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Cultural
Orientation of Technical Personnel
By Dr. Karine Schomer, President, CMCT
 Some
40,000 new software engineers will be coming from India to work in the
U.S. every year for the foreseeable future. This is on top of the estimated
500,000 already here as a highly visible and indispensable element of
the high technology economy.
Indeed,
Indian software workers have a well earned reputation for technical
excellence, and are much in demand, to the point where their recruitment
has become a highly competitive business. While earlier generations
of Indian software workers came mostly with IT degrees, cosmopolitan
urban backgrounds and several years work experience, the heavy demand
is now also bringing in people fresh from accelerated training programs,
with little or no work experience, often from smaller towns or villages.
While
this poses special problems in relation to the latest newcomers, the
issues of cultural adjustment, workplace integration and long-term career
success are not new. It is a commonplace that Indian software engineers
come with excellent technical talents but often lack the cultural knowledge
and social skills needed for professional advancement in the U.S. workplace.
According to Aroni Banerjee, Compensation Analyst at Hewlett Packard, "A full 90% of the Indian employees of our company are clustered
in the first 2-3 levels of Software Engineer or Senior Software Engineer.
They are pigeonholed, and, and it's hard for them to shift to general
management. Their isolation within the Indian community is a problem
too."
Typical
mindset issues that create strains include unrealistic career advancement
expectations, lack of understanding of American culture and workplace
habits, language and accent problems, communication and politeness styles
(when is a 'yes' a real 'yes'?), behavioral and interpersonal patterns,
reluctance to mix socially and network, problems with accountability
and punctuality, and hierarchical interactions with superiors and subordinates.
In
addition, there are numerous specific HR and legal matters on which
people need to be well informed if they are to become from the start
in their new environment.
The
business value of paying proper attention to cultural orientation of
technical personnel is considerable. Arun Tolani, former CEO of ICIM
International, Inc., one of the few ISO 9001 and SEI-CMM Level 5 certified
software consulting and outsourcing companies in the Silicon Valley,
reports that his company experienced a drop in software consultant attrition
from over 30% to less than 8% when it instituted a broad-based, ongoing
cultural program emphasizing "soft skills" as well as technical
training.
Cultural
orientation can take different forms. Large companies may be in a position
to do most of it in-house, medium or start-up companies may find it
more cost-effective to outsource such programs to training, cross-cultural
and HR specialists.
The
bottom line is that the personal success of Indian technical personnel
and the needs of the companies that hire them will both be well served
by undertaking this kind of training. The alternative is a waste of
human potential and in companies' failure to leverage the considerable
capabilities of their Indian employees into delivering an even greater
value.
© 1999 Karine Schomer. All Rights Reserved. Originally published in Siliconindia,
November 1999.
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229 Carmel Avenue . El Cerrito, CA
94530, USA . Tel: 510/525-9222
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