Increased global mobility -Salary packages in India

I just read an interesting article by Shreya Biswas of Economic Times on the challenges for the HR heads- as they need to design salaries for executives being relocated from international locations to India!

Talking to specialists from firms like Mercer, Hewitt & Korn/Ferry, she hints out

1. An expat is paid more for the same role -when compared to an Indian- for senior management roles.

2. The salaries at the middle management and entry-level people may have to be content with the same package as the local employee for a particular position. Perhaps, the logic being that the trip to the country of relocation is in their interest and not the company’s.

3. The gap in expat compensation and that of a local has been reducing in recent years. The transformation is taking place since India now has local talent.

4. Companies typically bring in expatriates “only for specialised roles - for example, specific capital markets positions, actuarial positions in insurance , risk management positions in real estate, positions in R&D, because in these areas , executives with a similar expertise are rare in India.”

My own personal observations are

-it has lot to do with the MNCs entry/focus on how important the "India component" is in their overall strategy, as also the very much dependent on the stage of their operations in India.

-increasingly in future, the demand for returning Indians -especially those who have had prior India management experience-before going abroad, will be much more than those -who are of Indian origin and have been educated/have had all their management experience overseas! This is more in the light of the increasing numbers of mergers& acquisitions that are happening globally, and the integration issues that are likely to crop up.

-eventually it boils down to the 'incremental value add' a professional can bring to any business-a la 'ROI"!!

The good news, anyway, is that the roles are increasingly becoming more strategic -and hence, it would be imperative to review the scope of the role and the impact one can make to the company's bottomline-and so, the salary compatibility is just a given factor!!

Happy hunting :-)!!