Indian outsourcing companies on recruitment drive in America

United States, 23rd September: Several Indian outsourcers in the US are heading for a recruitment drive following stricter immigration norms by the US government for foreign IT professionals in the US.

A couple of Indian IT giants are on a hiring spree these days. Among the Indian IT outsourcing companies pushing for a recruitment drive include Wipro, TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) and Infosys Inc. These three Indian outsourcers are joining hands in the recruitment spree to hire 2,300 software engineers to bring an increase of 13 percent in their combined US payroll.

The US President Barack Obama had, a few days back, accused foreign IT professionals working on temporary basis in the US of stealing jobs there.

The hiring rush by Indian outsourcers in America is partly due to the remarks of the US president regarding the foreign IT workers and partly for increasing business in America, said chief executive of Infosys Inc. S. Gopalkrishnan.

The Indian outsourcers’ move to hire more Americans for IT jobs in the US is due to several reasons. The first reason being that the Indian IT outsourcing companies, with nearly 2m employees in the US, are already rich and established to maintain their stay in the international markets for a long time and not just for grabbing huge profits.

Secondly, to successfully meet the increasing management challenges of workforce employed globally, the Indian IT outsourcing companies can learn a couple of political lessons.

And lastly, several major Indian suppliers are moving up the value chain and spreading their operational wings. This, undoubtedly, asks for greater cooperation from the clients.

When asked whether the US protectionism was an issue of any serious concern for the Indian IT companies, Mr. Gopalkrishnan said that it is a cause of some concern, but, its being hoped that the issue will not sustain.

The recent legislation by US government had resulted in higher US visa fees for Indian IT companies, which the Indian companies had to accept, said Gopalkrishnan.

With a global workforce of around 115,000, Infosys plans to increase its total US payroll from 1,600 to 2,600 while Wipro has intentions to almost double the number of jobs in the Atlanta Development Center to make it 1,000.