simplyrefcheck.com

Bad Hire

refchecker — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:42:58 +0000

Some nightmarish bad hire stories. You certainly don’t want to be one of them, do you
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5034481.html Toni Bowers shares the story of an IT manager who made a bad hire and lived to tell his story…

Cognizant tapping opportunity

refchecker — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 07:36:02 +0000

For those who thought that Indian economy is facing a hard time and that all the Indian private firms and MNC’s are just after their employee’s life, this piece of good news comes as a relief and can actually help them take a chill pill. The global BPO company ‘Cognizant Technology Solutions’ has announced that it is planning to increase its Indian employee headcount by about 75%. Isn’t it some thing very good? And to top this is another news according to which the company will also plan to widen its talent pool from just engineers and other management employees to lawyers, doctors, Chartered Accountant, graphic designers, user interface specialists and other specialists for developing content and designs.

It appears as if the global Business Process Outsourcing giant is beginning to identify the sensitive areas of Indian business industry and is ready to tap the opportunities which others might have failed to recognize. Internet and web technology giants like Yahoo and IBM have known to cut their workforce as a consequence to the economic uncertainties and wage inflation in US. But BPO company ‘Cognizant Technology Solutions’ seems to be untouched by it as the company has its own plans to expand workforce in not just India but all over the world.
Sure, the Indian economy and business sector is on its way to prosper and fly high.

How to choose a retirement plan?

refchecker — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:15:21 +0000

Its true- life is a struggle. We all struggle hard to establish ourselves and achieve our goals whether professionally or personally. To see yourself at a successful point of your career is the most satisfying thing. A desired job with all the incentives, perks and a good salary package to cover all your personal expenses- sounds great. But have you ever thought about the day you retire from your work? Are you assured of getting a desired monthly income once you retire? Have you thought about investing in a perfect pension plan or a retirement plan so that you could independently bear you medical expenses; buy gifts for your loved ones and take out your family for a vacation? If not, then you should better think about it now. Because investing in your retirement plans can help you lead a cheerful, independent and most importantly a respectful life even when you retire from your work.

These days a lot of retirement products are offered in the market according to a person’s convenience but choosing carefully a pension plan that perfectly suits to your requirements would be a right way to secure your retirement period. While there are a lot of things to be looked into but the following points are a must to be considered when selecting a retirement plan.

1) Growing needs and expenses post-retirement
After you retire, your needs and requirements rise accordingly. This may include your personal expenses-gifts, shopping, vacations etc and medical expenses. So you need to calculate or atleast have an estimate as to what your post-retirement needs are going to be and how much your monthly or yearly expense going to be.

2) Desired monthly income
As per your needs and expenses it would be much easier for you to know and decide how much you want your desired income to be so that you live comfortably once you retire from your work.

3) Current expenses and savings
Determine what your current expenses are, how much you need for a monthly or yearly expenditure and how much you can save monthly or yearly.

4) Inflation impact on savings
Calculate the impact of inflation on your savings or monthly income.

5) Invest fixed amount
It is a good option to invest a fixed amount into your retirement plan monthly or yearly on a regular basis.

So, don’t think. Just get into the action and invest into a perfect retirement plan. And when you retire, you will enjoy life to its fullest.

New careers in the making in India

refchecker — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 08:31:48 +0000

Someone said to me once “Keep exploring the new fields for you career and you would surely find one.” Yes this actually happens for there is really no dearth for new career prospects. BPOs can be an attractive career opportunity for a lot of youngsters who are keen on making quick money in short time, but this is not an end to road.

With Indian institutes producing more and more graduates each year, Indian as well as foreign companies too are vying to tap in the cream of these institutes. The numbers of big as well as small companies who come to management institutes for campus recruitment and job placements have increased by each passing years.

Many MNC legal firms have turned towards India to outsource its legal consulting and research services and for this they are hiring law management students in really high numbers. With this the career in LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) is really gaining the momentum. This might sound just like a career similar to BPO but it actually carries a lot of variation in terms of the work procedure, work culture, pay scale and employee development.

The other industry which is emerging as a significant sector in Indian economy is the Real Estate industry. It’s now on the anvil to become an organized sector from the unorganized part of economy. Real Estate companies are now actively engaged in hooking the fresh management graduates as against being relying on the personal ties for hiring the professionals. Due to the ever increasing employee attrition rate and a skewing talent pool, these real estate companies are now offering high salary packages to the fresh management students. In a fierce competition between the big companies to woo as many brilliant graduates, the Indian health sector does not want to be left out. And so many big medical companies too are in the process to hire management students who have a medical background.

Are you planning for a business acquisition?

refchecker — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:28:58 +0000

It’s never bad to gather right information before taking up the critical business decisions. Whether it setting on a new venture/project or buying a business. Mergers and acquisitions are possibly the current trends in businesses, but taking up steps too quickly and without planning would certainly land you in the worst situations of your life. And what theses worst situations are?
It can be anything from confronting financial situations to losing your valued customers to defacing your business reputation. So what is it that’s worth considering when you plan to buy or acquire a business?
1. If you are a first-time buyer, then do a background check of the new business you want to acquire.
2. Check out if you are actually buying future problems for you. i.e., the business in question should not hold in too many problems for you to tackle with in future.
3. Don’t underestimate the buying process or you might end up spending more than you ever expected on business you are about to acquire.
4. Prepare yourself for any consequences before buying any business.
I hope these simple steps would help you take some major decisions in your career. And next time when you brood over acquiring a business, don’t forget to consider these above points to improve your career prospects.

Who do you seek business advice from?

refchecker — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:35:58 +0000

Recently, I came across an article about how some business magnates and giant entrepreneurs take advice from their spouses before taking any new step in their business. Well I found this thing really interesting. But I know many of you out there might differ from my opinion. Now days, when so much competition has emerged on the scene, it becomes really important for an individual to thoroughly check out his or her steps and any possible pros and cons before setting on a venture. While getting into this process all alone can be a bit difficult, sharing your problems and seeking a business advice from your spouse- the person you most confide in- can prove beneficial for your personal as well as career development.
This I think is one of the major reasons for why people prefer to marry the one who belongs to his or her own industry. It sure becomes much easier for them to discuss certain professional issues if their spouse has a deep insight about the particular field. This being the case, it’s not that that only those who have spouse from their own industry are liable to take advice. Some people like to tell and teach their spouse (who do not belong to same industry) about the rules and secrets of their profession, discuss problems and then seek career advice.
While it’s not a requisite to always act upon their advice but discussing your most complicated issues like hiring, taking up a new project, issues involving your boss or employee or colleague can actually relieve you of tensions and save you from committing stupid mistakes and taking decisions that work towards your and your career’s over all development.

How do you set your business goals?

refchecker — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:53:23 +0000

In my last post I talked about certain points that one should keep in mind while setting up a new business. Well I hope that it might have helped you in some way or the other. Now it quite obvious that when one starts a new venture, the first thing that one works toward is setting goals. Today I want to discuss with you guys that how the goals for a business can be set?
There are some people who set goals that are too easily achieved while there are others who set up goals that are pretty difficult to attain. Well! According to what I believe one should try and set up goals that are neither too easy nor too difficult to be achieved. Rather try to set a goal that sounds challenging for you and your business. Unlike this, if you set a high aim that is too difficult for you to achieve, then you may unknowingly doom yourself to failure or worse you might lower your self-confidence. As a consequence, your business would be the one to suffer the most.
So the thing is how to set goals so that you achieve success in your business?
1. Set short term goal with a limited time period. If you have long term business goals then you can easily break them down and set for short term. This way you won’t be afraid of taking actions to achieve your goals.
2. Try to measure time and again your action that you took for attaining your goals with the goals you have actually set. This will help you in analyzing your own skills and areas where you lack.
3. Keep reviewing your final goals every now and then so that you know that you are on track.
4. You can always think of altering your goals to make it convenient for you to achieve but not too convenient that it becomes irrelevant for your business.
All the above points which I shared with you can be quite beneficial to you and your business. There are no hard and fast rules that you can stick to these points while only achieving your business goals. They can help you in attaining your aims in any area or phase of your life.

3 Things to consider while starting a new venture

refchecker — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:24:51 +0000

It’s a great experience to startup new venture. All the more it’s really exciting. The very thought of taking up new challenges and writing a success story is enough to energize your soul. It’s quite possible and normally happens that people make certain mistakes while starting their new business. But you can avoid these simple and common mistakes by keeping some points in your mind.
Do a thorough research
Before stepping in to any new venture, it necessary on your part to do a thorough research of the particular industry. Study your potential consumers and the market properly. If a need arises get a survey done to know your customer’s needs, their likings or priority in respect to your product and the like.
Talk to Businessmen
It would be of much help if you talk to those people or businessmen who are already established in the market. You can also use your other business contacts to get in touch with them. Try to know and learn from there past experience.
Build an office with in Budget
While it’s true that starting new business is like a dream coming true and may want to build a magnificent office with state-of-the-art equipments. Ofcourse, you have got all rights to do it but try to do it within the budget as you’re your business is not yet established. A useless expense may cost your business.
Just keep these simple but very important points in your mind and you’ll be all set to start your business on a positive note. Do tell me how you liked it. Any comments, queries or criticism are most welcome.

4 innovative ways to improve productivity

refchecker — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:03:37 +0000

In the business scenario, competition is just getting bigger and better. And you sure don’t want to feel left out and your company defeated in this corporate culture. So how do you plan to cope with it? The one way is to stick to your traditional rules of business and the other is to change with the changing times and incorporate ideas and implement actions that sound more innovative and challenging.
1. Long term analysis for your business- Try to see and evaluate your business 20 to 30 years from now. Ask yourself what goals would your company want to achieve in the future and how is your company going to be viewed in the market? This analysis would help you with realizing your company’s potentials.
2. Encourage your employees to be innovative- you can ask your employees to integrate innovative ideas to work. Ask them to draw out the picture of their problem and then to delineate the ways that can help them achieve their goals. In this way, they’ll be practically able to see their problems and bring them to life to find a possible solution for it.
3. Improve the energy- Work towards improving your and your employees’ energies. Deploy such ways and implement actions in the workplace that helps in improving your employee motivation and energy. Do a little survey and ask for the activities that boost their energies and encourage them to work efficiently.
4. Find out your responsibilities-For your company to work better, start taking responsibilities for the problems. It doesn’t mean that you make yourself responsible for every problem but contribute and start helping out your staff by finding out ways for their problem’s solution.
Sticking to one of these or all of the above points can help increase your and your staff’s motivation, efficiency and productivity. I hope some of these points could be of your use as well.

Do MNCs really lookafter their employees?

refchecker — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 08:55:22 +0000

Over the years, India has been open to a global market. Outsourcing businesses to the other foreign countries has perfectly synced with the global business market as a lot of foreign companies have setup their shops in this country. As such, the competition has raised a lot and Multinational companies are training their employees to vie in the world of Business. More and more fresh graduates are now turning towards these MNC’s and why not? They offer large salary packages, perks and incentives to employees in return for their services.
In some way or the other, there has always been a cold war among the MNCs and the private firms. Multinational companies believe that they allow their employees a full freedom while dealing with clients whereas private firms completely refuse this concept with a view that employees working in MNC are not trained enough to counter real life situations. While this is so, a renowned multinational company-yahoo India- has recently slashed 50 jobs that include positions of junior engineers, managers, senior managers and others on the criteria of incompetency, low performance and inexperienced personnel. Even worst is that they didn’t even give the prior notice to these employees. Now this being the case, I really wonder if these companies are considerate about their employees or not.