International online travel company Expedia has embarked on a major recruiting campaign in India.

Roopesh Panchasra, director, recruitment at Expedia, told Recruiter that as part of Expedia’s strategy to move away from outsourcing its technology staff, the company planned to hire 300 staff by the end of this year, and to have a minimum of 600 staff in place by the end of 2013.

“This is all about insourcing,” Panchasra told Recruiter, ahead of the official opening of its new R&D centre in Gurgaron, close to Delhi.

He said that while outsourcing made sense in times of uncertainty, with the future of the company now more predictable “we want to supplement our existing staff and reduce the amount of outsourcing”. 

Panchasra outlined a number of key planks to Expedia’s recruitment strategy in India:

• raising awareness of Expedia through marketing campaigns in the press, on TV, and through Bollywood celebrities

• visiting a new city a week across India, including sponsored events, and presentations

• focus on experienced hires in the first year

• more emphasis on passive candidates

• targeting individuals who moved from Delhi to the southern cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad for work five to 10 years ago, but who now want to return home.

“We want to get across that we are using the coolest technology and we are hiring the world’s top talent, and we want people just to consider finding out a bit more,” Panchasra said. 

“We will create the interest and after that, the proposition is just not difficult to sell.”