As more and more service jobs migrate toIndia, such training programs are increasingly common Sierra Atlantic say that one-fourth of its 400 employees working out of the Hyderabad offices are constantly interacting with foreigners.
For Sierra and other, the training in Western ways is intended not only to help employees perform daily business interactions with American or European colleagues and customers but also to help the companies transcend their image as cheap labor.
“Your interaction with people of other cultures will only increase,” Colonel Gowri Shankar, Sierra’s trainer, told Mr. Kumar and half a dozen other young engineers, “and you should be equally at ease whether in Hyderabad or Houston. The Sierra programmers listened attentively as Colonel Shankar listed common complaint: speaking one of India’s many languages in front of foreigners, questioning colleagues about their compensation, and cracking ethnic jokes. He is compromising on punctuality and protocol. “Americans are friendly but do not slap an American on his back or call him by his first name in the first meeting,” said Colonel Shankar.
Some companies are already seeing the benefits of training. Sierra said that in February, its Indian unit won a bid against an Indian competitor because the Sierra employees were seen as a better fit. “It all adds up to better rates and bigger projects,” said the project leader, Kalyani Manda.