Rise in demand for Indian workers abroad

Indians are emerging as favourites of overseas companies looking for temporary but experienced workforce for specific requirements available at low cost, says experts.

"India has become a favourite destination for hiring temporary workforce, especially in the IT sector. The trend that began about a decade back has gained momentum since the last four to five years, growing by 15 to 20 per cent per annum. Initially, only freshers were hired, but now companies are also going in for experienced hands," Gi Staffing Services manager Samrat Roy said.

Temporary staffing gives companies the flexibility to hire people for a trial period or for a specific assignment, which helps them cut down staff costs, especially when they do not have visibility about a similar project in future, Gi Staffing Services executive director Jacob Samuel said.

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"This is a win-win situation even for professionals, as this helps them gain exposure to work for multiple organisations, environments, platforms and projects, thereby gaining professional enrichment," Samuel explained.

According to Roy, the trend is also picking up in the Asia-Pacific nations. Indians, he said, are being hired in sectors like manufacturing, retail, automotive, healthcare and banking.

"In the retail segment, temporary hiring by overseas companies has gone up by almost 45 per cent," he said, adding that these temporary employees get packages at par with permanent workforce as they are there for a limited time.

"Employees going from India are getting the same salary on a daily basis, including housing and other allowances," Roy said, adding that these employees are hired purely on talent rather than academic performance.

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"Big companies have an HR policy for temporary staffing to judge them on their performance because it is believed that marks don't necessarily portray the actual skill of a person or one's capability to do a particular work. So temporary staffers have the leverage to work with big companies even if they did not score high marks in their exams," Samuel said.

Executive search firm GlobalHunt director Sunil Goel said gradually the demand for temporary jobs is also coming from Latin America and African countries like Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa apart from Asian countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.

"About 10-15 per cent of Indian IT employees work on overseas projects onsite on temporary basis for client-specific requirements. This is expected to grow by 15-20 percent in coming years," Goel said.

Besides, Indian professionals engaged in power and energy, infrastructure, engineering procurement, construction and telecom sectors are also in high demand.