The NRIs are coming; the NRIs are coming. Is the Indian workplace ready for them?

Time was when the non-resident Indian (NRI) was a much-feted creature.

He brought dollars. For the country as a whole it was a much-needed commodity. India was then living hand-to-mouth on its last driblets of foreign exchange. Every dollar was worth its weight in gold.

Today, remittances from Indians abroad still continue to be one of the major sources of foreign exchange. But this is not the money coming from well-heeled. India’s remittances come largely from the relatively poor folk: the workers in the Gulf sending money home to their families and the taxi drivers in New York and London parting with a portion of their tips for a similar reason.

But NRIs of all categories feel that they should be put on a pedestal when they come back home, permanently or on a visit. This is actually a throwback to pre-Independence days when every foreigner was supposed to be regarded as lord and master by the natives. They were mainly British, though a few Americans also got in.

In the decades since then, there has been change. But it is only today that you can see a role reversal. Foreigners came to India as bosses; today they come for jobs. It doesn’t matter whether it is as an information technology consultant or a call centre worker. If they ever had a chip on their shoulder, they have left it back home. Folks like the Australians — who fill the Internet with postings about Indians having descended from trees — come to India only to drink beer and sneer.

But the me-God-you-dog Britisher has been replaced by the NRI. He is sadly behind the times. The dollar may bob up a bit (as it has done now). But it is clearly a currency of the past. Whether it is the Euro or the RMB (some optimists even talk about the rupee), one reality is that the greenback is gradually turning a mangy yellow.

The NRI of this particular category is driven by greed. He has read about the plump packages that have been offered at the Indian Insitutes of Management. He feels that with his Harvard or Stanford stamp, he should command twice as much. Sorry, sir.

You may not get an offer at even half. India is not McKinsey territory where your networks matter more than your skills. “India is today the outback, where you have to fight every inch of the way,” says D.N. Singh, a Mumbai-based HR consultant. “Students at Western schools are taught theories that are not relevant.”

Singh is sceptical about the recent bestseller Reverse Engineering or, for that matter, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. “There is a lot of new jargon coming out about things we have been doing for years,” he says. “Did the poor never exist?”

The other reason for the NRIs coming back is that they are not wanted in their adopted countries. Jobs are scarce. Even the most equal-opportunities employer would prefer to employ his own countrymen. NRIs with their clannish ways and ghetto mentality never become “countrymen”.

So what do you do with these unwanted? Avoid them if you can. But that is not always possible. Send them on a foreign posting to their own countries; they may not be able to do so much damage there. Send them to be part of your new operations in China; every outsider is clueless in that country.

“The best solution, however, is to convince them that they need the experience of the real Indian markets,” says Singh. “Send them to the tribal belt of Orissa and hope for the best.”

WHO's HIRING NRIs

Increase in first quarter of 2012* over first quarter 2011 (%)

IT/ITES 28
The pharma ceuticals industry20
Manufacturing18
Telecom14
BFSI10
FMCG6
Business
services5
Others7
Bangalore19
Mumbai17
Delhi/NCR13
Hyderabad9
Chennai7
Kolkata6

*Hiring expectations
Source: Survey by MyHiringClub