| They have
been labelled as “adventure workers” who have been joining the Indian
work force from the U.S. and Europe. For some time India’s outsourcing
and information technology firms have been hiring foreigners at higher
and middle levels for their expertise. However, now, workers from
abroad are seeking lower-end jobs as well, such as answering phones at
call centres, for a fraction of what they would earn in their home country.
Most who have
been quoted by various media, say that the idea behind taking up such jobs
is to “chill out,” “take a break,” travel in the sub-continent while
earning at the same time. But there are also more serious dynamics
at play. A shortfall of language-proficient manpower is being plugged
by personnel who might find themselves out of jobs in more advanced nations,
due to cheaper options elsewhere. These foreign workers address the most
common complaint by customers abroad that English (or French,
German, Spanish or Dutch) as spoken by Indians has a very different
flavor/accent which makes it difficult to understand. |
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In addition,
such foreign workers are more likely to possess a better cultural and geographical
knowledge and thus be better able to address specific queries.
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Although there
are no exact estimates of the number of foreigners answering phone calls
in India, the National Association of Software & Services Companies,
the industry trade association, has estimated that there are over 30,000
expats working in Indian IT and offshore companies, which is three times
the number quoted two years ago. |
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| The number
of foreign nationals working in India is estimated to be over 50,000,
with more than 12,000 registered at IT hub Bangalore. Evalueserve, a Delhi-based
company that provides consulting and research services to corporate clients
worldwide, has estimated that the offshore firms in India will need over
160,000 workers with refined foreign-language skills by 2010. However,
the Indian education system will only throw up 40,000 or so graduates with
the required proficiency. Evalueserve predicts that foreigners will
make up the difference.
Among the firms
that have hired foreigners for language proficiency include Evalueserve
(40 foreigners among a total workforce of 900, with plans to add another
150 foreigners this year), Technovate (40 out of 70 workers in a travel-related
process are Europeans, with plans to add another dozen) while GTL Ltd,
based in Pune, has hired a London-based employment agency to facilitate
future requirements. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| These foreign
workers are being seen as emblems of a reverse movement of human resource,
as op posed to the more usual Indian brain drain to foreign shores. Typically,
the salaries of foreign executives in India are much lower than their earnings
abroad and at par with Indian employees, but most firms ensure that their
stay here is comfortable by ensuring health insurance, free lodging, and
a special leave structure that allows travel back home as well as providing
an environment that is professional.
“It’s a
win-win situation,” said Sreeram Iyer, chief executive of Scope International,
a Chennai based human resources and software development outsourcing operation
of Standard Chartered Bank. “The workers don’t only come for adventure.
Many have trouble getting jobs back home,” he said, in an interview with
The Economic Times.
In a recent
report, Business Week has talked about the emergence of service providers
that assist India’s outsourcers to hire from overseas.They include Tim
Bond, a 32-year-old consultant, who last October set up Launch Offshore,
a London recruitment firm, that caters for Indian call centers.Tim
has found jobs for 100 workers, and expects to place 200 more this year. |
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| Headhunters
India, a leading technical employment company, has been quoted as saying
that it gets about 300 unsolicited foreign résumés every
month, and has found jobs for about 100 expats in the past two years.At
Team Lease Ltd. India’s largest temp agency, résumés pour
in from Africa, Japan, Poland, and Latin America.
Over time,
people profiled by the media represent a diverse cross-section of the West:
Norwegian Even Eng, Swiss Myriam Vock (call center Technovate), Japanese
Miki Chiba, American Joshua Born-stein (Infosys), Polish Magdalena Gazewska
(Siri Technologies), Brits Paul King and David Eddison (ITC Infotech),
Swiss Patrick Schapper (travel consultant), Scotsman Kenny Rooney (GTL,
Pune). Rooney has been quoted as saying “India provided me a growth
opportunity that wasn’t there back home.” |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| Surveys by
Nasscom and Evalueserve in the past have also indicated that the passage
of jobs between India and the U.S. and the U.K. is not a “one-way street”.
Recently, an industry report by consulting firm McKinsey and NASSCOM
forecast that India’s business services and IT exports are expected to
surge more than 25 percent a year to $60 billion by 2010. But there
are going to be severe hurdles in the form of manpower shortages, rising
salaries and infrastructure needs that may make Indian firms look at international
locations to conduct operations as well as hire foreigners.
Indian IT companies
have set up offices in the U.S. and also China, but they have been largely
restricted to marketing, generating new clients as well as establishing
a countrywide network that has created very few jobs and those mostly for
Indians. In the last couple of years, however, there have been several
steps by several growing IT firms such as Infosys, Wipro and Satyam,
to hire Western employees to deal with local populations abroad and to
penetrate markets further.
Last month,
Tata Consultancy Services, one of India’s biggest IT firms, detailed plans
to more than double its U.S. staff next year in an expansion that looks
to cut into a key market for U.S. giants International Business Machines
Corp and Accenture. TCS is boosting its U.S. payroll to 1,500 employees
from 600 as it focuses on providing more advanced IT consulting services
in the United States. According to a company statement there are
plans to hire 13,500 professionals this fiscal year out of which 5,000
will be hired abroad. In 2004, Infosys Technologies invested $20
million to create nearly 500 consulting jobs in the U.S.
Observers say
that overseas professionals feel comfortable working in Indian tech firms,
as over the years these firms have imbibed global practices that are inherent
in their operations now. As Indian companies continue to expand operations
worldwide, they have adapted their management practices and strategies
to compete in the global marketplace. Until recently, most Indian software
companies employed Indians in key global positions around the world.
An onsite posting or assignment was a plum perk that the companies offered
budding MBAs and other consultants wishing to move towards marketing or
sales.
Indian companies
have now begun to realize the significance of having local hands in local
markets and have started recruiting sales and marketing people in local
markets to represent them. This has not only created a familiarity among
foreign workers about Indians and India, but also acted as a push to look
for placements when the going is tough abroad.
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