印度外包公司把就业岗位送下乡

While most of India's technology and back-office outsourcing firms operate in urban centers, some of them are starting to set up offices in small towns and villages to take advantage of untapped human resources. Such moves -- still rare in the industry -- are helping India's rural youth find jobs without the hassle of moving to distant cities.

印度大部分科技和后台业务外包公司都在市中心运营，但有一部分公司已经开始在小镇和农村设立办事机构，以利用那里未经开发的人力资源。这些业内仍然很少见的举动正帮助印度农村的年轻人不必遭受移居遥远城市的困苦就能找到工作。

India's technology and business-process outsourcing industry generated $69 billion in revenue from exports in the fiscal year that ended March 31, and is expected to continue growing with U.S. and European companies farming out information-technology support, customer services, payroll processing, billing and insurance-claims review.

在截至3月31日的财年中，印度的科技和后台业务外包业创造了690亿美元的出口收入，随着美国和欧洲的公司将信息技术支持、客户服务、记账和保险索赔审核等工作外包出去，印度这一行业的出口收入预计还将继续增长。

Technology outsourcing companies are in a race to hire engineering graduates to keep up with strong demand, but most of them recruit for jobs only in urban centers. They are reluctant to set up offices in rural areas where public infrastructure is less reliable.

虽然为了满足强劲的业务需求科技外包公司正在竞相招募工程学毕业生，但大多数科技外包公司只把招募来的人安排在城市中心地区工作。它们不愿在乡村地区设立办公室，那里的公共基础设施不那么可靠。

Every year, about 114,000 new graduates with engineering backgrounds enter the job market, but more than half of them are from small towns and villages, according to a report by Zinnov Management Consulting Pvt., a Bangalore-based firm that advises on business strategy. (The report was prepared for NextWealth Entrepreneurs Pvt., a software company, which Zinnov says wasn't a marketing initiative.)

据班加罗尔的企业策略顾问公司Zinnov Management Consulting Pvt.在一份报告中说，印度每年有大约11.4万名具工程学背景的毕业生进入就业市场，但他们中的一半以上来自小镇和农村。(这份研究报告是为软件公司NextWealth Entrepreneurs Pvt.准备的，Zinnov说准备这份报告不是出于营销的目的。)

Many graduates from engineering schools in rural areas are reluctant to migrate to bigger towns or cities, even though they may be qualified for jobs offered by outsourcing companies.

许多来自农村地区工程学校的毕业生不愿移居到较大的城镇或城市，尽管他们或许能够胜任外包公司提供的工作。

As a result, there's a 'huge untapped pool' of graduates in small towns and villages, the report said. Some graduates from rural areas move to big cities for job opportunities, but they often find it difficult to adapt to a drastically different environment.

这份报告说，其结果就是，印度的小城镇和乡村中存在巨大而未得到充分利用的毕业生资源。虽然一些毕业生会从乡村地区移居到大城市以寻找工作机会，但他们经常发现自己难以适应非常不同于乡村生活的城市生活环境。

Ranjit Kumar, 24 years old, comes from an agricultural family in a small village called Bagepalli, about 100 kilometers north of Bangalore. After completing high school seven years ago, Mr. Kumar migrated to Bangalore to take a marketing job at a small pharmaceutical company.

24岁的库马尔(Ranjit Kumar)出身农家，来自班加罗尔以北约100公里处一座叫Bagepalli的小村庄。七年前高中毕业后，库马尔来到班加罗尔一家小型制药公司从事营销工作。

But after working there for a year, Mr. Kumar says he started feeling lonely and helpless in the fast-paced, expensive city, and decided to return to his village to support his widowed mother.

但他说，在这里工作一年后，他就在这座生活成本高昂、生活节奏快的城市感觉到孤独和无助，因此决定返回他生长的小村庄去侍奉守寡的母亲。

Mr. Kumar's story highlights the travails of many educated Indian rural youth from humble family backgrounds. Other than farming, there are few job opportunities in their native towns and villages. When they move to cities, they face new challenges that are often greater than challenges at home.

库马尔的经历彰显了印度许多农村贫困家庭受过教育的年轻人所感受到的痛苦。在他们家乡的小镇或村庄里，除了务农没有什么其他就业机会。而当他们移居到城市后，他们又会遇到常常比在家乡所受的困苦还要大的挑战。

But the environment is starting to change. Some outsourcing businesses are coming up with ways to make use of talent in rural areas without forcing young people to leave their hometowns and villages.

但这种局面正在开始改变。一些外包企业正设法在不强迫农村年轻人离开家乡的情况下将农村地区的人才资源利用起来。

RuralShores Business Services Pvt., for example, runs back-office outsourcing services such as data entry, bookkeeping and expenses handling at offices in small towns and villages, providing rural youth with job opportunities. It is one of 12 finalists in The Wall Street Journal's Asian Innovation Awards.

以RuralShores Business Services Pvt.这家公司为例，这家从事数据录入、管账和费用处理等后台服务的公司就在小城镇和乡村开设了办事处，向农村青年提供就业机会。它是《华尔街日报》亚洲创新奖入围决赛的12个参评者之一。

'The impressive economic progress India is experiencing today is only limited to the urban areas and benefiting the middle class and above,' said Murali Vullaganti, who co-founded RuralShores in 2008. Mr. Vullaganti, a former managing director of the Indian unit of British outsourcing firm Xansa PLC, said he came up with the new business idea after he noticed high levels of dissatisfaction among workers who migrated to cities from villages. Many of them found big cities too expensive and wanted to go back to their villages unless they were offered other jobs with better wages.

在2008年与人合办了RuralShores的乌拉甘提(Murali Vullaganti)说，印度令人印象深刻的经济进步目前只局限在城市地区，只是让中产阶级以上的人受益。曾在英国外包公司Xansa PLC担任董事总经理的他说，在注意到从农村移居城市的工人普遍对生活感到高度不满后，他产生了这一新的业务构想。这些工人许多都发现城市的生活成本太高，除非能找到工资更高的其他工作，否则他们想返回农村去。

RuralShores Business, whose clients are mainly domestic companies such as HDFC Ltd., IN +1.00% Tata AIG and Bharti Airtel Ltd., IN +1.00% now has facilities in rural parts of eight Indian states, employing nearly 1,300 people.

RuralShores Business的客户主要是国内公司，比如银行HDFC Ltd.、塔塔集团(Tata AIG)和电信运营商Bharti Airtel Ltd.。现在它的办公设施分布在印度八个邦的农村地区，雇员人数近1,300人。

When Mr. Kumar returned home after a one-year stint in Bangalore, he joined RuralShores, where he was trained in basic communication and computer skills.

库马尔在班加罗尔工作了一年之后回到家乡，并加入RuralShores，接受了基本的通讯和电脑技能培训。

Today, Mr. Kumar is set to be promoted as a manager for a team of about 20 members, while also pursuing a Bachelor's degree from Bangalore University through a distance-learning program.

如今，库马尔即将被提拔为经理，管理员工20人左右。另外他还在通过一个远程教育项目攻读班加罗尔大学(Bangalore University)的本科文凭。

RuralShores isn't the only outsourcing business providing job opportunities in small towns and villages although analysts say the firm is more structured in its approach and has an aggressive expansion program.

RuralShores不是唯一一家在小镇和村庄提供就业机会的外包企业。不过分析师说，这家公司的方针比其他公司更加明确，并且有一个野心勃勃的扩张计划。

NextWealth Entrepreneurs also focuses on hiring graduates in small towns. The company, started by Sridhar Mitta, the former chief technology officer of Indian outsourcing company Wipro Ltd., 507685.BY +0.52% uses a franchisee model to set up offices in smaller towns and rural areas.

NextWealth Entrepreneurs也专注于在小镇招募毕业生。这家公司由印度外包公司Wipro Ltd.原首席技术长米塔(Sridhar Mitta)创办，它采用一种加盟模式在小镇和农村地区设立办事机构。

Tata Chemicals Ltd., 500770.BY -0.05% a unit of Indian conglomerate Tata Group, also has a nonprofit arm that works on creating jobs in rural areas, where it runs outsourcing centers.

印度多元化企业塔塔集团旗下的塔塔化学(Tata Chemicals Ltd.)也有一个以创造农村地区就业为使命的非营利部门，在农村地区运营外包中心。

Rita Soni, chief executive of Nasscom Foundation, the social-development arm of India's software-industry trade body National Association of Software and Services Companies, says some of the social enterprises that provide long-term employment in rural communities have been successful and sustainable because they are run by seasoned industry professionals who aren't interested in a charitable approach of simply giving back to underprivileged communities.

印度软件业行业组织全国软件和服务企业协会(National Association of Software and Services Companies)社会发展部门Nasscom Foundation的首席执行长索尼(Rita Soni)说，一些在农村地区提供长期就业的社会型企业取得了成功，并实现了可持续发展，原因在于它们由经验丰富的行业专家运营，这些专家并不按照慈善组织的方式运作，不仅仅以回馈贫困人群为目标。

At RuralShores, most of the work facilities are in villages or in small towns with populations of less than 20,000. Each facility typically has about 100 desks, employing about 200 people in two shifts. Most employees are undergraduates or graduates who prefer to stay with their families rather than moving to cities to find other jobs.

RuralShores的大部分工作场所都在村庄或人口不到2万的小镇里面，每一处办公场所一般有约100张办公桌和200名员工，实行两班倒。多数员工都是宁愿和家人在一起、不愿搬到城市寻找其他工作的本科生或研究生。

One advantage of running offices in villages is that local employees, feeling secure in their home communities, are more likely to stay, compared with urban offices where employees quit more frequently.

在村庄设立办公室的一个好处是，当地员工更愿意留下来，因为他们在自己的家乡觉得更有保障。相比之下，城市办公室的员工离职频率更高。

Mr. Vullaganti says the next goal for RuralShores is to open at least one work center in each of India's 500 districts, bringing the total head count to 100,000 by 2020.

乌拉甘提说，RuralShores的下一个目标是，到2020年在印度500个区里面每一个区至少开办一处工作中心，并将员工总数增加到10万人。

'When we set up a center and start recruiting people, the initial reaction is 'too good to believe,' ' Mr. Vullaganti says. 'Once they get their first paycheck, it occurs to them that it is real.'

乌拉甘提说，每次我们设立一处中心并开始招人的时候，人们最初的反应是“有这么好的事？他说，拿到第一份工资之后，他们发现真有这么好的事。

To be sure, RuralShores faces two challenges in rural India: lack of Internet connectivity and power supply. The company invariably depends on backup generators to provide an uninterrupted supply of power during extended hours of power cuts.

需要说明的是，RuralShores在印度农村地区面临着两种挑战，一是网络不稳，二是电力供应不足。在长时间停电期间，该公司始终要依靠应急发电机不间断地提供电力。

Further, Mr. Vullaganti says the company has to depend on at least two service providers for Internet connectivity. 'If the connectivity and power issues are taken care of, we can expand rapidly,' he says.

乌拉甘提还说，公司至少需要依靠两家服务商来提供互联网接入服务。他说，如果网络和电力问题得到解决，我们就可以迅速扩张了。