Indian IT sector hires expatriates to bridge skill discrepancies

Bangalore: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) had hired Madhu Kannan as the CEO in May last year.The overseas based Kannan was the Managing Director in the corporate strategy group at Bank of America-Merill Lynch, where he won market share from its younger but bigger rival, the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The IT sector has also turned to expatriates, both overseas and locally. For instance, Infosys Technologies, has around 100 expats in the middle and senior management levels working in India. In July last year, Wipro, hired Martha Bejar to head global sales and operations.

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"Some are hired to fill skill gaps. There are a lot who want to work for a world class company that has its base in India. They want to have an India experience in their CV," said T.V. Mohandas Pai, director and head of human resources and training at Infosys.

Sanat Kawatkar from Towers Watson estimated that 25 percent of actuaries in India are from overseas who are paid competent salaries, when compared to the developed markets.Kawatkar says, "Insurance firms typically hire expats to fill management positions in finance and actuarial services, in which the local talent pool is limited."

"Expats offer Indian companies the 'know-how, the know-who and the know-what' that they would find difficult, if not impossible, to replicate effectively," said Dipak C. Jain, Dean Emeritus at the Kellogg School of Management.

"Just as the U.S. workforce is 'browning' with the addition of foreign talent, so too do we see the trend that India is slowly 'creaming' as foreigners increasingly seek opportunities in the world's largest democracy," he writes in the foreword to the Amrop study.