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"We Have A Very Open Policy Vis-A-Vis Internet Usage"
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Seema Padman, director HR, Asia ARM spoke to Ashwin Gopinath of EFY about how far HR has come in the past few years.
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Thursday, September 06, 2012:
ARM Holdings is the world's leading semiconductor intellectual property (IP) supplier. With the diversity of ARM IP and the broad ecosystem of supporting silicon and software for ARM-based solutions, the world's leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) use ARM technology in a wide variety of applications.
Seema Padman, director HR, Asia ARM spoke to Ashwin Gopinath of EFY about how far HR has come in the past few years.
Could you tell us what sort of technologies ARM is working on and currently seeking engineers for?
At the ARM-India design center, we have the presence of two product divisions, the Processor Division and the Physical IP Division. Work carried out for these parts of the ARM business includes validation and implementation of leading edge processors, such as the ARM® Cortex™ processor family, and the design, development and validation of System IP, such as CoreSight™ cache coherent interconnect technology. It also includes development of Physical IP technology, such as Artisan® Physical IP, for all the foundries in the world. We design Physical IP for processes ranging from 180nm to 20nm today. This wide range of IP is also validated on silicon in our design center.
What levels of engineers are being recruited by you? Could you list their roles and responsibilities?
We recruit engineers across this whole range of product lines, and this includes new graduates as well as mid-level career professionals. We went to a number of campuses last year and conducted recruitment drives to hire graduates in both hardware & software disciplines. We hire engineers with different skill sets based on the array of projects.
What is ARM’s policy regarding internet use for its employees?
We have an open policy vis-à-vis Internet usage. We do not block/restrict access to sites – our employees can access any social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. and also any other websites. We do have policies that employees should not be accessing inappropriate websites for our working environment, and that prohibit the installation and use of proprietary or copyrighted information such as software, music and video in a manner that infringes a 3rd party’s IP rights. Employees are not permitted to download, copy or use any software from the Internet without first obtaining approval by IT and/or legal of the terms which govern its use or checking that approval has already been obtained. We are an IP company and we expect our employees to respect others’ Intellectual property rights.
Do your engineers have stock options like IT firms do?
ARM offers RSUs (Restricted Share Units) which are often just referred to as “shares”. RSUs are a gift of shares which have real value even if the share price goes down. With stock options, unless the market price stays above the grant price, there is no value.
Do you have an internship program at ARM?
We have an active internship program at ARM. We offer long (24 weeks) internship program for engineering students in their final year of college. We take around 8-10 interns per year. Under-graduate students can also apply to do their project work (in their 6th or 8th semester) at ARM for a period of 8-10 weeks.
What measures have you taken to reduce absenteeism and substance abuse in your workforce?
We don’t have an issue with absenteeism or substance abuse. ARM does have policies around addressing/managing these issues if they were to arise.
What is the training imparted to freshers?
For new grads, we have an orientation program that is designed to give the company overview and help new hires understand the ARM business, divisions, technologies, values and key policies that govern how we operate. This is followed by more detailed technical training on various domains and then a few months of on-the-job training. The new recruits are assigned individual mentors for the first six months and during this period they are expected to hone their skills. New graduates also have the opportunity to attend a 1 week Global Graduate Conference at Cambridge, ARM’s HQ, where they attend a variety of trainings (both technical & soft skills) along with graduates from all ARM locations worldwide.
What skillsets do you look for in an individual?
The skillsets needed vary depending on the position we are seeking to fill. We focus on an in-depth knowledge of the key areas along with qualities like team work, proactivity, customer focus, responsiveness – mainly focused on ensuring that people we bring on board are aligned to key ARM values.
Have there been decisions taken by the HR team which had to be withdrawn because of particularly strong reactions?
ARM encourages a vibrant work environment in which our employees can thrive and as an IP company, our primary investment is on people. We therefore aim to make our policies employee friendly. We have not had dissent from employees on any of our policies. We seek input from employees prior to introducing new policies or changes to key policies. All of our global policies are run through the ACF (ARM Consultation Forum) in the UK which is constituted of employee representatives. Employees do give us feedback when new policies are introduced. We have not had an instance of withdrawing a policy.
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Any recent changes in your HR policy?
All our policies get reviewed once a year to ensure that we are a progressive organisation and also legally compliant. Some of the recently introduced policies are: the part-time working policy and a policy around not using mobile phones while driving. We have had a work from home policy for the last few years. Other changes include changes to the leave policy – introducing CSR leave, adoption leave & long-term sick leave, as well as increasing the time off from work allowed under maternity leave. The employee referral policy is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is attractive to employees and that we maintain employee referrals as our key hiring source.
Could you outline the employee recruitment process?
We have a few sources through which we receive applications for vacancies at ARM – this includes direct applicants, employee referrals and CV’s that come in from recruitment consulting firms. We also advertise our vacancies on LinkedIn. Applications that we receive are screened and we do a telephone interview with selected candidates. This is the 1st round of selection. Candidates who are selected after the telephone stage are typically invited for a number of face to face interviews that last for a day. This includes 4-5 rounds of technical interviews and 1 round of HR interview. All the interviewers then meet to discuss and conclude whether the candidate would be an offer or a reject.
How would you assist an employee who is having trouble meeting his deadlines?
We have tech leads for every project who work with the project management team to ensure that our projects will meet deadlines. They review project deliveries on an on-going basis to ensure that milestones are being met and if there are indications that we are slipping on schedules, measures are put in place proactively to ensure this does not happen. If an individual lacks some skillset, we provide requisite training; also through our feedback and development system, the manager and the employee can have an open and honest discussion to understand the opportunities to improve further.
How do the employees deal with stress?
We, at ARM, are very mindful of the fact that people should have a good work/life balance. We encourage employees at all level to plan and utilize their vacation as it helps them to get recharged. In addition to the statutory holidays and leave, all employees get 4 weeks of vacation every year and from 5th year of service onwards, this is increased to 5 weeks. ARM also gives 4 weeks of sabbatical leave for every 4 years of service. If employees need to put in extra work closer to project release date, then it is left to the manager’s discretion to extend compensatory time off for employees. Recently we have initiated employee wellness initiatives – the activities under this include running events such as fitness challenge, promoting an active lifestyle (the initiative was called Let’s Move for Health) and inviting experts coming into the ARM office to talk about a healthy way of life and also on topics such as stress management, heart ailments and prevention, nutrition etc. One of the benefits we offer employees is a free health check-up once every 2 years. We have a gym at the office premises and a personal trainer is available for consultation.
Could you tell us something about Team ARM?
Team ARM is an internal initiative which has been in place for a couple of years. It's the charitable arm of ARM (so to say). We conduct activities under the Team ARM banner which will help bring employees together promoting their health along with raising money for charity. In the last couple of years we have had 40-50 employees of ARM participate in the Bangalore 10k run to raise money for charity. ARM does a matching contribution for funds raised by the employees. The cycling enthusiasts at ARM Bangalore also hosted a cycling event to get more employees to take up the activity. We have run blood donation camps once or twice a year at the office premises. The funds we raise mainly go to NGO’s that operate in the sphere of education & environment. We also support the local government school by providing funds for a teacher to educate the students in computer domain. Our employees volunteer in the school as well as in the blind school in the city.
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(2 Votes)
