14 DAY TRIAL // The number of IBM employees in India did not see any changes during 2009 because of the economic recession. Even so, however, the total workforce is still quite large, and the company seems bent on increasing it even further. According to an Economic Times of India article, IBM is planning on raising its headcount by 5,000 during 2010.
According to a senior advisory consultant, the computer technology and IT consulting company will be opening a number of new business-process outsourcing (BPO) centers throughout the nation.
"We plan to focus more in the services sector by opening more BPO centres in India. We would recruit at least 5,000 people to support this expansion," IBM Poland's Senior Advisory Consultant, Selby Mascarenhas, said in New Delhi.
This announcement comes at a time when most IT corporations are choosing to reduce their workforce in order to withstand the hardships of the economic downturn. The company is "bullish on the growth prospect of the services sector in the domestic economy, which ranges from software-related services to looking after the HR aspects of some core manufacturing companies."
The enterprise will most likely expand the facilities that IBM already has in cities such as Mumbai, Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata, instead of opening new ones in smaller cities.
"The hiring process has already started, but on a slow note. Last year we didn't recruit or lay off anybody. In certain cases, some probationers were not confirmed," Mascarenhas added.
2009 was better known for significant workforce cuts instead of growth. Companies like HP and Fujitsu saw the need to reduce their headcount, a move that prompted a rather strong response on the part of their workers.
Whether IBM's move will turn out to be profitable in the long run and whether other companies will follow suite and hire more staff of their own remains to be seen.