Author: Anosh Malekar/Mumbai, Bangalore
& Ahmedabad
Publication: The Week
Date: March 7, 2004
URL: http://www.the-week.com/24mar07/currentevents_article10.htm
Introduction: Indian workplaces
are sporting a multi-cultural look with a gradually growing foreign workforce.
They come here because of job cuts in the west or even just a love for
India
The wonders of Vienna are unforgettable,
but Alexandra Gindl's heart now beats for
Bangalore. Understandable. It's
where the 30-something Austrian loves to work, on a "normal Indian salary",
as she says. It's also given her a homegrown husband. "Now I go to Europe
only as a tourist," she winks.
She first came to India in 1996
to do a two-month survey on the effects of the IT boom on Bangalore's economy.
She then worked in Germany for a couple of years before deciding to relocate
to Bangalore as a marketing strategist for a 'small company'. She learnt
that the Indian work culture and lifestyle can be addictive. "Compared
to conservative Europe there is a distinct open- mindedness in India, particularly
in Bangalore, about what the young can achieve," says Gindl, training and
content development manager at PeopleOne Consulting in Bangalore.
If she has reasons to stay, so has
Richard S. Van Pelt, director of training at Motif India Infotech, Ahmedabad,
which provides back office operations and customer care to companies like
American Express and British Airways. He finds the work environment in
India "incredible". Pelt came here from Florida-based Precision Response
Corpo-ration, but soon changed jobs "to travel across India". In May 2002,
he joined Motif, Precision Response's strategic partner in India. "There
is a lot to stay for," says the 38-year-old New Yorker, who has travelled
across the US, South America, Africa and Asia. "India has a lot more history
to it. Besides, unlike very big cities you do not lose perspective here."
Pelt and Gindl are part of a gradually
growing foreign workforce in Indian cities-in sectors as varied as business
process outsourcing and hospitality to information technology and the media.
After decades of brain drain from the country, there is a nascent trend
of India emerging as a centre of gravity for professionals from the US,
Europe and Asian countries, particularly because of outsourcing and job
cuts in the west. According to a study by a management consulting firm,
India is the preferred destination for the relocation of over 5 lakh jobs
over the next five years from US financial firms alone.
The mobility is also part of an
employment pattern of openness to new workplaces. It works to the benefit
of both the sending and receiving countries, than the old idea of migrating
for good. So, for example, not only are Indian textile companies sourcing
design consultants from Italy, but foreigners are eager to take up the
post.
When Andrew Holland, a British national
came to India in 1997, he remembers being one of five expatriates-"people
mainly in banking and manufacturing"-working in Mumbai. Now, there is a
growing statistic of professionals from abroad employed in the many dynamic
industries in India. According to home ministry estimates, there were about
13,000 foreigners working in India in 2002; the number is now believed
to be growing by 3,000 every year.
Holland recalls getting into the
hang of working in India without a hitch. "What I liked immediately was
the fact that everybody spoke English," says the chief administrative officer
and executive vice-president of DSP Merrill Lynch's research wing. "People
are very smart and living here is made quite easy."
The IT boom has changed the image
of the country. And the country's growth rate in the emerging world economy,
as projected by the World Economic Outlook, looks good. The trend of finding
employment in India is also becoming popular because of the growing respect
Indian companies and workers are gaining in the developed world.
"The next decade will see India
as a great economy," says Chennai-based businessman Patric Davenport, who
has invested in the leather industry and in IT. "The famous Indian sluggishness
is changing."
Ironically, expatriate workers enjoy
the relaxed pace in Indian offices. "A lot more effort goes in to achieve
100 per cent results in India," says Gindl, who was surprised to find Indians
hardworking and patient at the same time. "And there is also a human face
to working here. They understand you have to be home when there is a death
in the family. In the west, that would call for a boardroom discussion!"
Thanks to a foreign workforce new
phrases, such as a 'normal Indian salary' and an 'expat package', are creeping
into the native HR lexicon. Many expats feel, though, that the pay slip
is not the sole criterion for considering a job offer anymore. "Among management
professionals, there is nothing like a UK salary and an Indian salary,"
says Eric Selvadurai, a Sri Lankan and president of global operations at
WNS, a Mumbai-based BPO. "You may earn 25 per cent less, but the quality
of life here is better."
Gindl agrees: "Taxes are high in
Europe and so is unemployment." Besides, one gets used to having a domestic
help, chauffeur, gardener and club memberships, luxuries not easily affordable
in the west.
Most foreigners also feel that the
experience of having worked in India will look good on CVs. The employee
register at Delhi-based Technovate eSolutions, a travel-focused BPO company,
throws up some exotic names. Out of a workforce of 700, Technovate has
60 employees from the UK, France, Germany, Spain, UK, Ireland, Finland,
Norway and Sweden. A senior manager says that the expats are better equipped
to handle calls from their native countries and add to the company's reputation.
"It's great to be working here,"
says Kati Koivukangas, a 27-year-old from Finland, who after completing
her bachelors in Tourism from the Polytechnic of Helsinki, followed a friend
to Technovate. She has worked in Delhi for a year and plans to renew her
contract, least of all because a stint in India would be valuable particularly
when she applies for a managerial post back home.
The majority of foreign workers
come to India on assignment with their parent companies. M.B. Lee, vice-president
(marketing) of Samsung India, says the country is one of the largest markets
and has attained a position of prominence in the plans of global corporate
giants. "A stint in India is increasingly being viewed as a good thing
by senior-level managers," says Lee. Nearly half a dozen of the top managers
of Samsung have been posted in India before being called back to the parent
company in Korea.
Selvadurai, who set up a BPO in
Thiruvananthapuram, two decades ago and came back to Mumbai in late 2003,
feels that expatriates just fill the gap in the middle management levels
that India still lacks talent in. CNN's south Asia correspondent Rodolfo
Bermejo, who is based in Delhi, feels that India's openness to change and
new ideas will contribute to its prosperity, when compared to China and
Japan, which are more insular. "I have decided to stay on in India to see
the country emerge as a developed nation it is entitled to being," says
Bermejo, who completed his MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies in
Delhi. "And I already see it happening."
While everyone speaks about the
evolving market and the enjoyable "aaram se" pace in India, there are also
the inconveniences to surmount in the course of work. "There are plenty
of irritants involved with working in India," says John Lynch, a New Yorker
who came to Chennai in the early 1990s. As executive director of Professional
Services Group, a consultancy which specialises in providing entry stage
advice to companies coming to India, he is often trying to unbind the red
tape. "Government regulations at the Centre are easy to work through, but
at the local level it is still very difficult," he says. "Tamil Nadu is
changing rapidly, but interstate commerce is very difficult."
Expats coming to India are also
concerned about the infrastructure, water, power, roads, safety, access
to health services and schooling. "I have been taking a bath in salty water
at my house in Chennai," says Lynch. "People need to be open-minded about
everything to be able to work here."
The traffic on the roads is Mike
Elisou's pet hate. "The number of certificates you have to fill in to get
something done too is simply mind-boggling," says the director of Texon,
British shoe-makers, still trying to settle down in Chennai.
Agnieszka Hindley likes Bangalore,
but the shopkeepers exasperate her. "Shopkeepers mistakenly believe that
all foreigners have huge cash reserves and overcharge me," says the 22-year-old
Briton. It was Hindley's love for India that brought her to Bangalore in
September 2003 and prompted her to take up a job as a journalist with a
newspaper.
For expats who like the peace and
quiet, Bangalore or Pune are the cities of choice. And those looking for
a fast life could not ask for more rough and tumble than what Mumbai or
Delhi can offer.
"With the infrastructure picking
up, cities like Baroda and Surat too could turn out to be hot destinations,"
says Pelt, whose sister recently joined him and is now working at an educational
outsourcing company in Mumbai.
Options to unwind after work hours
are many. Apart from exploring India, which tops most people's list, they
like to explore cuisines. "There is Spanish, Lebanese and Chinese cuisine,
apart from Indian," says Holland. "I love the multiplying malls, too."
And then, there is any brand of spirituality available. "I like to drive
to Sunday services at a church in this poor locality," says Selvadurai.
"We sit on a mat and pray, and I find being there very relaxing."
Hindley says many foreigners prefer
sticking to their circuit of friends and the foreigners' clubs. "There
are cultural differences, but over time they are so integrated that I no
more notice them," she says. "Also Indians are pleased that someone from
the west chose to work here."
But how does the Indian feel about
all this? The trend is not big enough to set alarm bells ringing about
expat workers taking away Indian jobs. At least not yet. Employers must,
however, ensure that competition for jobs in India will not widen income
disparities, with the possibility of forei-gn workers at the same level
being paid more than their Indian colleagues.
Some Indian employers feel that
it may be justified, because foreign workers bring with them more specialised
skills. "We look at them as professionals who add immediate value to our
operations," says Samir Parekh, director of business deve-lopment at Motif.
"In Ahmedabad, we have had foreigners bringing in expertise in textiles
and BPOs."
HR experts however, say, that Indian
salaries are not lucrative enough to attract foreign talent in large numbers.
For now, the shop-keepers can be forgiven for thinking the foreigner they
are milking deals only in dollars.
With K.P. Narayana Kumar/Delhi and
V.R. Devika/Chennai
