Scope for Improvement

A marked improvement in the employee scorecard while maintaining its HR

performance helped EXL considerably: a jump of five places to #9 on the employee

front, and maintaining status quo at #6 overall.

Employees have rated the company high on parameters like work culture, salary

structure and infrastructure. This has been a result of focused efforts directed

toward key areas like role clarity, transparency and continuous communication

and work satisfaction. However, satisfaction runs low when it comes to the

appraisal system, job content, and training. The company is working on revamping

its performance management system and automating the same. This will help in

addressing appraisal-related grievances.

As part of the revamping exercise, the company is identifying unique job

areas and mapping the competencies and proficiency required. This will help them

deliver better and understand how to progress in their fields. It will also help

in identifying gap areas and working on them. With this initiative the company

is also aiming to make the assessment process more transparent and systematic.

EXL Service

Rank - 5

Amitabh Hajela, VP and global head, HR

Among the biggest HR challenges for EXL today is attrition. Despite a fall in

attrition rate (from 38.2% in 07 to 29% in Q2 ending June 2008) it continues to

be a concern area. To address this the company has an initiative called

Retention Champion, wherein it recognizes employees/teams that have been able

to hold attrition below the threshold level. It also documents best practices

adopted by successful teams and implements them across the organization. Since

attrition is also an issue with clients, EXL has taken up initiatives toward

sensitizing them about it. This has resulted in some unique outcomes like some

clients recognizing Indian holidays and being more flexible in work timings that

support their business. This has helped in bringing down the attrition rate to

some extent..

Among the other challenge areas for EXL is finding new markets for hiring

talent, and internal leadership development.