Infosys, a global tech outsourcing giant headquartered in Bangalore, plans to open four U.S.-based “hubs,” starting with a center in Indiana, the home state of United States. Vice President Mike Pence in August. The company expects that the Indiana site will create 500 jobs by next year, and possibly up to 2,000 by 2021.
With the US mulling over various measures to make visa norms stricter under the Donald Trump administration, Indian IT firms have been contemplating tweaking their business models and accommodating more locals.
Infosys on Tuesday said it plans to hire 10,000 American workers over the next two years in an apparent move to tide over H1-B visa-related issues in the United States. The company said in a release that it will open four new technology and innovation hubs across the United States focusing on areas, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, user experience, emerging digital technologies, cloud, and big data.
Vishal Sikka, chief executive officer, Infosys, however, said these steps were not being taken just to mitigate the impact of stricter visa norms in the United States.
He said over the last three years, there has been an increase in the use of new technologies like AI and virtual reality and even the traditional projects are becoming highly automated.
“As work becomes more next-gen, you need a more healthier mix of global and local talent and so you need to re-think the traditional, what has historically been called ‘global delivery model’, and bring in a lot more talent locally,” he added.
Sikka said the company is committed to hiring 10,000 American technology workers over the next two years to help invent and deliver the digital futures for our clients in the United States.
“Learning and education, along with cultivating top local and global talent, have always been the core of what Infosys brings to clients; it is what makes us a leader in times of great change. In helping our clients improve their businesses and pursue new kinds of opportunities, we are really excited to bring innovation and education in a fundamental and massive way to American workers,” he said.
Reacting to Infosys announcement, Indiana Governor Eric J Holcomb said, “It’s so good to welcome Infosys to Indiana, and to expand our growing tech ecosystem with the addition of their estimated 2,000 Hoosier jobs.”
Infosys did not disclose the financial impact of its plans. It declined to comment on whether the planned U.S. jobs would account for a large percentage of overall hiring in the coming two years.
Based on Infosys’ recent hiring trends, however, the planned hiring’s in the United States could account for a substantial portion of the company’s net workforce additions over the period.
Infosys, which added nearly 18,000 jobs in 2015, slowed its hiring pace considerably, creating just about 6,000 jobs in 2016 amid market uncertainty caused by Brexit and heightened clamor for tougher United States immigration laws that led some U.S. clients to hold-off on new projects.
The company said it would also take the model of hiring fresh engineers from colleges and training them on its core technologies to global markets of the US and UK. Infosys will gradually step up hiring from US universities too.
Infosys’decision to hire more people abroad, in addition to the existing about two lakh people globally, will create additional burden on company’s labour costs. At the same time, the North American market accounted for over 60% of Infosys’ total revenue of $10.2 billion in the FY 2017.
Indian IT companies have been facing growing clamour of protectionism across various markets, including the United States. The United States had also accused Infosys and TCS of unfairly cornering the lion’s share of the H-1B work visas by putting extra tickets in the lottery system.
The company cautioned last month that it would struggle to reach its ambitious $20 billion revenue target by 2020, as the Indian software service sector has been hit by cautious client spending due to a rising protectionist wave globally.
Over the past few weeks, there has been a growing sentiment of protectionism across various markets, including the United States, that are seeking to safeguard jobs for locals and raising the bar for foreign workers.
The United States had also accused Infosys and its larger rival, Tata Consultancy Services, of “unfairly” cornering the lion’s share of the H-1B work visas by putting extra tickets in the lottery system. Every year, the US grants 65,000 H-1B visas while another 20,000 are set aside for those with US advanced degrees
The United States is the largest market for Indian software service companies, but other countries like Australia have also begun to target Indian IT service companies that use temporary visa programs.
Infosys,which has over two lakh people on its payroll,has already hired over 2,000 people in the US in the last few years under Sikka.
Shares in Infosys were down less than 1 percent in midday trading in India, following news of the United States hiring plans.
Since 2015, Infosys has trained more than 134,000 students, over 2,500 teachers and almost 2,500 schools across America and provided classroom equipment, through Infosys Foundation USA.
