There is anguish at the news report that appeared today in Economic Times (looks like the report is taken off from the newspaper’s website – their PR firm – may be working overtime to manage the damage) … thus begins BPO Union.
The report tells in gory details how disrespectfully (in an unanticipated move) Keane India laid off their people. And then we continue to hear about the good ways in which IT and BPO companies treat their staff … its all a BIG BLAH!
We do not mean to tell companies how to run their businesses nor do we intend to oppose any layoffs which are due to logical business reasons. But this is not the way to treat their employees. We want to know how these companies would react if in one swipe (over disagreement with the management) the employees would go on strike? They’d sure want their employees to have spoken to them … communication etc etc … but if it’s their turn they can treat us like slaves.
No Sir(s) … and No Ma’am(s) … not anymore. You must realize that we have rights and now is the time we will start to exercise them. Many people affected by Keane have been spoken to and you shall see that we reserve the right to protest peacefully, legally and lawfully.
We’ll start by an online campaign to tell people how good an employer Keane India is. By the way a few employees who have been treated badly for some time now have some really interesting things to tell the world about this employer. This will trigger off many more people to come online to support this ‘coming together’ of people called BPO Union.
Chief
June 19, 2008 at 3:58 am |
Treat Employees Right in Tough Times: this is the title of an excellent article on Business Week. I was surfing through this blog when this story was automatically generated through a link. I followed it and would suggest everyone to read it specially employers who lay off people in bundles as if they were off loading some cargo and in a hurry for the ship to leave shores. The link http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jun2008/ca2008065_104914.htm
Raghu
June 26, 2008 at 9:45 pm |
The reason behind this lay off is nothing but company inability to get new projects. In recent past company did not get any new project but lost existing big projects to it’s competitors (Infosys/Wipro). And new management is highly responsible for this situation as they do not have prior experience of running big company.
Since they do not have enough projects to accommodate people whom they hired recently (They hired around 500 fresher in last 10 months) even after major chunk of their existing employee left the company (after taken over by caritor). Around 50% of the Keane employees have already left Keane India in last 8-9 months.
Company management is just trying to set the inventory correct (by all hook and crook – No Project – No Employee and Cost cutting by all measures) even after loosing projects and people and now this action showed nothing but their inability to run business.
Still they are hiring people from campus interview (I heard that they hired 300 from Amity – Noida – is a private college) as they know that by doing campus they are creating market news and their value, as they know very wells that they need not to pay the new employees now, but after few months once they complete their college and even they have liability to not to give offer letter to new hires.
All fresher…PLEASE BEWARE OF KEANE INDIA PRACTIVE….
Thanks
June 27, 2008 at 4:54 am |
Thank You “Ex-Keane Employee”.
Your thoughts give us a very bright insight into a dark arena. We hope that support from friends like you shall keep coming and it will strengthen us all.
In case you want more people from Keane to form a group here let us know. We will enable a larger group from other supporters (of other BPOs) and in case needed collectively take up this issue with the Keane Management on behalf of employees who have been given a raw deal. There are people who we may call upon to help the situation for laid-off employees – from the Industry, Govt and Media. Keep writing in.
Chief
July 1, 2008 at 4:03 pm |
plz i need some more information on keane india as im one of the selected students of amity noida those who got placed in this company.. plz help me out by providing some information regarding the future of freshers in this company as i dont to be victimized by keane india… thanks
July 1, 2008 at 7:11 pm |
Caritors management wanted instant growth in the market and that was which made them take over Keane. However the new management of Keane which was previously Caritor was a firm which did not have any kind of employee concern. Most of the employees working there starts planning to quit as soon as possible and when the poor concern for the employees by the new management and the companys already pathethic buisness situation joined toghether. This was the final result. I was surprised to hear that few of the employees who worked with me were fired, and i cant see any reason to justify this act. The work quality by most of my collegues exceeded the limits what they shuold have worked considering the pathetic payscale and the so called just for name performance based appraisal. Infact i had seen my colleagues being rejected promotions only because they had a limit for number of promotions in a team each quarter. And i figured that if this is how its working there i have no future there. thats why i quit. but i never expected the company to do such injustice to those who were dedicated workers. And i believe it is better to eliminate such companies from the market. Making these facts aware amoung freshers and boycotting their recruitment drives is the only way to make such companies will start of reforming
July 2, 2008 at 3:27 am |
Thank You “Ex-Caritor Employee”.
The more friends like you write to us and participate, the more we grow collectively. If you feel you’d like to put more people from your ex-employer here we welcome it. In fact we are planning to soon get enough people together to be able to assert with the Keane (Caritor) management to reconsider their decision or at least give the un-justly laid off employees a reasonable compensation. What do you say?
Dont stop writing in.
Chief
July 3, 2008 at 7:57 am |
I have been a witness to many layoffs and I would say that during hard times, companies do take such steps to make things comfortable for their business. Good or bad, it is there. The important pattern to know is that layoffs are consistent across the positions, meaning, even senior people are candidates to such events.
What is surprising in this case, and I know because I am still in touch with current employees, is that not even a single senior position has been dropped on performance ground. This is unbelievable because if performance is one criteria, senior positions can also be help accountable. The absense of such behavior on part of Keane is an indication of its intentions, and points to the cotorie that is developing at the management level.
Keane should definitely pay them some severance package, which I believe is part of policy.
July 3, 2008 at 8:39 am |
Thank You “Ex-Keanite”.
We are in total agreement with your suggestion of a reasonable severence package, and we will promise you that BPOs wont get it so easy from now on, BPO Union have arrived on the scene now supported by friends like you. Let us collectively change the way companies conduct themselves towards employees.
We will keep you posted on action-to-be-taken very soon!!
Dont stop writing in.
Chief
July 5, 2008 at 11:24 pm |
What happened at Keane India is what exactly happens in majority of the company in the USA. When a consulting company looses projects and are unable to place the employees in another project, they will let them go. Lots of European companies have their offices in the USA for this specific reason and they less constrained in the USA versus in Europe where the employment laws are very restrictive.
But the employment laws are not completely one sided and there are some decent protections put in place by the legislators.
The employees can apply for unemployment compensation with the state government once they are let go or laid off. The state government collects for each employee as a part of the payroll tax, the unemployment insurance premium. These premiums are collectively used to fund the payout to each unemployed person for a period of 6 months. In the meanwhile they will also help the employee get another job by letting them know of opportunities that are currently available for them or help them retrain. These are federally mandated programs.
As soon as a laid off employee starts collecting unemployment benefits, the unemployment insurance premium collected from an employer will be increased by the state government. There are mechanisms in place to monitor this on weekly basis called benefits quality control and revenue quality control. The revenue quality control is used to make sure representative population of employers are paying the unemployment insurance for each employed person. The benefit quality control is used to make sure that the person laid off is eligible to collect unemployment benefits.
Hopefully the above mentioned system is in place in India to help laid off employees. I will consider them as a civilized way of enforcing some order to the chaos created by capitalists.
Sometimes these companies hire or take back the people they let go when they come across new projects and the people who were let go are still looking for work. In this case the benefits are normally restored that of prior to lay off as if there was no break in employment excluding pay.
If the employer is laying off citing performance issues, then they better have a good reason for it with appropriate metrics. If they don’t have enough grounds for such behavior, then it should be a legal issue.
Hopefully the people of India in league with legislators will put in place decent employment laws or update to help unemployed people who lost jobs for no fault of theirs.
July 6, 2008 at 12:03 am |
Dear Sunil,
We couldn’t agree more with you. Once our community has enough steam and puff we will start a very high pressure public debate with none less than the Govt.
Either these employees be re-instated or their severence package better be respectable.
Chief
July 6, 2008 at 9:20 am |
Hi,
I would like to remind BPO Union of TCS and ICICI Bank also who had terminated employees citing performance issues, Which is not true.
Would appreciate if we can have old employees of TCS and ICICI Bank to know the real facts. Also what are the organizations like NASSCOM is doing?
Regards,
Viraj
July 6, 2008 at 10:45 am |
hi people
The way Keane did with their employees, i would say that lots of people are reading this news now a days, and in future if they get any project, would be very difficult to get quality people, because shortage of quality people, no one would be insterested to join hands with company like this, so now you people smart enough to take your own decisions……..
July 8, 2008 at 2:56 am |
Good to see that something concrete is been structured now. Wish you all the success is enabling employees to fight for their rights denied them. Lots to dicuss and work on in due time.
July 10, 2008 at 7:11 am |
NO VISION, NO VALUE,
I have been working for Keane from past 3 years and given up (resigned) now. I would like to forget these 3 years of frustration.
I suggest freshers to reconsider their decision to join Keane. Freshers are exploited like anything here.
There was to valid reason behind recent lay-offs. It was just cost cutting. Management is failed get/retain business and also manage work force. They would be laying off few more by this quarter end.
July 12, 2008 at 8:00 pm |
Keane is not the only one. Vertex India based out of Gurgaon probably has the worst record when it comes to doing business without a vision in the presence of a sycophant top management. They lost United Utilities 2 years ago, lost Orange last year and are now going to loose Trainline on 17th August. That’s 130 people, their jobs, their livelihoods & aspirations on hold and in danger!!! All this because of the the fact that the top management has no vision on what to do. People who knew, they either left because of frustration or because they got better opportunities. People in HR have their own agenda including the former manpower contractor who was brought in to change things but since then is only running his own personal agenda.
I hope that Chief you and your team will get this news out and tell companies and people to stay away from Vertex and prevent their careers from being destroyed!
July 13, 2008 at 5:43 am |
Dear John,
We’d request you to get some more support from your peers and friends at Vertex. When there is more support & evidence on your information we shall immediately take the required action. Your tip is highly valued, and it is this kind of support that we are constantly getting which will take our community forward with strength. With so many companies laying off peolpe without adequate compensation we have the requisite ground for a PIL in the court of law. Companies must find a new job routine for those benched. In fact companies harp so hard and hoarse telling everyone that their training costs are so high, they why not retain the skills, put them to alternate use, or just bench them till they get a new contract. By laying off peolpe without adequate reason they are just hurting their own bottom lines, and it adds to the agony for our community. Minimum compensation would include: 3 months pay, counsellings and help with finding a new job.
Chief
October 10, 2008 at 8:00 am |
hi friends,
i am 2008 passedout candidate got placed in keane india last year, i am still expecting that the company would call me, but so far no positive responses from the company. when i call the company and ask for the joining date, they say that we will receive the joining date by november and date of joining will be after 12-18 months from this november. i think there is no hope of calling us. they are just hiring the students in on campus for name sake and for their benefits though the salary package is low compared with all other mnc’s. we all are just loosing our confidence and our experince too. fed up of waiting for joining dates, its better to go for other interviews and join any other for low paid companies atleast. If anybody come to know about the joining dates for 2008 batch. pls do inform us.
November 19, 2008 at 7:14 am |
I need the future of Freshers who are going to join in Keane.
If any body know something about that you can mail me.
job4ram@ymail.com
I am hearing many stories about the DOJ…!!!
December 13, 2008 at 7:53 am |
hi friends,
I am a 2008 B.E passout recruited by keane as a part of their campus recruitment drive. Now it has been 6 months since i am out of college. Still no info on the d0J. I am really frustrated.Is it worth waiting?How long shud i wait?
PALS PLEASE HELP ME.
December 23, 2008 at 3:58 am |
Hi All,
I would like to share some details about the firing in keane.
Firing Process:
HR calls the concerned employee after blocking his terminal, ID card access to doors, email and other resources.
A person escorts (From HR team / PM) you to the HR room and you will be informed that you are terminated due to some blah blah.
And the HR gives you 2 options. Accepting a resignation or getting a termination (Termination citing some bad reasons to affect your future job prospects). So most of them agree for a resignation.
Keane Firing Statistics:
Month – Head Count
2008 July – 400
2008 October – 200 (Officially communicated to employees atleast after firing)
2008 December 22 – 300 (Expected and may rise)
What do I say for freshers :
All the options have to be looked in two different aspects.
1. When it was caritor 2. After it became Keane.
1. Caritor was never a hire and fire company. After aquiring keane they have tasted blood. Now Keane is slowly turning out to be a hire and fire company. If you are only bothered about a secure job and steady growth (forgetting extra-ordinary hikes, on-site options) go anywhere else (I really mean anywhere). You may most probably become a sore loser if you join keane.
2. When it was caritor management used to communicate things clearly. Even though it is late or hidden from low level employees the information you receive from management is authentic and clear. Now nothing is communicated clearly. Whenever you receive a mail from CEO stating that company’s financial positions are strong you are going to see a mass firing.
3. The company had a very good relationships with clients and employees before. The technically inexperienced and inferior teams used to work their heart out to bring the best. Because they believed in this company. Now thats lost everywhere.
4. Even though the rewards and recognitions were not of top-notch but they were pretty decent. Now its almost nothing.
5. And always they propagate messages to bring out the 100% of the employees when the management brings you somewhere around 0%. So obviously you will have worse social, financial, career related problems.
Still if you do not understand, I make it clear. Forget joining this company. You have two options. Join here forget your career/life. Go somewhere else atleast life will give you some different results.
Final word : Always look after companies like mindtree with exceptional employee satisfaction levels. Don’t come here and simply get disappointed.
December 24, 2008 at 10:26 am |
Hi johnny,
My Advice is not to wait for any DOJ from keane, its really tought time keane is facing now. More layoff both exp and freshers, No promotion cycle, No new Projects etc..
for the past two days they layed off 200+ in india alone. Even the Existing clients are going off from keane and some clients are reducing their billablity.
All the very best for you to get carrier in good company. you can and you will get job in new company better then keane
Regards
MDU
January 7, 2009 at 7:27 am |
Hi All,
This company is no more to stick with. Sooner you will leave, you will secure your future. Keep Hunting and get out the moment you get some opportunities.
Working with company like Keane was good till the time it was Keane. No Vision, No management Skills. They are not thinking to add new client, They believe in loosing the existing client.
There are more to say but as advisor I will suggest you to not join Keane until unless it is being taken over by some good company or try to move out if you are still working with Keane.
January 7, 2009 at 7:29 am |
Please pass this site link to your freind circle. Make aware to each IT professional.
January 13, 2009 at 10:18 am |
Hi All,
After reading the above blogs,i thought too should share my experience….
I faced the biggest shock by being laid off in November 08 by Keane…..It was a shock for me…i was recruited by this unethical company from campus for HR in sept’07 and kept waiting for their call to join!finally they did call me to join in Aug 08 n laid me off in Novv 08!!!!!!!!Can you imagine what kind of HR practices they follow?!!!…Its been the biggest blunder i made to ever join Keane as they neither value ethics,their employees ao even have a humane nature…..horrible manpower planning and a ruthless manner of sending away people!!!….I feel ashamed to have been a part of such a sick company..Right now thanks to them,I am struggling to get the job of my choice inspite of being well qualified….
They do not deserve employee laoyalty at any cost….they dont care about anything….Being in the HR function there,I can tell you the truth….Only people who pull the wrong strings are retained and those who work hard and are sincere were laid off!!!
And the worst part was that they treat you like criminals when doing the layoff…dont let you touch your system,snatch away the ID card n literaly throw you out!
They do not know how badly pwople get effected by it.its tken me 2 months to come to terms with what happened for no fault of mine….and for your information there are 9000 people new recruits who are waiting to join!!!!they will never call them and i suggest nobody ever join there too……
durin my 4 months ther,I saw people getting called and den keepin dem on bench for months and den getting rid of dem …layin dem off!!
the most unethical and unconcerned company.anyways they are doing so badly now and i haope they never flourish coz so many people like me curse dem every single day
January 26, 2009 at 7:46 pm |
I have a suggestion for freshers/juniors. If yo u are non-IT engg. Go back to original field. after 5 years of less pay you will be boss. Pay may be less but no tension. Join govt research institute like HAL/NAL/ISRO/ADA. if you still want to be in IT. join small companies /no-branded where you get to do real work and good exp, instead of waiting on bench and DOJ. If you are laid off dont loose heart. You learnt a hard lesson in life early. you will come out of this. and you look back what you achieved.
January 27, 2009 at 2:27 pm |
Iam a 2008 batch student completed Btech IT .i got selected in Keane in july 2007.but till now i didnt receive the date of joining.i dont know wen they wil call.anyone let me know.pls pls pls……
January 27, 2009 at 2:55 pm |
Hi all,
I completed BTECH Information technology in Meenakshi College n Chennai n the year 2008.i got selected in Keane in july 2007.iam waiting for the date of joining.but till now i didnt receive any call from the company, but they issued the offer letter.i dont know when they will call . anyone let me know , they will call or not.if any information mail me to this id meena_msec@yahoo.co.in . pls pls pls help me.
Regards,
K.Meena
February 5, 2009 at 2:02 pm |
Meena,
I advice you to search another job. This is no company to put your trust and wait for this long. Even in smaller companies than Keane you will get better knowledge, salary and more over better respect of being an employee.
March 18, 2009 at 12:23 pm |
More news on Keane today… they fired more than 1000 this week
March 24, 2009 at 6:26 pm |
hi,
keane does a layoff of around 1500 employees in march 15-march 24 which is kept as a top secret.
they are threatening the employees to put paper by themselves.even the security guards are now catching the people from the desk and getting signature and moving them aside from keane.keane hr’s job has been reduced a lot.keane is crrently providing only 8k per freshers and assures them as they will provide their default package 2.75 lakh(which is low when compare to some other companies).but they plan to layoff all their current SE’S and put these guy’s for a 6 month time and they will layoff these guys also and get some other fresh blood
March 24, 2009 at 6:35 pm |
hence don’t trutst keane anymore.move to some other small companies.most probably from next month thyey will inform the salary cut for the current employeers.keane loses some of it’s biggest clients such as macheson,fedelity,etc.even honey well to plans to leave keane soon.all the accounts in keane srinks due to their poor quality of code delivery.they are informing the clients and biding the clients for less mony and they are providing the freshers right in to the projects.as there was no project management team all the project fails miserabily.a good eaxample is fideity.at first these acount approached keane alone but due to its poor quality for the second biding fiedelity doesn’t call keane itself.hence a 550 employee’s are returing back.
they are planning to fire those employees in a block.
if you are moving to freepool you will be fired right at the moment.mani couldn’t make profit by the acquisition of keane.as keane are good resource posters keane layoofed all the resource poseters of keane.hence keane brand name is only a benefiet of 785 million acquisition.even the keane has to pay a lot that means 75% still to the citi group’s who has provided fund to caritor to acquire keane
March 24, 2009 at 6:37 pm |
don’t beileive keane as keane is currently focusing on cleaning its employee keanly
April 11, 2009 at 4:53 am |
I would suggest the company Glopore IMS operation from Jayangar 8th Block Bangalore does not have standard rules .Anyone joining this comapny should join as daily wager as no one would when would one loose the jobs.People start up companies for thier own personal benefit with no ethical values.I lost my career after joing this company.
April 15, 2009 at 9:32 am |
Hey, I am getting lot of calls from Keana(B’lore).Why are they recruiting again? I am having around 10 years of ERP exp.
April 22, 2009 at 2:52 am |
Hi, i am an ex- employee of caritor, now keane.I had left teh company after 6 months from when it became keane.From my expierience, its a very good place for freshers to learn the job. but after around 18 to 20 months of exp., you tend to get staurated completely.
moreover, you dont get any great benefits other than your salary and a gold or silver certificate for the best performer(no cash associated)once in 3 or 6 months.
caritor/current keane was as stinchy as ever even when there was no recession, so now i don know to what extend they have gone now.
Now after they started firing people in a very disrespectful fashion, i am very happy that i switched to my current employer who keeps updating us regularly of the financial condition of the company and informs well in advance of the cost cutting measures taken so as not to touch the employee salary and also assures to do their maximum possiblr to keep our jobs intact.
Once you have worked in any good company which give good benefits, i dont think keane india is a good place by any means, because they have the habit of overloading their resources(caritor legacy carried foreward), for example one project manager handling 8 to 10 projects and he /she barely knows his resources.
Anyway, this is my view point, it may vary from person to person.
April 23, 2009 at 2:42 pm |
hi,
is there any idea about calling its freshers from 2008 batch.i heard that keane is getting more profit than other IT families, is that true?? and also there is an info saying that it has signed project with US airforce till 2020. Then y r the recruits still awaited? is it worth 2 wait for this company?
April 24, 2009 at 11:20 am |
This is quite a hot information. I’ll share it on Twitter.
May 30, 2009 at 7:56 am |
Hi,
Can anyone give me a true picture of Vertex at Gurgaon. They are sending their employees to Manchester, UK. I came to know from one their employee may be he claims as an employee of vertex. Saying that vertex sends their employees to UK for training and placed them there only.
Anyone please respond.
June 26, 2009 at 12:24 pm |
It is a hopeless company with only managers and no developers, no interest in getting new projects and only layoffs was their dream.