Keane chops 400 staff - Aims to strengthen its position by, err, cutting jobs

By Jayant Mishra @ Wednesday, June 18, 2008 1:47 PM

Section - Outsourcing/BPO

Keane might take six rounds of interviews to hire someone, but it can have them escorted from the premises in ten minutes. Sounds absurd but it’s true. Keane India, a US based IT service provider, terminated 400 employees on Monday. The lighting fast termination procedure has send tremors across its centres in Noida, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Though Keane isn't keen to explain the reasons behind the job cuts, Economic Times reported a statement that came through a PR agency “the recent work force rationalization in our BPO and IT services business is related to further integration and aims to strengthen our operations our positions us for a stronger growth. Keane is committed to building a nimble and exceptionally high performing international workforce”.

It’s quite surprising that, even after six rounds of interviews, Keane could not make out whether the recruited staff were nimble or not, but the dismissal of 400 employees at one go will surely have people pointing fingers at Keane’s recruiting team.

No warning of the job cuts was given to the unlucky 400, which was not only a surprise to them, but also to college placement officials, who are also aghast. One ex-employee was quoted as saying: “they had at least six round of interviews on campus but the termination happened in ten minutes. They had all the formalities ready.” X