Wipro, Microsoft, Intel, Infosys get maximum H-1B visas in 2009

By Moira Herbst
Even as job losses in the US mount, employers have stepped up the hiring of skilled workers from abroad, according to data from the US Citizenship & Immigration Services. The acceleration in recent weeks has put companies close to exhausting the 65,000 visas allotted each year for foreign hires under what's known as the H-1B program. Some 61,500 visas had been used as of Dec. 8, and the last visas are likely to be claimed within weeks. Once that happens, companies won't be able to use the program to bring in additional workers until October, the start of the government's fiscal year.

"The numbers are surprising, considering the state of the economy," says Ron Hira, associate professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology. "With 15.4 million people unemployed in the U.S., employers should be able to find qualified workers here." The H-1B program allows employers to sponsor skilled workers from overseas for up to three years, with the possibility of extending for additional years.

DECLINING NUMBERS

The mix of companies receiving work visas is changing in ways that could dull at least some criticism of the program. In past years outsourcing companies, including many based in India, have received a substantial chunk of the visas. That's led opponents to charge that the program was being used to send American jobs abroad, since many H-1B employees train at client sites in the U.S. and then rotate back to their home countries to handle similar tasks. But the number of visas received by many non-U.S. outsourcers is declining. Of the top 200 recipients of H-1B visas in fiscal 2009, ended in September, offshore outsourcers got about 22%, or 5,663, down from 38% in fiscal 2008.


Non-U.S. outsourcers still claimed 6 of the top 10 places in fiscal 2009, although the numbers were off for the largest operators. India's Infosys Technologies (INFY) topped the list in fiscal 2008, with 4,559 visas, but last year got only 440. Wipro (WIT) was the largest visa recipient in 2009, with 1,964, down from 2,678 in 2008. Sridhar Ramasubbu, Wipro's chief financial officer for international operations, says the drop is the result of lower demand caused by the recession and changes in the company's workforce. "We're now operating in 58 countries," he says.

U.S. companies have become more active in the program. Of the top 200 recipients in 2009, American businesses accounted for 49% of the visas, up from 43% in 2008. Microsoft (MSFT) was No. 2 on the list with 1,318 approvals, while Intel (INTC) ranked No. 3 with 723. The chip giant says it's using the visas to recruit for high-skill posts in software and component design. "We only use visas for job categories with a [domestic] skills shortage," says spokeswoman Lisa Malloy.

With the Obama Administration struggling to create jobs, politicians are debating whether the visa program needs fundamental change. On Nov. 19, Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced a bill to bar major companies that lay off U.S. workers from hiring foreign labor through H-1B and other programs. The legislation, which faces significant hurdles, would apply to companies that have cut 50 or more employees within the past year. "We have a responsibility to ensure that companies do not use the temporary guest-worker program to replace American workers with cheaper labor from overseas," says Sanders.

Herbst is a reporter for BusinessWeek.

IT Clients Look Beyond India

BANGALORE: IT buyers are expanding their global sourcing networks as part of an effort to reduce their dependence on a few large locations such as India, says a new report by Everest Research Institute.

Recent events impacting offshore locations, such as terror attacks and typhoons, and suppliers (such as bankruptcies , frauds) have underscored the need for holistic risk management in global sourcing, the report says.

“Traditionally, global sourcing risk management approaches remained largely focused on engagement-level performance management. However, a more sophisticated approach to risk management compels buyers to understand risk from the entire sourcing ecosystem spanning each individual supplier and delivery location as well as the collective portfolio of suppliers and locations,’’ says the report.

The institute also says that another new global sourcing paradigm is emerging and generating additional push for creating a global delivery network.

“This new paradigm is associated with a more robust and complex demand profile that mandates a global delivery network and is creating further impetus for expanding the delivery footprint beyond the traditionally favoured offshore destination, India,” Everest says. A combination of these two factors is creating a demand for global locations that support technology and business process delivery. Clients now have a number of credible offshore destinations to choose from.

The report identifies these areas as Brazil, Central and Eastern Europe, Israel, Mexico, the Philippines and South Africa. These markets represent a blend of locations that are either superior skill markets or large talent markets that global sourcing buyers can’t ignore.

“The supplier landscape in these emerging markets includes a mix of global majors, India-centric suppliers expanding their delivery footprint, and domestic/regional suppliers that have roots in the emerging market. A handful of suppliers in this new category have acquired meaningful operating scale and, through investments in delivery capabilities and adopting industry best practices, successfully serve Global 1000 corporations,” the report says.

Infosys to Nearly Double Work Force in U.S. Market

BANGALORE, India—Infosys Technologies Ltd. plans to nearly double its work force in the U.S. and remains on the lookout for acquisition targets in Germany, France and Japan, its chief executive said.

India's second-largest software exporter by revenue after Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. is planning to hire 1,000 employees in the U.S., Chief Executive S. Gopalakrishnan said in an interview.

The company, which had 1,200 U.S. employees as of March 31, had said in April it would hire more staff there. As of Sept. 30, it had a total of 105,453 employees.

View Full Image

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Infosys CEO S. Gopalakrishnan, pictured in April, said the company plans to increase its work force in the U.S.

Infosys gets about 66% of its revenue from the U.S. market. The company joins other Indian software exporters in gradually stepping up hiring to prepare for an expected increase in outsourcing deals as technology spending makes a modest comeback in developed nations.

The company has been trying to reduce its U.S. exposure by increasing its operations in Europe and Asia, which account for about 23% and 10% of its revenue, respectively.

"Ordinarily we look at a company of 10% of our size" for acquisition, Mr. Gopalakrishnan said, adding that a prospective target would have $300 million to $500 million in annual revenue.

He didn't provide details on the business segments it is targeting for acquisitions. Mr. Gopalakrishnan had previously said the company was looking to acquire firms offering services to the health care and utilities sectors to boost its consulting and outsourcing businesses.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan said Infosys's revenue growth in the next fiscal year, starting April 1, will be driven by new outsourcing contracts. But for this fiscal year, "we are looking at almost zero-percent growth," he added.

In October, the company had forecast $4.60 billion to $4.62 billion of revenue for the current fiscal year, down 1% to 1.3% from a year earlier.

Wipro to hire 5,000, revamp recruitment strategy

Wipro Technologies said on Wednesday it will hire 5,000 people in the next couple of months and is looking at a fresh recruitment strategy of taking in graduates from non-engineering institutes.

"Our strategy is to recruit non-engineering graduates, in addition to engineering and make them fit into the slot. We are still working out the details," Wipro Technologies joint CEO Girish Paranjpe said.

Refusing to divulge more details for next year's recruitments and outlook, Paranjpe said it would be a mix of 60 per cent freshers and 40 per cent experienced.

About 5,000 will be taken into the company in a month or two, he said. Last year the company made offers to as many as 8,500 persons through recruitment drives in colleges and institutions.

"We expect clients to make no further cuts in their budgets. We expect 2010 to be a better year than 2009," Paranjpe told reporters in Hyderabad on the sidelines of dedicating renovated Manikonda Lake at Hyderabad facility to the community.

He said the new hiring strategies will be worked out in a month or two. Attrition rate in the company stood at 10 per cent.

On becoming energy efficient, he said the company is determined to reduce the carbon emission per employee by 45 per cent from the present 3.96 tonnes to 2.5 tonnes in the next five years.

"Our power consumption went down by 12 per cent last year and we are planning to set up a micro windmill at our Hyderabad facility soon," Paranjpe said.

The company consumes nearly 75 megawatt power from both Government and internal sources.

He said the company's exposure in the Gulf market is around 4 per cent and the Dubai financial crisis will have no impact.

TCS to hire about 25,000 in 2010-11

Indicating a revival of business opportunities, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has said that it will recruit about 25,000 people in 2010-11.

In 2009-10, the company has absorbed 1,500 in the second quarter and would add 8,000 more this quarter.

The IT major has said that it would send appointment letters to the remaining 15,385 candidates in the last quarter of the financial year.

At present, the company, which employs 1.41 lakh people, registered an attrition rate of 11.50 per cent for 12 months.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Mr Ajoy Mukherjee, Head (Global HR) of TCS, said if the number were as big as 24,885 the company had planned to induct this year, it would not be far away from that target.

Mr Ajoy Mukherjee was here in connection with Sangam, the company's annual interface with the industry and academic institutes.

“We are finalising the business plan for the next year. We are going to campuses as the students enter their eighth semester,” he said.

Mr N Chandrasekaran, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, has announced that it would fund 200 PhD students in computer science research, 40 each in the next five years, at various institutes.

“At a time when new technologies are changing business models rapidly, there is an urgent need for more focussed research to stay ahead of the learning curve. The TCS Research Scholars programme will help enlarge the research and development agenda,” he said.

Plan for verticals

Though the company had significant presence in several verticals, the company had decided to accelerate pace of growth in some other verticals in which it was having relatively smaller presence. “We are going to increase focus on pharma, aerospace, retail and utilities,” he added.

He said the company would continue to focus on the emerging markets such as Latin America, India and Asia Pacific and Caribbean.

250,000 IT jobs up for grabs soon: Infy director

With the global economy gradually bouncing back, the IT job market is also picking up and around 2-2.5-lakh jobs in the sector are likely to be up for grabs, a top Infosys [ Get Quote ] official said on Wednesday.

"The job scenario is improving...this year the market is likely to see around 2-2.5-lakh jobs," Infosys director-human resources Mohandas Pai told reporters.

The IT jobs market will, however, not be the same as it was two years ago but will also not be as bad as it was last year, Pai said, adding the fresher-lateral hiring ratio is likely to be around 65:35 per cent this year.

Two years ago there were around 3-4 lakh jobs available in the IT market, he pointed out. The industry has witnessed a lower growth rate in the last 18-months, Pai said, adding that the market is not so open now.

Infosys has plans to hire around 20,000, Pai said, adding that, however, campus recruitments will be lower this year as compared to the last.

"This year, Infosys will be hiring around 20,000 as against 16,000 that we recruited last year. Campus recruitments, however, will be less," Pai said. However, did not divulge the exact number that he is planning to hire through campus recruitments.

Pai said that Infosys has given a 7-8 per cent hike across the board whereas globally it was two per cent. Attrition stood at 10 per cent at Infosys, he said.

‘Virtual bench’ turns into real seats at mid-size IT cos

Adith Charlie

Mumbai, Nov. 11 The concept of a ‘virtual bench’ for non-billable employees may soon be a thing of the past at mid-size Indian IT companies, thanks to the gradual improvement in demand for software solutions.

While Hexaware Technologies has brought back all the virtual benchers on to the regular rolls, Mastek expects to achieve the same by March 2010.

It may be recalled that both Mastek and Hexaware had come up with this out-of-the-box solution to reduce overall employee costs and remain profitable in a tough economic environment.

Mastek had announced in February that it had put about 10 per cent (or 425) of its total employee base on a ‘virtual bench’ for up to 12 months with reduced pay. Alternatively, the benched employees — a mix of trainees and junior employees — were given the option to quit with a severance package.

By the end of September quarter, the company had some 200 employees on the virtual bench, as the remaining were either re-instated or had quit the company.

As things stand, by March 2010 the company expects to call back the ‘benchers’ onto the billable pool, according to Mr Sudhakar Ram, Chairman and Managing Director of Mastek.

“We are seeing an expansion in our order book in the current quarter which should translate into revenue growth for the next quarter,” he told Business Line.

Starting this March, Hexaware had inducted around 220 staffers in the virtual bench who had to take a 50-per-cent-cut in basic pay.

However, things started changing for the Mumbai-based company during the three months ended September 2009 riding on the revival in IT spend across the globe. The company won deals worth $80 million in the previous quarter. Of these, three deals were worth more than $15 million each.

“In the wake of the changing demand scenario, the concept of virtual bench no longer exists at Hexaware. Not only that, we have restarted hiring,” Mr P. R. Chandrasekhar, Vice-Chairman and CEO of Hexaware, said.

In the quarter gone by, Hexaware took on board around 116 employees. “In the current quarter we plan to hire at least as much as we did in the previous quarter,” he said. However, both Hexaware and Mastek agree that attrition did play a role in bringing down the count on the virtual bench.

However, there does not seem to be much luck in store – at least for the time being – for the 5,000 employees covered under the virtual pool programme at Mahindra Satyam.

“As things progress, the situation with regards to employees on the virtual bench will gradually improve. We will reinstate these employees on a case-by-case basis,” a senior company official said.

Recently, Mahindra Satyam offered its virtual benchers the option to continue on the company’s rolls albeit without any pay, for another three months starting December 18.

Infosys BPO to hire 2,000 more by fiscal-end

NEW DELHI: Infosys BPO, the back-office unit of Infosys Technologies, on Monday said it would hire 1,500-2,000 people by the end of the current fiscal.

“We plan to hire 2,000 people in the next four-five months or by the end of this fiscal. Currently we are 16,000 people in India,'' the Infosys BPO CEO, Mr Amitabh Chaudhry, told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

The 300-million Infosys subsidiary recently signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh Government to set up rural BPO centres in 22 districts of the State.

The company gets significant part of its business from North America and Europe. To bag more clients, it is said to be looking at aligning with Finacle, the banking solution business of its parent.

Infosys BPO has eight delivery centres across the globe, including in Mexico, but it did not have a centre in the US so far. The company registered revenues of $71.3 million with a net profit of $16.3 million for the September quarter. – PTI

Accenture to hire 8,000 in India by end of next year

NEW DELHI: Global technology and consultancy giant Accenture on Monday said it is going to add around 8,000 people in India by the end of next year taking its total employee base in the country to 50,000.

"We are 42,000 right now and we imagine we will be about 50,000 by the end of 2010," Accenture Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William D Green told PTI on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit.

Indicating a recovery from the global downturn, Green said the company will continue to focus in India, specially in the areas of analytics.

Accenture's focus in India is going to be the analytics space, which will help the clients convert information into insights for better yields.

Green added, "We believe that analytics is going to be an important trend that our customers are going to demand from us. We think India is going to be a great place for us. we have some core centres of excellence in the analytics space in the country."

Accenture, which has annual revenue of $21.58 billion for fiscal 2009, will strengthen its focus on clients in pharmaceutical, telecommunications and energy in the country.