Employee voice and collective formation in the Indian ITES-BPO industry

The growth of the information technology enabled services-business process outsourcing industry calls for attention to employees' working conditions and rights. Can an independent organisation such as unites Pro (the union of information technology enabled services professionals) represent employees' interests and effectively work towards protecting their rights and improving their working conditions? A survey of unites members indicates that they identify with the need for such an organisation to deal with poor supervisory and managerial treatment, concerns for employee safety, grievances related to pay and workload, and even the indignities of favouritism

Disentangling the Impact of Social Disadvantage on ‘Becoming Employable’: Evidence from STEM Student University-to-Work Transitions

This article aims to examine alternative explanations of social disadvantage on the university-to-work transition experiences of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students. ‘Becoming employable’ during the university-to-work transition is reflected in three ways: students’ cognition/patterns of thinking (i.e., perceived employability); affect/emotion (i.e., anxiety); and career-related behaviour (i.e., job search and networking). To understand how social disadvantage affects ‘becoming employable’, we examine three potential explanations: students’ social background, type of higher education institution attended and individual financial strain. A cross-sectional survey design targeted at final year students in two UK Higher Education Institutions provided 288 survey responses. Findings show support for an institutional explanation to ‘becoming employable’. The study contributes to our understanding of social disadvantage during preparation for labour market entry and the ‘employable graduate’ identity construction process. Practical recommendations focus on alleviating some of the pressures on socially disadvantaged student

The Effect That Project Management Certification Has on Employability: Agent's Perceptions from Spain

This study analyses the effects that the project management certification has on employability. This analysis started with a participative process in which various groups of experts who are involved in the certification of people were consulted. A personal interview was carried out amongst 106 professionals —certifying bodies, training institutions, the civil service, and international organisations— and amongst professional who are certified in project management by the International Project Management Association in Spain. The results show that the certification emerges as a powerful tool for improving employability. The effects are demonstrated across two complementary aspects: internal company aspects and external aspects relating to the labour market. Finally, by compiling the different agents’ opinions, a series of measures emerge for improving the accreditation processes as an employability tool and increasing the mutual learning between public and private actors

Recruitment

This chapter looks at the recruitment process

Guidelines for shiftworkers:Trials and errors?

86 guidelines for shiftworkers were assembled by a team of European experts and published as the Bulletin of Shiftwork Topics No. 3. Before publication, 24 of the personally directed guidelines were tested against the normal actions of two groups of mixed sex industrial 3-shift continuous workers (n = 120). Six of the guidelines were endorsed as their practice by a majority of both groups; six were opposed by a majority of both groups; and twelve were intermediate. The six that were opposed are closely examined. Half of them fall into specific remedies for sleep problems, that were more abruptly phrased in the questionnaire than in the guidelines. The other three are concerned with eating and drinking: breaking your sleep to join in a family meal is only a gentle suggestion in the guidelines, and not a sensible general recommendation for day-sleepers; avoiding fatty foods may only be appropriate if you have digestive problems; and avoiding coffee and tea in the last two hours before sleep appears to oppose and lose out to work and home pressures. An evaluated intervention is required to check these points