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H R BULLETIN VOLUME 41
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HR BULLETIN
Enable every employee to be a leader Decoding the recipe for successful leadership development in the era of Covid19 Over the past year, norms entrenched in business operations were disrupted, business leaders were forced to make decisions on-the-go, without any toolkits, handbooks and best practices that they could turn to.
While many creative solutions have come to the fore in the process, organizations need to have a concerted effort to develop their workforces into becoming agile leaders responsible for progress. In an exclusive session with HR leader Deepti Varma, HR Director, APAC and Middle East, Amazon Corporate spoke about how Amazon helped leaders and employees hone their leadership skills over the past year. How has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted leaders and managers? Experts and research studies suggest that other than people who have been laid off, middle managers have felt
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the maximum pressure over the past year. In most industries, they have had to take pay cuts, decide on which team members should be let go, and they worked hard to keep their teams productive and engaged while working from home. Jacob Hirsh, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, says, “This is a period of great uncertainty. As managers, you aren’t sure what you’re supposed to do and how you’re supposed to do it.” Managers and leaders have been asked to walk the extra mile without really being told how to do it or supporting them through the process. So, while they have been made responsible for the wellbeing of their teams, their own wellbeing has taken a backseat. How to enable effective leadership: The Amazon approach At Amazon, the company took a two-pronged approach to help managers and leaders deal with the changes in the Covid-era: Self-organized teams Given the increase in their role and scope, managers took a step back from their day-to-day operations and responsibilities that were well-established and documented. Teams were allowed to set their own goals, monitor their own performance, and undertake collective decision-making as well. Although implemented in a part of the organization, this model helped alleviate stress levels and improve individual performance. It reduced the burden of decision-making from one individual, thus helping team members navigate challenges independently. Unsurprisingly, the culture and conversation in these teams also improved, as everyone felt more represented and responsible. To clarify, this is not to suggest that the manager's role was done away with. The company focused on simply diverting their skills, time, and attention to creating the most fulfilling experiences for their team members. By not being held back by daily reports and mechanical tasks, managers felt more empowered to look after their teams, and, as a result, productivity across all roles went up significantly. Building new-age leadership skills and competencies Alongside reducing the pressure, the focus was on new-age skill building as well. Here are the top priorities: Agility: The goal is to help leaders undertake quick decisions and navigate uncharted challenges with confidence. Agility today means going beyond reacting to challenges and foreseeing them to find solutions in advance. Empathy: If there’s one thing leaders consistently fail at, it is at being empathetic, and it is all the more difficult to gauge the body language and tone of the conversation on video calls. So simply recognizing the effort, sending appreciatory emails, and understanding what people in the team are going through has never been more important. Build a culture for leaders to be empathic and to support their teams. Ability to learn and change: ‘Learn and Be Curious’ is one of the defining mottos of Amazon, and we supported all our leaders in unlearning redundant knowledge, getting up to speed to new changes, and being open to making them permanent. The pandemic has demonstrated that..
Read more at: https://www.peoplematters.in/article/talent-management/leadercampenable-every-employee-to-be-a-leader-29056
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Lenovo appoints new CHRO for India Bhavya Misra will be responsible for driving all HR practices across the three business groups for Lenovo India. Lenovo announced the appointment of Bhavya Misra as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for India. She will be based out of Bengaluru and will be responsible for leading HR for the India business. Subhankar Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director & Head HR - Asia Pacific said, “I am delighted to welcome Bhavya in this new role at Lenovo where she will lead Lenovo India’s People Strategy on our transforming journey from a global devices company to a technology leader in global devices + solutions, services, and software. Bhavya joins Lenovo especially at a time when Lenovo India employees have demonstrated high workforce resilience and teamwork to build a stronger organization during covid. I am confident that her rich experience will strengthen Lenovo’s HR goals for India and elevate the people's experience during these difficult times when HR as a function has taken a leadership role in navigating the pandemic. I wish her good luck and success on this new endeavor.” Bhavya brings in 13+ years of seasoned experience from PepsiCo and Bharti Walmart. In her last role in PepsiCo, she was the HR Business Partner for Commercial, Finance, and IT for Africa, Middle East, and South Asia. On her appointment, Bhavya said, “I am really looking forward to this opportunity. Lenovo is in an exciting space that is constantly growing and transforming. This is a winning team and I aim to use my expertise to partner with the business and create an impactful people strategy and talent programs. The HR team has been doing some great work in these challenging times and we will continue to put employees at the center of everything we do. I hope to contribute meaningfully to the success of Lenovo and its vision for Smarter Technology For All.” With over 13+ years of experience, Bhavya has worked with a wide variety of HR & talent function..
Read more at: https://www.peoplematters.in/news/c-suite/lenovo-appointsnew-chro-for-india-29046
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LTI appoints new Chief Financial Officer Anil Rander brings multifaceted financial leadership experience to the company, with more than 27 years of experience. Larsen & Toubro Infotech, a global technology consulting and digital solutions company has appointed Anil Rander as its Chief Financial Officer. Sanjay Jalona, CEO & Managing Director, LTI, said “The role of CFO is evolving rapidly, and I am pleased to welcome Anil to our leadership team at this critical juncture in our journey. His financial leadership and business acumen will enable us to chart the next phase of growth for LTI. We remain committed to pushing industry benchmarks on business excellence.” Anil joins LTI from Tech Mahindra where he was the Senior Vice President for Finance and Legal functions and Global Head of Finance for BPS. Before this role, Anil was with Hutchison Max Telecom Ltd where he looked after management accounting. His other stints have been with Alpic Finance and A.F. Ferguson & Co. Anil is a Chartered Account, Cost Accountant and a Company Secretary. He has won multiple industry accolades for outstanding contributions during his illustrious career. He will be based out of LTI’s headquarter in Mumbai, India. He is a seasoned finance leader with more than 27 years of multifaceted experience in driving business performance and growth. His expertise ranges across business and financial strategy formulation, fiscal management, corporate accounting, investor relations, pricing, risk management, internal audit, and financial controls.
Read more at: https://www.peoplematters.in/news/c-suite/lti-appoints-newchief-financial-officer-29052
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Atlassian to hire 1,000 employees globally As a cloud-first company off to a good start in fiscal 2021- maker of popular workplace collaboration and productivity tools like Jira and Confluence - Atlassian has announced plans to hire 1,000 employees globally, with 300 R&D engineers in India to scale operations of the R&D and customer service center in Bengaluru. A leading provider of collaboration and productivity software, Atlassian Corporation has announced plans to hire 1,000 employees globally as part of a major recruitment drive in 2021. Atlassian is the maker of popular workplace tools including Jira, Confluence, BitBucket and Trello. “The company has indicated plans to hire a number of front-end and back-end engineers, along with 300 R&D engineers in India in the upcoming year”. Atlassian presently has an employee base of 700, and is looking to scale its operations at its R&D and customer center in Bengaluru, which happens to be Atlassian’s fastest growing R&D site ever since its launch in 2018. Recognized for its thoughtful endeavors to foster a culture of openness and transparency, Atlassian is a strong advocate on how the future of work will reshape workplaces, practices, and policies. Addressing the evolving employee needs in today’s context, the company recently unveiled a host of benefits, employee-first policies, and resources to support the personal and professional growth of its employees globally. Atlassian is also providing all employees with an allowance of $US500 to enable an effective WFH environment, in addition to its existing perks and benefits. Additionally, providing employees with an opportunity to give back to the community, the company offers five days paid foundation leave every year, to volunteer at a charity of their preference. The company has made significant investments in updating its hiring practices. A company statement said, “With respect to hiring, the Candidate Assessment Framework of Atlassian has enabled global consistency to the assessment and selection process for their candidates, interviewers and hiring managers' experience in the crafts they apply..
Read more at: https://www.peoplematters.in/news/recruitment/atlassian-tohire-1000-employees-globally-29053
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Infosys looking to onboard 25,000 campus hires in FY22 Infosys gears up for a global campus hiring spree amid a brewing talent war in the sector. Despite the hiring freeze and slowdown on account of the pandemic, software giant Infosys hired 21,000 individuals from campuses across the globe, during the last financial year. The company is planning to take the number further up to 25,000 this year. The announcement comes as Infosys gears up for the upcoming talent war as firms compete for the best talent to scale performance and outpace the lingering challenges from the previous year. In addition to hiring efforts, Infosys has also announced pay hikes from July. Net hires for Infosys stood at 10,309 in the last quarter, and 17,248 in the previous financial year. In a recent conference, the company reported an attrition rate of 15.2 per cent at the end of the March quarter, a sharp spike from 10 per cent in the previous quarter. The spike comes despite the company undertaking a pay hike in January. CEO Salil Parekh in a recent analysts conference hinted towards a brewing talent war in the IT/ITES industry due to high demand for work and limited availability of skilled workers. “Attrition has picked up, largely reflecting a strong demand environment, but we remain confident of our employee engagement initiatives, vast talent pool and training capabilities to ensure seamless execution,” said Chief Operating Officer Pravin Rao”.
Infosys guided for a consolidated operating margin of 22-24 per cent, suggesting that it expects some pressure on profitability owing to the higher spend on talent retention and pay hikes. In 2020-21, the company reported consolidated operating margin of 24.5 per cent..
Read more at: https://www.peoplematters.in/news/campus-recruitment/infosyslooking-to-onboard-25000-campus-hires-in-fy22-29055
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