Iowa Principal Financial Group to Triple Its Work Force in India

Des Moines, Iowa-based Principal Financial Group plans to triple its work force in India, in a move the company says reflects a projected worker shortage in Des Moines and across the U.S.

Principal, an insurance and financial services company, has pledged that the move will not lead to layoffs of any U.S. employees. Instead, Principal plans to hire people in India to replace staffers in the United States who retire or leave the company.

Some of the people who will be hired at the facility near Mumbai, India’s financial capital, will also replace contracted workers.

Principal is the second-largest private employer in the Des Moines area, with about 7,900 employees.

Jim DeVries, vice president of human resources at Principal, said he does not expect the company’s overall U.S. employment to dip because it is still growing and hiring people for other duties. Principal officials also said in September that by year-end 2007 the company would hire 200 people locally for its Principal Global Investors unit.

Principal plans to hire around 10 information technology staffers at a Principal office in Pella to serve as liaisons with the office in India.

Principal executives, including the company’s chairman, Barry Griswell, traveled to India this week to officially open a business center in Pune, a city of nearly 5 million people. About 230 people now work at the Indian office, and that number is expected to grow to 600 by the end of 2007.

Mumbai and Pune are two cities that have served as hubs for U.S. and European businesses that have opened operations in India.

Principal did not disclose the pay range for its Indian employees, who will perform data entry and administrative jobs for its health insurance and retirement and investor services business units, and work in information technology departments.