TCS
Global IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is understood to have shelved plans to increase its headcount in Australia to around 2,000 by the end of this year. The reason: The ongoing financial crisis.
TCS had dropped plans to boost its headcount in Australia even though it recorded double-digit revenue growth, according to reports and blog posts from the country.
The Tata group company employed around 950 people in Australia at the end of the previous year, but around 50 have since been relocated to India. This puts TCS’ total employee base in that country at around 900, reports say.
A TCS spokesperson said: “Australia continues to be a significant growth market for TCS. Given the uncertainty in the global economy, TCS will grow its staff strength in line with the business growth there. Under the current context, with customers looking at offshoring as an effective value proposition, we are likely to see an increase in people servicing Australian customers in India.”
In January, TCS Asia-Pacific Head and Regional Director, Girija Pande, had said that the company planned to double the number of workers in Australia by the end of the year.
In Australia, TCS provides near-shore, high-profile technology services.
BPO
Faced with high costs and falling demand, the Aditya Birla group is shifting part of its back-office operations from Canada to India. Aditya Birla Minacs, the group’s BPO firm, has closed down its three centres, with a capacity to house 1,200 people, in Canada.
The company downed shutters of units at Pickering, Saskatoon and Chatham in Canada. Aditya Birla Minacs, which was acquired by the Birlas from the Minacs family in Canada in June 2006, is a division of the group’s
holding company Aditya Birla Nuvo. The company has 12 centres in Canada. BPO and IT business together constitute 13 per cent of Aditya Birla Nuvo’s total revenues.
Source: TheEconomicTimes
At a time when the global job scenario is gloomy, India Inc is expected to increase salaries up to eight per cent this year with infrastructure and FMCG sectors likely to see the maximum hikes, global HR consultancy Mercer says.
"Overall Indian companies are likely to increase salaries between 6 and 8 per cent in 2009," Mercer India business leader (information product solutions) Gangapriya Chakraverti told reporters.
Despite the economic slowdown troubling the corporate world, the country's fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and Infrastructure sectors are likely to see the highest increases in salaries this year.
"Sectors like FMCG and infrastructure are expected to get the highest hikes of 8-12 per cent this year," Chakraverti added.
Meanwhile, financial services and Information Technology sectors, which have been severely impacted by the global slowdown, are unlikely to see any considerable increases in wages this year.
"IT and financial services may be the worst hit ... IT sector may see an average salary increase of four per cent this year," Chakraverti added.
With the beginning of the new financial year, companies are now drawing up plans related to the salary increments. However, in the wake of the severe economic conditions firms are looking for ways to answer the HR challenges in a balanced manner.
Mercer, which provides HR consultancy services to companies, has launched a new product for its clients to provide quarterly information such as changes in HR budget, staff turnover, headcount growth and planning, changes to benefits and incentive plans.
The services also include first-hand market information on how companies plan to address a specific hot issue as well.
Interestingly, focus on performance has been enhanced substantially following cost-cutting initiatives introduced by companies amid the slowdown.
The trend is shifting towards a greater difference between salary increases for the high performing individuals and the average performers.
new openings
Leading global medical transcription (MT) company, CBay Systems plans to scale up its operations in India. "We will double the headcount in India in the next 18 months," said Mr Dinesh Kumar, Director and COO – India Operations, CBay Systems, after inaugurating its captive centre here on Wednesday.
Now, it has 3000 captive seats with centres in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Vijayawada. In 2009, the company will be investing Rs 45 crore for creating 1800 new seats. He said the company has just completed two satellite units each in Bangalore and Hyderabad.
The new facility on 18,000 sq is located at Rathinam Technopark of Rathinam Techzone Campus, Eachanari. "In three months, the centre entailing an investment of Rs 11 crore will start functioning with 450 seats," Mr Kumar said.
Layoffs in USA
Goodyear Tire & Rubber reported Wednesday a first-quarter loss and said 3,800 jobs had been cut under a restructuring program aimed at putting the US tire maker back on the road to profits.
Goodyear said it had a first-quarter net loss of 333 million dollars, or 1.38 dollars per share, in line with analyst expectations. It was the second consecutive quarterly loss for the Akron, Ohio-based company, which had swung into a full-year net loss of 77 million dollars in 2008 as US auto sales plunged amid a recession and tight credit. A year ago, Goodyear posted net income of 147 million dollars, or 60 cents per share.
Cost cutting
Adobe Inc, the world’s biggest maker of graphic-design software, will freeze pay this year as the recession crimps sales, said Chief Financial Officer Mark Garrett. “Clearly, we aren’t going to have salary increases,” he said in an interview. “The bonus plans and variable compensation plans will pay out less. We have set ourselves up for what we think we need to do -- from a costs perspective -- for the rest of this year.”
Adobe also has cut about 8 per cent of its workforce, curbed travel and reduced its use of contractors. While US demand is now steady, overseas sales may still be dropping, Garrett said. That revenue accounted for almost 60 per cent of Adobe’s total last year.
