UK businesses are rushing to deal with the fallout from the India outsourcing crisis, with senior UK staff to manage the crisis now top of the coronavirus hiring list, says New Street Group, the leadership and talent solutions consultancy.

India’s lockdown is having a huge impact on businesses who have outsourced call centres, IT and other functions to India over the last two decades.

New Street Group says many UK businesses are scrambling teams to try and ‘re-shore’ work from India to the UK as many workers in India are unable to go to work, due to both lack of available infrastructure and established working practices.

Andrew McIntee, Managing Director at New Street Group, says:

“For many UK businesses the problems in India risk key functions going offline. That’s added to the chaos at many UK operations and delivery centres over the last 24 hours.”

“That’s resulted in a surge in demand for hiring of professionals like business process change specialists, who can help redirect work from India back to the UK where companies have greater flexibility in both workforce and workplace strategy.”

India crisis adds to list of hires UK businesses are making

Furthermore, New Street Group says demand for senior UK staff to manage the fallout from the India outsourcing crisis adds to the list of hires businesses are already making following the outbreak of the coronavirus.

New Street Group says inquiries from businesses in relation to the following specialist roles have risen by approximately 20% on average over the last two weeks:

• Head of Business Continuity: specialist role to oversee current operations and systems in a disaster or crisis situation. Reports to Chief Operating Officer
• Head of Cash Management: specialist role to reduce cash outflows – especially negotiate new deals with suppliers over terms of payment and volume of delivery. Reports to Chief Financial Officer
• Head of Risk Management: specialist role to manage risks across the business e.g. across supply chains and across operations across different countries. Reports to board’s Risk Committee
• Chief Restructuring Officer: board-level position that assesses how a business could restructure in order to sustain profitability or reduce losses during a period of financial stress for that business
• Financial Planning and Analysis Director: experienced directors to assist the Chief Financial Officer in ensuring that immediate operating expenses and debt obligations can be met.

Andrew McIntee adds:

“The India outsourcing crisis adds to the growing list of specialist roles that businesses are trying to hire for, to stave off the impacts of coronavirus and the slump in the economy. We have seen surging demand for certain roles in recent days.

“The businesses that onboard crisis management specialists and more resources for finance, operations and customer management teams are likely to be the ones that pull through the coronavirus crisis in better shape.”