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We invite you to use HR Era as your medium of self expression, sharing, and growth.
Email your contributions to Rajeev@HREra.com or Alka@HREra.com
 

1. Assessing "Soft Skills" in Candidates - sent by K Meenapriya

2. My Favorite Quotes on Happiness - sent by Neeta Bhatnagar

3. Top 10 Tips for Making a Positive Contribution - by Dr. Clare Albright

4. New Members

Deon Binneman, Vinod Unnikrishnan, Shalini Prakash, Y Indira

5. Appreciations: Working Women - Survival Strategies (Issue # 36)

6. Fail Your Way To The Top - by John Assaraf

7. Formula for Success - sent by Rakesh Nandan Sahay

8. Readers' Forum

Reply on: Employment Terms in India - Zo Hualngo
Need a Summer Trainee in Bangalore - Zo Hualngo
Help on: eHR, e-Recruiting, & HR Outsourcing - Pooja

9. Best HR Jobs (India)

10. Advertisements from Members

New Magazine: Training & Management
CD on Emotional Intelligence
Aligning the Economic Cycle with the Time Cycle: Book by Charu Bahri

 

1. Assessing "Soft Skills" in Candidates - sent by by K Meenapriya

Soft skills are at least as important for success in today's workplace as the technical skills. In the software industry technical staff works in project teams and soft skills and emotional intelligence can be crucial. However, assessing soft skills also difficult. Here is a practical & simple set of questions that I found somewhere on the internet, which HR Practitioners & interviewers can ask to discover the softer areas.

• Discuss a time when your integrity was challenged. How did you handle it?
• What would you do if someone asked you to do something unethical?
• Have you ever experienced a loss for doing what is right?
• Have you ever asked for forgiveness for doing something wrong?
• In what business situations do you feel honesty would be inappropriate?
• If you saw a co-worker doing something dishonest, would you tell your boss? What would you do about it?

• What brings you joy?
• If you took out a full-page ad in the newspaper and had to describe yourself in only three words, what would those words be?
• How would you describe your personality?
• If I call your references, what will they say about you?
• Do you consider yourself a risk taker? Describe a situation in which you had to take a risk.
• What kind of environment would you like to work in?
• What kinds of people would you rather not work with?
• What kinds of responsibilities would you like to avoid in your next job?
• What are two or three examples of tasks that you do not particularly enjoy doing? Indicate how you remain motivated to complete those tasks.
• What kinds of people bug you?
• Tell me about a work situation that irritated you.
• Have you ever had to resolve a conflict with a coworker or client? How did you resolve it?
• Describe the appropriate relationship between a supervisor and subordinates.
• What sort of relationships do you have with your associates, both at the same level and above and below you?
• How have you worked as a member of teams in the past?
• Tell me about some of the groups you've had to get cooperation from. What did you do?
• What is your management style? How do you think subordinates perceive you?
• As a manager, have you ever had to fire anyone? If so, what were the circumstances, and how did you handle it?
• Have you ever been in a situation where a project was returned for errors? What effect did this have on you?
• What previous job was the most satisfying and why?
• What job was the most frustrating and why?
• Tell me about the best boss you ever had. Now tell me about the worst boss. What made it tough to work for him or her?
• What do you think you owe to your employer?
• What does your employer owe to you?

• Tell me about an objective in your last job that you failed to meet and why.
• When is the last time you were criticised? How did you deal with it?
• What have you learned from your mistakes?
• Tell me about a situation where you "blew it." How did you resolve or correct it to save face?
• Tell me about a situation where you abruptly had to change what you were doing.
• If you could change one (managerial) decision you made during the past two years, what would -that be?
• If you had the opportunity to change anything in your career, what would you have done differently?

• When was the last time you "broke the rules" (thought outside the box) and how did you do it?
• What have you done that was innovative?
• What was the wildest idea you had in the past year? What did you do about it?
• Give me an example of when someone brought you a new idea, particularly one that was odd or unusual. What did you do?
• If you could do anything in the world, what would you do?
• Describe a situation in which you had a difficult (management) problem. How did you solve it?
• What is the most difficult decision you've had to make? How did you arrive at your decision?
• Describe some situations in which you worked under pressure or met deadlines.
• Were you ever in a situation in which you had to meet two different deadlines given to you by two different people and you couldn't do both? What did you do?
• What type of approach to solving work problems seems to work best for you? Give me an example of when you solved a tough problem.
• When taking on a new task, do you like to have a great deal of feedback and responsibility at the outset, or do you like to try your own approach?
• You're on the phone with another department resolving a problem. The intercom pages you for a customer on hold. Your manager returns your monthly report with red pen markings and demands corrections within the hour. What do you do?
• Describe a sales presentation when you had the right product/service, and the customer wanted it but wouldn't buy it. What did you do next?

Miscellaneous good questions:

• How do you measure your own success?
• What is the most interesting thing you've done in the past three years?
• What are your short-term and long-term career goals?
• Why should we hire you?
• What responsibilities do you want, and what kinds of results do you expect to achieve in your next job?
• What do you think it takes to be successful in a company like ours?
• How did the best manager you ever had motivate you to perform well? Why did that method work?
• What is the best thing a previous employer did that you wish everyone did?
• What are you most proud of?
• What is important to you in a job?
• What do you expect to find in our company that you don't have now?
• Is there anything you wanted me to know about you that we haven't discussed?
• Do you have any questions for me?

Sent by K Meenapriya
Systems Manager, Larsen & Toubro Limited, Chennai.
Email: kmp@lntecc.com

 

Deon Binneman, Speaker, Trainer & Consultant,CEO & President:REPUCOMM
Johannesburg, South Africa.

Deon Binneman is CEO of REPUCOMM and an independent management consultant,trainer and public speaker on Corporate Reputation..

Mr Binneman has also published more than 30 articles in leading professional journals and media
outlets such as Business Day and numerous sites on the Net. In substance, his work addresses
three areas: How companies build,sustain and protect hard-earned reputations; how they plan for
and execute responses to crises; and how they manage their communication resources.

Email: deonbin@icon.co.za  . Phone/Fax +27 011 4753515. Mobile: 083 4254318

Vinod Unnikrishnan, Trainer, Mumbai

Dear Friends

I have just joined the group. I am Vinod Unnikrishnan a Business Development Manager working for Training Consultants for the Last 12 Years. I am also a Trainer conducting Team Building Module for corporates. I am based in Mumbai.

Thanx, regards and best wishes.

Vinod Unnikrishnan
Email: vinodvariar@yahoo.co.in

Shalini Prakash, Mumbai

Greetings,

This is Shalini Prakash from Mumbai, have recently completed my Management studies and looking out for a good placement in the field of HR.

Completed 'Masters in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from Jankidevi Bajaj
Institute of Management Studies, (2001-2003) Completed ' Bachelors in Social Work, from College of Social Work Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai.

regards

Shalini.

shalini_23@indiatimes.com , indianne_elle@yahoo.com

Y Indira, Secunderabad

Hi

I have done MBA in Hr and looking for a good opening in hr. i was working from june 2002 to April 2003 at NMDC as hr trainee, as my period of training is over iam looking for new openings, i am ready to relocate to any part of india.

Thank & Regards

Indira

Email: iyeleswarpu@yahoo.com

 

Hi Rajeev,

The article on working women was excellent! It hit the bulls eye.

Regards,

Rujuta

Email: rujutap@gtllimited.com

From Nazneen

This one was great Rajeev, really needed in ...& plan to share it with some men ...

Thank you for understanding.

regards

nazneen

Email: nazneen@vaids-india.com

 

6. Fail Your Way To The Top - by John Assaraf

Have you had a challenging day or week? Maybe you're feeling a little tired or feel discouraged
with a current situation. Maybe you are ready to throw in the towel and quit something. We all go
through times of feeling that something in our life sucks, and all we can see and feel is the
mess we are in.

When you feel that deep discouraged feeling, take a look at this report and reflect on this man's
record of failure. It is a testament to how we as humans can learn and grow and win despite the
losses and defeats we encounter.

Failed in business-------------------------------------1831
Defeated for legislature-------------------------------1832
Failed in business again-------------------------------1833
Elected to legislature----------------------------------1834
Sweetheart died--------------------------------------1835
Nervous breakdown---------------------------------1836
Defeated for speaker---------------------------------1838
Defeated for land officer------------------------------1843
Defeated for congress--------------------------------1843
Elected to congress-----------------------------------1846
Defeated for re-election------------------------------1848
Defeated for senate-----------------------------------1855
Defeated for vice president----------------------------1856
Defeated for senate-----------------------------------1858
Elected President--------------------------------------1860

Who was he?

A simple uneducated country boy who refused to allow his uncongenial circumstances stop him. He refused to be a victim. He refused to accept failure. He refused to listen to people who told him he was crazy. He refused to stay down when he felt like nothing was going his way.

Simply put, he picked himself up no matter what and kept on going after his dream. He educated
himself and did whatever it took to keep moving in the direction of his passions. Who was he?
Abraham Lincoln.

If you reflect back on your life, I am sure that you can see a pattern of the times you grew the
most. Many of those times are probably a result of some kind of previous "failure." May be even a series of them.

I would like to suggest that a child doesn't fail when they are learning to walk. They fall down
over and over again. It is the falling that teaches them and strengthens them. Each time we fail
is a learning experience, and the faster we pick ourselves up, reflect on the past occurrence and
go again, the faster we can achieve our goals and dreams.

So with this in mind, choose the one thing that may not be going exactly as you wish right now
and do one thing to move you closer to achieving the result you want! And remember, life is about learning and growing. Have fun and create a masterpiece!

Contributed by John Assaraf

John Assaraf, aka "The Street Kid", broke free from small-time gang life and a low self-image in
his teens, to become a multimillionaire entrepreneur by age 30. Learn exactly how he did it in
his new inspirational, step-by-step book "The Street Kid's Guide to Having it All"
http://www.thestreetkid.com/havingitall 

 

The more desire we have to improve some part of ourselves, the more successful we'll become.

After every basketball game, a high school basketball coach watches the videotape and analyzes
what the team did so he can reinforce the things the team did well and suggest ways to improve
the things they didn't do well.

Just as the coach reviews the team's performance after every game so he can suggest ways to keep them in the win column, we should review our performance at work and develop a winning game plan. Actually, we can use the same strategy as the high school basketball coach. Here's the coach's winning formula:

Goals:

First and foremost, we have to know what we're shooting for. In the team's case, it's to win. What are our goals at work? To be the best in our area or department? To get a promotion? To
reduce the number of errors in our department? To increase productivity?

Competency & Skills:

Once we have a goal, we must be competent and have the skills to be able to reach our goal. If we don't have them, we have to acquire them. If we want to be a computer programmer, for instance, then we must learn the language. Whatever we decide we want to do, we must learn and develop the skills necessary to put in a top performance every day.

Execution:

Now, just having the skills & Competency doesn't mean we can use them well. We must be
able to perform them to perfection. That means practice, practice, and practice.

Support:

We all need to work together to reach our goals. No one member of the basketball team can win the game alone. Players need one another and rely on one another to get the job done. The same applies at work (and at home too).

Leadership:

The team has a captain or co captains -- leaders -- to ensure the team executes the coach's game plan. Companies need leaders who direct their efforts toward profitable endeavors.

Desire:

Last, but by far not least, we must have the burning desire to reach our goal -- whatever that goal may be. We can possess the sharpest skills, execute them perfectly, and have the most support and the best leadership -- but if we don't care, chances are good we'll still fall short. We must WANT it. And that's what it takes to win.. We can have anything we want if we want it desperately enough.

Keep On Revisiting & Follow Up:

It is a must from all endeavor; we must try to extract the learning for future. We must look back, give ourselves some time to reflect & discuss with self about the positive & negative of the experience and draw the best course of action for future. We may also take help of our peers, Boss, Wife, Parents or any one with whom; we have generated the highest level of trust & Faith.

sent by Rakesh Nandan Sahay

Senior Officer (HR), NTPC/NRHQ, Lucknow
Email: ditsapriya@yahoo.com

 

Reply on: Employment Terms in India

Hi,

This is Zo from Bangalore, working with Mphasis BFL (a software organization). I was earlier with Volvo and Fiat. Some of my thoughts on remuneration package:

You could give flaxible packages to your employees and they design the package themselves. The advantage here is the employee would be able to structure it so that it suits his / her needs
(e.g. a person may require more medical allowance than leave travel assistance etc.). However,
there are certain Income Tax guidelines which the employee will have to keep in mind while
designing the package, such as limit on LTA or medical (i.e. limit on how much is tax free).
I would suggest hiring a financial consultant for designing the remuneration.

Major employment issues (not in any particular order) would be:

• Leave (Earned leave, Sick leave, Maternity leave)
• Holidays (min. no. of national and festival holidays to be given differs from state to state,
  but it is generally 10 days in a year)
• Min./ Max. age of employees
• Weekly holidays (keeping in mind that max. no. of hours a person can work in a week is 48
  hours)
• Annual increments (normally done in April since the financial year in India is from April 1 to
  March 31)
• Superannuation fund/ Provident Fund/ Gratuity payment (all these can be reviewed at the time of
  reviewing salary)
• Canteen (if you would like to provide this facility)
• Transportation (- do - )

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Zo Hualngo

Email: Zohmingliana.Hualngo@mphasis.com

The Question

Hello All,

I am a new member to this Group and I find it to be informative and interesting. I wish to seek an understanding on the general employment terms in India, and hope someone can share their experience with me......

Regards

Ching TS

TSChing@elken.com.my

Need a Summer Trainee in Bangalore

Zohmingliana Hualngo <>

Hi,

We require a summer trainee for a project at Mphasis BFL (Bangalore) for a duration of 2 months.

Please revert back to this mail i.d: Zohmingliana.Hualngo@mphasis.com

Thanks

Zo

Manager - HR, Mphasis BFL Limited

Help on: eHR, e-Recruiting, & HR Outsourcing

Dear Sir,

I'm doing PhD. in the area of "Paradigm shift in HR--with special reference to eHR". It involves
some survey work and I've developed questionnaires in the following 3 areas:
eHR
e-Recruiting
HR Outsourcing

I need your help in 2 areas:

1.Information on organisations practising eHR and its related processes
2.Link or even better email addresses of people in the HR Department of such organisations, who
can volunteer to participate in the research questionnaire.

Please do let me know how you can help. Thanks. Would it be possible to get the questionnaires
filled up in your company?

Hoping to hear from you ,

Regards,
Pooja Agarwala

Agarwala, Pooja agarwalas@educomp.org

 

[Free Service: Employers & Consultants can email their job vacancies to Alka@HREra.com . We reach them to 2300 HR professionals for free]

Zonal HR Coordinators, State Capitals / Major Cities

Client: Large Financial Institution
Location: Across India – State Capitals / Major Cities

Job Profile:

1) Co-ordination with local Recruitment Consultants

2) Scrutiny and short listing / Preliminary interview of candidates whose CV’s have been received
thru consultants / advertisements / referrals.

Position in following Cities:

Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bangalore, Baroda, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Calcutta, Calicut, Chandigadh, Gauhati, Hubli / Dharwad, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Kolhapur, Lucknow, Madras, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Rajkot, Secunderabad, Simla, Srinagar, Tirunelveli, Trivandrum, Vijaywada, Vishakhapatnam.

Expectation:

Qualification: Graduates and/or PG’s in HR/IR (Preferably PG’s in HR/IR)
Experience: 0-2 Years in recruitments (in Front lines sales/ Operations). Worked with recruitment consultants / financial institutions / Banks / Insurance companies.
Essentials: Excellent interpersonal skills (internal / external customers). Knowledge of English / Hindi and local (State) language
Compensation: Fixed (as per industry standards) + Variable (On performance) + Expenses for travel / communication

Reply to: apply@india.com , hrdhub@hotmail.com

Should you require any further information, please feel free to contact the undersigned.
Warm Regards
For Pertinent
Solutions
Manager Resources
E-Mail: teampertinent@hotmail.com
Visit us: www.geocities.com/teampertinent 

Strategic Business Unit Head, ITES

Hello,

This is Poulomi From Middle Earth Cosultants.

We are one of the top corporate training and behavioral consultants in South India, operating from three cities Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. Our clientele consists of the all the top notch companies and institutes, to name a few, Satyam, Cognizant, Wipro, Oracle, EDS, Convergys, Dr. Reddy's Lab, ISB, ICFAI, IIIF, etc.

Presently we are on the lookout for Strategic Business Unit Head, ITES. The Requirement Profile is as stated below:

Gender : Male / Female
Age : 28 - 32 years
Experience : 6 - 8 years ( minimum experience of 3 years in ITES )
 

QUALIFICATION : An MBA from a premium institute ( Preferably from IIM / XLRI)

BEHAVIORAL SKILLS:

Excellent Communication and Presentation Skill, High Energy Level, Dedicated and Loyal

FUNCTIONAL SKILLS:

Highly intrapreneuial, Able to develop a team, Awareness of ITES segment, Awareness of the Training Industry

Candidate who fits the above requirement may please forward their Resume at the above address.

Best Regards

Poulomi Ghosh

Apply to: poulomi@middleearthconsultants.com

 

Corpworth Marketing Pvt. Ltd. would like to introduce a premier magazine, Training & Management, to you.

Training & Management is India’s first and foremost magazine on training, HR and management
issues. It is a niche segment national publication, which caters to management executives, HRD
professionals, corporate trainers and entrepreneurs. This magazine focuses on a wide gamut of
topics, issues and subjects related to these fields - in short it covers the nuts and bolts of
these industries.

Today, we command

• a subscription base of 7,100+ copies
• a monthly circulation amongst 12,680+ professionals in the fields of management, human
  resources and training.
• an extensive readership of 44,600+ individuals

This gives us a place of pride in the Indian industry. These figures are on the rise every day.

We would like an association with your organisation in terms of subscriptions on a long - term
basis.

Regards

Priyanka Sachdeva,

Executive – Subscription
Email: riya2003_tm@yahoo.com

Training & Management, 28/22, Lower Ground Floor, Old Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi – 110060 Ph:011-25715172 / 73, Mobile : 9818017235

Note: One year subscription of Training & Management : Rs. 455/-. Several discounts are available.

CD on Emotional Intelligence

Dear Professional,

Being "smart" isn't enough. To reach your full potential, personally and professionally, you need
emotional intelligence-the set of skills that enables you to manage your own feelings and relate
effectively to the feelings of others.

This Multimedia CD-ROM on "Applying Emotional Intelligence In the Workplace" will show you how to use emotional intelligence at work to increase your success and satisfaction.

The unique features of this CD-ROM are:
· To assist the executive to self learn
· To maximize the learning to improve individual & organizational performance.
· Valuable resource in libraries for reference

Learning Outcomes:
· How to think intelligently about Emotions
· The keys to behaving wisely
· Techniques for fostering emotional intelligence in others

Gulab Global Consultants is a revolutionary leader in the Training industry, with its uniquely
different and powerful approach to soft skills development. It focuses on just-in-time,
just-enough content and straightforward navigation to keep the learner motivated and attentive
and foster accountability and measurable results.

PRICE - Rs. 499 /- per CD-ROM

With Warm Regards,
Sincerely Yours,

Ruben Gama,
Product Manager.

Gulab Global Consultants gulabglobal@bol.net.in

Gulab Global Consultants
Mumbai Contact : Tel: +91-22-22160193. Fax: +91-22-22187179
E-mail: gulabglobal@sify.com  Website: www.gulabglobal.com

Aligning the Economic Cycle with the Time Cycle: Book by Charu Bahri

Dear All,

I am author of a book, "Aligning the Economic Cycle with the Time Cycle" (ISBN 0-595-26716-5) was published by the Writers Club Press, USA in February 2003.

A few points of interest to HR personnel (from the book) are:

1. The Power Of A Point: A tool for conflict resolution - the need to be an impartial observer.
2. Motives And Motivators: Making living values our natural motivators and thus, ensuring success at the workplace.
3. Pre-requisite for Change - Flexibility: How not to let complacency set in - the importance of
continuous self-checking
4. Personal Visions: Building and monitoring personal visions
5. Building Time Tables For The Mind, Not The Body & An Answer To The Time Crunch -'Time Management'?: Negative effects of some typical time management tools

Insofar as subjects are concerned, the book straddles economics, time study, sociology, change
management, self-understanding and quantum physics.

I am the author, based at Mount Abu (Rajasthan), and believe the book would be a valuable addition to any university or corporate library, especially management and economics/sociology department libraries. The book is priced at Rs.574.00 (US $ 11.95).

Best wishes,

Sincerely,

Charu Bahri

Manager - Personnel & Marketing, Global Hospital & Research Centre, Mount Abu.
Email: bahriad1@sancharnet.in

 

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