US to become centre of Infy's HR activity for now

Infosys is relocating its Group HR Head and senior Vice-President Nandita Gurjar to the US on a temporary basis, India’s second largest IT services firm said on Tuesday. Gurjar -- to be located in Plano, Dallas for six months -- will be instrumental in setting up a “proper HR function” in the US and stepping up the local recruitment drive.

The city-headquartered company has also appointed Lisa Kidd as the new HR Head of Americas region. Prior to this, Kidd was the Global Director of HR for Worldwide Information Technology Outsourcing at Hewlett-Packard. Gurjar, 49, during her stay in the US, will provide Kidd with the initial support for establishing a strong HR base in the US, according to company sources.

“She is being relocated primarily to set up a proper HR function in the US and increase the local recruitment,” said Kris Gopalakrishnan, executive co-chairman of Infosys. On an average, the company is recruiting about 250 local people in the US every quarter. The numbers are expected grow further.

A US federal court is currently hearing a case on alleged visa rule violation by Infosys, filed by one of its US employees called Jack Palmer.

According to Palmer’s attorney Kenneth J Mendelsohn, the federal authorities are close to completing their investigation on this matter. Infosys, which was also issued a subpoena by a district court in Texas asking for certain details about the B1 business visa earlier, is in the process of furnishing those.

The company says Gurjar’s relocation to the US has nothing to do with the court case on the visa issue.

In an earlier interview to Business Standard, Gopalakrishnan had said the 1981-founded company was resuming campus hiring in the US that was stopped with the onset of the global recession. The campus recruitment would be conducted across 30-40 engineering colleges in the US.

“We are planning to restart this in the second half of this year,” Gopalakrishnan had said. “We have done placement talks with many engineering colleges in the US, and now you will see the actual recruitment happening.”