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Outsourced staff gets a crash course
Workers aren't just taking home an American paycheck, they're taking home American culture.
October 6, 2003: 2:49 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Outsourcing work to foreign locations has shown a healthy growth in recent years, but some companies are taking the matter even more seriously.

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CNNfn's J.J. Ramberg reports on how Indian companies are starting to offer extensive training programs to teach employees about American culture.

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Sierra Atlantic, for instance, is giving employees in its India office more than a paycheck. It's teaching its employees American culture.

The company said its staff don't always understand slang from customers in the U.S., and Sierra Atlantic is making it a priority to educate the staff on the American culture it deals with.

With three quarters of its employees working in India but 70 percent of its clients based in the U.S., Sierra Atlantic said it has taught its staff how to move seamlessly between the two countries and the two cultures.

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"What we find is that our people are very good technically and business-wise and we want to make sure that they're not undermined because they're not good at the way they work with their counterparts," said Sarath Sura, managing director at Sierra Atlantic.

One significant way these Indian employees differ from their counterparts in the U.S. is in their salaries. An entry-level employee in a call center in India earns about $260 a month, which is about one-sixth what they would make in the U.S.  Top of page




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