US-based Kenexa Corporation, engaged in human capital management solutions and services, plans to hire about 200 more professional at its Visakhapatnam campus within the next 12 months “when the company expects the current slowdown to bottom out,” said chief executive Rudy Karsan.
The over $200-million company has two centres in India with the Hyderabad facility employing about 150 and Vizag 350. Its global workforce at present stands at 1,600.
“India is a major market for us. The new recruits on the 25-acre Vizag campus, which now serves as the headquarters for handling work in the Asia Pacific region out of India, will work on rolling out new products and innovative software to Indian as well as global markets,” Karsan told Business Standard.
“The world is in a recession scenario and amid this there is still a need to grip talent management in the phase of recession. Employees not only need to feel good about the change process but also need to feel confident in their ability to execute the newly required tasks in this period of crisis. Action plans in long-term salvaging the talent pool is a tough task for companies and HR departments. This is the ground reality that most organisations are now facing and hence there is a dire need of attrition versus the desperate efforts of retention,” he said.
Kenexa, with more than 4,400 customers in over 200 countries and territories, too was hit by the downturn and saw about 18 per cent attrition in 2008. Its revenues declined one-third while profits narrowed by 13 per cent, from 18 per cent the previous year. The company, which annually places over 50,000 employees through recruitment process outsourcing, has earmarked a global R&D spend of $40 million for 2009, as against $36 million in 2008.
“Currently, US contributes 75 per cent to our overall revenues and Europe 20 per cent while China and India account for 4 per cent and less than 1 per cent respectively. The contribution from India will definitely grow in the coming years as we are aggressively looking at expanding into the government services market, where we have about 15 clients. We are talking to very large government organisations and expect to double this business in the next one year,” Karsan said.
