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THE OXFORD COLLEGE OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

HSR LAYOUT, BANGALORE

Unethical Human Resource Practices in Industries.

Submitted To:

Ms. Roshni James


Associate Professor Dean HR & Placement

Submitted By:
Divya. G

Dipendra Kumar shah 2ndSem, MBA

Wipro CEO TK Kurien poaches star performers from rivals to replace middle, senior level executives
Wipro Chief Executive TK Kurien is poaching star performers from rival firms as he approaches the final stages of a mass cull of middle and senior management staff in a sweeping reorganisation meant to infuse urgency and purpose into a laidback work culture. Kurien has been handpicking hard-charging specialists from IT services market leader Tata Consultancy Services and revenue growth leader Cognizant and paying them top dollar, choosing lean and mean replacements to fill the space vacated by the departing executives. Over the past nine months, about 60 managers, some of them long-termers in the 31-year-old company, have been asked to leave. The evaluation was based on how they were rated by customers directly or indirectly served by them. Company insiders and others familiar with the plan said by the end of financial year 2012, a similar number would have been ejected, meaning Wipro would have shed half its middle and senior management staff. The new crop of Kurien's executives will include Satish Dorai, a former TCS employee who has been hired as senior vice-president to help Wipro tweak its project delivery models and establish a new business transformation practice focussed on high-value projects. Ritesh Pathak, an old Cognizant hand who worked at HP-owned MphasiS, also joined Wipro last month as a vice-president to help the company hunt for fresh business - an area where it has been lagging TCS, Infosys and Cognizant. Omkar Nisal, the head of TCS' core banking software division Bancs, joined this month to help Wipro transform its sales function. "There are no pink slips, there are no slips at all; just an email about measuring up to the new benchmarks," said a manager who left Wipro in December. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-01-12/news/30619943_1_wipro-ceo-tk-kurien-customersatisfaction-wipro-chief-executive

VA's HR chief resigns amid conference scandal


Two multimillion-dollar conferences for Veterans Affairs Department human resources officials have resulted in the resignation of the agency's top personnel official, as an internal investigation found excessive spending and evidence that some of those planning the events had improperly accepted gifts from potential vendors. The report, released Monday by the VA's Office of Inspector General, found $6.1 million spent on two weeklong conferences at the Orlando Marriott World Center Golf and Spa Resort, held in July and August 2011, with about $762,00 being on "unauthorized," "unnecessary" or "wasteful" expenses, according to the report.

The report is especially hard on John Sepulveda, the VA assistant secretary for human resources, who "abdicated his responsibilities when he failed to provide proper guidance and oversight to his senior executives," the report says. Sepulveda has resigned. Eleven VA employees responsible for conferences, including site selection and other planning, "improperly accepted gifts from contractors seeking to do business or already doing business with VA," the report says. The names of the employees are omitted from the public report, but VA officials said some could face disciplinary action. Improper gifts included massages, meals, limos, helicopter rides, gift baskets and Rockettes tickets, according to the IG report. In only one case, referred for possible criminal prosecution, the VA employee solicited the gift, IG officials said. The gifts did not seem to influence decisions on the location of the conference or on which vendors received businesses, IG officials said.

Air India director under lens for nepotism


Manju V, TNN Jan 31, 2013, 04.18AM IST

MUMBAI: Air India has launched an inquiry against its executive director (operations) and two top officials for allegedly bypassing the government carrier's recruitment norms to induct a pilot, son of one of the officials, despite having failed the selection procedure twice. This is the first time that Air India has initiated an inquiry into a case of alleged malpractices in recruitment. A chargesheet to this effect was filed. The chargesheet, dated October 7, filed against Capt AS Soman said, "While you were working as Executive Director, Operations during 2010-2011, you succumbed to pressure of your superior official and acted against the rules to get Aditya Beri son of your colleague, Capt NK Beri recruited into Air India Charters Ltd (the company that operates Air India Express) for the post of type rated Boeing 737800 co-pilot even though AICL had no requirement for Boeing 777 type rated pilots the qualification that his son was holding." Aditya Beri, sent a response. "...the matter is sub judice and being heard in the Delhi HC and also any information regarding this case is strictly confidential and I cannot divulge any details to you," he wrote. "There is a criminal and civil lawsuit against newspapers for maligning and disreputing my name in the past." AI has initiated an inquiry against its executive director (operations) and two others for bypassing rules to induct a colleague's son as pilot, who has failed selection tests twice.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-01-31/india-business/36658351_1_air-india-recruitmentnorms-executive-director

Hiring sleaze
Business Today ,Goutam Das and E. Kumar Sharma Edition: Sep 2, 2012

The

hide

and

seek

with

NeerajGarg

would

be

comical,

if

it

were

not

so

tragic.

He comes well-recommended on LinkedIn, the professional networking website, which has 214 others bearing the same name. But the one we seek is hiding behind his old identity of a placement and training executive with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). C.B. Prusty, Avneet S. and Vivek Singh, all former colleagues of Garg's at CSC, once described him as "hardworking and knowledgeable", "one of the few resources the organisation is proud to have", and "a thorough professional and a wonderful human being". They no longer want to talk about him, and qualify their recommendations by saying they were true at the time they were made, in 2008 and 2009. One of Garg's friends, approached by BT, promised to organise a chat with him. Within moments Garg had checked out the BT correspondent's profile on LinkedIn. However, he did not accept a 'friend' request, did not call, and nor did he get in touch in any other way. Chances are, he wouldn't. In October last year, CSC, a multinational corporation that employs 24,000 in India, forced Garg to resign. The story goes that he was caught negotiating a bribe from a college. Six people with knowledge of the incident accuse Garg of also engaging middlemen to conduct campus recruitment drives, in violation of company policy. "A hidden camera was used to pin him down," says a former CSC employee. Ernst & Young (E&Y), he says, has been engaged by CSC to investigate the matter. E&Y would not confirm its role in the CSC investigation, citing client confidentiality. However, Arpinder Singh, Partner and National Director of Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services, says he has investigated eight to nine cases of recruitment-related corruption at different companies in the country in the last two years. Amid all this, Garg's side of the story is lost. He did not respond to two e-mails sent to his Yahoo! address. The mobile phone connection he used while at CSC was taken away by the company. It has been impossible to get through to his current number, given to BT by the head of a fledgling university, which Garg ostensibly visited after leaving CSC to solicit business. Numerous calls to this number from Bangalore and Delhi either elicited no response or were rejected.

Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, where engineering colleges compete with mango orchards for dominating the landscape, still has echoes of a story about a high-flying recruiter from Wipro Technologies: Russell Purushothaman. Placement officers in Nunna village, a half-an-hour drive from the city and home to no less than five engineering colleges, drop their voices to a whisper when you mention Purushothaman.

A few years ago, Purushothaman was quite the messiah. Newspaper archives have him hiring more students than any other recruiter and offering higher salaries, until he suddenly vanished in a haze of rumour. According to a former colleague, he was "street-smart - the kind you would expect in sales". Here, however, he allegedly sold jobs, charging up to Rs 7.5 lakh to visit a college and Rs 50,000 for offer letter. His game was up when a colleague blew the whistle after he saw a newspaper advertisement put out by a college. It had photos of students selected by Wipro. One of those was a girl whom the whistle-blower had rejected. As more skeletons tumbled out, the bosses at Wipro summoned Purushothaman to Bangalore and interrogated him for six hours before agreeing on a not-so-graceful exit. For good measure, the company filed a case of cheating at the Madhapur police station in Hyderabad. The matter is sub judice. Police officers confirm that Wipro has indeed filed the case against Purushothaman, though nobody wants to be "dragged into the matter". One of the officers merely read out some details from the report filed with the Madhapur station and gave the FIR number, which corresponds to the case number given by officials in the court of the IX Metropolitan Magistrate, Cyberabad, where the case has been filed. Court officials initially agreed to give BT a certified copy of the case documents if an application was made through a lawyer, but later grew cold feet. Purushothaman is harder to trace than Garg. LinkedIn shows him as working with an information technology company called Datamatics Consultants Inc - Asia. This company has no website or contact number. Its logo, just like its name, resembles that of Mumbai-based publicly-listed company Datamatics. A spokesperson for Datamatics says it has nothing to do with Datamatics Consultants Inc - Asia. Wipro is being coy. When BT broached the subject in an e-mail, SubhashiniPattabhiraman, part of the company's media relations team, responded with details of the measures taken to avoid recruitment fraud, efforts to create public awareness, and strategy to prevent other possible areas of HR corruption. Not one of the 603 words in the

document reads either Russell or Purushothaman. When BT persisted, and sent another e-mail to Vipin Nair, head of communications, all it elicited was "no comments" and "regards". Incidentally, the case was called in the court of the IX Metropolitan Magistrate on August 9, the day this article was finalised, and posted for hearing on October 8 this year. Typically, the colleges that succumb to the charms of dodgy recruiters and placement consultants are those that are not accredited and are located in areas which see little traffic of reputed recruiters. They face the classical chickenand-egg situation. They need recruiters to attract students and students will come only if recruiters do. In come the facilitators - middlemen, corrupt employees, college authorities who are willing bribe-givers - who embolden the colleges to declare to the world "100 per cent placement" and guaranteed salaries. This at a time when research reports say only a handful of those passing out of professional colleges are employable straightaway. A recent study by testing and assessment company MeritTrac says recruiting companies found only 21 per cent employable MBAs out of 2,264 from 100 schools outside the top 25. According to Aspiring Minds, another assessment company, less than 17.5 per cent of engineering graduates can be employed in the IT sector.

"I face pressure from parents," says Sai Krishna Kota, Training and Placement Officer with Prasad V. Potluri Siddhartha Institute of Technology in Vijayawada. "They ask why certain companies are not visiting my college when they are going to the neighbouring ones. 'Give them money, get the company at any cost,' they say." The pressure from parents, say colleges, started unethical conduct in recruitment. The parents made HR professionals corrupt, not the other way round. However, colleges, for their part, are eager to cater to the parents and more than eager to pay bribes if these help in placements. More than 15 placement officers of rural engineering colleges from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh told BT that their placements in a good year ranged between 20 and 60 per cent. Rural colleges, particularly those that have come up in the last five or six years, struggle to get topflight companies - the big recruiters - to their campuses. They bribe HR personnel, seek the help of middlemen, and end up inviting bogus companies.

"After being unsuccessful in reaching out to Wipro directly in spite of all efforts, I had to explore the middleman route. Somebody told me we had to go through a consultant," says Mukti Mishra, Co-founder of Centurion University of Technology and Management, which runs colleges in one of India's poorest districts, Gajapati in Orissa. The middleman, engaged late last year, has thus far failed to get Wipro, or any other company in that league, to Centurion. Wipro, which has tightened its HR processes after the Purushothaman episode, doesn't approach colleges through a third party. Colleges have to be accredited, or empanelled, by toptier companies before they come to recruit. The process involves a physical inspection in which the college's infrastructure and faculty, among other things, are evaluated. But middlemen still fancy their chances. "I might use my good offices to recommend a college," says Visakhapatnam-based VamsiKiran, whose name somehow became associated with HCL Technologies. He runs a training organisation but says colleges often "request" him to help in placements. In June HCL Tech got worried enough to send an e-mail to a university clarifying its position. "In the recent past we have found that a certain individual named Vamsi has been misrepresenting HCL and our intent he or any other individual does not represent HCL for our talent acquisition needs," said the e-mail from Puneet Kumar Pandey, Director, Human Capital Management. The company also told other colleges it had nothing to do with Vamsi. A memorandum of understanding between a rural college and a Bangalore-based middleman - neither can be named because the middleman has threatened the college with consequences, and, curiously, also hinted at suicide - is revealing. Under "financials", the agreement says the college will pay Rs 10 lakh as capital advance to initiate accreditation with Wipro and TCS. When this was pointed out to TCS, the company said it "has never heard about a person like him nor has it engaged his organisation to work, canvass, engage on behalf of TCS at any point of time for any work". Wipro said it had nothing to do with this middleman, who, incidentally, claims to have placed at least 30,000 graduates over the last decade. For colleges, it is not that easy to dismiss the middleman phenomenon. They in fact are forced to foster it. Nothing moves without money or gifts, say placement officers. When HR teams of companies visit remote campuses, colleges pay for their tickets and stay. When offers are doled out, they express their appreciation through gifts like mobile phones, tablets, and even gold. All this in the hope that they will come back next year and hire in larger numbers. In September last year, midtier IT companyMindTree recruited from a college in Tirupati. In May this year, when two HR executives visited the same college on an employee engagement trip, each was "forced" to accept a gold bracelet worth Rs 75,000. They declared the gifts when they got back to the headquarters and the bracelets were sent back. "We are investigating the matter very seriously," says MindTree Chairman SubrotoBagchi. "I believe this incident is nothing compared to what is happening all over the country and the illegal and immoral practices actually go way deeper. There are junkets on offer for placement officers to Dubai, Colombo and Bangkok. Colleges give kickbacks for coming to their campus for hiring and commission to intermediaries who bring

students for engineering admission. I have personally decided to take the matter head on. We simply cannot tolerate what is going on." What is going on goes beyond demands for "end-to-end hospitality" by HR executives. It includes fakes: fake offer letters and fake companies. o understand the fake phenomenon we need to go back to the engineering college cluster in Vijayawada. About a 100 km from the city is Khammam. On a 35-acre plot here, new blocks are being added to a six-year-old college, Sarada Institute of Technology and Science. The principal's office, in the college's main block, is a huge rectangular room. At one end of the room is a desk laden with a PC, printer, newspapers, a book on thermodynamics, a dictionary and a tray full of resumes. The Principal, K.V. NarasimhaRao, sits right under a large, black and white portrait of Albert Einstein. Rao is sifting through resumes, looking to fill a placement officer's position. He has been meeting and rejecting candidates, most of whom only talk of paying bribes to get students placed. "They tell the college management that companies ask for bribes. When funds are made available, the placement officers can pocket some of the money," he says, peering from behind his rimmed glasses. The pressure to meet the "100 per cent placement" target - much crowed about in advertisements these days forces placement officers to invite all kinds of companies. The result has been disastrous. Fake companies that operate only for a year or so have been cropping up over the last three years. They start recruiting students starting August-September, collect money either from the college or from the students directly, citing training expenses or a refundable security deposit, and vanish by May of the next year. Try to Google the website of Achievers Business Corporate (ABC), which was hiring till the other day. Even the omniscient search engine comes up short. The few places on the Internet where you do find ABC mentioned, you would also find incensed comments from people alleging that the company was "fake" and had disappeared after making offers. Some say they had sent Rs 5,000 along with their documents to "confirm" their jobs, but later found the company's premises locked, phone numbers disconnected and emails bouncing. ABC, which called itself Indore-based, offered jobs to as many as 20 students of Ballari Institute of Technology and Management (BITM), in Bellary, Karnataka. "ABC came to recruit electronics graduates saying it had projects in the telecom sector. It had a community on Facebook," says AneeshNirguna, one of the 20 'recruits'. The offer letters were issued on March 30 last year and the 'recruits' were asked to join in September. "We had to furnish a demand draft of Rs 5,000 as security deposit. Since we had been recruited by ABC we did not apply anywhere else. We waited till September, only to realise that we could no longer find the company," says Nirguna. A BITM trustee, who did not want to be named, says the management never quite trusted ABC but the students pressured it into inviting the company. "ABC was recruiting in the neighbouring colleges and the students asked us why we were letting the opportunity pass. These were students who had not been placed until March last year and had 40 to 50 per cent marks." Kumar Gorasa and K. Ram Kishore paid Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh, respectively, to Prodigy Solutions, which called itself an IT company and collected the money as a precondition to joining. There are many companies

in the world which call themselves "Prodigy Solutions", but the one in this case was housed on the sixth and ninth floors of Cyber Towers in Hyderabad, a landmark address for the IT industry. According to police officers, the company collected Rs 4.15 crore from 660-odd recruited employees before it vanished: lock, stock and CEO. A company that called itself March-End Consultancy approached 20 to 30 colleges in Andhra Pradesh last year and charged Rs 8,000 to Rs 15,000 for every offer issued on behalf of IBM and MphasiS. The letters turned out to be fake. "The company recruited 140 students from my college in February last year and took Rs 500 from each as registration fee. They identified themselves as recruiting vendors for IBM. Three persons the company brought along impersonated IBM executives. They carried IBM business and identity cards. The college also received an e-mail from a fake IBM domain," says V.S. Rama Krishna, Placement Officer at BVC Engineering College, Odalarevu. An IBM spokesperson said the matter was under investigation and the company was assisting the authorities. MphasiS at first did not respond to BT's queries. When reminded, a spokesperson for the company sent an SMS with a smiley, saying: "No update asked around. Looks like it is far too dated to scoop out dope now." Pune-based Persistent Systems discovered in November last year that a company called Orange Software Technology, based in Hyderabad, was hiring on its behalf - and, of course, charging the candidates money. A legal notice, says Persistent's Chief People Officer Sameer Bendre, put an end to it. TCS, which hires more every year than any other private company in the country, is a perennial favourite with fraudsters and has taken out advertisements in newspapers asking colleges and students to be careful. Fellow IT giants IBM and Wipro have done the same. Public awareness campaigns, though necessary, may not be sufficient. Placement officers will need to do more due diligence, and, eventually, structural changes alone may address the malaise. Many suggest a single cross-industry test which doesn't exclude any student from any college, however remote. Companies can pick students on the basis of their score. Well-organised pooled campuses - in which students from many colleges gather at a common venue to write a company's test - could also help. "The issues around corruption have recently been brought to our notice. I have discussed them with our Executive Council and with HR executives at our HR summit in Chennai two weeks back. We all need to review our processes. I am sure the industry will take the necessary steps," says Som Mittal, who heads NASSCOM, the industry lobby for IT, the largest recruiter at colleges and in whose name the most fraud happens. There are lessons to be learned from Wipro, which has tightened its HR processes. "My team and I created the Talent Quality Group at Wipro. The group can also do retrospective inquiry - dig into the records of employees who are not fresh and check their previous employment details. Wipro has since then received a patent for some of the innovative recruitment processes that the group put in place," says PradeepBahirwani, former vice president of Talent Acquisition, who has left the company to write fiction.

Unethical hiring:
Company A is hiring from its competitor B some of the Technical experts with very high package for Technology Transfer, once work is over they are asked to leave. Poaching is also one type of unethical hiring. Offers / Promises are given on Company A Payroll bur after joining employee is put on Company B, contractor role. Wrong picture of company is shown to candidate, after joining candidates finds company is very seek unit. Company A does not disclose that salaries are delayed in every month, after leaving current company and joining Company A, candidate comes to know that every month salary is delayed by2-3 months, which should have been disclosed during hiring. Role explained is A and role given is B after joining. CTC offered is X+Y and after coming on board CTC paid is only X. Variable Pay and Commission is shown very high, but actually no one is getting offered variable pay and commissions with many reasons. Hiring only relatives inspite of lack of competencies. Asking money from candidate for pushing his profile in the company. Avoiding specific community while hiring. Due to pressure from Sr. Management recruiting non skilled employees attribution http://www.citehr.com/435047-looking-examples-unethical-hiring.html#ixzz2UXxZcjm3

RBC hiring scandal:


RBC, the countrys largest bank, has become the target this week of intense popular scorn and political scrutiny because of its relationship with iGate and a possible plan to axe jobs currently held by internal RBC employees in favour of iGate workers. The hiring of foreign temp workers to replace long-held domestic jobs at RBC could pose a violation of a government program to bring skilled workers from abroad, a statement from Diane Finley, the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, said. The purpose of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is to fill acute labour needs when Canadians are not available for the work required. It was never intended as a means to bring in temporary foreign workers in order to replace already-employed Canadian workers, a statement from the minister said. Typically, foreign nationals hired by Canadian companies have to attain a labour market opinion (LMO) from HRSDC that validates the need for the service and why Canadians arent able to fill the role, as well as a visa.

Alyson Queen, a spokeswoman for Minister Finley said the iGate workers, who number about 45 in all, had received so-called labour market opinion approvals from the department but those are now being scrutinized. An investigation is underway and HRSDC officials are currently reviewing the labour market opinions submitted by iGate in great detail, based on apparent discrepancies between RBCs public statement and information which has previously been provided to the government. We will fully cooperate with requests from the government for information on this matter, the statement from iGate said. RBC has said it has not hired temporary foreign workers to replace existing bank staff. Previous reports have suggested the bank planned to eliminate or offshore about 50 technology jobs related to investor services. Unions and other labour groups have long complained that so-called offshoring of jobs to lower-cost countries leads to reduced wages at home as workers here bend to pressures for lower pay. This isnt the first time iGate has been tied to controversial hiring practices. In 2008, the U.S. Department of Justicefined iGate, which at the time was based in Pittsburgh, for unlawfully discriminating against U.S. citizens who had applied for IT jobs. iGate was expressly hiring foreign workers with temporary visas. In the settlement, the DoJ added that it also requires iGate to train recruitment personnel and that the department would continue to monitor the company. Beyond the current arrangement, RBC is an established client of the U.S. outsourcing firm. In fact, in iGates U.S. regulatory filings, the company said RBC is its second-biggest customer, accounting for just over $100-million or 11 per cent of the companys revenues in 2012. The bank has been a client since at least 2010, according to the companys 10-K filing. The services provided to RBC primarily include consulting, independent verification and validation, application development and maintenance, infrastructure management, BPO and other related IT services, filings said. Other clients of ofiGate include General Electric, automaker Honda as well as U.S. media giant Time Warner, according to the companys website. The firm operates in more than 20 countries globally but conducts most of its business operations in India. In a survey by professional services consultants Aon-Hewitt, the international outsourcer was ranked the No. 2 Best Employer in the Greater Toronto Area in the small- to medium-sized company category. The way this study works is that were actually listening to their employees, said Neil Crawford, project head for the survey, which is produced in conjunction with Queens University School of Business. What were focusing on is their permanent employees, not their contract or temp employees. If theyre hiring temporary employees, [the study] may have surveyed them but they wouldnt be considered in terms evaluating whether they should be considered a best employer or not.

Dallas hired tech manager based on phony rsum; now he's charged with theft
By RUDOLPH BUSH Staff Writer rbush@dallasnews.com Published: 16 March 2013 10:32 PM Based on his rsum, Antoine Deon Flowers was just the sort of promising young manager the city of Dallas needed to help its information services department recover from a massive hiring scandal. A former Army officer who worked for NASA as a software engineer, Flowers was an education director at a Virginia college. He spoke and wrote Spanish and was working on a masters degree in math from Southern Methodist University. Today, Flowers, 26, is charged with stealing 12 city-owned iPads, worth nearly $10,000. He was arrested on Feb. 14. According to investigators, he started taking the iPads to pawnshops on Dec. 13 just three months after he started his $83,000-a-year job with the city. More troubling, a review of Flowers rsum by The Dallas Morning News shows that it is largely a work of fiction. That raises questions about how he was hired into a high-ranking position in a city department that was rocked by scandal months earlier. A city spokesman said City Hall wont have facts and answers for this specific case until a human resources investigation is completed in mid-April. But its clear the city did little to check references on Flowers rsum something called for under the citys hiring guidelines. On Aug. 30, City Hall extended Flowers an offer to become manager of the citys desktop computer systems, a position that gave him access to critical computer systems, including those used by the Dallas Police Department. The offer was made just days before City Manager Mary Suhm would brief the City Council on the troubled Communication and Information Services Department. She told the council the department was on a path to recovery, after The News revealed in 2011 that the departments director, Worris Levine, had bypassed civil service procedures to stack the department with members of his church. Levine resigned after the scandal broke, and Suhm pledged reform. But Flowers hiring suggests it did not take root. City Council member Jerry Allen, head of the Budget, Finance and Audit Committee, had never heard Flowers name before a reporter called last week to ask about the case. Maybe Im too nave, Allen said. How in the world could this happen? The council member said he told himself at the time of Levines resignation that if it ever happened again, somebody would be sent down the road kicking cans. At this point, no one at City Hall has been disciplined in connection with Flowers hiring. Attempts to reach Flowers, who was released from custody after his arrest, were not successful. A courtappointed attorney representing him did not respond to a request for comment.

When Flowers was hired, the city told him his employment was contingent on a background clearance, among other checks. He did pass two criminal background checks. But his rsum is filled with claims that are wholly or partially false: It says he served in the Army from May 2005 through May 2009 and was promoted to lieutenant in 2007. But the closest Flowers got to serving in the Army was signing up, and he wasnt an officer with top -secret security clearance, as he boasted. According to our records it appears he signed an enlistment contract with the Army but never actually served, wrote Mark Edwards, chief of media relations at the Armys Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Ky. NASA records show that from January to March 2009, Flowers took part in an undergraduate student research program at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. It was an internship, and he was not a systems administrator or software engineer as he claimed, according to a spokeswoman. Flowers did briefly work for Centura College in Newport News, Va., in 2011 and 2012. But he was not a director of education supervising 18 employees and advising 20 others. He was an instructor. An instructor would not supervise employees, said Jaymie Anderson, a human resources official at the college. He never set foot on SMUs campus as a student, the university said. He didnt earn an undergraduate degree from the University of Houston in 2007. A spokesman for the university said Flowers attended for two semesters but did not graduate. A Virginia telephone number that he listed to confirm his Spanish proficiency was disconnected. Meanwhile, court records in Virginia show that Flowers has been chased by debt collectors in Virginia Beach and Newport News for failing to make payments on a car note and for rent at two apartment complexes. According to his rsum, Flowers spent much of 2010 and 2011 working for ERMI Environmental Laboratories in Allen. That company was acquired recently, and attempts to reach its former owner, Kendall K. Brown, were not successful. Allen said there was no excuse for Flowers hiring. Thats basic 101 personnel background check, he said. Twenty-six is damn young for doing all those things he said hed done. The city declined to release most emails sent by Flowers during his five-month stint at City Hall. But the city did release emails from Jan. 28, Flowers last day on the job. The exchanges suggest that his supervisor, assistant department director Chester Helt, was aware that Flowers was struggling on the job. The emails begin with a note from a city consultant saying some Dallas police computers were displaying the wrong home page, a glitch that Flowers team was responsible for preventing.

Flowers forwarded the email to Helt, who wrote back a few minutes later: At this time I am letting everyone know you are going to be out for a few days. Flowers responded: My team already know (sic) I will not be turning (sic) to the city, I will have the letter and all the cities (sic) things before tomorrow. Before the day was up, Flowers had submitted a resignation letter. But the paperwork that followed gave no clue that he left under duress. The reason for his resignation was cited as a career change, and Flowers was listed as eligible to be rehired at City Hall. Two weeks later, officers recovered 11 of 12 missing iPads at area pawnshops. In some instances, videotapes showed Flowers selling them, a warrant stated. His position at City Hall is currently vacant. The city is advertising for someone to oversee all desktop devices within the city of Dallas.

One more fake interview call and that too (too professional manner) its such an irony!!!!!!!!!!
attribution http://www.citehr.com/312111-one-more-fake-interview-call-innocent people.html#ixzz2UXw2BHUO Maruti Suzuki Limited 1, Nelson Mandela Road, New Delhi - 110070 VasantKunj, Delhi Tel: 011-451-504-48 Your Resume has been selected from MONSTER.COM for our new plant. The Company selected 72 candidates list for - IT - Senior Manager - Senior Engineer - IT - Sales/Business Development - Marketing & Communications - Finance & Accounts - Customer Services - Human Resources - Admin/Secretarial - Legal - Purchase/ Logistics/ Supply Chain - Free Lancers - Telecoms/ ISP Call Centre - HR

- Administration and Production Departments, It is our pleasure to inform you that your Resume was selected as one of the 82 candidates short listed for the interview. The Company SUZUKI is the best Manufacturing Car Company in India, The Company is recruiting the candidates for our new Plants in New Delhi, Karnataka,Tamilnadu, Gujurat, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai, your interview will be held at The Company Corporate office in New Delhi on 29th of Jen. At 11.30 AM, You will be pleased to know that the 82 candidates selected, 75 candidates will be giving appointment, meaning that your Application can progress to final stage. You will have to come to the Company corporate office in New Delhi. Your offer letter with Air Ticket will be sent to you by courier before date of interview. The Company can offer you a salary with benefits for this post 62, 000/- to 200, 000/- P.M. + (HRA + D.A + Conveyance and other Company benefits. The designation and Job Location will be fixing by Company HRD. You have to come with photo-copies of all required documents. REQUIRED DOCUMENTS BY COMPANY HRD. ====================================== 1) Photo-copies of Qualification Documents. 2) Photo-copies of Experience Certificates (If any) 3) Photo-copies of Address Proof 4) Two Passport Size Photograph. You are to make a cash security deposit amount of Rs. 13,700 INR (Which is Refundable) to our Company Senior HRD accountant via any of the Bank nearest to you on the account details send to you upon your response. Due to the fact that we have received more than 3,200 Application forms from different candidates of different backgrounds, the Company Board of directors implemented a law that Only Serious Candidate who is willingly, ready to work for our company and pays the security deposit shall be given an appointment letter and the main venue of Interview". We wish you the best of luck for the subsequent and remaining stage. The last date of security deposited in bank 28th of Jen 2011 you have to give the pay in slip to the Company HRD -direct recruitment via email. Your Letter with supporting document will be dispatch same time by courier to your postal address after receipt of security deposited confirmation in bank, as you may also know 200 rupees will be deducted as bank charges for funds deposit and if you are been selected or not, still the amount will be refunded to you, as the amount is just to prove that you will be coming for the interview in order for us not to run at lost after sending you the air ticket and you don't show up on the day of interview. Wishing you the best of lucks Regards, Shinzo Nakanishi Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director, MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LTD (MSIL)

Google Faces Antitrust Complaint In India For Possible Unethical Practices


Google was targeted for unethical and anti-competitive business practices once again when a non-profit organization working on public interest issues filed a complaint against the search engine giant with the antitrust body, Competition Commission of India (CCI), Friday. This comes at a time when Google India is already facing a formal probe on a similar complaint filed by an Indian matrimonial site. The complaint is intended to investigate whether Google has been using its market power in the search engine and online advertising market to affect the growth of the Indian search, advertising and related markets and to monitor acquisitions made by Google in India primarily to tackle competition, said Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) in a Preliminary Information Report (PIL) submitted to the CCI. Given the size of the Internet economy and its exponential growth trajectories, it is pertinent to look at the competitive market structure and its conducts overall and also the dynamics between small scale enterprises and large enterprises in India, in specific, Udai Singh Mehta, Associate Director of CUTS International, told the International Business Times. The Indian Internet economy represents approximately 5 percent of GDP, and is projected that in absolute figures it will reach approximately Rs.11 trillion market by 2016. Had internet been a sector, it would have been the eighth largest sector in India, larger than mining and utilities, said Mehta, adding that any unfair practice of Advertising Service Providers will have major repercussions on small scale customers which can create favorable conditions for market monopolization and possibilities of abuse. The CCI launched an investigation against Google in April after Chennai-based Consim India Pvt Ltd that owns the matrimonial site Bharat Matrimony had alleged that the Internet giant abused its market dominance and indulged in unfair trade practices. The findings are expected to be ready in three to four months. A query sent to Google on the latest antitrust complaint has not been answered. Google has been facing investigations from the European Union anti-trust authority since November 2010, after complaints arose that it had abused its position to crush competition. This is an accusation that Microsoft has often had to deal with in the past. Ever since the investigation was underway, Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has been campaigning to highlight how Europe has benefited from Google. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is also investigating the technology that empowers Google to control 66 percent of the US search market, followed by Bing with 15 percent market share and Yahoo with 14 percent. Mehta said the merit of the case against Google is that it should not abuse its market power, an argument that is in line with what is happening in Korea, Australia, EU, etc. Google, however, denies having a monopoly in Search, saying that competition is just one click away. It also argues that despite being very successful in search advertising, most large advertisers tend to advertise in lots of different places. Furthermore, advertisers are constantly shifting their ad dollars among different types of media. Mergers, though usual practice in business should be monitored for anti-competitive intents before giving them a clean chit, said Mehta. But abuse of dominance can't be accepted in business as usual practice and that's not a feature of competitive market.

Regulation can remove some of the transparency problems which are plaguing the Internet market, he said, adding that more information, if not full-information, is always good for a competitive economy. Google has always denied the allegation of being a black-box, saying that it provides transparency, through webmaster central site, blog, diagnostic tools, support forum and YouTube channel. Like almost all the other antitrust complaints against Google, the case filed by CUTS raises the question whether government regulation in Internet enterprises is viable. Yes, it is very much possible, said Mehta, but added that the case was not intended to treat Google as a utility. http://www.ibtimes.com/google-faces-antitrust-complaint-india-possible-unethical-practices-702224

The Workplace: Bad review? Speak up, carefully


During your annual performance review, your boss gives you bad marks. You feel that the evaluation was unfair, but you are afraid of being branded a complainer. How do you speak your piece without sounding like a sore loser? The last thing you want to do after receiving a bad review is keep quiet, said Dennis Garritan, an associate professor of human resources management at New York University. "If you think your review is unfair, there's no point suffering it in silence," Garritan said. "You don't want a negative review in your file, and the only way to do something about it is to speak up." What is the most appropriate way to respond? Before you do anything, take a deep breath. Nobody likes being criticized, and it is important to keep composure when responding. "Especially when you're delving into sensitive subjects, you want to be at your best," Garritan said. "If you are so worked up that you don't feel you can talk then and there, excuse yourself and schedule a second meeting for another time." When you are ready to talk, start by asking your boss to repeat the criticisms one by one, to make sure you understand them. It is also wise to request specific examples of how and where the boss feels that you came up short, Garritan said. If you were docked for tardiness, for example, ask for the dates on which you were late. If your leadership skills are criticized, ask about the reason for this judgment. How do you show that you have been misjudged? Disputing hard facts is difficult. Joanne Cini, author of "Kingmaker: Be the One Your Company Wants to Keep ... on Your Terms," says the best way to rebut a negative performance appraisal is to be prepared with a one-page summary listing your contributions since the previous review. The summary should demonstrate how you have helped the company achieve its goals. Cini says that it also is a good place to share positive comments you have received from colleagues. If you're invited to respond in writing, should you do so?

Even if you are not invited to respond, you should. A written response captures your arguments and preserves them for anyone who may read the review down the line. "You need a written record of your dissent," said Bill O'Brien, a partner at Miller-O'Brien, an employment law firm in Minneapolis. "Without it, if the situation advances to the point of litigation, you've essentially got no ground to stand on." Initially, share a written rebuttal only with your boss. If your boss dismisses the concerns, O'Brien said, it may be time to forward a copy to the human resources department or to explore your company's grievance mechanisms. Either way, be careful what you write. Carole Martin, a former human resources manager at a biotechnology company, recalled a scientist who responded to a negative review with a six-page manifesto lambasting his boss, his boss's boss and a number of high-level executives in the organization. Martin, now president of the Interview Coach, a counseling firm in San Francisco, said the scientist's response outlined a number of demands, including requests for follow-up meetings, apologies and a raise. "This letter became a company joke," she said. "It alienated so many executives that they refused to hear him out at all." Six months after the initial review, she said, the scientist resigned. Would a boss ever reverse a negative review? A well-written response may persuade your boss to reconsider or ameliorate a harsh judgment in a review. Cini, who worked in executive-level sales and marketing positions at the ABC, NBC and Fox television networks, changed a handful of reviews after employees presented her with proof of their positive contributions to her team. In these cases, Cini included employee rebuttals in her reassessments and sometimes reversed her conclusions, but she also restated her misgivings, so that employees would still be aware of how she perceived their actions. This way, she said, "People would still think about the conversation." What types of performance criticisms are worth disputing? Constructive criticism is one thing. An unfounded attack is quite another, Cini said. "If you are an overachiever who disputes every average grade, your boss understandably might grow tired of the constant struggle," she said. If your manager is paying attention, every performance review should highlight both strengths and weaknesses. After all, nobody is perfect. It's up to you to pick your battles. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/business/worldbusiness/28iht-workcol29.html

Whose Side is HR on, Anyway?


I received an inaccurate performance appraisal from my incompetent manager and I wrote a detailed response (actually, longer than the original appraisal). I have some questions: Is it likely that the company will change the review rating?

How does HR feel about employees who submit review responses? Even if the ratings are not changed, will the fact that I wrote a coherent, objective response be noted in my manager's HR file? My husband is a manager at a big company. He tells me HR is not my friend, that that they will protect my manager before me. Is this true? I dont know you, your manager, or your company policies, so this is going to be a general answer --your mileage may vary. Changing the rating: Its likely that your company has a formal review process. Just writing a response will not get a rating changed. Youll have to officially request a review and a hearing. Will it get changed? Ive seen it happen, but more often then not, the answer is no. Employees are often the worst judges of their own behavior. Ive never had an employee say, Gee, Im average or below average. Every employee thinks they are above average. This, of course, cannot be true. Your manager may or may not be incompetent. I cant judge from here. If he is incompetent, his manager should already know it. Your managers manager is the person you really need to speak to about this. And please note, I said speak. Almost everyone is too busy to read through comments on a performance review. Make an appointment and express your concerns. HRs feelings: HR doesnt really feel anything. Weve all grown numb to the whining. (Sorry, Ive just divulged a little secret.) Responses are frequent and we take them with a grain of salt. That said, we are not the final arbiters of performance. (Or at least we shouldnt be.) We are there to help your management make proper decisions. But a rating is a business decision and--except in rare circumstances--the business (line management) should be making appraisal decisions. Your managers file: Unless your manager has done something illegal, or is already on a performance improvement plan, I cant see that happening. Performance appraisals tend to be subjective and managers should have the ability to evaluate their own employees. HR as your friend: Im quite friendly and have bent over backwards to help employees with various problems. But, what your husband said has a grain of truth to it. HR is there to help the business. Theoretically, (and in my experience and opinion, practically) that means making sure the people are taken care of. Good people make good business, and you want to keep the best people. That said, will they favor a manager over the employee? It depends on what is best for the business. As I said before, none of us are great at judging our own performance. As a result, the bias almost always favors the manager in these cases. Your arguments need to be solid, fact-based, and concisely written. One of the best rebuttals to a performance appraisal Ive seen involved an excel spreadsheet. The employee had several columns: a quote from the appraisal, documented evidence rebutting the managers statement, names of other employees who could verify, and finally the employees own view of what happened. It was easy to read, displayed evidence clearly, and went a long way in helping the employee win his case. Will this do any good for you? Maybe--and maybe not. If you dont see eye to eye with your manager, you can choose to make the changes to comply with his wishes, be miserable, or look for a new job. There are good reasons for all three choices. Just be sure to make a conscious choice, and dont just drift along.

Suzanne Lucas has nine years of human resources experience, most of which have been in a Fortune 500company setting. She holds a Professional in Human Resources Certificate from the Society for Human Resources Management. She blogs at Evil HR Lady. http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2009/06/25/whose-side-is-hr-on-anyway

When promotions can be harmful


Pallab Mishra (name changed) had been a consistent performer for most part of his career. This ensured him promotions at regular intervals and he was moving-up the hierarchy fast. Then it happened! He reached a position where he could not perform well anymore. He reached his ineptitude level. This phenomenon, where an employee reaches his/her ineptitude level after a series of elaborate promotions is known as the Peter Principle. Peter Principle was formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their book called "The Peter Principle" in 1968. This principle says, "Employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence." Based on a common observation in organisational hierarchy, this principle states that most employees get promoted till the time they perform, eventually reaching a position where their skills are rendered redundant. Managers with exceptional managerial skills may lack even the basic leadership skills. Therefore, when they get promoted to leadership roles, they fail to perform. A common problem faced by a number of organisations. At one of the recent panel discussion organised by TimesJobs.com called 'TimesJobs Conversations', Richard Rekhy, CEO,KPMG, highlighted the similar issue "We build great managers who are very good at doing their jobs but they are not good leaders." In an exclusive interview with TimesJobs.com, Aditya Narayan Mishra, President - staffing and marketing director, Randstad India Ltd, highlighted some of the sectors and functional areas prone to this phenomenon. "There is a higher probability of this phenomenon happening in functional areas where assessment is based on qualitative measures rather than hard facts. Also, this principle is also prevalent in organisations following a hierarchical model and firms where promotions are given based on parameters like tenure, academic qualifications, loyalty, rather than their competency and achievements." According to Bhavishya Sharma, managing director, Athena Executive Search & Consulting, this kind of phenomena happens mostly in elaborated and large hierarchical organisations. It cannot be witnessed in flat or smaller organisations. This principle is more prevalent in industries like consultancy, financial services agency firms, service sector and media, where the frequency of promotions offered is very high. Mishra also shared some of the strategies implemented by their organisation to overcome this phenomenon. "Our people assessment is based on robust processes and objective targets. As a healthy practice, we enable employees to have internal mobility, where upon they can take up new roles. Apart from providing these opportunities, for them to perform well, required training is also provided. Through these initiatives, we can keep Peter Principle at bay. Talent review and development is a very critical piece in our HR strategy." Sharma highlights an interesting strategy implemented within their organisation to curb Peter Principle. They

try to provide their employees with a wider play within their organisation. "We try to identify their strengths and create a role and develop new set of KRA's that are in line with their skill sets, rather than breaking our heads over the fixed roles and existing KRA's .Novelty is the factor which keeps us going forward." Incompetent employees, posted at high-ranking profiles can prove to be highly detrimental for any organisation. Neither can they be further promoted, nor can they be pulled down to a lower profile. This creates a plug that blocks the upward hierarchical flow. Candidate with the right skill-set to handle such high ranking profiles are denied promotions he/she deserves because of an incompetent employee blocking that position. This dampens their morale and kills their motivation to perform. Although, this phenomenon occurs at higher positions, its effects can percolate down as well, unless countered effectively. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/when-promotions-can-beharmful/articleshow/20423411.cms

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