With the advent of internet, telecommunication, and video conferencing, the location of work is irrelevant.  As a result, professional services that were traditionally sourced from one location are now sourced from a multitude of locations.

According to Wikipedia, reverse brain drain refers to the process whereby human capital moves in reverse from a more developed country to a less developed one that is rising rapidly. Likewise, reverse brain drain can occur when foreign-born scientists or engineers migrate to a more developed county and then actively promote the practice of off-shoring of high-tech service jobs and technology and knowledge transfers to their home countries as beneficial to their host country. So is the practice of sourcing talent from more developed countries prevalent in the current scenario? “We have substantially increased our recruiting efforts to attract US professionals interested in working in India. And we are seeing our peers in the LPO and larger KPO industry increases their hiring from the US as well. From our perspective, US professionals are a great asset in terms of teaching and integrating Western culture into our organisation enabling our entire team to better align themselves with their US clients from a cultural stand point,” says Sanjay Kamlani, Co-CEO, Pangea3.

“Brain Drain - one of the major issues which evoke concern in the minds of people now is witnessing a reverse trend i.e. Reverse Brain Drain. Indian multinational companies having offices/client base all over the globe seek people with multi-faceted experience and a proactive zeal to deliver,” notes Vishal Chibber, HR Head, Kelly Services, India.

Having said that are Indian companies recruiting from global locations? “Indian companies are certainly recruiting from global locations. Our most recent hire is a native Spanish speaking European qualified lawyer. We have hired individuals from other European countries and expect to hire professionals from other Asia Pacific countries going forward. After all, a culturally diverse talent pool is a great asset,” adds Kamlani.

Adding further to this he says, “We look for lawyers and engineers with a global business mindset and an entrepreneurial spirit who are excited about making a difference in an industry that has not traditionally been very interested in process improvement.” 

Raja Ramana Macha, COO, Geometric, agrees “Yes, companies are recruiting from global locations and specifically seek talent that is abundantly available/seek niche skills that are not easily available elsewhere. Since a significant size of our workforce is global in nature we have been leveraging talent globally for a while now. Typically, we seek niche technical and domain skills in the industries that we service. These skills are important for delivery in that country or could be useful in a global delivery situation, where a program gets delivered partly out of the US/ Europe, and the rest out of India or other low cost locations.”

Change at workplace can bring out different reactions from different people. It is critical therefore to analyse how one perceives change and responds to that change at the workplace. In such a scenario, how do organisations encourage employees to adapt to the changing environment at the workplace? “At Pangea3, we have created our own set of core values and developed a practice to set goals for all employees alike. Our performance review program encourages good conduct and practices which we believe are the key to successfully operate in the global market place,” expresses Kamlani.

“As long as the expectations are laid out and communicated properly, employees should have no problem in accepting and adjusting to people from different cultures. It is all in how you articulate what is in it for them and how they’ll benefit from that experience.  Indians are very tolerant and for the most part are very comfortable with accepting people from different cultures,” confirms Gopi Natarajan, President & CEO, Omega Healthcare.
  
“In order to encourage employees to adapt to the changing work environment, adopting cross cultural training we determine the best person for the job and put that person in the role, irrespective of nationality or culture. By doing this, cross cultural teams are formed. We also impart language training which helps them to interact better with customers as well as internally,” adds Macha.

Migration of work throughout the world is a more pronounced phenomenon than ever before. This trend is a result of slowdown in the US and European markets. Sustained growth in the BRIC economies i.e. Brazil, Russia, India and China has resulted in drifting of the workforce towards these countries. More so, professionals look at stint in these growing economies as a feather in their cap, showcasing the diversity in their careers. Whatever the route, Indian companies are seeing an increasing trend of people wanting to leverage the current relative strength in economic growth of the Indian economy and work for India based companies. As companies globalise, the proposition of cost is increasingly changing to value and having the right talent irrespective of the location has become a critical competitive advantage that companies clearly recognise.

By Sheetal Srivastava