WORLDBEAT - Engineers in India look for recognition

At Nagarro Inc., a midsize outsourcer focused on product and application development, company President and CEO Vikas Sehgal thought there had to be a better way to synchronize Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook calendar. Sehgal discussed his need with a lead developer at the company's services operation, which has about 300 staff, in Gurgaon near Delhi, and the two came up with a product called SyncMyCal in their spare time.

Since the formal product launch in January, there have been about 300 downloads daily of the software from the Web site www.syncmycal.com and on an average about 40 to 50 customers a day pay US$25 to download a full version of the software, according to Sehgal. SyncMyCal is profitable and the developer is now working on new features, including a version that synchronizes Google Calendar with a Pocket PC phone.

Nagarro is one of a number of small and midsize outsourcers in India giving employees challenges and high-end work to keep them motivated and to attract experienced staff. "SyncMyCal is not a large business proposition for us, but one of many ways to provide challenging work to some of our experienced staff," Sehgal said.

In the early years of their careers, many engineers were attracted to large Indian outsourcing companies and the Indian operations of multinational services companies. After about six years of working at these companies, some of them are turning to small and medium-size companies for job fulfillment and recognition.

"We are getting requests from many middle-level managers that they would like jobs in smaller companies where they can get greater responsibility, quicker promotion and recognition," said Amitabh Das, CEO of Vati Consulting Pvt. Ltd., a recruitment firm in Bangalore. Retaining midlevel staff has emerged as a key challenge for large services companies, and that problem will stay, he added.

About 60 percent of project managers and other midlevel and senior staff at iGATE Global Solutions Ltd., a midsize outsourcer in Bangalore, have been recruited from Indian outsourcers and multinational companies, said Mohan Sekhar, a board member and chief delivery officer at the company. They are paid in the same range as what they would earn at larger companies, he added.

Unlike junior staff, midlevel employees with six years of experience are less attracted by the brand of the employer than by the content of the job, said Gautam Sinha, CEO of TVA Infotech Pvt. Ltd., a recruitment firm in Bangalore. Small and medium-size companies that offer good jobs can now hope to attract midlevel engineers and managers, he added.

Advanced project managers and business development leaders -- employees services companies can least afford to lose -- are at risk of leaving because they are past the initial thrill of shiny new campuses and working on global projects, said Dana Stiffler, a research director at AMR Research Inc. "They've been working dogs' hours for three to five years," Stiffler said. "If they don't see regular advancement opportunities, if they are not assigned to prestigious, diverse projects, they will leave."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.