office buzz. OFFICE BUZZ: A career coach in your pocket

Talent mobility firm RiseSmart, a Randstad company, has launched a native outplacement mobile app, which acts like a pocket career coach to help people land jobs faster. Available in 12 languages, and on both iPhone and Android platforms, RiseSmart’s mobile app gives users on-demand transition guidance. Users can schedule coaching meetings, register and view webinars, attend group coaching sessions, and access job opportunities on a map to estimate commute times. According to RiseSmart, which provides outplacement services, compared to its participants who are on desktop only access, it has seen more engagement and faster job landings for those on the mobile app.

There has been growing opposition to the three-month notice period that many companies insist on. HR tech platform Hush did a survey with 2,800 employees from IT companies to get their views and found that 7 out of 10 of them said there should be a government rule mandating just one-month notice. According to the employees surveyed, the three-month notice period is used as a mere retention tool by employers and creates anxiety for the employee on notice period. Currently, there is a lack of clarity on legalities governing notice period policies in India, which is an important employee concern. A majority of these employees, which is 93 per cent, said that they were inconvenienced by a three-month notice period.

A survey by job site Indeed shows that more Indians are job-hopping than ever before. The survey found that 56 per cent of Indian workers have voluntarily left a role after only a short period of time, with 85 per cent of respondents stating that they would add a job to their resume regardless of how long they had stayed in that role. The most popular reasons for leaving a role in a short period of time were that: the job did not live up to expectations (30 per cent); it was an unhappy work environment (29 per cent), or they were offered a better role elsewhere (38 per cent). Of Indeed’s survey, 49 per cent of respondents saw job-hopping as an opportunity to learn new skills and over 43 per cent stated job-hopping could help boost their resume or identify greater job prospects. However, the trend seems to be slightly higher amongst millennial men than women wherein 47 per cent of the latter surveyed have never voluntarily left a role after a short period of time, as compared to 43 per cent of the former. The trend is more visible in mid-sized companies with 200-500 employees, compared to smaller organisations.

Meanwhile, employers believe that frequent job movements are indicative of indecisiveness in a candidate and demonstrate a lack of loyalty. 87 per cent of employers surveyed stated that they had chosen not to interview a candidate in the past due to a history of short-term jobs.

Chandigarh University, Gharuan, in association with SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), has launched a two-year MBA degree in the field of strategic HR. SHRM is the world’s largest HR Professional society with 3,00,000 members in over 165 countries. Describing the need for this programme, Achal Khanna, CEO, SHRM, said “SHRM’s Academic Initiatives’ mission is to create better-prepared entry-level HR professionals through education, competency assessment and internships.” The curriculum will embed the coveted certification — SHRM Certified Professional (SHRM CP) — she said, explaining that final-year students could take up the exam and be certified. “This will equip them with comprehensive Online Learning System, various study aids and certification study material with the necessary competencies linked to job performance,” she added.

COMMENT NOW