Desi Cos Break the Mould, Cast a Fresh Eye on Glocal Talent
BEYOND
BOUNDARYThere has been a conscious attempt by companies to go for a diversified
workforce. It suits them well as it not just helps them connect with clients,
but creates a talent pool that serves as global ambassadors
Prompted by global expansions in regions such as South-East Asia, Latin America, the US and Africa, several large Indian companies including Godrej, Aditya Birla and Wipro, among others, are hiring talent from global business schools as well as graduate colleges. This hiring is also aimed at finding more appropriate cultural fitment, candidates with greater understanding of local market and also because local talent would have long-term career plans in the region and make retention easier for a company, some of these companies said.
“For the last couple of years, we have been getting interns from global business schools from where we keep some. Next year, we may target hiring talent from global institutions in one or two regions like South East Asia and the US, where we have significant presence,” says Santrupt Misra, CEO, Carbon Black Business, and Director, Group Human Resources of the Aditya Birla Group. Last year, the group hired 5-6 candidates from global schools. “The hiring from overseas is purely driven by business requirements,” he said.
Others like Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL), too, have similar plans this year led by business interest in overseas regions. “This year, we are planning to expand our footprint to ethnic business school students from regions such as Africa, South-East Asia and Latin America,” said Sumit Mitra, head – group human resources and corporate services, Godrej Industries Ltd and associate companies. Such hiring is aimed at empowering the local teams and maintaining ethnicity of business. “Strategically, it makes sense to recruit people who understand the local culture and help build relationship in those geographies,” said Mitra. Going forward, the company plans to scale down people from India in these expanding destinations overseas by creating a global pool of talent. A few months ago, GCPL hired about 12 graduate students from 3-4 top schools in Indonesia in keeping with business needs in the region. Currently, the company is in dialogue with institutes in South Africa, including Capetown University.
Wipro has a Global Campus Programme which hires candidates from global business schools based on business requirements. The company, which has hired from business schools in the Americas and the UK over the past 24 months, is increasing its hiring numbers from international campuses in keeping with its business and client requirements.
“Our goal is to create a global pool of local talent and while we cannot share specific numbers, our hiring from global campuses has increased. This is in line with our strategy of differentiation in the front and standardisation at the core,” says Saurabh Govil, senior vice president – human resources, Wipro. “As a global organisation, we would want our client facing talent in various geographies to have a higher blend of local talent,” he adds.
Separately, the company has initiated a Global Top 100 programme, under which it will hire graduates every year from leading global business schools. The new hires will then be posted across businesses and geographies at Wipro to give them the necessary exposure to varied intersections of business and culture.
The objective is to grow the people within the Wipro culture and shape and define it by bringing in global perspectives as well as creating a pipeline of global leaders in the next 8-10 years.
A couple of months earlier, Indian IT major Infosys announced that it plans to hire at least 200 from overseas B-schools this year in order to create a global talent pool in line with their business requirements. Infosys this year is looking to visit top schools like Harvard, NYU Stern, Geogia Tech, Yale Kellogg, Booth, Wharton, UCLA in the US, London Business School, Insead, Rotterdam School of Management, Oxford Said, and the like in the EU and the UK. “Our hiring is done in line with our business needs. Campus recruitment in the US is mostly business graduates for the client engagement side or business consulting side. We are working on our strategy to increase the diversity of our workforce by bringing in people at various levels in geographies we operate,” says Srikantan Moorthy, SVP and Group Head HR at Infosys. The company did not hire from global business schools in previous four years.
“Today, the skill we need to build is ‘understanding our customer’, and culture is a key factor. With this programme, we will be able to acquire this understanding and help percolate the same across the organisation,” says Govil.
The Mahindra group conducts a need assessment every year that determines the number it hires from global campuses. “Our hiring from international schools is based on need assessment of every particular year-…Typically the numbers remain in single digits on an annual basis,” says S P Shukla, member – Group Executive Board President – Group Strategy & Defence Sector and chief brand officer, Mahindra Group, Mumbai.
Additionally, the company runs a Global Recruitment Programme (GRP) where it recruits people of different nationalities and diverse ethnic background after their bachelor’s degree. “They bring in a unique perspective of different cultures and different markets across the globe. Our managers with whom they work develop a more balanced perspective and sensitivity to cultural aspects and different customer perspectives,” says Shukla. “Simultaneously, these graduates after completing a 2-year stint with Mahindra Group become our brand ambassadors, taking back positive impressions about the country and the group.”
On the other hand, as far as Indian talent at global business schools is concerned there has been an increasing interest among students of Indian nationality to pursue career in India. Over the past five years, the number of INSEAD MBA students of Indian nationality who continue their career in India after graduation has gone up each year.
“The MBA programme enrolls about 1,000 students every year and approximately 10% of the students are of Indian nationality. These students like most of INSEAD’s MBAs seek to continue their career all over the world,” says Mary Carey, global director of INSEAD Career Development Centre. In 2012, 21 students or 2% of the MBA class went to work in India after graduation. They took positions both in the Indian offices of multinational corporations such as L’Oreal, Google and Bain & Company as well as offices of Indian companies such as the Parthenon Group.
Rica Bhattacharyya ET140404
Prompted by global expansions in regions such as South-East Asia, Latin America, the US and Africa, several large Indian companies including Godrej, Aditya Birla and Wipro, among others, are hiring talent from global business schools as well as graduate colleges. This hiring is also aimed at finding more appropriate cultural fitment, candidates with greater understanding of local market and also because local talent would have long-term career plans in the region and make retention easier for a company, some of these companies said.
“For the last couple of years, we have been getting interns from global business schools from where we keep some. Next year, we may target hiring talent from global institutions in one or two regions like South East Asia and the US, where we have significant presence,” says Santrupt Misra, CEO, Carbon Black Business, and Director, Group Human Resources of the Aditya Birla Group. Last year, the group hired 5-6 candidates from global schools. “The hiring from overseas is purely driven by business requirements,” he said.
Others like Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL), too, have similar plans this year led by business interest in overseas regions. “This year, we are planning to expand our footprint to ethnic business school students from regions such as Africa, South-East Asia and Latin America,” said Sumit Mitra, head – group human resources and corporate services, Godrej Industries Ltd and associate companies. Such hiring is aimed at empowering the local teams and maintaining ethnicity of business. “Strategically, it makes sense to recruit people who understand the local culture and help build relationship in those geographies,” said Mitra. Going forward, the company plans to scale down people from India in these expanding destinations overseas by creating a global pool of talent. A few months ago, GCPL hired about 12 graduate students from 3-4 top schools in Indonesia in keeping with business needs in the region. Currently, the company is in dialogue with institutes in South Africa, including Capetown University.
Wipro has a Global Campus Programme which hires candidates from global business schools based on business requirements. The company, which has hired from business schools in the Americas and the UK over the past 24 months, is increasing its hiring numbers from international campuses in keeping with its business and client requirements.
“Our goal is to create a global pool of local talent and while we cannot share specific numbers, our hiring from global campuses has increased. This is in line with our strategy of differentiation in the front and standardisation at the core,” says Saurabh Govil, senior vice president – human resources, Wipro. “As a global organisation, we would want our client facing talent in various geographies to have a higher blend of local talent,” he adds.
Separately, the company has initiated a Global Top 100 programme, under which it will hire graduates every year from leading global business schools. The new hires will then be posted across businesses and geographies at Wipro to give them the necessary exposure to varied intersections of business and culture.
The objective is to grow the people within the Wipro culture and shape and define it by bringing in global perspectives as well as creating a pipeline of global leaders in the next 8-10 years.
A couple of months earlier, Indian IT major Infosys announced that it plans to hire at least 200 from overseas B-schools this year in order to create a global talent pool in line with their business requirements. Infosys this year is looking to visit top schools like Harvard, NYU Stern, Geogia Tech, Yale Kellogg, Booth, Wharton, UCLA in the US, London Business School, Insead, Rotterdam School of Management, Oxford Said, and the like in the EU and the UK. “Our hiring is done in line with our business needs. Campus recruitment in the US is mostly business graduates for the client engagement side or business consulting side. We are working on our strategy to increase the diversity of our workforce by bringing in people at various levels in geographies we operate,” says Srikantan Moorthy, SVP and Group Head HR at Infosys. The company did not hire from global business schools in previous four years.
“Today, the skill we need to build is ‘understanding our customer’, and culture is a key factor. With this programme, we will be able to acquire this understanding and help percolate the same across the organisation,” says Govil.
The Mahindra group conducts a need assessment every year that determines the number it hires from global campuses. “Our hiring from international schools is based on need assessment of every particular year-…Typically the numbers remain in single digits on an annual basis,” says S P Shukla, member – Group Executive Board President – Group Strategy & Defence Sector and chief brand officer, Mahindra Group, Mumbai.
Additionally, the company runs a Global Recruitment Programme (GRP) where it recruits people of different nationalities and diverse ethnic background after their bachelor’s degree. “They bring in a unique perspective of different cultures and different markets across the globe. Our managers with whom they work develop a more balanced perspective and sensitivity to cultural aspects and different customer perspectives,” says Shukla. “Simultaneously, these graduates after completing a 2-year stint with Mahindra Group become our brand ambassadors, taking back positive impressions about the country and the group.”
On the other hand, as far as Indian talent at global business schools is concerned there has been an increasing interest among students of Indian nationality to pursue career in India. Over the past five years, the number of INSEAD MBA students of Indian nationality who continue their career in India after graduation has gone up each year.
“The MBA programme enrolls about 1,000 students every year and approximately 10% of the students are of Indian nationality. These students like most of INSEAD’s MBAs seek to continue their career all over the world,” says Mary Carey, global director of INSEAD Career Development Centre. In 2012, 21 students or 2% of the MBA class went to work in India after graduation. They took positions both in the Indian offices of multinational corporations such as L’Oreal, Google and Bain & Company as well as offices of Indian companies such as the Parthenon Group.
Rica Bhattacharyya ET140404
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