Genpact: Topping manager salaries
By Juan Dela Cruz

Team managers at Genpact Philippines face a glass-ceiling for the past few months especially those who already get the top rates of their levels. Although 1st level managers are provided with perks like exclusive assistants to handle 1 or more teams of agents and generous 6-sigma trainings on a regular basis, there is heart burn about current salary restrictions.

Like in many BPO’s, team managers don’t work for the same amount of money for equal amount of responsibilities. Genpact Philippines, like most companies, actively discourages salary disclosures between colleagues to avoid comparison and envy. Known only by a few managers, Genpact imposes a strict salary ceiling for 1st level managers at 50,000 pesos a month which is virtually the same figure in Indian Rupees at the current exchange rate. Rupees and Pesos have been on par for many months.

A few top-shelf Genpact 1st level managers, like the one who I spoke with recently, have been facing a dilemma for more than a year now because no matter how much they try to improve their score cards, 50,000/month is the max they are going to get as front line managers across all lines of businesses. To top it off, most of them would not even get bonuses for excellent performance if such provisions are not in the contract terms.

A double whammy situation they experience is that even if they try to look for jobs elsewhere, competition among managers in the job market is fierce. Recession or not, hardly any other company in the Philippines would hire a first level manager for over 50,000 where the industry benchmark for them is pegged at 32,000 and at a max of 40,000.

According to a HR manager who has left Genpact, it came to his attention that there have been cases where call center clients have absorbed salary excesses beyond 50,000 for Genpact. He tells me clients will try to work out an arrangement with Genpact to accommodate excellent candidates by paying Genpact the excess and pass it on to the team manager’s salary to appear as guaranteed incentive bonuses every month. He stresses however, this does not apply to everybody and this set-up is only incumbent as long as the client stays with Genpact. He says the best of them are making do with what they have been getting for the past year or so and some since they have started with Genpact.

Genpact is the No. 1 BPO in India.

(Email me at tips and news at 1delacruise at gmail dot com)