Thursday, October 15, 2009

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Infosys to replace Indians by Americans

To overcome the visa problems and strengthen their businesses, Infosys Technologies is likely to hire more number of local talents in the U.S. The company has already recruited 72 Americans and 140 more offers are under way.

Nandita Gurjar, Senior Vice President and Group Head of Human Resources at Infosys told Financial Chronicle that under a hiring plan started in April, 1,000 Americans will be taken on board. This lateral hiring will be typically for people with four to five years of experience and domain knowledge of different technologies. They are intended to replace Indian staff on deputation to the U.S.

The hiring of more Americans is part of the company's strategy to have more non-Indians, who now account for 4.67 percent of the employee strength. The company wants to take the figure to 15 percent by 2012.
According to the company's Director, T V Mohandas Pai, Infosys has not planned to fill senior management positions in the U.S. now, except a couple in sales. Asked if an American could be hired to head its North American operations, he said that the company believed in having the 'most capable person heading the best positions'.

Infosys has about 17,000 people working outside India. Of this, over 10,000 are in North America (most of them in the U.S.), including 4,900 non-Indians. 1,000 Indian staffs are stationed in the U.S.; the rest are in Europe, China and Australia. The total headcount at Infosys is 1,05,000.

Infosys is also recruiting in small numbers in Brazil (about 250 people initially), China, Germany, Mexico and the Philippines. It is generally believed that local hiring costs Indian companies more. However, Gurjar said, "This is no longer true. The U.S. minimum wages law requires companies to pay a certain amount to employees, even to staff on deputation sent there on visa. There is not much difference in salaries paid to those on deputation and locals. So we would rather recruit locals who have more experience and domain expertise. This leads to greater productivity."

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