Until 10-15 years ago, most of the talent migration was towards the Western world. That has changed drastically. Today, many students want to study in the East through internships and student exchange programs as they are looking to gain global experiences that would help his/her professional life later. Even Indian students are looking beyond traditional destinations like the UK and the US and are now going to countries like France, Spain, Korea and Australia. In the present day world, everyone is seeking experiences that are different from the familiar home territory. Such experiences enable professionals to learn new competencies and to demonstrate them, something they would have never done if they hadn’t left their safe havens.

Many Indian firms are losing talent because they either can’t move people overseas or are simply slow at it. There is a stage in people’s careers where they are keen to explore new territories of work and take risks. Typically, after a professional has worked for three to five years, he/she is keen to explore overseas postings. Most organizations who are unable to provide such experiences lose their talent to the ones who are able to do so. Many Indian organizations, including ones that have a global presence, have prohibitively long and repulsive bureaucratic processes associated with overseas postings of junior-level staff. For several years, India has seen droves of skilled engineers and doctors, two of the most common professions in the country, leaving the subcontinent. That said, there is still a steady supply of quality engineers and doctors and this is not likely to change. Thus, India will not suffer heavily due to talent migration.

Why talent migrates

However, what is important to note is that talent chooses to migrate to a location depending on some key factors. The first factor that attracts talent to India is the promise of being part of transformations. An economy which is growing at a livelier pace than other economies and a number of new plans and strategies getting executed out of India is what talent from outside the country are interested in experiencing. Many professionals from the US, the UK and other Western countries are looking to work in India at Indian salaries and not at expat salaries. Hence, the onus is on Indian corporations to make the geography more attractive for talent and they can do so by providing them a good quality of life, better experiences and a lively professional environment.

A second important factor is political stability and safety concerns. If we look at the last 30-40 years, there are about a dozen countries, which have experienced political turmoil and have consequently borne the price of losing talent to countries that offer safety and stability. At this point, multi-national Indian companies stand at an advantage when it comes to recruiting talent from outside. Most of these companies hire talent from their own location in a foreign country and are able to bring them to India.

Sectors that will gain or lose talent

The Indian service industry will lead the hiring of inbound talent in the country. Core sectors like manufacturing, infrastructure, energy and utilities are likely to be among the biggest losers of talent to other countries. Retail and banking are sectors that promise the flow of a number of inbound talent. There are certain sectors such as construction and infrastructure that will need to hire talent from outside to meet them. The modern metro-rail projects are a typical example of this trend where in the early days, global talent was hired in to train and pass along the capabilities to talent inside the country.