Accenture India Increases Paid Maternity Leave to 22 Weeks

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has increased maternity-leave benefits for its full-time and part-time women employees in India to 22 weeks of paid leave, up significantly from the current statutory requirement of 12 weeks.

The new policy, which was effective May 1, also allows employees in India who don't have enough accrued vacation time, but want additional time off beyond the maternity leave, to take unpaid leave for another 12 weeks. Employees also may take an additional four weeks of paid leave if there is an illness directly related to the mother’s pregnancy.

“There is an increasing number of families in India in which both parents have hectic schedules — balancing work and family commitments — while simultaneously caring for children and continuing to advance professionally, which can result in some women discontinuing their careers,” said Parag Pande, Accenture’s Human Resource lead for India and global lead for Learning and Talent Development Operations. “We want to help our people balance life and career choices, supporting them through the joys and challenges of parenting, as they continue to focus on their careers.”

In addition to the maternity-leave benefits, Accenture offers its employees in India up to eight weeks of fully paid adoption leave for primary caregivers of an adopted child, as well as one week of paid paternal leave for new fathers.

Accenture’s comprehensive support for parents in India also includes access to a variety of resources, such as discounted childcare services, interactive parenting workshops, employee assistance programs, and pre- and post-maternity counseling sessions. In addition, employees can work with their supervisors and career counselors to explore flexible work arrangements, such as working from home, where possible.

Read the rest of this entry

Team Work: Key to Success

Different people with different set of mind, coming from varied backgrounds, with various skill sets, but all are working to fulfill the same goal. This is what teamwork is all about. Almost all of us spend most of our time working at offices and spend more time with peers accomplishing same goals. More or less the place we work is similar to family and peers our family members.

There are many key factors that determine a good team. Team leader has a very important role to play. He should be well aware of the capabilities and skills of his team members. He should know which job to be assigned to whom and should be able to guide them and correct them where necessary. He should make them feel through his behavior, that he is one among them.

 One factor that is most important to build a good team is the feeling of being a part of the team, rather than considering one self as an individual. Each team member should feel that he is not only responsible for the job he is assigned, but he is playing his role in fulfilling the overall objective or goal and therefore has a more important role to play.

There will be discrepancies between people, only when people consider themselves as individuals, rather than part of the team. If each person considers himself to be a part of the team there would be more cooperation and as a result work environment becomes more comfortable and productive.

 Each person should try to see the positive aspects and skills of the other person learn from them and should improvise his own in a competitive spirit. Not every person is capable of doing everything, one person is good at doing one thing and the other person other, so mutual respect should exist among team members, and each one, should try to encourage the other, to perform better, through his words and deeds, rather than discourage and pass negative comments, as it affects the team spirit.

May be small, but occasional get together at the work place helps the team members to know each other better, as persons, which in turn, helps build a great team and lifts up the team spirit. If one associates himself with the team and team goal becomes personal goal, he not only performs better, but also improves himself as a better individual. If one starts developing this kind of team spirit work will no more be a serious business rather it would be fun. In essence as a team every one excels both as an individual and performer and any sort of goals can be easily accomplished with mutual cooperation and learning attitude.

Read the rest of this entry

Public Relation to achieve new height in 2012

Job Outlook: Public relation to achieve new height in 2012 and good prospects are there for the aspirants of this field in job market said Atul Malikram, the director of PR  24x7 Network Ltd.  He was sharing his views and experience with the public relation students in Indore.  PR professional will get many more good opportunities in the job market and the PR sector is going to achieve new height and milestone in 2012.

Atul dedicated miim, the institute for the PR aspirants, to youth through which many students can achieve their dream to become a successful PR professional.

Read the rest of this entry