Outsourcing - BPO
Outsourcing Problem Analysis
As an HR professional, you have responsibilities in several broad
areas that have a significant impact on your company’s bottom
line, directly contributing to the corporate return on investment.
The outsourcing choices you make are critical decision points
that affect both your employer and the HR community at large.
We recognize that you want and need to make informed choices,
and we can help.
The following problem analysis explores emerging strategies in
human resources.
Increased workloads resulting from governmental requirements,
budgetary cutbacks, profitability margins and operational necessity
require that HR professionals do more with diminishing resources.
In approaching this challenge, we analyze a range of choices.
Depending on your company’s culture, you may consider any
or all of the following:
* working nights and weekends
* creating and hiring a new position
* outsourcing a function or large project
* directly contracting with an independent professional colleague:
Outsourced professional employee
Problem Analysis
Many times each day you reach a decision point and choose which
priorities get your time and attention. Accepting added accountability
in your HR department and thriving with your ever-growing workload
require detailed analysis of your decision points.
Working nights and weekends
Every HR professional worth his or her paycheck is pressed for
time. Workweeks ranging from 55 to 60 hours are commonplace. You’ve
determined that you’re already working smart and hard to
keep current with the business’s needs. Your human resource
career has transitioned from a hands-on tactical position to holding
down a strategic role in the HR department. As the competition
for capital intensifies, how will your decision to outsource translate
to your company’s bottom line?
Creating and hiring a new position
G & A cutbacks mean that there’s no budget for new hires
this year. The term hiring freeze has made a comeback after nearly
a decade in hibernation. You no longer fill vacancies as they
occur, and this trend may continue for the near future. In fact,
you quite possibly severed someone with whom you worked closely.
How will you provide greater results with less?
Outsourcing a function or large project
Speak to ten companies, and ten HR managers will define outsourcing
differently. Small- or medium-size firms frequently use single-source
outsourcing for operations such as payroll or benefits. Fortune
500 firms have moved toward outsourcing all transactional and
tactical practices. Seven-, eight- and nine-figure contracts in
the form of comprehensive solutions have increased dramatically
over recent years. Once set into motion, Fortune 500 outsourcing
agreements often have a shelf life of five or more years. The
definitions employers use to quantify successful outsourcing depend
on the goals and objectives outlined at the onset of each engagement—and
they vary widely. How will you determine if and when outsourcing
meets your needs?
Directly contracting with an independent professional colleague:
Outsourced professional employee
Today’s economy challenges HR professionals to demonstrate
their advocacy of responsible stewardship. Historically, the personnel
agency evolved as the American franchise economy grew from the
1950s. By the 1970s, franchise usage expanded—from food to
cars to personnel. The decade of the 1990s required the franchise
and boutique staffing agencies to invest heavily in technology
or sink in the mud.
The novel Ivanhoe characterized soldiers who offered their lances
to any king as free lances. Today’s e-commerce and growing
media technologies, wireless Internet with DSL, and effective
corporate Web sites with e-mail together provide the daily tools
used by the modern entrepreneur. A solution with both strategic
and visionary applications is to identify and formulate direct
relationships with independent HR professionals. How can you partner
and leverage these tools immediately?
With research, you can determine the outsourced professional
employee who is a solution in search of problems. A July 2003
survey by Consultive Source asked human resource professionals
to rank the importance of the following three vision & values
competencies held by HR vendors:
* MEASURABLE RESULTS — Delivery of solutions by the alignment
of HR mission, vision and strategy
* CONSULTIVE — Solving problems with hands-on industry
experience, creating a strategic alliance significantly stronger
than a typical vendor/supplier relationship
* HUMAN RESOURCE LEADERSHIP — The blending of business
savvy, leadership, facilitation/coaching, strategic perspective,
conceptual thinking, internal consulting and the tangible perspective
of human resources within the organization
The survey listed MEASURABLE RESULTS at the top, with 77 percent
of the vote. CONSULTIVE SKILLS and HUMAN RESOURCE LEADERSHIP tied
for second place.
Any freelance outsourced professional employee may prescribe
to this and should prioritize their skill set accordingly. Concerns
about the outsourced professional employee’s abilities, stability
and results can resolve themselves by taking a “test drive.”
Similar to your auto mechanic and electrician, you expect consistent
service from those you know and trust. The traits exhibited by
every outsourced professional employee must include high quality
service, fair prices and deadlines met as needed to name just
a few.
The right outsourced professional employee at a fair and competitive
rate will provide innovation in education, strategy, technical
resources and skills. Choosing to outsource and manage this partnership
and process successfully will enable you to protect corporate
capitol and shareholder value. Which technology applications or
transactional differences describe your vendors as a strategic
partner of choice?
John T. Mooney 2003 All Rights Reserved
About The Author
Focused exclusively on EMPLOYEE RELATIONS, HR COMMUNICATIONS
and RECRUITMENT PROJECTS contact John Mooney at (972) 355-7481
or email JMooney@ConsultiveSource.com or the company website www.ConsultiveSource.com.
I utilize extensive hands-on industry competencies to solve your
HR challenges. Supporting small, medium or large human resource
projects with 20 years of human resource and operating experience,
John Mooney has a results-oriented, focused approach to the human
resource needs.
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