Tech Mahindra favours hiring locals in overseas centres

Ther's urgent need to respond to sentiment against offshoring in the West

Software exporter Tech Mahindra has said it is in favour of hiring locals at its overseas centres, as there is an urgent need to respond to the sentiment against offshoring in the West.

"If we have to grow as a global company, we have to recognise the host nation's problems. If they have unemployment problem, that is important for them to address, which is equally important for us too. That is why we are increasingly hiring locals now, because it is a concern," Tech Mahindra Executive Vice-chairman Vineet Nayyar told PTI here.

"We have to change according to the circumstances, we have to be accommodative," Nayyar said.

Stating that most of the transnational companies are going local, he said most of the true MNCs in the country like HUL do not have even five foreigners working for them here.

When asked how he will control cost and keep margins intact as local hiring will eat hugely into salary cost, Nayyar said, "If profitability has to come down, it will come down, but we have to operate as a global player, with the same sense of responsibility as other truly global players have.

"How many foreigners do you see in an MNC working here in our country? How many of them do you see working at HUL? Why do we think we should only have Indians working in our US or British centres? That will have to change as we are taking away these jobs from them."

Tech Mahindra operates in 10 African countries and have nearly 95% locals in these centres. In China too, it has followed the same policy. "Going forward, we will do the same in the Western markets as well, as we should respect local sentiment," Nayyar concluded.

During the December quarter, the company had a headcount of 49,059, which includes 25,009 software professionals, 22,565 BPO and 1,485 support staff.

Tech Mahindra subsidiary Mahindra Satyam generates 54% of its revenues from the US, 24% from Europe and 22% from elsewhere.