India Inc. THE BEST EMPLOYER

INDIA Inc is one of the world's best employers in terms of pay outs and piece of mind, if two independent HR consultancies are to be believed. A Hewitt survey said that Indian employees enjoy the best pay hikes among their Asia-Pac brethren while Kelly Services found out in a study conducted among 28 countries that two-third of Indian employees were either "happy or very happy" with their current positions.

India Inc, with a 13.8% average annual hike rate in salary - a tad low against last year's 14% - stood tall over Philippines with a 8.2% rate and China whose 8% was down from 8.3% last year.

According to Kelly Services, Indian employees ranked 7th out of 28 countries in the global survey for employee satisfaction. The most contented employees were in Denmark, Mexico and Sweden and the least happy in Hungary, Russia and Turkey. That makes India share an equal first with Indonesia in the eight Asia-Pac countries surveyed. The survey also ranked India an equal 2nd along with Australia in the Asia Pacific region for employer performance. New Zealand was voted as having the best bosses in the region. The happiest employees belonged to the IT industry (66%) followed by business services (65%), engineering (65%) and financial Services (61%). And among the states, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, New Delhi, Tamil Nadu came top in happiness index. The survey was based on the views of approximately 70,000 executives, including almost 2,000 from India.

The Hewitt salary survey also showed that variable pay continued to be an important means of attracting and retaining talent, with 78% of responding organizations using them. Individual performance awards continue to be the most popular, with 56.2% of responding organisations saying they are their preferred type of variable pay plan. They also indicated individual performance awards have the highest impact on business results, followed by business incentive plans and team awards.

According to the study, companies increased variable pay out in 2006 to 14.9% of their payroll, up from 14.5% in 2005. This year, target variable pay out was highest for senior/top management at 21.8%, and is expected to rise to 22.3% in 2007. Said Nishchae Suri, head of Hewitt's talent and organization consulting analytics practice in Asia, "With the pressure to retain key talent growing, an increasing number of organisations are ensuring their pay is competitive by closely monitoring market movements. Most companies review their markets annually, using multiple sources of information to benchmark compensation, such as industry surveys and information through personal contacts."

Indian employees enjoy the best pay hikes among their Asia-Pac brethren, says a Hewitt survey Two-third of Indian employees either happy or very happy with their current positions, says a Kelly study Average annual salary rose by 13.8% this year against last year's 14% Happiest employees belonged to IT industry (66%) followed by business services (65%), engineering (65%) and financial Services (61%)

Tips To Handle Employment Gaps

Here I give job seekers some important pointers on handle gaps in their work history.

Being unemployed is a difficult and stressful situation. To make matters even worse, the fact that you may not currently have a job can prevent you from finding a job. It is unfair, but true. Having gaps in your employment history are often an immediate turn off for recruiters and interviewers; however, with a little bit of creativity, you can make those gaps disappear.

This month's newsletter explains the 4 steps to handling gaps in your employment history. Don't let being out of work keep you out of work.

These following four methods will be covered:

1. Find Real Gaps
2. Fill In Gaps
3. Dodge Resume Gaps
4. Mention Major Gaps


4 TIPS TO HANDLE EMPLOYMENT GAPS!
1) FIND REAL GAPS
The first mistake many people make is to assume the worst when it comes to being out of work. Not having a job does not mean you have an employment gap. There are many legitimate reasons for not working. These reasons can be addressed directly without any worry.

The most common explanations of unemployment that should NOT be considered employment gaps are:

• Attending school
• Having/taking care of children
• Personal health problems
• Serious Illness in the Family
• Being between jobs for a short period of time (less than 6 months)

2) FILL IN GAPS
If your bout with unemployment does not fall into one of the categories listed above, you most likely have an official gap in your employment history. Even at this point, you do not necessarily have to let a potential employer know about this gap.

By keeping busy while you are between jobs, you can turn a would-be gap into a learning experience. Consider using the following tactics to fill those gaps:

• Take a class related to your profession. Being in school accounts for your time off, and employers like to see people bettering themselves through education.
• Look for freelance or consulting projects. These jobs are not permanent, but they do ensure that you keep up-to-date with your skills. You can put this type of work on your resume as if it were any other kind of job.
• Volunteer for an organization. Getting paid would be ideal, but future employers are concerned with your work experience. To a recruiter, a volunteering position can be just as good as a paying job.
• Read trade journals. Though this method may not be something you put on your resume, it will help you stay current with the industry. Conveying the newest information possible in an interview shows that you have not lost your knowledge of the business.

3) DODGE RESUME GAPS
Not everyone will be able to find a creative way to fill the gaps in their employment history. If you find yourself in this situation, it is no longer an issue of proving your time was occupied. Instead, you should focus on the fact that you are still skilled and qualified.

However, most resumes focus on time by addressing experiences chronologically. Consider using the following suggestions to draw attention away from your time between jobs:

• Don't distinguish between paid and unpaid work on your resume. This way you can have a seemingly continuous string of jobs, even if you volunteered for the sake avoiding an employment gap.
• Use only years (not months) when listing work dates on your resume. This can discretely cover several months of unemployment.
• Summarize what you did while you did not have a job. It may seem awkward to put this kind of information directly on your resume, but it is more important to let recruiters know you used your time wisely.
• Use a functional resume. Unlike the traditional chronological resume, a functional resume puts less emphasis on the timing of work experiences. Instead, a functional resume emphasizes skills, which employers care more about.

4) MENTION MAJOR GAPS
The last important step in handling employment gaps is deciding when to discuss them. Unless you can completely hide the gap, a recruiter will eventually spot it. If you are prepared to address the issue, you can avoid a potential disaster.

There are basically 2 schools of thought on this issue: address an employment gap in your cover letter or address it in the interview. Neither approach is wrong; neither approach is right. It is a matter of personal taste. Just consider these points before deciding, which approach you use:

• In a cover letter, make your explanation very brief. A one or two-sentence long explanation is enough. Details are not important.
• If a gap occurred a long time ago, don't bother mentioning it in a cover letter. Employers are concerned with your recent work, not something that happened 10 years ago.
• In an interview, still keep your explanation brief. The only reason to go into deeper detail is if you gained valuable experiences during your employment gap.
• No matter what, END ON A POSITIVE NOTE. Whether you address the gap in a cover letter or an interview, state that you are ready and excited to get back to work.

CONCLUSION
Hopefully, these steps will give you ideas on how to handle your own employment gaps. It's a difficult task to do, but it is also one of the most valuable. Having employment gaps shouldn't keep you from finding a job, but only you can stop the cycle from repeating itself.