EXL Services:  Sacks AVP And Manager, Operations
By Gauri Shankar

Hemanshu Sharma *, AVP-Operations, EXL Services Ltd, was terminated with immediate effect. So was Arvind Seth*, Manager- Operations, in the same BPO. Offense??? Stealing the company’s confidential Data. Workplace ethics, by and large, flows down from top management to lower levels of management. It is very upsetting that an act like this occurred at top-management level. This certainly question marks the credibility of the organization. Such an act is absolutely unacceptable. Weren’t they aware of this fact? Well, yes, they were. So, what prompted these two gentlemen to an inexcusable violation like this? Was it money?

No, surprisingly, it was convenience. According to the office Goss, Hemanshu Sharma and Arvind Seth had worked in the organization for quite a long time. Both of them were diligent at their work and were known to be dependable. However, as we all have some hidden desires, so did the duo. There was an entrepreneurial urge that subsisted within both of them. They decided to open up a BPO company of their own. Since both had enough experience and high-end skills to carry out operations and look into the various aspects of a BPO set-up very well, they were very sure that their very own newly formed BPO would be a huge success. The only thing, they did not have was time. Time to venture into the market and pitch-in new clients. Time to do a search analysis. Time to crack a deal. So, the only easy option was, to pull out clients from the organization they were working in. Definitely, to them, this was quite a suitable deal, as they already knew the clients, and, to cap it up, they also knew the solutions to the client’s needs. But, sometimes, things don’t happen as planned.

And we all agree that there is no goss without truth, so whether it was Data fudging or Data theft, Mr. Sharma and Mr. Seth got their due, although it was not as they expected. However, every cloud has a silver lining. Their termination made the organization more strict about their Data-Protection policies. Such a breach was a rude awakening for the organization. And, EXL would definitely go a mile extra when it comes to ensuring the client’s confidentiality. Organizations hold and exchange massive amounts of sensitive data relating to their customers, products, suppliers, and clients .BPO industry adopts a zero-tolerance policy towards such violations and adheres to strict compliance regulations. Most companies have their own specific standards but there is no industry-wide framework. It is time for the organizations get their act together to ensure better results in terms of profits, revenues and of course, goodwill.

(*Techgoss stands by all the facts, but has changed the names.   EXL has not taken up the opportunity to confirm or deny the story)