EXCLUSIVE: Genpact puts over 200 employees in India ‘on the bench’ – hoping to find them a role

• Genpact is set to put hundreds of employees in India on the bench, a source told Business Insider.
• Genpact selected these employees according to their performance over the last year.
• In the next three months, the company will hope to find new projects for them. If it fails to do so, they will be put on notice period and asked to transition to other companies.

India’s second largest BPO Genpact is known to be putting over 200 employees on the bench due to the effect of Covid-19 on their business, a source told Business Insider.

Employees who are ‘on the bench’ will not be part of any active projects. For the next three months, the company will hope to find new projects for them. If it fails to do so, they will be put on notice period and asked to transition to other companies.

The source told Business Insider that US-headquartered Genpact has selected these employees according to their performance last year.

The business process outsourcing company already cancelled contracts with third party companies to provide those jobs to these benched employees.

“The company is also considering bringing up new services that will be in demand during the coronavirus lockdown and after, and that will create jobs for the employees,” the source told Business Insider about the restructuring exercise.

Meanwhile, the senior management team is taking a fixed 25% pay cut as a cost cutting measure.

An email sent to Genpact did not elicit any response until the time of publication. The article will be updated as when the responses are received.

In March, Genpact employees had complained that the company did not allow them to work from home. In fact, they were asked to come to work or have their leaves deducted, reported Quartz.

With the coronavirus lockdown, stock markets across the world have been impacted. In a press conference on Friday, the Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das said the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic could be worse than that during the Great Depression.

Companies like Wipro, TCS, have already stopped appraisals and promotions and freezed hiring in India.

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