You Should Know
Global

• PeopleSoft founder and ex-chairman of the board Dave Duffield has set up a $10m fund to help laid off workers from his former company. (Computer Business Review)

• "we're creating creative ghettos that are linked by capital, creating almost an alternative universe"...(The Tyee)

• MySpace, established 20 months ago, built upon the Friendster idea and expanded it. In addition to articulating social networks, it added blogs and the ability to send instant messages to other online users. The site currently has 18.5 million members, and is the fifth most-visited site on the Internet according to the firm Media Matrix, which tallies such things. (InsideBayArea)

• Hidden costs, high staff turnover and poor cross-cultural communications are the key causes of offshore outsourcing failures. (ZDNet)

• SAP has been launching poaching raids on arch-rivals Siebel and Oracle - and has bagged several notable catches in the process.  (InsightExec)

• As competition looms, so do eBay challenges. (Reuters)

• Companies venture in to social networ terrain. (IT World)

India:

•  In a move to attract and retain quality talent, mid-cap IT services firm Helios & Matheson is planning an employee stock option scheme. (BusinessLine)

• TCS, the largest Indian technology services company, will hire 13,500 employees during the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2006. (ZDNet)

• After becoming the third largest country with diaspora population, India - which champions the cause of temporary relocation of skilled professionals at the World Trade Organisation - is likely to experience a reverse flow of its sons of soil like China to increase the investment and trade potential. (Deccan Herald)
   

Indonesia: At least 1.19 million jobs were created last year in the formal sector in rural areas. (Jakarta Post)

Italy: Italy in economic crisis: "This stupid thing, work, in Italy becomes a matter of enormous complexity and difficulty. There is no social mobility; people are terrified of being fired because then they know they won't find another job, because they know what they had to go through to get a job in the first place. It's not just a matter of making a phone call. You have to go to one place and then to another and then to a third, line up, ask people for favours, and when you do that there is always somebody in front of you because people aren't all equal. So you can't afford to get fired because if you get fired then you are unemployed and there's no way out. All this blocks the society." (The Independent)

Netherlands: Randstad, the McDonald's of staffing? (BusineeWeek)

Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania reached an all-time high for employment last month, adding 28,000 to payrolls to reach 6,045,500. (Philadelphia Business Journal)

South Africa: From brain drain to brain gain. (MoneyWeb)

UK:

• Not all IT contractors however possess the know-how of their veteran peers, and the task of securing a fresh contract is exacerbated by inefficient or rogue agents...(Contractor UK)

• Fresh Talent initiative aims to attract skilled workers to boost the economy and reverse depopulation. (BBC)

• 'We suffer from the same problem as everyone else in the industry in that we pay our temps within a week – then have to wait up to 60 days for our money,' (Financial Director)

• Temporary agency workers in Britain have the least labour protection in Europe (Reuters)

Ukraine: While Ukraine is becoming a new popular IT outsourcing destination, there are still many myths about it and no clear understanding of the opportunities. (I-Newswire)

US:

• The military has increasingly been outsourcing services to private contractors. (Democracy Now)

• Women's share of IT jobs plunges latinos, blacks  lag even further behind. (San Jose Merc)

• Women held 32.4 percent of IT jobs in 2004, down from 41 percent eight years earlier, despite holding steady in the overall workforce. (IT Manager's Journal)

Virginia: Consult the HR.com Beach Guide Drop A Note
your company news, personnel changes, placements, and other tidbits of interest. News you'd like to see covered that we haven't? Let us know.

Email Address:
Request:	Subscribe Unsubscribe

If you have any problem with this form please click on the link below and enter your email address:    SUBSCRIBE      REMOVE             Thank you.