Best time to hire for India Inc

The recession and slowdown in kicking in .Even as companies worldwide resort to layoffs or freeze hirings as part of cost-saving measures to counter the economic slowdown, Deloitte
Consulting believes the current turbulence actually presents India Inc with its best opportunity to enrol good people in their organisations. There's a lot of talent available in the market now and companies can indulge in cherry-picking. Most importantly, salary expectations are presently reasonable and jumping jobs will also not be on the top of a potential employee's mind for at least for a year or so.
Incidentally, attrition has already dropped significantly in the IT and BPO arenas since the financial crisis started spreading and companies began adopting a zero-tolerance approach. At the same time, the manufacturing segment has once again started catching the fancy of engineering graduates. India, despite the expected drop in growth, is likely to come out of the slowdown quicker than the industrialised West and should thus utilise the present crisis to put its house in order. Some people here are actually talking themselves into a recession and pulling down sentiment further. The present econominc climate presented governments with an opportunity to become more efficient by pushing through administrative reforms that would not have been possible if there was no economic crisis. There is no magic strategy that will turn the present global financial crisis into an unalloyed positive. However, governments worldwide can find the seeds of long-term advantage in the decisions they make now. The long-term effect of the meltdown could be positive with governments and policy-makers rebuilding their way of operation and not focusing only on short-term gains.

Weak dollar to impact MNC’s pay packet

Fluctuations in foreign exchange value of global currencies, especially the US dollar, which is weakening against its rivals, following the financial turmoil in the US have severely impacted the compensation packages of overseas employees working with MNCs, a latest survey says.

The currency fluctuations affect all elements of compensation and consequently the attraction and retention of key employees, according to a survey by global HR consultancy Mercer. It further added most multinational organizations have not implemented solutions for mitigating the impact of currency fluctuations on current compensation programmes for overseas employees.

Nearly half of responding multinational companies (47 per cent) have agreed that the depreciating value of the US dollar has had a moderate to significant impact on their compensation programmes, the survey revealed.

“Foreign exchange fluctuations can have a substantial impact on compensation programmes. As the war for talent becomes worldwide, specifically for high-performing executives, organizations need a competitive compensation strategy that appropriately responds to shifts in currency for key employees around the globe,'' Mercer Principal Rebecca Powers said.

Compensation components, including equity-based long-term incentive plans, base salary and global mobility policies are impacted the most by currency fluctuations, specifically the declining value of the US dollar, the survey revealed

Fat pay packet: student offered Rs 23 lakh salary

A student of National Institute of Technology (NIT) has been offered a salary of Rs 23 lakh per annum during campus placement.

The salary offer was made by MNC Schlumberger to a mechanical engineering graduate with a CTC cost to the company of Rs 23 lakhs per annum for posting in India and Rs 44 lakh per annum in case of overseas posting, said NIT director Prof M Chidambaram Tiruchirappalli on Wednesday.

He said the placements during the academic year 2006-07 was one of the best in the country, with over 100 per cent of UG students and 94 per cent of PG students placed through campus selection.

Bakthavatsalam, who heads NIT’s placement cell, said one out of every five students had got two job offers this year. MNCs Microsoft, Yahoo and Texas Instruments and IT giants TCS, Wipro, Infosys and CSC and PSUs like NTPC, ONGC, IOCL, BPCL had approached NIT for placements.