KPOPlacements.com to hold a major LPO Convention & Job Fair

KPOPlacements.com, sister concern of KPO Consultants has announced that it will hold an exclusive LPO Convention & Job Fair event on 26^th September 2009. The event will include number attendees from LPO and KPO companies, universities, and job seekers.

According to Mr. Neeraj Parnami, Associate Leader-Placements, KPOPlacements.com, “We want to use this opportunity to launch our job portal and bring together all the key participants in the industry to come and discuss critical HR needs of the industry.”

This event is going to be one of the largest and unique as it is targeted to specially tackle the key HR issues pertinent to the LPO and KPO industry. KPOPlacements.com is expecting a number of recruitment partners to be part of this event. Some of the most notable participants which are expected to attend the event includes Canatai, Infoshore, Sanshi, Intellextra, Emergnet, lexfeature.com, Academy of Financial Studies, and Green i.

According to Mr. Shams Tabriez, Associate Leader-Placements, KPOPlacements.com,”Our job fair will provide unparallel advantages to the participants. It will not only increase their visibility in the KPO and LPO sector, but will also provide them a terrific opportunity to network and build partnerships with other important stakeholders.”

The Convention is also expected to address and provide solutions to some of the key issues of the KPO and LPO industry. Further, Job Fair will provide young and experience Lawyers and other professionals aspiring to be part of the outsourcing industry to interact with several potential employers and develop knowledge about a number of possible career options present in the industry.

Temporary Staffing: Remedy to Growing Staffing Challenges in the LPO Industry

LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) industry is growing exponentially and India continues to be the hottest destination for Law Firms, Corporations, and other businesses from US, UK, and other European countries. There are a lot of positives in India’s favor for these countries to offshore/outsource their legal work to India. However, India also continues to suffer from several challenges which are working against this phenomenal growth. According to a recent survey, a majority of professionals believe that LPO is a synonym of its predecessor BPO and requires execution of elementary activities which are devoid of any knowledge and skills. Despite reasonable visibility of the LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) industry, graduates and professionals continue to be ignorant about the industry and kind of opportunities it has to offer.

Clearly, this means there is a lot of skilled talent that is inactive or unavailable for the LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) industry. Therefore, the LPO Companies in India require not only educating these young pupils and professionals about the industry and its career opportunities, but also requires them to identify new channels to encourage them take up profession in the LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) industry.

In light of such a scenario, temporary (temp) staffing can work as a viable option for the companies to meet the demands of growing business by accessing this inactive pool. Also, temp staffing can work as a tool for highlighting the potentials of the LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) industry. This includes type of learning opportunities, career paths, knowledge and skills required, and kind of earning opportunity available in the industry. On the other hand, there are several benefits for the LPO Companies to be gained through temp hiring.
Some of them include:

· Accessing skills that are rarely in demand and/or are not present in the Company-Through temp hiring, LPO Companies can access skills which are not frequently used or not present in the Company.

· Hiring for Urgent Support- In case of a pilot project or urgent need of staff due to expansion of an existing project, LPO Companies can hire staff on a short term basis to support the needs of their projects.

· Hiring Temp staff due to Limited Supply of Skilled Labor- As expected there could shortage of talented pool in the LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) sector, thus requiring the LPO Companies to take up innovative measures to meet the needs of their offshore clients. Temp staffing can help companies to overcome such challenges.

· Gaining Cost Advantages- In time of recession, it is important for the LPO Companies to gain as much cost advantages as they can to provide better ROI (Return on Investments) to their clients. Typically, professionals hired through temping cost less to the Companies as compared to full time professionals. Hence, this leads to a better ROI.

Clearly, there are a lot of core advantages that can be gained by the LPO Companies through temp hiring. Temping can also work as a tactical tool, much need to persuade young as well as skilled professionals to join the LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) industry, leading to changing the outlook of the industry.

Legal Blogs

No effect of Mr. Obama’s tax reforms on India Inc.

Outsourcing to India has always been and always be on the higher side whatever the case may be. There are many reasons fueling this fact and the most prominent of them are: India’s cost-quality advantage, young knowledge workers and its time zone that are making companies not just from the U.S. but from around the world to outsource jobs to India. No company wants to go bankrupt. Every company knows that the survival of the fittest also implies in business. Every company wants profits. And one of the best ways to earn profits in these recessionary times is surely, yes you guessed it right…outsourcing!

Mr. Barack Obama seems to be oblivious about the fact that in the days of globalization, by introducing protectionist policies he would not solve any purpose. By introducing tax reforms, he may be able to revive the United States from the recession faster than expected and may be able to generate ‘few’ jobs in the field of market research, manufacturing etc. but surely wouldn’t be able to stop the outsourcing industry from flourishing. He should understand that it’s not about the U.S. anymore. The world works as a single unit with everyone connected to everyone in some or the other way. “I wouldn’t have prayed for his victory if I knew he would be a protectionist as he is today. There is a better way to do everything but I guess Mr. Obama likes the American way.” says a BPO employee who works in Gurgaon.

According to many industry experts, Mr. Obama is looking to fix loopholes in the U.S. tax system. At the moment companies that are creating more jobs in India or specifically “Bangalore” as highlighted by Mr. Obama in his comments are paying lesser taxes than the ones that are creating jobs in U.S. Under the current regulations, firms don’t pay taxes on the income earned abroad until they bring money back to the U.S. Mr. Obama wants to reform this part of the law to increase revenue of the U.S. government and lives in this illusion that there are more intellectual and more efficient people in the U.S. to do the same job done by the people of India. Well Mr. Obama, it’s time to wake up and see the obvious reality. There is no denying the fact that the U.S. citizens are losing jobs but the reason is simple. They are being paid anywhere between 500% to 1000% (Yes 1000%) more than their counterparts in India and it gets worse, they still aren’t happy. They want Lamborghinis and Porsches with a mileage of approximately 4kmpl (And they want India to cut on emitting green house gasses). They still sue their own company for giving them 5 minutes less for their lunch break. Even though it seems we are getting deviated from the topic here but if you examine, the last 4 lines have a deep meaning to them. These lines simply mean that it’s not just about the low cost that India is chosen as a favorite outsourcing destination, it’s also about the peace that we as Indians have maintained. It’s also about the rich culture and tradition that we inherit. It’s also about the smiles that are not fake and many such reasons. Now if Mr. Obama’s tax policy is bothering you and if you are thinking that why didn’t I become a doctor or an engineer, it’s inevitable that you will start to feel better and more positive after you give a thought to the reasons why the world wants to be connected to India and outsource work here.

The pros and cons
Let’s see the pros and cons of the statement to the companies in India and U.S. To begin with, Indian companies do not seem to be too perturbed over the proposal as they believe that this legislation is likely to impact companies that are headquartered in U.S. like IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Microsoft. Most of these companies earn more than 50% of revenue from outside
U.S. These companies are not only dependent on offshoring for cost purposes but also because of the talent pool that exists in India. Further, such a move by the president could make offshoring for American firms more expensive. Not only that, this view is contrary to the rest of the world, especially when Japan and Europe are
moving towards territorial system that taxes corporate profits within the country. This move can make the U.S. companies lesser competitive as compared to the companies in the rest of the world.

The legal outsourcing industry of India stays untouched!
Law firms and in-house counsel and attorneys wouldn’t be affected by the potential implications of President Obama’s policy that will seek to curb tax breaks on companies that outsource, but mostly it could affect relations with India, which is one of the world's biggest sources of Legal process outsourcing services. Even if it seems like a bad news, practically it’s not. Right now, by outsourcing jobs to the LPO industry in India, the law firms, legal counsels and attorneys in the U.S. are saving up to 50% to 70% on their cost. Even if there are no tax breaks, this figure would end up close to 30% to 50% which is still a huge figure and can overpower the thought of taking away jobs from the LPO industry of India

Mr. Pankaj Parnami, Founder Director, KPO Consultants says “The LPO Industry which is more robust than ever before would not be affected by the tax reforms. The lower costs and the high quality of service we provide from India will overpower these reforms and the overall effect would be nullified. I’m positive and put my money on the fact that there is no need to worry for India Inc. The only thing that’s required is that the people of this 1 trillion dollar strong economy will have to be optimistic and positive and not lose hope even if initially the road is bumpy. I see a very bright future ahead.”

The current economic climate is forcing the U.S. companies to find more ways to manage spending, and outsourcing is a time-tested and appropriate decision. It is a catalyst for review of spending and use of capital. For every company that chooses to keep business functions in-house because of social backlash or political threats, there is another one who finds that the financial and organizational benefits are compelling enough to move non-core functions out of their company and offshore. “The disparity between wage costs in the US and in leading offshore countries like India for similar jobs, output and quality is far too great to simply dismiss, especially when American CEOs have a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders.” says a top executive from a leading LPO firm.

In present scenario, the policy adopted by President Obama could only be seen as a sign of protectionism and short-sightedness. This move may yield results for some time to come but may hamper growth of U.S. companies at large and might even make them vulnerable to foreign acquisition. Also, such a contrary approach might delay economic recovery. Further, what remains to be seen is how this change will grow jobs in the U.S.