Employees laid off from IBM Corporation might be able to take advantage of a new program that keeps them employed in another division of the company. The catch? Employees must move abroad and start work with the regional division at local wages.
The program is called Project Match, company spokesperson Doug Shelton told The Industry Standard.
"For IBM, this is a unique creative approach to keeping some of those employees who have been affected," Shelton said. "We've got about 400,000 employees in 170 countries and this is a natural move for us."
The transition program, according to Shelton, is very similar to the company's programs that help employees with other career transitions, into, for instance, teaching, government agencies and the non-profit sector.
Information Week reported that U.S. workers were being offered relocation options with IBM offices in India, China, Brazil, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Russia, South Africa, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates.
Shelton would not confirm the destination countries but said employees were being offered placements in several international locations. Compensation will be based on average local wages in the new location, he said.
A search on PayScale.com indicates that the average annual salary for a senior software engineer India with five to nine years of experience is about 605,000 rupees per year. That's less than $15,000.
"It's not a program that's for everybody," Shelton said. "Sometimes people are from another country, and this is an opportunity to get back to a home country with the support of IBM. It's a win-win."
Others potential candidates might be Americans in search of an adventure abroad, Shelton said.
So far, less than ten people have shown interest in the program.
Interested employees were asked to inform their managers, who will help find a job placement. Shelton could not provide more details since the program is still in infant stages.
The relocation offer was included in letters to employees that were being laid off on January 21st and January 27th.
Related: H1-B visa holders face layoffs.
Comments
I wonder what makes them think they will be able to get permanent work visa's for those who participate. This is generally not work that cannot be done by locals - which is why these sites are attractive for outsourcing in the first place.
That's an interesting question for IBM. I wonder if because it is an internal company transfer, visas are not a problem. They also talk about relocating people to their home countries, in which case it also would not likely be an issue.
Less than 10 people have shown interest! Why am I not surprised? If you are not a native of, or otherwise have strong cultural ties to these countries there is no reason to pick any of them: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Czech Republic, Hungary, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, UAE, India, and China. The good news: Those 10 people will all get a job, because there are less than 200 slots available overseas available to over 2500 employees who got laid off. Project match is not an option. I don't think IBM deserves any "good" press over how they are "offering jobs" to laid off employees. They aren't.
I have different opinion about the salary stated in this article. In India the salary has been defined as per the individuals track record, expertise and the need basis.
For example a person has experience in outdated technologies will get around $15K (7 yrs exprience) for cutting edge technologies like SOA, Web2.0 some companies are paying around $30K (7 Yrs experience). If you have expertise in SAP or as an solution architect you can even get $ 40K.
That's pretty interesting. I'd be interested then in known what engineers in India and other countries think of this opportunity that American workers are getting. Is it an 'amazing' opportunity?
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