HR SPECIAL .....Cos tap into global talent for local roles

Cos tap into global talent for local roles





Boundaries are fast disappearing when it comes to hiring by Indian companies.Organizations in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals and automobiles to retail and paints actively scout for global talent to fill key positions locally. While technology has helped, given that curriculum vitae are openly available today , what's driving the trend is also the resolve of Indian companies to tap into the best talent available in the world.

Another important factor is rising salary levels in India.This, say experts, has made foreign talent more accessible to Indian companies.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Asian Paints, Landmark Group and Wockhardt are among the employers pursuing global talent for local positions. Venkataramana B, president-group HR, Landmark Group, which owns Lifestyle International, said: “For certain roles and positions, we are open to recruiting talent globally . As we speak, we are looking at candidates from other countries for key roles for some of our businesses.However, what we would do is a benchmarking for these roles for arriving at a compensation.In my career of over three decades in HR, I can tell you that the gap in salary between Indian top performers and expats has reduced considerably . Today, in India also we need to pay that much or even more.“

Asian Paints, which is creating new platforms and requires emerging technologies, already sources such expertise globally. Emrana Sheikh, VPHR, Asian Paints, said: “We have been hiring both foreign nationals and Indians who have studied, worked abroad and are considering to return to India.In terms of the number of recruits, overseas hiring into India may still remain a very small fraction of our overall manpower in the country , but they bring in specialized skills to the organization. Going forward, the trend is definitely expected to increase, as we enhance our product offering and expand our international footprint with global talent.“

For science-focused companies like Wockhardt and Dr Reddy's, getting the best talent, be it in India or anywhere in the world, is critical. Wockhardt is looking at around five or six senior positions to be filled from across the globe. The company has hired three to four people at leadership levels in India from the US, Singapore and Europe.“We have been looking at highquality global talent in a fairly significant manner,“ said Prem Singh, president, global human resources, Wockhardt. “Today , the biggest challenge for HR is to attract the best talent, not just in India but globally . To attract the best talent in some niche areas, we need to take a global approach and that works well for us,“ he said.

Hiring experts said given the demand for niche skills and certain domain expertise, the trend of companies tapping into global talent for local requirement is only accelerating. “Our syllabus has to do a lot of catchup with the industry expectation and rapid evolution,“ said Randstad India, CEO, Moorthy Uppaluri. “Hands-on ready-tohit-the-ground running kind of skills is what the education is missing to provide right now and these talent gaps and rapid industry emergence are creating some interesting scenarios for talent acquisition“.

Competitive workforce strategies today , according to Chandrasekhar Sripada, Indiapresident & global head of HR at Dr Reddy's, are global in nature. Dr Reddy's sources its talent from across the world and has foreign nationals working as scientists, and sales & marketing and other professionals.

NamrataSingh

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TOI14DEC15