Hiring in India affected by US economic slow down

clipped from workforce.com Rising inflation and the downturn in the U.S. economy are forcing Indian employers to slow hiring, freeze wages and fire underperformers to maintain profit margins. “Efficiency and output delivery will be the core mantras at play,” said brand consultant Harish Bijoor. The slowdown is tangible, as the number of information technology and business process outsourcing deals dropped to 78 in the first quarter of 2008 from 109 in the first quarter of 2007, according to India-based research firm Value Notes. By the second quarter of 2008, according to Value Notes CEO Arun Jethmalani, the number of deals slid to 58, down from 101 a year earlier.

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CollegeRecruiter.com in Inc.5000 List

clipped from workforce.com The old college try is paying off for CollegeRecruiter.com. The online job board focused on college students and recent graduates has landed a spot on the Inc. 5,000 list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States. In its 2008 list released Wednesday, August 20, business publication Inc. said CollegeRecruiter.com was among its fastest-growing companies, finishing 1,403rd as revenue jumped from $660,424 in 2004 to $2.4 million last year. Recruiting industry analyst Peter Weddle says CollegeRecruiter.com has been at the forefront of experimenting with the social and viral aspects of the Internet. The Minneapolis-based firm has tapped blogging, podcasts and cell phone text messaging. “They are a good template for how job boards are evolving to be more a part of people’s lives on a daily basis,” Weddle says.

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Connecticut-based Insurance Company eyes on Staffing Firms

clipped from workforce.com American Staffing Assurance Co. has entered a risk-sharing agreement with Hartford, Connecticut-based Sparta Insurance Co. and raised $4 million from private investors, enabling it to begin selling workers’ compensation and other insurance to staffing firms nationwide. American Staffing, based in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, is offering the insurance, underwritten by Sparta, through its newly licensed affiliate, American Staffing Assurance Co. of Washington, D.C. “Assuming all goes well, we will accept more investment dollars,” said president James Farber, one of 11 investors in the deal and founder of Executive Strategies Inc. in Grosse Pointe Park, which will serve as program administrator. Five years from now, American Staffing hopes to have raised $250 million to fund the acquisition and operation of a shell insurance company licensed in all states, he said. “[But] at this time, the greatest return on investment is generated by partnering with Sparta,” said Farber.

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Dan Finnigan becomes the CEO of Jobvite

clipped from workforce.com Dan Finnigan, former head of Yahoo HotJobs’ online recruiting business and more recently entrepreneur-in-residence at a Silicon Valley venture firm, replaces Jobvite founder Jesper Schultz, who stepped into the role of chief product officer. “We have a lot of things we want to do on the product side, and we needed to get talent to build the company,” Shultz said. Finnigan “has experience in recruiting and has run big companies, which is why I’m excited to have him on board.”

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Bill Gates Seeks Rise in Immigration of Highly Skilled Workers

clipped from workforce.com If Congress does not allow more highly skilled foreign students to work in the country after they graduate from U.S. universities, American high-tech companies will lose their ability to develop innovative products, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told a congressional committee on Wednesday, March 12. At a hearing of the House Science and Technology Committee, Gates outlined immigration reforms that he said would help fill “a critical shortfall of skilled scientists and engineers.” He also advocated improving science and math education and increasing federal funding for basic research.

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Wall Street's Top Earners

clipped from www.forbes.com #1 James Simons Age: 69 Firm: Renaissance Technologies Headquarters: East Setaucket, N.Y. Earnings: $1,500 million Primary source of earnings: Simon's Medallion fund returned 44% after fees on average assets of $6.4 billion, while the fast-growing Renaissance Institutional fund returned 21% on $9.1 billion. By owning an estimated 40% of the firm and reaping investor fees of more than twice the typical hedge fund, Simons ran away with the top spot. Did you know? Simons worked as a code breaker for the U.S. Department of Defense during the Vietnam War

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Wachovia Takes HR Process Back From Hewitt - Workforce.com

clipped from workforce.com Wachovia Takes HR Process Back From Hewitt Wachovia is taking back a number of HR processes it had outsourced to Hewitt Associates, a potential blow for the Lincolnshire, Illinois-based HRO provider. In 2005, Wachovia signed a seven-year deal with Hewitt to oversee payroll, call center, benefits administration and various learning processes for its 90,000 employees. The contract, which was one of a slew of wins for Hewitt in the wake of its Exult acquisition, was valued at $450 million, according to research firm IDC. Now the Charlotte, North Carolina-based financial services company will take everything but benefits administration and customer service back in-house or to other vendors.

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Monster Investigated for Data Security

Monster.com was hacked in 2007 that resulted in illegal downloading of contact information for job seekers.

The US Federal trade commission launched an investigation into security practices at Monster.com

Find below the text bits from WorkForce Management Online

Monster disclosed the probe in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and said the inquiry stemmed from a computer attack announced last year that resulted in the illegal downloading of contact information for 1.3 million job seekers.

“On October 29, 2007, the Company was requested to voluntarily provide information to the staff of the Federal Trade Commission in connection with a non public inquiry into certain information security practices of Monster.com,” Monster disclosed in an SEC filing. “The inquiry arises as a result of the attack.”

FTC investigations as a rule are nonpublic unless the firm under investigation acknowledges the probe. The agency in recent years has been going after companies with alleged failures related to the protection of sensitive consumer information. In a number of cases, organizations have settled FTC charges and agreed to new data security policies.

Monster’s admission of the FTC probe underscores concerns about possible identity theft and data breaches in the use of online job boards.

FTC spokeswoman Claudia Bourne Farrell confirmed that the agency had an open investigation of Monster under way last year. She declined to comment on whether the investigation has been closed.

To read the full story, Visit WorkForce Management Online

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Capgemini plans to move internal support services to India - Economic Times

Source: Economic Times

The slowdown in US economy has begun to drive more outsourcing work India’s way. Capgemini, Europe’s largest consulting and computer services firm, has reduced hiring in the United States to ‘a bare minimum’, increased the portion of offshoring in its contracts there from 40% to 60% and is moving internal support services to India, a company official said.

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Mphasis cuts 200 Jobs - Economic Times

Indian IT industry has started responding to US Economy Crisis. Following TCS, IBM & Yahoo! Mphasis a part of EDS has cut 200 people.

Economic Times reported this morning about the job cuts.

Text clips from the news:

According to sources, MphasiS has retrenched 200 employees at its Chennai centre and all this in a span of two days last week.

It was not clear whether this retrenchment was restricted to the Chennai centre or covered other locations. Sources said the retrenchment was largely centered around the performance issue and it has probably affected those who were on the bench.

Read the full story from Economic Times.

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TCS cuts Staff Salaries

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest software exporter has cut a portion of the variable pay linked to its performance,reducing an employee’s salary by about 1.5% for the Q1,2008.

On Tuesday, TCS in an email communique to its 100,000 plus employees said a combination of internal and external factors saw it failing to meet its Economic Value Added target—a financial performance method calculated as the net operating after taxes profit minus a charge for the opportunity cost of capital invested.

Infosys Technologies, the closest Indian rival of TCS, chose not to read anything into the missive. “It is not an industry issue,” said Infosys Chief Financial Officer V Balakrishnan.

On its part, TCS said, though it met its revenues targets, the EVA target forms the basis for the variable pay computation and has been given in advance, each month during Oct-Dec period.

Based on the audited results, the EVA-based variable payout amounts to Rs 293 crore for the quarter. The actual variable payout based on expected EVA given in advance amounts to Rs 376 crore.

Therefore, the advance payment that has to be adjusted amounting to Rs 83 crore, will be recovered during the current quarter from the employees.

The recovery would be reflected in employee wages in the months of February and March 2008.

To read more, Visit Business Standard

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