Offshoring works both ways for York-based insurance giant Norwich Union. FRANCINE CLEE reports.

WHEN Norwich Union opened for business in the Indian city of Pune, all eyes were on the movement of York jobs abroad.

But fewer than 20 redundancies were eventually made here; and more people now work for the company in York than before offshoring began.

As part of the process, British employees travelled out to India to help with training and advising staff and generally developing the offshore operation.

But it's not a one-way street, because rising stars in India have found themselves travelling to Britain to help shape the future of Norwich Union in York.

Take Anup Thomas. He was the first person to be recruited to Norwich Union's parent company Aviva's Pune office around three years ago, when he joined the team setting up shop there.

"A couple of things attracted me to Aviva - it was a reasonably large company establishing a reasonably big footprint in India and it was exciting to be part of the team setting it up," he recalls.

"The learning has been huge; it was an amazing opportunity to be part of such an organisation."

Now Anup's in York, almost eight months into a two-year secondment as Programme Office Manager responsible for human resources across the company's Life business.

"I'm looking at the way we are using all our people and making sure we are using them in the best way," says the 29-year-old from Bangalore.

"If you look at India it is like a white-board, ready to draw on it straight from scratch.

"Here, the picture is already on the board. There are so many years of history, so many mergers, people have worked here for years. It is a case of trying to make small tweaks here and there and bringing out some efficiencies; but everybody has been very receptive."

When he returns to India, Anup hopes the variety of the experience he has gathered will further his career prospects.

"If you look at India, the problem in senior management is to get people with diverse experience," he reflects. "My career aim is to be in the space of leadership and development of a large business in India."

Meanwhile, Rajeshwari Mehra is one of dozens of Indian employees being sent to Norwich Union's UK offices for training.

For the past few months the 30-year-old has been running a team in Pune, helping sort the letters that arrive at Norwich Union Life's offices in Norwich, York, Sheffield and Glasgow, routing them on to the correct department in the UK.

The letters are electronically scanned into the company's computer system in the UK and then picked up electronically by members of Rajeshwari's team.

India is five and a half hours ahead of the UK, which means by starting work at 9.30am Indian time Rajeshwari's team is able to sort through and categorise vast amounts of post before the working day in the UK begins.

A second shift takes over at 5.30pm Indian time and runs until 1.30am, which allows the team to continue working until 6pm UK time.

Rajeshwari is one of offshoring's rising stars. She was voted the best manager working for Norwich Union in 2005, and has been sent to NU Life in York to learn about a new process she will shortly manage in Pune.

She joined the operation eighteen months ago after a seven years with US firm GE where she was an operations manager for the company in its centre in Delhi.

"At first it was tough as I was homesick," she said. "My family were not that keen as they wanted me to stay local. But they were supportive and keep visiting me every few months."

Now she has bought an apartment and sees a promising future working for Norwich Union.

Updated: 10:32 Thursday, January 12, 2006