Wipro wants 50% of staff overseas to be locals in 2-3 years
Country's third largest software services exporter Wipro aims at having 50 per cent of its employees overseas from the respective local regions in the next 2-3 years.
"The ratio across the world is about 38 per cent. A year back it was 31 per cent. And we will take it up to 50 per cent," he told reporters here He further said that Wipro has not lost business opportunities in the US because of visa restrictions as it has been significantly increasing hiring locals for onsite projects.
"Our objective is to build a strong cadre of local people -- whether it be in Europe, whether it be in the United States, whether it be in the Middle-East, whether it be in Latin America -- and we are already doing it very aggressively in China," Premji said.
On the time-line to reach the 50 per cent mark, Wipro Human Resources Head Pratik Kumar said: "We are not working towards a specific time-line or for that matter specific target". "This is depending on nature of work, the kind of opportunities and our own ability to draw from local talent pool which is very much part of our ongoing strategy",he said.
But Premji later said: "Pratik is trying to back out of that in terms of beating around the bush. But that's (50 per cent) our goal to achieve in 2-3 years," adding, it is completely doable and he would thrust it from the top. He also said there is a huge shortage of technical IT professionals in the US and Wipro has now been hiring from campuses there as also from science colleges. Many of those hired are American citizens of Indian origins.
