the business, most websites concentrated on quality content by getting more users, engaging and binding them together in a community so that they could produce far better content on the Internet. “Advertising is secondary because until you have quality content that gets in more readership, there is no question of advertisers knocking at your door,” he added.
Split-up ratio among users and service providers The general ratio of users and services providers is 50:50. There have been a few entrants in the market such as Weblo.com, which deals in selling profiles and cities for real cash. The company plans to give 66 cents for every 10,000 impressions, and $10 for every 1,000 impressions once one crosses the 10,000 barrier.
However, Rajnish has a different view on this. He said, “It’s hard to say what the ratio would be in terms of revenue generation right now as we are yet to reach that level of functioning.”
Effect on existing models Experts believe that existing models of advertising in India are undergoing a change with growth of the online medium. Moreover, with the introduction of newer online technologies and services, the trend, which is spotted by the industry players, is that traditional models of advertising are slowly and gradually diminishing in terms of value proposition. The fact remains that advertising on social networks is more or less aligned with online advertising, and with most online advertising offering greater degree of personalisation, future looks only bright and promising for advertisers and also for the bloggers who can earn and gain popularity at the same time
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