Facebook to Hire 800 New Workers in London

Facebook Inc. is to hire 800 new staff in London, expanding its U.K. headquarters despite coming under increasing scrutiny from the country’s lawmakers.

The new hires -- predominately in engineering roles and to be recruited over the next year -- will bring the number of staff working for Facebook in the U.K. to 2,300. The social media company will also offer space in its new office to U.K.-based startups as part of an accelerator program, the company said Monday.

Facebook’s expansion comes at a time when Britain is so alarmed by the extent and scale of Russian interference in U.K. politics via social media networks that its lawmakers are getting ready to interrogate Silicon Valley giants -- including Facebook and Twitter Inc. -- in Washington.

Facebook joins a number of large tech companies doubling down on their presence in London, despite the ongoing uncertainty about the U.K.’s pending exit from the European Union.

"It’s a sign of confidence in our country that innovative companies like Facebook invest here," U.K. Chancellor Philip Hammond said in a statement.

London will be Facebook’s largest engineering hub outside the U.S., according to the statement.

The U.K. is currently lobbying hard for tech talent. The government plans to double the number of visas available to highly skilled workers, including technology-savvy candidates. Facebook, Snap Inc. and Google all announced plans to increase hiring in the U.K., while Apple Inc. is leasing about 500,000 square-feet of office space at Battersea Power Station on the south bank of London’s River Thames.

Among European countries, the U.K. was the most pessimistic about the future of the European technology industry, according to a report last week from London-based venture capital firm Atomico, with 18 percent of respondents -- which included thousands of founders and investors -- saying they were less optimistic than they were a year earlier. Over the last 12 months, it’s also become harder for British startups to raise new funding, according to 32 percent of founders questioned.

Apple hiring more diverse workers but women

Apple made some progress in hiring more minorities. But when it comes to women, its efforts fell flat.The company on Thursday released its annual diversity and inclusion report, the first since creating a new vice president position to oversee the area. Denise Young Smith, Apple's former head of HR, was named to the role in May.

Only about a third of Apple employees as of July 2017 were women, the same level as last year, the company said. When it came to underrepresented minorities, Apple reported a 1 percentage point increase to 23 percent. In the US, Apple's workforce was 54 percent white, down two percentage points from the year earlier.

"We're proud of our accomplishments, but we have much more work to do," Apple said in its report.

Apple has 130,000 full- and part-time employees around the world, with 83,000 of those working in the US. Its figures include its Apple Store employees, not just the engineers, designers and others working for the corporate parent.

Apple and other tech companies have been trying to diversify their workforce, which includes boosting the number of female and minority employees. Under CEO Tim Cook's leadership, Apple has put itself at the front of social issues like LGBT rights, racial equality and the tech industry's need to improve workforce diversity. Still, it's been difficult for Apple and its peers to show significant percentage increases in diversifying its employee base.

Apple said Thursday that the total number of female employees stayed flat at 32 percent as of July 2017.

The company touted an improvement in attracting younger female employees. The number of female employees under the age of 30 has increased 5 percentage points over the past three years to 36 percent. Over that same timeframe, the total number of female employees has risen 2 percentage points, which equals 37,000 women.

Apple's top leadership has shown little improvement in terms of boosting the number of women. In the past year, the number of women in leadership roles rose 1 percentage point to 29 percent. That was after staying flat at 28 percent from 2014 to 2016.

Only one woman, retail chief Angela Ahrendts, holds a title of senior vice president or higher, though Apple has promoted women to lower leadership levels in recent months, including Deidre O'Brien to vice president of people and Isabel Mahe to managing director of Greater China.

"Our female representation is steadily increasing, and we're proud of the progress we're making," Apple said in its diversity report.

Apple also said that it's been actively hiring more employees from "historically underrepresented groups in tech -- women, black, Hispanic, Native American, and Native Hawaiian & other Pacific Islander." From July 2016 to July 2017, 50 percent of its new hires came from those groups. The company said 15 percent of its new hires over the past year are Hispanic, while 11 percent are black.

Infosys Create 20,000 new Jobs

Infosys, the second-largest IT services company in the country in the recent past, has come to the fore with a fresh look. It is getting ready to appoint 20,000 personnel in the current financial year. The company will announce that 20,000 people will be recruited this year, despite the fact that it has eliminated 400 people last year, "said PV Rao.

He said the country’s second largest software exporter is “creating more jobs, adding more people and letting go of only minuscule number of people, purely from performance related perspective”.

Rao met the minister along with Infosys co-Chairman Ravi Venkatesan. He declined however to comment on views of Infosys co- founder NR Narayana Murthy that jobs can be protected if the senior executives of companies take salary cuts and invest in employee re-skilling.

Infosys, the second largest software exporter in the country, will create more jobs. Infosys co-chairman Ravi Venkatesan also attended the meeting. Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy has refused to respond to comments on senior jobs to give job-free junior level job opportunities.

 Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the TCS recruited 2.5 lakh people in the last three years and will add another 20,000 new jobs this year. Prasad also asserted that IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys continue to hire in large numbers.

“TCS has written that they have employed 2.5 lakh people in last 3 years and this year they are going to employ 20,000 more…all this talk of sluggishness is unwarranted,” he said. The comments come at a time when there have been reports of layoffs across the IT sector. Tech majors like Wipro, Infosys, Cognizant and Tech Mahindra have initiated annual performance reviews, a process that weeds out bottom performers or non-performers.

This has compounded fears that thousands of employees in the sector could be shown the door over the next few weeks. The IT sector is already battling challenges in the business environment and stricter work permit regime in countries like the US, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

Infosys itself last year recruited over 20,000 people and this year again, we are likely to repeat similar numbers,” Rao said. He added that in the first half of the year, the company will recruit over 10,000 people.

Free Courses Launched to build workers careers in Dubai

Scores of blue-collar workers have started receiving free English classes and other courses to boost their skills set under an initiative of Danube Welfare Centre (DWC) in partnership with Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (Jafza).

More than 1,000 workers in Jafza South accommodation units have registered for the training, which includes personality development; interview, presentation and communication skills; as well as computer literacy.

The programme was officially launched on Thursday by top representatives from Danube, Jafza and Community Development Authority (CDA) at the DWC in Jafza South. It aims to eventually reach around 15,000 potential worker-students in the area and even more beyond.

A main goal of the initiative is to equip workers with skills and confidence so they can build their careers. It comes in line with the Year of Giving initiative of the UAE.

Students will attend three classes a week — each an hour long — over several months, depending on their standing as a beginner, intermediate or advanced, which is assessed during registration. They will be able to take evening and Friday classes outside their regular work hours.

Sana Sajan, Director of DWC, said the initiative is the brainchild of Rizwan Sajan, founder and chairman of Danube Group. She explained that an employee who was once asked to prepare a scoreboard for a company team-building cricket match declined to do so. Later, he confided to Rizwan Sajan that he had declined because he did not know how to write. His situation moved Sajan to, initially, start the classes for Danube employees. Later, a centre in Karama was opened to accommodate more workers; around 5,000 workers have completed their course through the centre.

On Thursday, Sajan, flanked by top officials from Jafza, CDA and other entities, formally inaugurated the DWC in Jafza South for workers in the area, who are employed at various firms. During a tour of the centre, the officials interacted with the students and urged them to pursue their dreams. They later briefed media about the programme.

When asked about his reason for launching the DWC service in Jafza South, Sajan said: “I felt this was one small way I could give back to society. Already 5,000 people have learnt through, and we can double this figure in a year.”

He added: “Without support from Jafza, this would not have been possible. My vision is to train blue-collar workers so they can elevate their position and earn more. If they learn English and computer skills and are groomed under a guided programme, they can do a better job, apply for a new position, and earn more money.”

Mohammad Al Mua’alem, CEO of Jafza, described the programme as “a noble initiative”, saying Jafza was “really pleased to be partners” in the initiative, and promised full support for the cause.

Omar Al Muthanna, CEO of CDA, said the goal of the CDA and such initiatives is to “move from regular welfare to community empowerment” so workers and others can “have the right tools — education, skills, and knowledge — to move to a more independent situation”.

The DWC is a non-profit social organisation licensed by the CDA, offering a range of free training courses to help unskilled workers improve their language skills and further develop their careers.