Indian IT majors may have tightened their belts in various areas to contain costs as a fallout of the global economic slowdown. However, most of them see continuing value when it comes to employee training, even though it skims crores of rupees off their top-lines.
Top tier IT firms — including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies, Wipro and HCL Technologies — have identified the need to train the brains they handpick annually from India’s top engineering colleges and technical institutes as a critical task, even as the industry is seeing a degree of upturn in client demand.
India’s largest IT services provider, TCS, for instance, spends 2 per cent of its revenue every year on training new entrants. Bangalore-headquartered Infosys recently announced the opening of a grand training facility at its Mysore campus. Infosys annually spends over Rs 800 crore on training alone. Wipro spends about 2 per cent of its net sales in providing training to employees.
While Infosys and TCS have, to a certain extent, tried to centralise their training resources, Wipro’s strategy has been of a federal nature to cater to local manpower requirements. Wipro has set up an archipelago of training centres in proximity to its competency centres all over India and overseas.
“Wipro believes in taking learning as close as possible to the learner. Hence, for fresh recruits, training is conducted at the development centres where the employee is to be placed. Training happens primarily at our Talent Transformation Centres in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata and Kochi,” says Sreekala Ramamurthy, GM (talent transformation), Wipro Technologies. Overseas recruits, she says, are either provided training at the company’s global centres like the Atlanta Development Centre or “...recruits are flown down to our India offices”.
HCL, too, has decentralised its training infrastructure across the globe because its employees are no longer confined to a particular geography or location. According to Anand Pillai, senior V-P and global head (quality, talent transformation & intrapreneurship development), HCL Technologies: “Since learners are spread across the globe, the entire training department is also spread across the world. Our programmes are standardised to cater to global learning challenges and simultaneously manage different cultural nuances and local sensitivities.”
TCS provides an Initial Learning Programme (ILP) at the company’s corporate learning centre in Thiruvananthapuram. “We invest heavily in world-class training for our employees. ILP training is primarily conducted at our corporate learning centre at Thiruvananthapuram for Indian and non-Indian trainees. We replicate our fresher training programme at Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore and Baroda, as well as overseas, to bring scalability to our training model,” says Ajoy Mukherjee, V-P & head (global HR), TCS.
TCS’ new facility, the Peepul Park, is spread over 12 acres of newly acquired land in Technopark. The 3.5-lakh square feet Peepul Park is snazzily designed and also houses a Leadership Development Institute. The ILP Learning Block can accommodate 1,000 employees at a time, a hostel block accommodates 500 people, with a recreation centre and library thrown in. The facility has a capacity of 1,500 people.
The ILP is replicated in overseas geographies for new hires from countries like Australia, China, India, Hungary, Uruguay, the UK and the US. TCS also ensures that it hires people with diverse educational backgrounds and across geographies.
Infosys recently expanded the company’s global training centre, located at its 337-acre Mysore campus, by setting up another dedicated facility (GEC-II) for training. However, Infosys also maintains training infrastructure at all its development centres. The company recently extended the training duration for new recruits (freshers).
“We consider training as an investment in the future. Our investments to enhance our training capabilities are in keeping with future requirements,” justifies S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD, Infosys Technologies.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
IT market, Outsourcing
U.S. unveils multi-billion dollar opportunity for Indian IT
U.S. President Barrack Obama's incessant push for a better healthcare sector in U.S. will be the silver-lining for the staggered IT service sector in India, as it unveils a multi-biilion dollar opportunity. Obama has allocated $37 billion of stimulus funding to drive the adoption of EHRs and as per McKinsey estimates the resulting growth in EHRs will require an overall spend of $175 billion.
The EHR rollout will need the Indian IT firms' deep expertise in services such as systems integration, application management and legacy modernization, as the established software vendors lack the manpower to provide the services. Nearly, $50 billion of the spending will be devoted to IT services and training.
The second big opportunity for Indian firms lies in BPO. The reform will see an influx of over 30 million newly covered individuals; insurers will look to outsourcing partners to help them enroll new members and process their call and claim needs. The rising cost pressures will force insurers and hospitals to concentrate only on a few core functions (such as benefit and services design, sales and marketing). The rest of the back-office services like member database management, claims processing and support services - enrolment processing, will be outsourced.
The final opportunity hold big for the players in the data analytics market. These could range from comparative effectiveness research into different treatments or drug combinations to analysis of call, claims and clinical data for customer lifecycle needs and marketing. McKinsey estimates that the overall market for 'real world data' analytics could be worth over $10 billion.
The EHR rollout will need the Indian IT firms' deep expertise in services such as systems integration, application management and legacy modernization, as the established software vendors lack the manpower to provide the services. Nearly, $50 billion of the spending will be devoted to IT services and training.
The second big opportunity for Indian firms lies in BPO. The reform will see an influx of over 30 million newly covered individuals; insurers will look to outsourcing partners to help them enroll new members and process their call and claim needs. The rising cost pressures will force insurers and hospitals to concentrate only on a few core functions (such as benefit and services design, sales and marketing). The rest of the back-office services like member database management, claims processing and support services - enrolment processing, will be outsourced.
The final opportunity hold big for the players in the data analytics market. These could range from comparative effectiveness research into different treatments or drug combinations to analysis of call, claims and clinical data for customer lifecycle needs and marketing. McKinsey estimates that the overall market for 'real world data' analytics could be worth over $10 billion.
BPO, new openings
BPO companies begin hiring again
After more than two quarters of no hiring, walk-in interviews for BPOs are back in the picture. Impacted by the global credit crunch, BPO firms had cut down the employees on the bench and frozen the hiring. Now, with the market witnessing positive signs of revival, walk-in interviews are back on the job sites and newspaper advertisements.
“Actions are back on track again and walk-in-interviews are happening as earlier. The downturn had impacted this segment, but it was not a major one,” Perry Madan, executive director, Elixir Web Solutions, told Financial Chronicle over the phone.
He said there has been a growth of around 15 per cent in the walk-in-interviews, which witnessed a negative growth during the downturn.
“Walk in interviews have started, but have not picked up as it was earlier before the downturn happened, as new projects are not coming from the US and Europe. Companies are now also looking at experienced people unlike earlier when even fresh pass-outs from colleges and schools were hired and given training,” Global Hunt director Sunil Goel said. He added that earlier it was a different game when people were just hired and given training for the processes. Karthik Shekhar, general secretary of union of ITeS professionals said that the there has been some hiring in BPO firms but the number of vacancies is relatively small compared to the mass hiring earlier. “Now we find hiring only for few experienced positions and the number of applicants is also huge. In certain cases, for 10-15 openings, there are more than 1,000 applicants,” Shekhar said.
However, there are few companies that have not been affected much and the walk-in-interviews are happening the same way as earlier. “During the downturn, the attrition rate reduced a bit as people stayed longer due to fear of losing jobs in newer companies. But, walk in interviews remained by and large similar, as we were not desperate for hiring more people,” Serco CEO Aditya Gupta said.
“Actions are back on track again and walk-in-interviews are happening as earlier. The downturn had impacted this segment, but it was not a major one,” Perry Madan, executive director, Elixir Web Solutions, told Financial Chronicle over the phone.
He said there has been a growth of around 15 per cent in the walk-in-interviews, which witnessed a negative growth during the downturn.
“Walk in interviews have started, but have not picked up as it was earlier before the downturn happened, as new projects are not coming from the US and Europe. Companies are now also looking at experienced people unlike earlier when even fresh pass-outs from colleges and schools were hired and given training,” Global Hunt director Sunil Goel said. He added that earlier it was a different game when people were just hired and given training for the processes. Karthik Shekhar, general secretary of union of ITeS professionals said that the there has been some hiring in BPO firms but the number of vacancies is relatively small compared to the mass hiring earlier. “Now we find hiring only for few experienced positions and the number of applicants is also huge. In certain cases, for 10-15 openings, there are more than 1,000 applicants,” Shekhar said.
However, there are few companies that have not been affected much and the walk-in-interviews are happening the same way as earlier. “During the downturn, the attrition rate reduced a bit as people stayed longer due to fear of losing jobs in newer companies. But, walk in interviews remained by and large similar, as we were not desperate for hiring more people,” Serco CEO Aditya Gupta said.
Layoffs in India, Layoffs in USA
Hiring tools used for firing
With a dip in recruitments in the face of economic slowdown, skill assessment tools have now assumed a new and more ‘structured’ role — to help companies internally gauge the capabilities of an existing employee and decide whether he should be trained further, promoted or sacked.
Though the use of these tools for recruitment purposes has taken a back seat now, their demand for internal assessment tests has gone up, said Madan Padaki, CEO of MeriTrac Services. “The ball is now in the employer’s court. He has more choices as the availability of talent in the marketplace is more,” he said.
Skill assessment solution providers are witnessing a 20 to 25 per cent increase in demand from employers for assessing their workforce despite the fact that many of them have become leaner during the downturn, said R Kannan, CEO of Assess People.
“MertiTrac has been handling 90,000-125,000 assessments a month for the past two years. The firm has noticed a sharp rise in enquiries from IT/ITeS, BFSI and retail companies during the past six months. From around 10 enquiries in a quarter, a year ago, MeritTrac has received 25 enquiries for internal assessments each during the last two quarters,” said Padaki.
“Looking at the nature of questions framed for assessment tests, it is evident that at least 25 per cent of them were used to find non-performers, which could be used for downsizing purposes. This trend started only post-October last year,” said Padaki.
Almost 60 per cent of the demand is from IT and ITeS companies.
Organisations are focusing on three areas — effectiveness of training, a framework to determine employee retention and promotion and mapping their career path.
Though the use of these tools for recruitment purposes has taken a back seat now, their demand for internal assessment tests has gone up, said Madan Padaki, CEO of MeriTrac Services. “The ball is now in the employer’s court. He has more choices as the availability of talent in the marketplace is more,” he said.
Skill assessment solution providers are witnessing a 20 to 25 per cent increase in demand from employers for assessing their workforce despite the fact that many of them have become leaner during the downturn, said R Kannan, CEO of Assess People.
“MertiTrac has been handling 90,000-125,000 assessments a month for the past two years. The firm has noticed a sharp rise in enquiries from IT/ITeS, BFSI and retail companies during the past six months. From around 10 enquiries in a quarter, a year ago, MeritTrac has received 25 enquiries for internal assessments each during the last two quarters,” said Padaki.
“Looking at the nature of questions framed for assessment tests, it is evident that at least 25 per cent of them were used to find non-performers, which could be used for downsizing purposes. This trend started only post-October last year,” said Padaki.
Almost 60 per cent of the demand is from IT and ITeS companies.
Organisations are focusing on three areas — effectiveness of training, a framework to determine employee retention and promotion and mapping their career path.
H1-B, NRIs, Recession, TCS
TCS: We need more time
The new head of India's top outsourcing firm, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, said that it would take another few months to tell whether business spending was recovering, as customers were still working on their IT budgets for 2010.
"We'll have to wait for the next three months. All the customers are going through their cycles now," N Chandrasekaran, who takes over as chief executive when S Ramadorai retires on October 5, said in an interview.
TCS, which provides consulting, system integration and call center management, competes with India's Infosys Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd as well as big global players such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co and Accenture which offer similar services to multinational corporate clients.
Ramadorai, in the same interview, said the company was seeing more stability but that a more substantial recovery would take time.
"When is there going to be growth? I think it's going to take a while," he said.
Despite the cautious outlook and a recently announced plan by Dell Inc to buy technology services company Perot Systems, Chandrasekaran said he did not see a need for TCS to consolidate through mergers and acquisitions.
"It's not a question of ... getting squeezed" by US companies beefing up their services offerings, Chandrasekaran, currently chief operating officer, said.
"There is a lot of room for organic growth. We're expanding our footprint, we're expanding our portfolio of services that we offer," he said. But he added that TCS would consider acquisitions that bolster the company's portfolio of services.
He also said the company plans to add 1,000 jobs in the United States in the next year to boost its presence in a market TCS sees recovering ahead of other regions like Europe. The company currently has around 13,000 workers in the US.
"We'll have to wait for the next three months. All the customers are going through their cycles now," N Chandrasekaran, who takes over as chief executive when S Ramadorai retires on October 5, said in an interview.
TCS, which provides consulting, system integration and call center management, competes with India's Infosys Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd as well as big global players such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co and Accenture which offer similar services to multinational corporate clients.
Ramadorai, in the same interview, said the company was seeing more stability but that a more substantial recovery would take time.
"When is there going to be growth? I think it's going to take a while," he said.
Despite the cautious outlook and a recently announced plan by Dell Inc to buy technology services company Perot Systems, Chandrasekaran said he did not see a need for TCS to consolidate through mergers and acquisitions.
"It's not a question of ... getting squeezed" by US companies beefing up their services offerings, Chandrasekaran, currently chief operating officer, said.
"There is a lot of room for organic growth. We're expanding our footprint, we're expanding our portfolio of services that we offer," he said. But he added that TCS would consider acquisitions that bolster the company's portfolio of services.
He also said the company plans to add 1,000 jobs in the United States in the next year to boost its presence in a market TCS sees recovering ahead of other regions like Europe. The company currently has around 13,000 workers in the US.
IT market, Wipro
On sale: Wipro's France facility
Wipro Ltd, India’s third largest provider of software services, is seeking a buyer for its Sophia Antipolis centre, said Christophe Martinoli, country head for France at the company’s Wipro Technologies business.
“We have been always looking for buyers and we will continue to look favorably on any proposal that we may get from interested parties willing to continue part” or all of the center’s activities, Martinoli said in an email interview on Thursday.
The facility, one of the Bangalore-based company’s five offices in France, employs about 60 workers.
The company has told the French government that it will try to redeploy workers from the facility and assist them in seeking jobs outside the company, he said.
“We have been always looking for buyers and we will continue to look favorably on any proposal that we may get from interested parties willing to continue part” or all of the center’s activities, Martinoli said in an email interview on Thursday.
The facility, one of the Bangalore-based company’s five offices in France, employs about 60 workers.
The company has told the French government that it will try to redeploy workers from the facility and assist them in seeking jobs outside the company, he said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)