Reverse Offshoring!! Indian companies hiring abroad!

In a recent article by Steve Hamm of Business Week highlights that Indian companies are hiring aggressively in the U.S. The reasons he attributes :

-their U.S. expansion plans predate the latest concerns over immigration and jobs.

-It often costs more to ship in Indians on a temporary basis than it does to hire Americans.

-the Indian rupee has risen more against the dollar this year, hiring Americans has gotten cheaper.

-Fierce competition for tech talent in India is pushing salaries there up by 12% to 15% per year, although they remain less than a third of those in the U.S.

I would like to believe that this has been necessary as the Indian software companies are taking the route up the value chain. As cost arbitrage becomes a given decision making point, it is the value add the consultants bring to the table-that is the cutting edge!

To give an example- while in late 90's anyone selling boxes -may have barely made it to a software services firm needing to sell software services. As the market matured, the same position needed some one with prior experience in selling to the 'end customer'. As the "India component' is being more accepted, the same companies now hire Americans in US, and Japanese to penetrate the local market.

Brand building is also another jargon for 'catch 'em young"!! Infosys has been inviting foreign students ( read Chinese, US among others ) for their training program in Mysore -essentially to improve the awareness of the average localite! These trainees are likely to be the 'influencers' when Infy visits these countries in the future -either as prospective employees if not prospective clients for their services.

Interestingly, I recall a presentation made by the HR Honcho of a leading IT major-mentioning while hiring people of foreign nationalities does add to the diversity, and the company had to revamp some of its HR policies to adapt the local practices, the biggest challenge was to convince foreign clients..about 'non Indians' writing code for an Indian company!!

Its all the offshoot of globalisation, and the growing presence of Indian MNCs...the faster we get used to not getting surprised, the better it is -for all concerned :-)!