Small IT firms to step up hiring in US

To increase local talent mix in the US like their major peer Infosys

India’s small and mid-sized IT services companies are planning to increase local talent mix in the US like their major peer Infosys.

The Bengaluru-based Infosys announced its plans to hire 10,000 US citizens in two years and set up four innovation hubs there.

While companies such as Zensar Technologies, Persistent Systems are planning to increase the mix of US citizens at their local delivery centres, Infosys’s cross-town smaller rival Mindtree has partnered with the University of Florida through its Gainesville delivery centre to hire fresh engineering graduates and designed a curriculum for its engineering course too.

Apart from the proposed restrictions over issuance of H-1B visas by the US administration, shift towards digital technologies such as cloud, artificial intelligence are pushing these IT services providers to be in close proximity with the clients for many projects.

“We have created capacity in the US to hire local talent. Technology shift is creating that opportunity,” said Anand Deshpande, Founder & CMD, Persistent Systems to Business Standard over phone.

Deshpande added that roughly 10% of its 9,460 employees are in the US and “half of them have come from acquisitions” of smaller companies there. “Lot of those have traditionally been US citizens and green card holders.”

The company also plans to add more US citizens through two newly-added delivery centres there.

Sandeep Kishore, chief executive and managing director, Zensar Technologies said, “Clients are also looking for delivery from onsite for a lot of projects in the US, which generates more than 70 per cent of the company’s revenues.

“During the course of this year, we are going to set up a US digital delivery centre. We are committed to create local employment in the US and majority of that will come from within the country. With the onsite delivery centre, we are going to have a balanced approach on H-1B visa,” said Kishore.

Whereas, Mindtree is planning to hire locally from universities other than Florida University.

“We have been consistently investing and ramping up our local delivery centers for the last five years. Our Gainesville delivery center has partnered with the University of Florida not only to design a curriculum for its highly rated engineering program but also to hire graduates from there as well as from other schools in the state.

Our centers have helped us to further scale the delivery of solutions in the US, create high value jobs and to leverage the best and brightest from the global talent pool,” said Rostow Ravanan, chief executive and managing director, Mindtree.

Meanwhile, Industry body Nasscom said that H-1B visa issue is often unnecessarily linked with efforts of local hiring by Indian IT services companies.

“I firmly believe given the technology shift, companies will change their models to deliver services closer to the customer. Across IT, engineering, BPO services businesses are trying to move closer to their customers. It is also part of their business strategy. Visa issues are unncessarily getting linked,” said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice-president, Nasscom.

Photograph: PTI Photo