Staffing Trends For Offshore Based Infrastructue Management Services

There has been recent news reports that some of the offshore based IT Infrastructure Service Providers are now hiring B. Sc. graduates instead of engineers to be part of the delivery teams. In India B.Sc. programs are three year programs, considered commonly to be the option for interested students in science who could not qualify for an engineering program. Hence it is often considered to be a source of the non-cream layer of students, which is not necessarily true.

However due to this common perception it is true that the average starting salary for B. Sc. graduates is much lower than that of engineering graduates ( so a lower wage group). Also B.Sc. graduates have not had a chance to typically work in Tier 1 companies who used to hire engineering graduates. Hence when they get a job in one of these Tier 1 IT Infrastructure Services companies, they are more likely to stay on and not be part of the high employee turnover statistics which is ruled by the engineering candidates. There is also a belief somewhere that B.Sc. graduates as employees are relatively less ambitious and so willing to be more flexible in accepting various roles.

So when wage bills are shooting and even then employees are hopping around, it is a no brainer that some of these companies are tempted to hire B. Sc. graduates. It only helps that they are more flexible to do take up roles and even do the odd hour shifts as they see as a way to continue in a Tier 1 company.

However if it is a different question if these hirings will impact the quality of service and customer perception. It may not be really untrue unless due care is taken in training and ensuring the right fitment.