Are You Into The Highest Paying Jobs?

Professionals in the venture capital, semiconductors and management consulting industries command the highest salaries today, according to premier job search and career portal HeadHonchos.com.

Professionals in these industries earn compensation that is 30-60 per cent higher, on average, than those who work in other industries.

Risk-taking capacity remains a key factor in determining rewards, but compensation in industries like semiconductors is driven mainly by the demand for super-specialized talent, the report which analyzed data for around half a million middle management professionals with 6-35 years of experience, said.

"The trends are a reflection of the growth of knowledge industries like IT, semiconductors, finance and business services in the economy," HeadHonchos.com CEO Uday Sodhi said.

Sodhi further added "there is a soaring premium for exceptional talent and companies are prepared to pay. Professionals meeting the troika of RSQ (Risk, Scarcity and Qualification) are being rewarded the most."

Senior professionals working in the sectors like infrastructure, oil & gas/petrochemicals, power/energy and investment banking also emerged in the top ranks in terms of compensation packages, followed by those who are working in industries like internet/e-commerce, IT/technology-mobile/VAS applications and telecom/mobile operator.

Even within industries, there is a clear hierarchy in terms of compensation. For example, under the umbrella of the IT industry, there are clear differentials between those in specialized, talent-scarce areas like semiconductor and in less specialized areas like quality assurance.

Similar trends are seen in the BFSI industry with private equity and investment banking professionals receiving higher payouts than those employed in retail banking.

Mistakes that HR Professionals Must Avoid

Often we hear HR leaders taking care of mistakes committed by employees and the management people. Now it's time for the HR Managers to take necessary steps and avoid making errors, so that people don't point fingers at you. Although a successful training will surely help to keep away from pitfalls, some HR matters may make them fall into the trap. So, what exactly are those errors which should be avoided committing?

Denielle Fisher wrote an article on Lexology.com mentioning some of the mistakes which an HR manager could possibly make in his career.  Here are some of them-

1. Education: It is the important in any industry to have a detailed knowledge about the domain, in order to carry out the responsibilities smoothly. Some people think they can carry out the job of a human resource without having basic knowledge in it. This is not true; HR work is not easy and you need to have at least a master’s degree or some formal training in the field of HR. This sector requires a vast knowledge regarding employment law, payroll system, company policies and disciplinary actions.

2. Bad focus: People with a bad focus can never be a part of a good HR department. The HR department as a whole should maintain its focus on the progress of the organization. HR leaders should always keep evaluating working practices to update themselves with the changing company policies and employment law. This will include overtime, turnover, performance and benefits.

3. Clear misconceptions with the staff: Since you are in HR, you must learn to be neutral and equal to both the sides i.e. management and staff. A successful HR department should always try to devote their time and energy to maintaining a peaceful working environment.

 4. Communication gap: HR leaders must make it a point to meet the senior management people every day. This will help you in getting in touch with the employee matters on a daily basis.  Often lack of communication creates a huge problem, mostly in the disciplinary part. It will also lead to under staffing and loss of client confidence, hiring the wrong candidate and ultimately wastage of time and money.

5. Maintaining breach confidentiality: HR staff needs to deal mostly with confidentiality policies. Employee payroll, employee details, company policies, and laws all these are private data and the organization faces liability in these matters. It is therefore advised to HR professionals to maintain a level of confidentiality with regards to their respective organization since a small negligence can put their career at stake.

All of the above mistakes are somehow committed by many HR personnel. To make you a successful HR professional, we recommend having complete knowledge about the field with a professional degree. However, practical is what makes you better than theory. Learn with your experiences. Good Luck..!!

10% of All CVs have False Information

For long, Indians have indulged in extrapolating their skills and hiding shortcomings while preparing their resumes. Despite changes in HR practices, the trend continues.

A survey done by recruitment consultancy First Advantage showed that the rate of faking has increased to 9.9% in 2012 from 8.1% in 2011, with Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai leading the pack. Chennai registered 7.57% discrepancies between October and December 2012, which means 76 of every 1,000 resumes had a bogus element in it.

"People create fake resumes when they don't get jobs on campus. The skill levels are low and people don't get good jobs immediately after graduation. When students lose time, they aren't seen as freshers by companies and hence they cook up 'work experience'," said Madhumurthy Ronanki, president, TalentSprint, a skill development firm.

While it isn't industry-specific, fake resumes are more common in the IT industry. With many fake resumes floating about, companies take everything with a pinch of salt and have tweaked their HR practices. "Companies em ploy private detectives for verifica tion before recruiting middle-level and senior people who have been part-time employees of another company," said an HR official of a software consultancy firm in Chennai. "Some companies have outsourced background screening to (external) agencies, which verify information such as previous employers and institutions where candidates have studied," said Chithranath Vadakkeppat, a senior human resource manager.

The bug doesn't bite private firms alone. "At least a dozen civil servants have been caught in similar crimes in last two years. They manipulate or forge documents proving age, caste, religion, qualification and even achievements," said a senior official with the state employment exchange.

"Most cases go unchecked or are ignored due to lack of provisions to verify facts," he said. Tamil Nadu has a separate government body, Professional and Executive Employment Office, to speed up recruitment processes.

Initiatives to curb faking resumes, like Nasscom's National Skill Registry, which has a database of all skilled talent and employable people for IT companies, haven't had an effect yet, Ronanki said. "About 20% of employees are fired within three months of joining the company when verification results show up discrepancies," he said.

Deep checks are really important to ensure good hiring in an organization or else what is ultimately hampered is the productivity of the business. So next time when you hire an employee, make sure his resume speaks complete truth.

Source:TOI 

Settlement delays by EPFO not to affect interest payout

There's good news for salaried employees who have transferred or closed their old PF accounts in the last three years, but have been wrongly denied interest on their retirement savings from April 2011 till their accounts were settled.

The PF office has been asked to ensure that employees are not penalized for its inability to settle accounts in a timely manner. The government had stopped crediting interest on employees' PF accounts from April 1, 2011, if they had been inactive for at least three years. The threat of losing interest, it was argued, may force employees to consolidate their multiple PF accounts from past jobs and transfer them to the account being operated by their present employer. The Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) had claimed that 3.04 crore PF accounts with Rs 16,000 crore were 'inoperative'. ET had reported last week that employees who sought to transfer their old PF accounts before that deadline have been denied interest from 2011-12 though their accounts were settled much later.

Worse still, employees who were paid due interest till the date of settlement are now receiving demand notices from the PF department seeking a refund of 'inadvertently' credited 'excess' interest.

The EPFO board's finance committee, which met on Friday, saw a last-minute addition to its agenda to discuss such 'exceptional' cases. "...If the settlement of a claim is delayed by more than a month after March 31, 2011, the member suffers a loss of interest on his accumulation, corresponding to the delay period. The more the delay, the more is the loss of interest," the EPFO conceded to its finance committee, citing several requests from employees for crediting interest on their claims submitted before the cut-off date.

Though EPF scheme mandates all claims and transfer requests to be settled within 30 days, it actually ends up taking much longer as the PF departments' archaic book-keeping system and business processes are unable to cope with the rise in account volumes. The EPFO now administers 8.15 crore member accounts with an underlying corpus of over Rs 5 lakh crore.

"The delay of more than 30 days in all cases is attributable on the part of EPFO... (They) have occurred due to various administrative reasons," the board's committee was told, stating that field offices have sought a clarification on whether interest must be credited on inoperative accounts where claims were received prior to March 31, 2011 but settled later. The committee has decided that in all such cases where the 'settlement delay' was not caused by the employee but by EPFO's 'administrative reasons', interest must be paid for the 'delayed period' at the prevailing EPF rate.

"We are quite anxious that EPFO fixes this, as such complaints have reached an embarrassing scale," said a member of the committee. "The modalities for ensuring all members get their dues need to be simple so that workers don't have to run from pillar to post to claim the amount they were shortchanged by," he said.

The EPFO's board of trustees chaired by labour minister Mallikarjun Kharge is expected to ratify the proposal on February 25, when it will also discuss the EPF rate for 2012-13. The PF office has proposed a rate of 8.5% as 'feasible.' The EPFO had declared a 9.5% interest on deposits in 2010-11, but slashed it by 1.25% in 2011-12 to 8.25%. Incidentally, this year's EPF income calculations don't factor in the interest income on inoperative account balances, though EPFO had claimed that it could be redistributed to active members.

Source: TOI

The EPFO Buzz This Week

Retirement fund body, EPFO has decided to put on hold the decision to make it mandatory for new members joining EPF scheme to provide Aadhaar number as credential for enrolment from March 1, 2013.

"In view of discussion with UIDAI official and the time required in the process of obtaining Aadhaar numbers, it may not be possible to obtain Aadhaar number by EPF members by March 1, 2013. Therefore it has been decided to not to make Aadhar number mandatory for EPFO members March 1, 2013", an EPFO order to the field staff said.

Late last month, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) decision drew flak from trade unions, following which the body has now decided to put it on hold.

However, the field staff has been asked to make efforts to obtain the available Aadhaar number of EPF members.

The staff has also been asked to collect core banking account numbers of all contributing members. The EPFO order has observed that getting the Aadhaar is a time consuming process and the scheme covers 18 states only. The remaining states are covered by the Register General of India under the National Population Register which would be digital database of country's residents.

EPFO had envisaged replacing members' account numbers with their Aadhaar numbers to avoid inconvenience to people as they had to apply for transfer of PF money to new accounts while changing jobs.

Now, EPFO is working on creating a central data base where all members would have a permanent account number and would not require to transfer PF accounts on changing job.

Besides, this will help EPFO members, particularly construction workers, who often change their jobs or contractors.

The next news that buzzed from EPFO premises this week was that it may get 8.5 per cent return on their investment during 2012-13, higher than 8.25 per cent provided in the last fiscal.

The body's proposal is likely to come up for discussion during its apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees (CBT) scheduled on February 15, a source said.

"The EPFO has worked out 8.5 per cent rate of return for the current fiscal. It will not leave any deficit. However, the proposal has not been finalised as yet," the source added.

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had paid 9.5 per cent interest in 2010-11, before scaling it down to 8.25 per cent in 2011-12 fiscal.

EPFO will place the proposal regarding the interest rate before its advisory body Finance and Investment Committee (FIC) at its meeting on February 14. Once approved by the FIC, it will go to Labour Minister-headed CBT for final approval.

The notification on interest rate is issued by the government after concurrence by the Finance Ministry.

Although EPFO announces interest rate at the beginning of the year, there has been a delay this time. Trade unions have been pressing for an early meeting of the CBT to decide on the interest rate for the current fiscal.

Can You Retain Your Talented Employees?

In the battle for talents, often organizations fall short of skilled employees. Many companies are looking for ways to maintain the talented workforce in their businesses. Paycom recently has designed an infographic which reveals the various factors as to why employees leave their jobs. Some of the common factors are- inadequate pay, lack of believes in senior authority, unhealthy environment and lack of concern for development.

Moreover, if you try asking the workers what's the reason that is pushing them to discontinue the job the response may shock you. More than cash employees want other factors also to encourage them in their position of perform.

Although employees love if they are recognized by money and financial rewards but they also want to be praised publicly for their good work. It is found that this process increases the employee retention rate by 27 percent. It was also found that organizations which practice talent management programs have benefited not only in retaining their top talented employees but also as high performing organization.

Take a look at the infographic below to get specific information on how to retain talented personnel.

Criticism on EPFO's Decision May Lead to Its Suspension

The news of Aadhaar becoming a compulsory element for new EPFO members surprised almost every individual last week. However, after the harsh opposition from trade unions EPFO may suspend its decision to make Aadhaar Card mandatory for new and existing EPFO members. “Amid the pressure from trade unions, the EPFO is likely to put in abeyance its office order issued to field staff for collecting Aadhaar numbers of existing members and new subscribers joining the EPF scheme," a source said.

EPFO asked its field staff to mandatorily ask for Aadhaar numbers from new members with effect from March 1, 2013 and existing members by June 30, 2013. Raising a red flag against this decision, trade unions leaders said that it would be impossible for members to provide Aadhaar numbers as the scheme was not operational in many parts of the country. Also, it was cumbersome to get the numbers in states where the scheme is operational, unions had said.

"They should not have taken this decision suo motu. It should have been discussed in the EPFO's apex decision making body the Central Board of Trustees (CBT)", Bhartiya Majdoor Sangh General Secretary Baij Nath Rai told. Rai who is an EPFO trustee also, further said, "It cannot be done outrightly as there are a lot of hiccups in making Aadhaar number in many parts of the country."

Another EPFO trustee & All India Trade Union Congress Secretary D L Sachdev has entirely opposed it saying that EPFO does not need to use Aadhaar number as unique account number of its members. We are opposing this move. All members do not have Aadhaar numbers. They should make it voluntary," he said adding that EPFO can give unique account number of all members without using the Aadhaar number and platform. Sachdev who is also an EPFO trustee said that AITUC would raise the issue with Labour Minister as well as take it up in the CBT meeting on February 15.

Hind Mazdoor Sabha Secretary A D Nagpal said, "I do not think that this could be done by June 30. We will ask for extension of the deadline in the forthcoming meeting of CBT next month."

A lot of criticism has been shown against EPFO’s decision to make the Aadhaar card necessary for the members. Probably, we all knew it when the buzz came into air last week, right? We would like to have your opinions also about the issue. Share your views with us at connect@pimanpower.com.

Aadhaar Card A Mandatory KYC for New EPFO Members

Wish you all a very Happy Republic Day from PI Manpower. We always endeavor to make our nation proud and will always do. Today we come up to you with a big news buzzing from the EPFO Office.

New members joining the EPFO's retirement fund scheme will have to necessarily furnish Aadhaar number as KYC (Know Your Customer) credential for enrolment from March 1, 2013. The Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), which serves around 13 crore employees and is the world's largest social security scheme, has decided that from March 2013 all new members should have an Aadhaar card. However for current members, the procedure of Aadhaar number has to done in a time bound manner," an official order to the field staff said.

Last month, it had released directions for linking the payment of EPF benefits to current members with the Aadhaar card. This relates to 43 districts where the government is applying its direct cash transfer scheme for subsidies on pilot basis. However, the December 31 deadline for the job has not been met.

While government seems to be driving the Aadhaar card scheme through EPFO, sources within the organization said that it might lead to a huge chaos in the beginning. Getting new members is an ongoing process but not everybody has an Aadhaar card yet, said the source. The EPFO order asks field offices to contact the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency providing Aadhaar cards, to hold camps in commercial and industrial areas or other suitable centers to provide workers with cards. The field offices have been directed to coordinate with district bodies too, says the order.

In case any worker does not have issued the Aadhaar number, the employer can issue an Enrolment Id (EID) as per the recommendations of the body. This EID would be switched into Aadhaar number later on, the order said. The body would also look the Aadhaar numbers of its pensioners through the banks. EPFO has made the decision to use Aadhaar as compulsory KYC credential to enhance its services. The pensioner can submit their Aadhaar number either to their pension paying branch of the bank or to the EPFO office.

Previously, EPFO had thought of replacing its members account number with the Aadhaar numbers to ignore inconvenience of members as they had to apply for transfer of PF money to the new account with the new employer.

EPFO is working on to create a master data base where all members would have a unique account number and would not require to switch PF accounts to another one on changing job. Besides, this would help the members, particularly the construction workers, who often change their jobs or contractors.

Sources within the organization said connecting Aadhaar with EPFO would only complicate work. "Ensuring that each one gets Aadhaar card cannot be EPFO's mandate, which is basically assigned to implement the EPF Act," said an official here. A large number of workers are situated in distant areas, where Aadhaar was yet to reach, said a senior official in the ministry of labour.

Over five years ago, EPFO had released a project similar to Aadhaar which was ceased. The national social security number was anticipated to be unique identification number for EPF members. The entire project was discontinued after payment disputes and other issues jumped up with Siemens, the company providing the technical infrastructure.

We would like to hear your views on the addition of Aadhaar as a necessary KYC for the EPFO members. 

You may write to us at connect@pimanpower.com. 

How to Get the Best Out of Your Annual Appraisal

The month of January is about to end and a few days from now you will be facing up to your boss for the annual performance appraisal exercise. We’d like to help you to form an appraisal strategy depending on which of the following scenarios you fit into.

NOT SURE ABOUT PERFORMANCE

"I am not sure how well I have done this year and not sure what to expect from the performance appraisal."

The way out: Be honest and genuine about performance areas you are sure of. Rate yourself on things that you did do, but be candid on areas where you did not fare as expected. On areas where you are unsure about your performance, try and find out what your boss thinks about it. Elicit feedback from the authority without sounding unsure.

DELAYED PROMOTION

"My promotion is stalled for the last one year. How should I convey this in the performance appraisal chat?"

The way out: Refrain from mentioning this (being overlooked the previous year) if the manager does not bring it up, as the conversation could then steer towards old projects instead of focusing on last year's performance.

If you are confident your performance this year can get you a promotion, approach it from the perspective of seeking advice. Ask an open-ended question like so what do you think is holding back my promotion? Is it something in my control or is it because of external factors? If the answer is the former, seek advice on what you need to do.

FEEDBACK IS PRE-MEDIATED

"My boss seems to already have an opinion on my ratings. He is unlikely to do the appraisal seriously or objectively."

The way out: Always document and list your achievements even when you fear the feedback would be pre-meditated. Prepare yourself with formal mails and documents.

SUDDEN, UNEXPECTED CRITICISM

“I've done well, but the boss is criticizing me at the appraisal, without ever giving any negative feedback during the year."

The way out: Hear the boss without being defensive. Thank your boss for the feedback and learn from it. Don't get into a debate on the finer details of the reasons he is criticizing you for, as the meeting could then revolve around it. Turn the discussion towards positive areas.

We hope the above points would guide you through your appraisal process. Should you have more suggestions, we’d love to hear them from you.

Wish You A Very Happy Makar Sankranti..

May the blessed occasion of Makar Sankranti usher in good luck and prosperity - PI Manpower

Don't Be A Defaulter, Pay Your PF Dues Now

Wishing all a very happy new year once again..!! PI Manpower wishes you joy, contentment and prosperity.

No wonder, the year 2013 has brought new hopes but it certainly is bringing a lot of surprises. One of the biggest was EPFO finding G4S guilty for not paying PF dues upto Rs 133 crore. Shocking huh?

All of us are aware of the fact that how big the organization is! G4S has operations in 125 countries with 657,000 employees, 90% of whom are employed in front-line positions servicing customers. The company, which is listed both on the London and Copenhagen stock exchanges, clocked revenues of £7.5 billion and profits of £198 million. The Indian unit accounts to 62% of the company's total Asian workforce. Its revenues have grown from Rs 213 crore in 2002-03 to nearly Rs 1,000 crore in 2009-10.

Recently, it came in the news that the Delhi Provident Fund Department has found the Indian unit of G4S guilty of not paying complete PF dues which accumulates to approximately Rs 133 crore. Sources say that if all PF state offices come to a similar conclusion, the company may be asked to compensate an amount of Rs 1,900 crore. According to an order passed by Delhi regional PF commissioner Gautam Dixit on December 18, 2012, while paying its security guards, G4S divided their salary into two elements - 50% basic pay and 50% paid as special allowances - and remitted PF dues only on the basic pay component. This allowed it to account half of the PF contributions gathered from clients.

G4S, however, stated that it has charged its clients on the basis of its wage structure and deposited the same with the PF department. It also conveyed that it’s in the process of availing the appropriate statutory right of taking legal action against the said order.

EPFO, since the last year is certainly making efforts to streamline the process of PF contributions. Firstly, making the process of filing PF Challans online was a real revolution in the last year. This effort itself made it possible to identify the loopholes and filling the same. Then, in November 2012, there came a new circular that asked companies to include several allowances into the basic wage so as to stop a number of organizations from filling less PF contributions than what is actually accrued.

This is definitely high time that the defaulters start paying their PF dues completely or else they would be charged just like G4S. Strong commitments are coming into action from EPFO and this would certainly help in collection of actual PF contributions.

Apart from the steps taken to evade defaults in PF contributions, discussions for increasing PF interest rate are also in the air. EPFO trustees who were to meet on Jan 15 for fixing the new interest rate are now likely to meet on Feb 15.

According to the sources, the preliminary estimates of EPFO indicate that the body would neither have surplus nor have deficit if it pays 8.6 per cent rate of interest to its over 50 million subscribers. However, the unionists are demanding keeping the interest rate at par or above 8.8 per cent provided to the subscribers of Public Provident Fund, which is voluntary scheme. They have also been demanding increasing the interest rate to 9.5 per cent provided by the body in 2010-11 for this fiscal. EPFO had slashed the interest rate by 1.25 per cent to 8.25 per cent for 2011-12.

We’d keep updating you about the upcoming decisions to be made by EPFO. Till then, we advise you to file your PF contributions completely. Should you need our assistance, we’re always there at your service.