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Archana Venkat

IT and BPO players are looking to North-East India to tap talent.

The "look East" concept may have been coined for/by the Westerners. But it seems to be seeing some domestic usage. Some information technology and BPO companies have started looking at North-East India to hire talent.

Fresh graduates from universities in this region are hired for vacancies in other parts of India. Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh seem to be the preferred States for companies to scout for talent.

BPO company 24/7 Customer has hired about 150 people from north-east and eastern India in the last few years. "We have found that candidates in this region have the ability to adapt easily to a BPO work environment. They have good written and verbal communication skills and aptitude for accent adaptation," says Pradeep Narayanan, Chief Delivery Officer, 24/7 Customer.

Maveric Systems, an independent testing organisation, has hired 24 students from four engineering colleges and one university in North-East India. Ranga Reddy, Chief Executive Officer, Maveric Systems, says students from the North-East are patient learners and not in a hurry to rise up the ladder, unlike recruits from Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu.

Recruits from North-East also stay in an organisation longer than those from other Indian States. Pratima Amonkar, Director, Professional Aptitude Council, an organisation that helps companies recruit talent, attributes this to lack of job offers for students in the North-East. "Graduates from universities in the North-East do not have as many job offers as students from Bangalore or Chennai do. So they grab any job that comes their way and are also hesitant to leave jobs for the same reason," she says.

Companies seem to benefit from this situation. Scouting for talent in South India is expensive as rival organisations are willing to pay premium salaries to get the best of graduates. In the North-East, there is no competition to grab students and hence no need to offer premium salaries, says Pratima.

But companies say there are no differences in the salaries paid to employees from the North-East and the rest of India. In fact, companies say they help candidates with accommodation and grant them longer holidays considering the travel distance involved.

Companies are also willing to train these candidates so as to improve their technical skills. "We plan to tie up with Guwahati University in Assam for a two-year software testing course," says Ranga Reddy of Maveric Systems. Students recruited by Maveric will attend this course (with a stipend provided by the company) and join the company offices only after its completion.

24/7 Customer launched its `24/7 Varsity' programme in Guwahati this September. This programme educates university lecturers in skills required for the BPO industry - technical and soft skills. 24/7 also launched a similar programme for students called `24/7 Ascend' that includes modules on counselling for BPO careers, project assistance and campus recruitment, besides offering accredited courses on language/communication.

"We intend to reach out to Tezpur University (Assam), Guwahati University, University of Tripura and North Eastern Hill University (Meghalaya) by end of this year," says Narayanan of 24/7.

The company plans to organise road shows across the North-East in the next few months to create awareness about the BPO industry.

Setting up `hiring storefronts'

Other companies too have ambitious plans.

"We have initiated meetings with school and college Principals in Guwahati, Shillong and Aizawl and have been working with colleges such as St. Edmund's and St. Mary's in Shillong for campus recruitment," says Sumitra Das, Vice-President, Human Resources, Genpact - Kolkata.

Genpact will also be setting up `hiring storefronts' to increase recruitment from the North-East. Hiring storefronts are offices that counsel students, besides recruiting them.

Maveric plans to hire about 150 people this year and is looking at M.Sc. graduates with specialisation in electronics, statistics and information technology, besides engineering graduates.

"There are about 15 engineering colleges in the North-East with about 3,000 students who are potential employees," says Reddy. The company plans to hire from colleges in Sikkim next year.

E. Balaji, Chief Operating Officer of human resources consulting firm Ma Foi, says there are a few small companies in Guwahati that are looking to hire these students. "There is news that Siliguri (in West Bengal) too is slated to see some action," he says.

archana@thehindu.co.in

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