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Growing Expatriates in Indian Companies |
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The Indian job market is full of attractive opportunities, not only for domestic talents but for foreign workforce as well. The number of foreigners seeking jobs in India is increasing every year. Not only are the middle and senior level expats coming to India, young graduates, who are on the threshold of beginning a new career are taking up jobs in Indian sectors other than IT like pharma, retail, telecom and hospitality. Around 30,000 to 40,000 expats are working in India presently and the number is still growing. Job portals like Timesjobs and MonsterIndia are now having more than 3,000 resumes of foreigners, who look for jobs in India, in their databases.
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Even major IT companies like Infosys are having special programs for getting students for premier universities like Stanford and Harvard to work with them. Recognizing the fact that India is a growing economy, foreign universities are sending their students to work in India so that they can have an understanding of the Indian markets an environment, work practices and culture of the Indian organizations.
Why are expats ready to work in India? What attracts these expatriates fly to India? Some of the reasons that add to the trend of expats looking for more jobs in India are as follows:
- Growth Opportunities: India, being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, offers a large number of growth opportunities to expats. More expats seek jobs in India on account of job cuts, outsourcing, and high taxes in western nations.
- Compensation: The compensation provided by Indian companies maintain external equity and are almost at par with what is being paid in foreign countries. Expats with specialized skills which are unavailable in India, due to financial and technology constraint like molecular research, are being offered highly attractive packages.
Attractive Positions: Companies are offering attractive leadership positions to experienced expatriates. Key roles ranging from middle level managerial roles to Departmental Heads are also being offered to specialized expat.
- Adds value to resume: There are no second thoughts about how Indian experience adds values to ones resume. It reflects an individual's hard work and ability to adapt and deal with diversity. One gets to know the different cultures, improve networking skills, and knows how to deal with people.
- Increasing Unemployment: The rate of unemployment is increasing in industrialized economies while the growth opportunities are increasing in South Asian countries. As a result of this fact, many expats who have a saturation in their careers in their countries are heading towards Indian markets to grab the opportunities here and move ahead in their careers. Apart for the advantages of working in India, there are certain factors that reduce the chance of an expat to become successful in India. Difficulties in communication and difference in cultures are two main factors for the same.
Expats in various sectors in India:
- Pharma Sector: There is a huge dearth of clinical research professional in pharmacy sector in India. There is a need for core skills in drug research. Expats with such superior skills are adding value to the drug pharma sector with their expertise. They have experience in high end research and thus prove to be a strength for the company who hire them.
- Banking Sector: Expats, especially from South East Asian countries are keen to work in Indian banks. Private banks like ICICI, ABN AMRO and Standard Chartered are already having expats working with them. Since, there is a dearth of skilled persons in financial markets today, the banks are hiring increasing number of expats. As India is emerging as a global player, expats see huge professional growth opportunities in India. The foreign candidates are also comfortable in working with Indian finance sector as the lacunae between the salary structure in India and other countries has considerably reduced.
- KPO Sector: Companies hire specialized business analysts expats to add value to their work and benchmark its employees so that they perform with same efficiency. Evalueserve has 40 expats among total workforce of 900employees. Moreover to deal with cultural issues, companies are actively arranging training programs to help expats understand the company culture better.
Threat to Indian Workforce
The trend of expats occupying key positions and leadership roles is hitting the Indian corporates these days. According to a recent study by Credence Research and Analytics (CRA), there are 40,000 expats in India presently; and out of them, almost 15% are in leadership roles. It is believed that expat managers have more abilities when compared to their Indian counterparts. Though Indian leadership has been long known for its passion, commitment and ability to tackle diverse situations, expats demonstrate a higher risk taking ability, transparency and accountability. Expat managers acts as key source of innovations for the company and help in maintaining harmony throughout the company. While some companies see this trend as a threat for Indian talents, others see it as a sourcing strategy wherein companies look out for the right candidate for a right job. Such companies debate that while searching for a right candidate, skills and attitude should be given more weightage and factors like nationality should be ignored.
From the perspective of labor markets, candidates feel that as more and more expats may occupy key roles in companies in near future, this trend can pose a threat to their career progression.
Besides this, some facts go against expats occupying key roles. This includes their commitment to stay for a long term with the company, poor understanding of Indian markets and environment and ability to deal with diverse workforce.
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