"Half of our new jobs are in India"

Donna Morris, 42, heads Adobe Systems' global human resources and manages 8,000 employees. A frequent visitor to India in the last seven years, the Adobe Senior VP spoke to BT's Saumya Bhattacharya on the lessons of 2009 and the challenges ahead. Edited excerpts:

Has the recession changed the way Adobe manages its talent?
We conducted a global survey of our employees to ensure that we had an adequate understanding of what they valued in terms of the environment at Adobe and in terms of their rewards. The top concern of the employees was whether they would continue to receive adequate communication on changes in the company and what it would mean to their future. The other concern was their personal growth.

How was India impacted?
India continued to grow despite the fact that as an organisation we did have a difficult year. Specifically, we made very difficult decisions to reduce headcount in other parts of the world and moved a number of those positions here. Overall, we hired 200 people in India between December 2008 and November 2009, the financial year for Adobe.

What are the hiring plans for new financial year?
We are happy to be moving out of 2009. We see globally an opportunity for growth. We have 600 jobs opening globally. Out of these, 300 are in India. That in itself is quite a statement in terms of India's importance.