Five ways to deal with a poor appraisal

Bad appraisals, like bad hair days, happen to the best of us. Quitting is not a solution. Rather, take a good look at your performance and concentrate on the course ahead.

Look Within: The first step in dealing with a bad appraisal is to keep an honest mindset and introspect about your performance. "First ask yourself the question: 'What is wrong with me?'. Once you attack that, other things usually fall into place," says Dabur India HR head A Sudhakar.

Talk to the Boss: Speak to the boss about the performance review. "There is a good chance your boss may not have remembered critical activities and initiatives you have undertaken," says Meenakshi Roy, senior vice president, human resource, Reliance Broadcast Network.

Take it in your Stride: There is a good chance that your boss' critical evaluation is spot on. "Try never to take these critiques personally and quit. That may be your biggest mistake. Consider consulting another senior colleague or a mentor," says Roy.

Plan Ahead: "Be actively involved in setting your targets for the year ahead based on your strengths," says S Roy, a midlevel manager in an IT firm . Also, periodically review your performance with your boss. That way, there will be fewer unpleasant surprises.

Move on Gracefully: At times, reasons not connected with your performance affect the appraisal you deserve. "You can bring up the issue with your bosses. But if nothing comes of it, it's time to move on," says Sudhakar. But don't make an ugly exit. "You never know when it can come back to haunt you," he adds.

Source : Economic Times

No gloom here, job-seekers are having a field day

The India story remains robust, as far as human resources go.

The local recruitment and human resource (HR) services industry will post a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 20% in the next five years, says a report by the Executive Recruiters Association (ERA) in association with global consulting firm Ernst & Young (E&Y).

The sectoral size will race to the `55,700 crore milestone, given the rapid growth of the market from a highly fragmented and unorganised sector to a structured and organised industry.

The industry size currently stands at `22,800 crore, dominated by talent acquisition in the form of recruitment, temporary staffing and executive search. The best part is it has been growing at a CAGR of 21% for the last four years — from 2008 to 2011.

Vipul Varma, chairman, ERA, thinks that HR services and recruitment have come of age and may see a wave of consolidation with the entry of multi-national companies (MNCs) and emergence of new models like recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and managed services.

“HR consultants are now increasingly being viewed as partners in an organisation’s growth strategy rather than just being vendors.
The search market is growing on the back of expansion and diversification plans by domestic and international companies across sectors. This apart, recruitment as a practice is evolving from an unstructured and fragmented ecosystem to players adopting new norms of productivity and efficiency,” said Verma, while marking out key industry growth drivers. ERA is a non-profit chamber of commerce representing Indian executive recruitment consulting firms.

The report also highlighted that more and more companies are pouring into the temporary staff model due to growing business complexity and talent challenges. This approach allows them to go for smaller bench strength to tackle mounting global economic uncertainties.

Amit Zutshi, partner, Ernst & Young Transaction Advisory Services practice, offers some useful insights. He is of the opinion that the Indian economic, social and cultural landscape is in an unprecedented state of flux.
“The need for solutions for complex problems of growth, innovation, and professionalisation is driving the opportunity for the HR solutions industry in a way that has never been seen before,” said Zutshi.

Coming to the professional staffing market in India, IT and engineering sectors, along with increased staffing, may play a decisive role, moving forward. Growth in key user industries such as retail, ITeS and telecom, and large companies shifting to the organised space are likely to add momentum to general staffing.

Reeling off some statistics, Bijou Kurien, president and chief executive, Lifestyle, Reliance Retail, said: “The $450 billion Indian retail sector employs 35 million people across traditional and modern retail. Retail is the second-largest employment generator after agriculture sector and modern trade will create 18 million new jobs by 2022. Approximately, 75% of these people will be required in the front end.”

Pradeep Dhar, CMD, Vitasta Consulting Pvt, feels temporary staffing is getting bigger especially with IT, ITeS and a few other services industries like hotels, food and catering businesses.

“The phenomenon is huge with information technology and IT enabled services as the requirements there are very huge, given the kind of attrition levels at these companies,”said Dhar.

Payroll outsourcing is also picking up big time with domestic and international companies operating in India as it’s considered a complex and non-core activity. The other notable aspect here is attrition. While players in the IT industry put it at 12-13%, the figure actually tends to go up to as high as 20%. Of the whole lot, RPO has been identified as an emerging concept in the Indian recruitment and HR services industry.

Source : DNAINDIA

Before taking new job, exit gracefully

In case you have recently got a job offer, make sure you collect your relieving letter before you join the company. Also, do not take your exit interview for granted, says a recent survey by TeamLease Services, a recruitment firm. The survey revealed that 92 per cent of the employees and managements across all industries take exit policies seriously. The survey also shows that while recruiting, over 90 per cent of the companies stress on a relieving letter.

The study, called ‘Impactful Exits’ surveyed around 800 people across eight cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

“Employees are recognizing that the labour markets are small and ungraceful exits come back with compound interest later. Adherence to a professional and clean exit is increasingly being witnessed in the work force today. But we don’t anticipate relieving certificates becoming a deal breaker for new employers until the skill crisis eases,” said Surabhi Mathur Gandhi, senior vice-president, IT Sourcing, TeamLease Services.

The objective of the research was to understand the employees’ seriousness about the exit process and assessing the processes at various companies. The study aimed to evaluate the importance of having the exit policy in place and its impact. As far as the city-specific figures are concerned, 99 per cent of employees in Chennai and Bengaluru take the exit policy seriously. In Kolkata and Ahmedabad, the figure is 95 per cent, followed by Pune with 94 per cent. Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai stand at 92, 89 and 85 per cent respectively.

Apurva Sanaria, group director (HR & OD), IMRB International, said quit a firm for various reasons and exit interview plays a crucial role in understanding those reasons. “With job-hopping becoming a trend, it is important to retain good staff. At the same time, you get relevant inputs about an employee’s reason for leaving only during the exit interview.” Sanaria said at IMRB, as a company policy, a candidate cannot be given the appointment letter until he presents the relieving letter from his last firm.

TCS officials say the firm follows the exit procedure quite seriously. Bhushan Surve, assistant manager (HR), TCS, said, “Depending upon the reason stated by the employee, the HR can offer him/her options and retain the employee.”

The study also says that barring eight per cent of companies that conduct exit interviews online, most prefer a face-to-face interaction. In Pune, 71 per cent exit interviews are conducted manually, five per cent online and 24 per cent firms follow both. The survey points out that the top two reasons for a person leaving the company are growth opportunities and higher salaries.

Gautam Bhatara, who recently joined Reebok as area sales manager for Maharashtra and Goa after working for over three years at Tata Capital Ltd, has a different opinion about exit interviews and relieving letters. He feels that for many companies, exit interviews are a mere formality. “Not all companies are rigid about relieving letter. Some are willing to give a prospective employee extra time,” adds Bhatara, who made the switch as he wanted to shift from a finance-based company to a product-based one.

Source : INDIAN EXPRESS

Govt proposes job opportunities to prevent trafficking

The Ranchi district administration today proposed to explore job opportunities for the unemployed in the retail sector with an aim to prevent trafficking of innocent persons, who often fall in the trap of middlemen.

"We would like to use human resource by way of providing them employment. We can explore job (opportunities) in the retail sector," Deputy Commissioner K K Sone said during felicitation of 16 girls, who were trained as "house managers for hotels" after being rescued from the clutches traffickers.

Lauding efforts by Action against Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Women (ASTEC) in the rescue of trafficked girls and rehabilitating them, Sone assured additional funds if the youth were trained in other skills.

Echoing Sone's proposal, Jharkhand police chief G S Rath said Chamber of Commerce and Industries could be requested if employment could be generated in the retail sector, and efforts should also be made to explore opportunities in the health sector.

Terming trafficking as a horrible crime, Rath stressed on prevention and prosecution of trafficking while protecting and rehabilitating of the rescued persons.

Stating that Ranchi district was included in the Integrated Action Plan, Sone assured additional funds, provided the youth were imparted in training that would help them find their livelihood.

Referring to some rescued girls being trained as security guards and got postings in Kasturba Gandhi Residential School, Sone said the security guards were asked to pursue studies simultaneously so that they could move ahead on the ladder of success.

"We have told the girls (security guards) to teach other girls on self-defence skills so that the children can defend themselves," he said.

The ASTEC's Convener, Sanjay Kumar Mishra, said, 253 rescued girls were recruited as security guards in schools and private companies in the last few years.

Source : INDIAN EXPRESS

Why women do better than men in job interviews

Women, although typically more stressed about interviewing, perform better than their male counterparts in job interviews because they handle stress better than guys, say researchers.

That is the finding of new research by three University of Western Ontario researchers who looked at how men and women handled the stresses of job interviews.

“We conducted two different studies,” Live Science quoted JustinFeeney, a doctoral student who participated on the research team, as tellingBusinessNewsDaily.

Feeney conducted the research with Julie McCarthy, a professor at theRotman School of Management, Richard Goffin, professor of industrial psychology, all of the University of Western Ontario.

“The first one examined the effects of job interview anxiety on job interview performance and we confirmed previous research that interview anxiety is a negative predictor of performance. Then what we looked at was whether gender influenced these findings. We found that even though women experienced more interview anxiety than men, it didn’t affect their performance as much as it did for men. We were curious of why that was,”Feeney stated.

That curiosity drove the researchers to look further into why there was a difference between men and women in interviews.To determine this, the researchers conducted simulated interviews in more than 400 students at the university to see the coping mechanisms those students employed.

“We tailored an instrument that measured coping styles of men and women in interviews and what we found was women adapted more proactively than did men,” Feeney said.

“They would do things like seek social support from loved ones, friends and colleagues about their anxiety and do practical things like practicing mock interviews with their friends. Men, on the other hand, reacted with more maladaptive coping strategies. They would pretend it was not happening, ignore it, watch TV and do things that relieved stress, but hindered performance later,” he explained.

While the findings of this research may be useful for interviewees, they also have significance for businesses looking to hire.Since businesses also have a lot to lose by hiring the wrong person, Feeney warns businesses not to simply look to the interview as the ultimate predictor of future success or failure.

“Research is showing that anxiety actually impairs the validity of the instrument. You will actually end up making poor hiring decisions as a result of anxiety,” noted Feeney.

“Based on the current research, I would suggest really practically focusing on how to improve their performance. Practice mock interviews and read books on interviews so you can increase your self-efficacy. Talk to friends and family about the interview and how to deal with the anxiety,” Feeneyconcluded.

Source : DNAINDIA

Boom time for R&D

With global companies shifting their R&D base to India to achieve greater cost-efficiency and domestic firms increasing their spending on these activities, experts feel hiring in the segment will increase by up to 20 per cent in 2012 vis-a-vis the current year.

“Total global spending on research and development (R&D) is anticipated to increase by 3.6 per cent. With this, the momentum in the hiring has gone up”, says Elixir Consulting Executive Director Kanika Vaswani.
“With India becoming a destination of choice due to its cost-competitiveness, hiring by multinational companies is at an all-time high. There is a talent war for engineers and technical professionals”, she said.

The country is an emerging destination for auto R&D, with companies like Renault-Nissan, Maruti Suzuki and Honda pressing ahead with plans to set up centres in 2011 and 2012. In addition, pharmaceuticals and auto R&D have been hiring steadily, while other segments like defence recently increased hiring, she said.

Talking about pay packages, she said in the R&D space, pharma and defence are the better-paying sectors.
Echoing the view, Executive Search Firm Symbiosis Management Consultants CEO Vinay Grover said R&D is witnessing large investment not only by MNCs, but domestic players as well.

"India, positioned as a land with plenty of talent pool at a low cost, has gained the attention of MNCs. In domestic companies, pharma and automobile have realised that in their ambition to globalise their operations, they have no recourse but to spend on R&D," he said.

Despite the lull in hiring in most sectors, R&D recruitment is on an upward trajectory and is expected to increase by 15-20 per cent in 2012, he added.

The positive trend in R&D hiring started picking up in 2010 and peaked in 2011 and is expected to continue through 2012, he said.

"The hiring is on at all levels - junior, middle and senior. There are a lot of positions available at the levels of technology manager and programme manager that can go to the level of director," he said, adding that IT and healthcare are among the highest paying sectors for R&D professionals. — PTI

Source : TRIBUNE INDIA

Write the right resume

Getting ready to prepare that all-important resume? Well, the Daily Writing Tips website has a few suggestions to make your task easier.

Know the purpose of your resume
Some people write a resume as if the purpose of the document was to land a job. As a result they end up with a really long and boring piece that makes them look like desperate job hunters. The objective of your resume is to land an interview, and the interview will land you the job (hopefully!).

Back up your qualities and strengths
Instead of creating a long (and boring) list with all your qualities (eg, disciplined, creative, problem solver), try to connect them with real life and work experiences. In other words, you need to back these qualities and strengths up, or else it will appear that you are just trying to inflate things.

Make sure to use the right keywords
Most companies (even smaller ones) are already using digital databases to search for candidates. This means that the HR department will run search queries based on specific keywords.

Guess what, if your resume doesn’t have the keywords related to the job you are applying for, you will be out even before the game starts. These keywords will usually be nouns. Check the job description and related job ads for a clue on what the employer might be looking for.

Use effective titles
Like it or not, employers will usually make a judgment about your resume in 5 seconds. Under this time frame the most important aspect will be the titles that you listed on the resume, so make sure they grab the attention.
Try to be as descriptive as possible, giving the employer a good idea about the nature of your past work experiences. For example, Bad title: Accounting, Good title: Management of A/R and A/P and Recordkeeping.

Proofread it twice
It would be difficult to emphasize the importance of proofreading your resume. One small typo and your chances of getting hired could slip. Proofreading it once is not enough, so do it twice, three times or as many as necessary.

Use bullet points
No employer will have the time (or patience) to read long paragraphs of text. Make sure, therefore, to use bullet points and short sentences to describe your experiences, educational background and professional objectives.

Where are you going?
Including professional goals can help you by giving employers an idea of where you are going, and how you want to arrive there. You don’t need to have a special section devoted to your professional objectives, but overall the resume must communicate it. The question of whether or not to highlight your career objectives on the resume is a polemic one among HR managers, so go with your feeling. If you decide to list them, make sure they are not generic.

Put the most important information first
This point is valid both to the overall order of your resume, as well as to the individual sections. Most of the times your previous work experience will be the most important part of the resume, so put it at the top. When describing your experiences or skills, list the most important ones first.

Attention to the typography
First of all make sure that your fonts are big enough. The smaller you should go is 11 points, but 12 is probably safer. Do not use capital letters all over the place, remember that your goal is to communicate a message as fast and as clearly as possible. Arial and Times are good choices
.
Do not include “no kidding” information
There are many people that like to include statements like “Available for interview” or “References available upon request.” If you are sending a resume to a company, it should be a given that you are available for an interview and that you will provide references if requested.
Just avoid items that will make the employer think “no kidding!”

Explain the benefits of your skills
Merely stating that you can do something will not catch the attention of the employer. If you manage to explain how it will benefit his company, and to connect it to tangible results, then you will greatly improve your chances.

Avoid negativity
Do not include information that might sound negative in the eyes of the employer. This is valid both to your resume and to interviews. You don’t need to include, for instance, things that you hated about your last company.

Achievements instead of responsibilities
Resumes that include a long list of “responsibilities included…” are plain boring, and not efficient in selling yourself. Instead, describeprofessional achievements.

Use numbers
If you are going to describe your past professional achievements, it would be a good idea to make them as solid as possible. Numbers are your friends here. Don’t merely mention that you increased the annual revenues of your division, say that you increased them by Rs.100,000, by 78%, and so on.

No pictures
Unless you are applying for a job where the physical traits are very important and unless the employer specifically requested it, you should avoid attachingpictures.

Source : DNA INDIA