Accenture Warns Employees over Desk Booking as Office Space Tightens
Accenture has mandated that its India workforce pre‑book desks at least a day in advance, warning that employees who show up without a reservation could face disciplinary action. The policy is designed to tighten control over limited office capacity as the firm continues its flexible hybrid model. Unbooked staff are reportedly denied access to office‑linked services such as transport, underscoring the enforcement seriousness. The move signals Accenture’s effort to optimise seat utilization amid a mismatch between headcount and available space.
Andhra Pradesh to Digitise Medical Reimbursements; End Paper-Based Process
The Andhra Pradesh government will overhaul its medical reimbursement system, moving from a hybrid manual‑digital process to a fully digital workflow. Developed by the Andhra Pradesh Centre for Financial Systems and Services and integrated with the existing Nidhi portal, the...
Himachal Defers Ministers’ Salaries for 6 Months Amid Cash Crunch
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu announced a six‑month deferment of a portion of salaries for ministers, MLAs and senior officials as the state grapples with a cash crunch following the end of its revenue‑deficit grant. The plan cuts...
When 98 per Cent of Mothers Return to Work
Birlasoft reports a 98% maternity return rate, with 177 of 180 mothers rejoining after leave, thanks to continuous engagement, buddy systems, and manager sensitisation. The firm’s overall gender diversity sits at 26%, while women occupy 67% of key managerial positions,...
Salary Restructuring to Nudge More Employees Towards New Tax Regime From 1 April
From 1 April, companies are revamping compensation structures to meet a revised wage definition that mandates basic pay and linked components constitute at least 50 percent of total salary. To comply, firms are boosting basic pay while trimming flexible allowances such as...
Shift Changes, Miscommunication Push Employee to Quit
A per‑diem clinic worker quit after her morning shifts were gradually moved to late‑night hours, clashing with her upcoming semester. The schedule shift, coupled with vague communication, pushed her to accept a remote position offering higher pay and predictable hours....
SBI Cards Issues ESOP Shares to Employees
SBI Cards and Payment Services allotted 5,530 equity shares to eligible employees under two ESOP schemes, approved on March 22, 2026. The 2019 plan issued about 3,350 shares at an exercise price of roughly $1.83 per share, while the 2023...
Meta Faces Lawsuit Alleging Age Bias in Layoffs; Senior Leader Claims Losses
Meta Platforms is being sued over its 2025 layoff round, which the plaintiff alleges disproportionately targeted employees aged 40 and older. Former senior director Nicolas Franchet claims he was given a low performance rating to justify his termination, resulting in...
BlackRock Appoints Dipeeka Walvatkar Pendurkar as VP–HR, Employee Relations (APAC)
BlackRock has appointed Dipeeka Walvatkar Pendurkar as vice president of human resources, employee relations for the APAC region. In this role she will lead complex, high‑risk workplace matters, ensuring alignment with global frameworks and local regulations. Pendurkar brings over 13...
POV: Is the “Open Door Policy” Actually Effective—Or Just Symbolic?
The article argues that an open‑door policy is only as effective as the leaders who practice it. While the policy signals inclusivity, employee trust hinges on leaders’ humility, responsiveness, and consistent accessibility. Psychological safety cannot be mandated by a handbook;...
Accenture Signals Hiring Recovery with Steady Workforce Growth in Q2
Accenture added 2,741 employees in Q2, bringing its global headcount to 7.86 million and surpassing 7,000 hires in the first half of fiscal 2026. Revenue reached $18 billion, up 8% year‑over‑year but missing analyst forecasts, while new bookings rose to $22.11 billion. The...
Tamil Nadu Expands Maternity Leave Rules After Court Push
The Tamil Nadu government issued a new order on March 13 expanding maternity leave to up to 365 days for a third childbirth, even when the employee’s first pregnancy produced twins and she already has two surviving children. The amendment...
Nestlé Employee Wins Rs 27 Lakh After Washroom Vaping Row
A UK employment tribunal ordered Nestlé to pay £22,000 (approximately Rs 27 lakh) to Luke Billings, a technical operator dismissed for allegedly vaping in a disabled toilet that set off a fire alarm and halted production. Billings denied vaping at work but admitted...
Kunal Handa Joins Greenply Industries as CIO
Kunal Handa, a veteran IT executive with over 18 years of experience, has been appointed chief information officer of Greenply Industries. He most recently served as head of IT at Eureka Forbes, after leadership stints at Domino's, Philip Morris, Whirlpool,...
Supreme Court Bars Insurance Deductions in Accident Payouts
India's Supreme Court ruled that compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act cannot be reduced by employer‑provided group insurance or other social‑security payouts. The bench dismissed appeals against Kerala and Karnataka High Court judgments that had already rejected such deductions. Judges...
Sanjay Rastogi Is VP-HR & Admin, Visaka Industries
Sanjay Rastogi, former CHRO of Olectra Greentech, has been appointed vice president‑human resources and administration at Visaka Industries. He brings more than 25 years of HR experience, including oversight of a 2,200‑plus employee lifecycle and extensive industrial‑relations work. At Visaka—a...
Top Engineer Walks Out ; Rejects Measly 1.5% Pay Hike
A top engineer quit after his company imposed a strict 1.5 % salary‑raise cap, far below his expected $2,000 (about 3 %) increase. He quickly secured a new role offering roughly 10 % higher pay and left with minimal notice, creating a knowledge...
Delhi HC Upholds ICICI Bank’s Termination; Acceptance of Notice Pay Proves Decisive
The Delhi High Court affirmed ICICI Bank’s right to terminate a long‑serving manager by paying salary in lieu of notice, ruling that the employee’s acceptance of Rs 99,634 effectively ratified the dismissal. The court rejected the employee’s claims for reinstatement and...
CEO Reacts to Viral Gen Z Prank; Says Fun at Work Builds Stronger Teams
RemoteStar’s CEO Naresh Harwani was caught off‑guard when 21‑year‑old employee Vartika Bisht appeared in a virtual meeting wearing a towel and mask, a prank staged by the marketing team. The clip went viral, racking up hundreds of thousands of views...
Apparel Group India Rewards Top Performers with 50+ Bikes and a Grand Prize Car
Apparel Group India celebrated its 2026 Circle of Excellence by awarding a grand‑prize car to a top‑performing store manager and more than 50 high‑achieving employees with motorcycles. The ceremony highlighted the company’s “Frontline First” ethos, recognizing store managers and operational...
Bharat Forge Appoints Srinivasu Malladi as CHRO
Bharat Forge has appointed Srinivasu Malladi as its chief human resources officer. Malladi, who previously served as VP‑HR at the company, will lead end‑to‑end HR strategy for the Kalyani Group’s flagship as it pushes into global engineering markets. He brings...
Musk Apologises to Rejected Candidates; Revisits High-Po Applicants
Elon Musk announced that xAI will revisit its early hiring decisions after acknowledging that the startup was not set up properly. He publicly apologized to candidates rejected in the first round, saying many talented applicants were overlooked. Musk and talent...
POV: Is Career Growth Becoming the New Job Security?
The article argues that traditional job security tied to long tenure is giving way to a model where career growth and skill development provide stability. Economic volatility, technological disruption and shifting employee expectations push organisations to emphasise continuous learning, internal...
The Permanent Contractor: Why We Should Stop Pretending Full-Time Jobs Are Stable
The article argues that today’s full‑time roles function as temporary contracts, stripping employees of both stability and contractor‑level compensation. Companies retain the appearance of permanence while shifting employment risk onto workers, leading to income uncertainty and limited flexibility. This mismatch...
Albertsons Companies India Gets Parineeta Cecil Lakra as VP, HR Leader
Parineeta Cecil Lakra, after more than 11 years at IKEA India, has been appointed vice‑president and HR leader of Albertsons Companies India. Her career spans senior roles at Carrefour, Genpact and Standard Chartered, giving her deep expertise in talent transformation....
315Work Avenue Appoints Archana Chaudhari as Head-People & Cultur
315Work Avenue, a leading flexible workspace provider in India, has appointed Archana Chaudhari as head of people & culture. Chaudhari will steer the firm’s talent strategy, employee engagement and culture‑building as the company scales its footprint. She brings nearly two...
Elon Musk Unveils ‘Macrohard’ AI Concept Aimed at Automating Large Parts of Work
Elon Musk unveiled Macrohard, an AI‑robotic platform that pairs xAI’s Grok large‑language model with Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot to automate a broad range of workplace tasks. The initiative, a joint effort between xAI and Tesla, leverages Nvidia GPUs and Tesla‑built...
The Advice Managers Give that Shapes Entire Careers
The article highlights how brief, informal managerial advice can become a career‑defining compass for professionals. It showcases three senior HR leaders—Praveen Purohit, Vinod Rai, and Rajeev Singh—who credit simple lessons such as staying in a role to learn deeply, showing...
Why Is SC Reviewing EPF Rules for Foreign Workers?
The Supreme Court of India has agreed to review whether foreign employees must contribute to the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) under the 1952 scheme after LG Electronics challenged the mandatory contribution rule. The dispute centers on Paragraph 83 of the...
Daimler Truck Cuts Employee Bonuses After Profit Decline
Daimler Truck announced a cut to its German profit‑sharing bonuses after a sharp earnings decline for the 2025 fiscal year. The payout drops from €4,140 to €2,701 per eligible employee, affecting roughly 25,000 workers. Consolidated net income fell to about...
Zoho Asks Most Employees to Work From Home for 2 Weeks
Zoho Corporation has instructed the majority of its workforce to work from home for two weeks starting March 16, citing operational concerns and fuel‑supply disruptions. Employees in non‑critical roles are encouraged to remote, while essential teams must coordinate on‑site schedules...
Amazon’s AI Push Leaves Employees Spending More Time Fixing Errors
Amazon’s rapid rollout of internal AI tools is backfiring, with employees across engineering, supply chain and operations spending more time correcting flawed outputs than accelerating work. The generative systems frequently produce incomplete, inaccurate or fabricated code and data, forcing staff...
Vinay Tonse Is to Be MD & CEO-Designate, YES BANK
YES Bank has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as its managing director and chief executive officer‑designate, pending RBI approval. He will take charge on 6 April 2026 for a three‑year term, succeeding Prashant Kumar, who led the bank’s recent recovery. The board highlighted...
Flexible Hours for Women in Mumbai
The Maharashtra government launched a ‘Come Early, Go Early’ scheme for women employed in Mumbai’s municipal and state offices. The policy lets female staff begin work earlier and finish earlier, provided they meet their required hours. By shifting schedules away...
Case-in-Point: When Gig Flexibility Collides with Worker Protection
QuickServe Logistics, an Rs 800 crore last‑mile delivery platform, relies on 15,000 gig workers classified as independent contractors. A newly formed workers’ union has filed a case demanding employee reclassification, which could add roughly Rs 150 crore in annual benefits costs. HR must choose...
Ina Bajwa Joins Tilaknagar Industries as CPO
Ina Bajwa has been appointed Chief People Officer at Tilaknagar Industries, a company with roots dating back to 1933. Her hire comes as the firm embarks on a new growth and organisational transformation phase. Bajwa will partner with senior leadership...
HR Perspectives by Ajay Sharma: “Every Returning Mother Deserves a Role-Redesign Conversation”
Ajay Sharma, HR leader at The Oberoi Group, outlines how hospitality’s 24/7 operations create unique talent challenges that policies alone cannot solve. He argues that small, hands‑on teams accelerate ownership and business acumen, while a strong internal promotion pipeline—75% of...
Naresh Kumar G Appointed Head of Talent Acquisition, Matrix Pharmacorp
Matrix Pharmacorp has appointed Naresh Kumar G as head of talent acquisition, overseeing recruitment for its API, intermediates, peptides, research, manufacturing, and sales divisions. Kumar brings more than 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical and life‑science hiring, most recently serving...
74% of India’s Educated Women Take Career Breaks — and Motherhood Is only Part of the Story
A new Axis Bank survey of 11,000 college‑educated women across 42 Indian cities finds that 74% take a career break at some point, and 58% do so even without children. The data challenges the prevailing view that motherhood is the...
HRForecast 2026: Skills Mobility Will Become FMCG’s Core Capability – Tarun NP Varma, CHRO, Tata Consumer Products
Tarun N.P. Varma, CHRO of Tata Consumer Products, warns that by 2026 the FMCG sector’s competitive edge will hinge on rapid internal skill mobility rather than external hiring. He outlines three signals: talent marketplaces as strategic infrastructure, AI serving as...
India, Finland Explore Stronger Cooperation in Skills and Workforce Mobility
India’s Minister of State for Skill Development met Finland’s Employment Minister to deepen cooperation on vocational training and workforce mobility. The dialogue emphasized linking India’s large, youthful talent pool with Finland’s advanced vocational education system. Both sides pinpointed healthcare, construction,...
CEAT Expands Workplace Policies to Support Women Across Career & Life Stages
CEAT, the tyre manufacturer under the RPG Group, has rolled out a suite of workplace policies aimed at supporting women throughout their careers and personal lives. The new measures include a paid menstrual wellness leave, 26 weeks of maternity pay,...
Oman Orders Early Salary Payments for Employees Ahead of Eid
Oman has mandated early salary payments for both public and private‑sector workers ahead of Eid al‑Fitr 2026. Government entities must enter payroll data by 8 March, obtain audit approval by 15 March, and disburse salaries on 17 March, while private employers are required...
HDFC Life Insurance Names Vijay Vaidyanathan as CHRO
HDFC Life Insurance has appointed veteran executive Vijay Vaidyanathan as its chief human resources officer, effective April 1, 2026. Vaidyanathan, who joined the insurer in 2001, brings more than two decades of experience across sales, bancassurance, and talent management, most...
Yellaiah G Appointed CTO, Broadband at Zee Entertainment Enterprises
Zee Entertainment Enterprises has appointed Yellaiah G as Chief Technology Officer for its broadband division. Yellaiah joins from Sterlite Technologies after a two‑decade career spanning roles at Aster, NSN, Huawei, Airtel and Bharti Televentures. In his new role he will...
IndiGo Crosses 1,000 Women Pilots, Sets Industry Benchmark
IndiGo has become the first Indian carrier to employ more than 1,000 women pilots, pushing female representation in the cockpit to 17.5 percent—about three times the global average. Women now comprise nearly half of IndiGo’s total workforce, with significant presence...
POV: Are Performance Ratings Still Relevant in the Age of Continuous Feedback?
Traditional annual performance ratings are losing relevance as agile workplaces demand faster, continuous feedback. Leaders at Reliance Infrastructure, Omega Healthcare, and Blue Dart argue that ratings still provide structure, but must be paired with real‑time feedback to capture ongoing learning...
Employee’s $40,000 Raise Request Sparks Debate Online
An employee with a specialised graduate degree posted on Reddit that they were asked to assume their retiring manager’s duties while maintaining their own role, and sought a $40,000 salary increase to reflect the added workload. The company offered only...
SBM Bank India Reaches 33% Women Representation; Expands Leadership Initiatives
SBM Bank India announced that women now comprise 33 percent of its workforce as of January 2026, up from 32 percent in March 2025, positioning the bank among the most gender‑diverse large private‑sector banks in India. The rise reflects a deliberate hiring strategy and...
Government Employees Protest in Kapurthala over Pension
Government employees in Kapurthala staged a protest on March 5, 2026, targeting several state notifications that they say erode service conditions and financial security. Union leaders from the CPF Employees Union and the Punjab State Ministerial Service Union condemned the...