Infosys hired over 7,600 Americans since 2017, in digital push
The company plans to build four technology hubs in the US and to recruit 10,000 locals focused on consulting and digital services
Image: Vivek Prakash / ReutersInfosys has hired more than 7,600 American workers in the past two years, as India’s second-biggest software services provider has begun to implement a plan to build technology hubs in the US, to deliver consulting-led and digital services to customers in its largest market.
The company revealed this recruitment figure in a statement on February 12, and also announced the opening of a centre for digital innovation and design in the American state of Rhode Island. Infosys has struck a partnership with a local college to “build and launch the Digital Economy Aspirations Lab (DEAL) to enable and develop students for the digital jobs of the future,” according to the statement.
Increased demand from customers for more consulting-based solutions and cloud-based digital services, combined with greater scrutiny of H-1B visa holders under the Trump administration, pushed India’s biggest IT companies to ramp up local recruitment in the US.
Infosys was among the first to provide specific recruitment and investment targets. In May 2017, the company under then-CEO Vishal Sikka, announced plans to set up four innovation and technology hubs in the US and recruit 10,000 locals over a two-year period. While that two-year duration doesn’t represent a rigid deadline, it expires around June this year.
The Rhode Island centre isn’t one of the technology hubs, but is part of a plan to create 500 jobs in the state by 2022. Infosys has already recruited about 100 locals there, the company said in its statement. The centre will help close the gap for design and human-centric skills in technology fields, and improve Infosys’s ability to provide digital innovation at the intersection of industry and design.
The centre offers early-career designers and design graduates training opportunities with in-demand digital skills. This includes exposure to systems, platforms, strategy and organisation domains—making the trainees more employable in today’s digital economy. By studying everything from user-experience to how people interact with systems, these design-focused recruits will be equipped to create 360-degree solutions to business challenges. Infosys clients and industry partners will likewise benefit from increased access to top-tier designers and subject matter experts, the company said in the statement.
“The demand for talent with strategic design skills will only rise, and Infosys is training American workers in these skills, keeping them and our clients on the front lines of innovation,” Salil Parekh, chief executive of Infosys said in the statement.
At the end of the previous fiscal year (ended March 31, 2018), Infosys had 1,55,151 employees in India; 25,265 employees in the Americas; 11,720 employees in Europe; and 11,971 employees in the rest of the world, according to company filings on its website.
