Outsourcing Times

Online College Degrees Becoming More Prevalent in HR Marketplace

Hiring an outsourcing or HR manager is rarely an easy task. One of the first qualifications that you're bound to look at is education. We all know that Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, and the like are consistently ranked atop the US News and World Report's America's Best Colleges. But with the job market the way it is, online degree-granting institutions are becoming more prevalent. The problem is: which are the top online colleges?

The Online Education Database has come to the rescue by publishing their new 2007 Online College Rankings to help sort out the mystery of who's number 1 in the online degree world. And who is number 1? Well, none other than Grand Canyon University.

Know Your World: India

By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

Let’s play a game to check your GK. How many of these words make sense to you: Holi, Eid, Bandh, Ambedkar jayanthi, Ugadi? If you are a regular American with not much connection with the outside world, you probably wouldn’t know what most of these terms meant. Well, maybe we’d give you the benefit of doubt and say you know what Eid means.

All these words are associated with India, the India you deal with on a daily basis. Names of festivals, important dates and a general strike as was experienced in Bangalore recently. (Cauvery water dispute, anybody?) Most organizations don’t seem to have an idea about the holiday system within which their Indian counterparts operate.

This attitude doesn’t pertain to India alone. How many of you know about the Philippines, China, Israel or even Russia. Very few. Beginning today, let’s examine some of the important things you need to know about the various countries you deal with.

Getting back to Indian holidays, most people don’t understand the need to exert themselves on this aspect. If you don’t mind losing productive person-hours and reduced employee satisfaction and loyalty, then go ahead and bask in your ignorance.

What most people don’t realize is that you can work around such situations and even use these holidays as a relationship-building and motivational exercise for the Indian teams. So, how do you ensure that you don’t miss this opportunity? A few tips:

• Realize that the country has an overwhelming number of holidays with each state having a different set of holidays. Try to learn the specific holidays of the company and state you deal with.
• Create an Indian holiday calendar and a plan of action for unplanned ad hoc holidays. This will allow you to recalibrate work schedules and avoid losing productive work hours.
• Understand the meaning, and observances of the various holidays. You can ask your Indian colleagues for more information. And don’t forget to greet your Indian colleagues on these occasions. Such gestures are highly appreciated.

Know Your World: India

Let’s play a game to check your GK. How many of these words make sense to you: Holi, Eid, Bandh, Ambedkar jayanthi, Ugadi? If you are a regular American with not much connection with the outside world, you probably wouldn’t know what most of these terms meant. Well, maybe we’d give you the benefit of doubt and say you know what Eid means.

All these words are associated with India, the India you deal with on a daily basis. Names of festivals, important dates and a general strike as was experienced in Bangalore recently. (Cauvery water dispute, anybody?) Most organizations don’t seem to have an idea about the holiday system within which their Indian counterparts operate.

This attitude doesn’t pertain to India alone. How many of you know about the Philippines, China, Israel or even Russia. Very few. Beginning today, let’s examine some of the important things you need to know about the various countries you deal with.

Getting back to Indian holidays, most people don’t understand the need to exert themselves on this aspect. If you don’t mind losing productive person-hours and reduced employee satisfaction and loyalty, then go ahead and bask in your ignorance.

What most people don’t realize is that you can work around such situations and even use these holidays as a relationship-building and motivational exercise for the Indian teams. So, how do you ensure that you don’t miss this opportunity? A few tips:

• Realize that the country has an overwhelming number of holidays with each state having a different set of holidays. Try to learn the specific holidays of the company and state you deal with.
• Create an Indian holiday calendar and a plan of action for unplanned ad hoc holidays. This will allow you to recalibrate work schedules and avoid losing productive work hours.
• Understand the meaning, and observances of the various holidays. You can ask your Indian colleagues for more information. And don’t forget to greet your Indian colleagues on these occasions. Such gestures are highly appreciated.

Failed Outsourcing Deal? Blame The People

This is something most of us know and yet it took a global outsourcing survey by KPMG LLC for us to believe that outsourcing is a people business. The survey proves that successful outsourcing isn't about tight contracts and meeting service-level agreements -- it is strictly a people business and is based on relationships between provider and customer.

Overall, some 60% of respondents claimed that problems with their outsourcing provider are almost always people-related. Head of KPMG's IT advisory, Egidio Zarella, said this is because sourcing arrangements are not managed correctly; 79% of survey respondents did not even know the cost of selecting an outsourcing provider.

Want to know more about this survey? Read on

Outsourcing For Newborns

By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

Now this one takes the cake. Honestly, I’ve heard of all kinds of outsourcing but expecting parents outsourcing the work of organizing every detail of their pregnancy is … well, a bit too much for me to digest. Well, it could be a sign of the times – people today are busier than ever before. So what does a workingwoman do when she’s expecting?

This means you don’t have to wade through books or check out the latest products for junior. For a steep fee of $7100, you can get everything organized from sourcing the best baby carrier to creating the baby's bedroom and arranging parent confidence classes. And once the baby arrives, you are assured of the best maternity nurse, a nannies shortlist, advise on feeding patterns and help with establishing routine.

Indian Outsourcing Firms Face Chinese And European Challenges

Various problems with the Indian outsourcing industry are now forcing U.K. and European companies to look elsewhere for their offshore provision. The problems that have been cited include big wage rises, skills shortages, and incidents around data security. Enterprisenetworksandservers.com reports:

The way in which business is done in the West is different to India, which again is different to China, and so on. Only when an offshore location can demonstrate that it understands the methods and meanings of its customers will it be able to deliver on requirements. Location suitability is also another important issue - Hong Kong and mainland China are approximately 12 hours flying time away from the U.K., and further for East Coast America, and around eight hours flying time from East Coast Australia.

Read more: Another Worry for Indian Outsourcing Companies

Outsourcing Is Beneficial, Says IDC Study

--By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

Outsourcing has helped may industries reduce costs and increase profits. But businesses have as yet been unable to properly convey the real-time benefits of outsourcing. This has led to increased sensitivity to the offshoring of jobs, which have seemingly led to loss of employment opportunities in the local economic system. I say seemingly because such is not the case. Agreed, for a short while it may seem that people are losing their jobs to outsourcing, but in the long run, as profits rise, the economy improves and with that new jobs are created.

Agreed, there may be cases of abuse and poor management. But the global delivery mode is a reality of business and so is the fact that this mode delivers significant benefits. And I’m not the only one saying so. In a recent study, 'Does Business Process Outsourcing Reduce IT Jobs in Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan)?’ IDC answers the question of whether or not BPOs reduce jobs locally.

Obviously, not everyone is going to get immediate and direct benefits from outsourcing. But if you look back in history, every time there’s been a change in the way industries function, there’s been an upheaval – one that cost many jobs. In the long run however, things did turn out for the better. What needs to be done is find alternative employment opportunities for the people who are being displaced by this trend. At present, outsourcing operations will force high-cost countries to look at new ways of operating in a more efficient manner so they can compete at a global level. And as the economy gets stronger, more jobs will be created.

One also needs to remember that while outsourcing is happening on a large scale, only services like finance, HR, or IT are being offshored. Core areas such as corporate strategies, sales, governance, and policies still need to be retained in-house.

Epic Games goes on the outsourcing hunt

Outsourcing in the gaming industry has already been the subject of a couple of our earlier posts. While one of the posts stressed the emergence of India as a leading destination for gaming outsourcing, the other post brought out the fiscal benefits of outsourcing in this sector.

The outsourcing phenomenon is also catching up with Epic Games, which has come up with an outsourcing division based in Shanghai to build assets for its games and also to identify and pursue third-party developers. The justification for the move is the advantage of utilizing cheaper labor for making assets.

Click here for more information.

AT&T boosts U.S. workers

I mentioned in an older post about the sustained outsourcing phenomenon among telecom companies. The benefits of outsourcing in this sector are there for all to see, and it is little wonder that telecom players are riding high on the outsourcing wave.

However, in a significant reversal of its earlier decision, telecom giant AT&T has decided to bring about 2,000 unionized customer service jobs back to the U.S. Thus, contrary to the popular belief that offshoring is inevitable and a one-way ticket, the AT&T move gives an added credence to the workforce in the U.S.

Quite obviously, the build up of domestic pressure led to the reversal of its outsourcing policy. The major chunk of the pressure came from the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which was particularly aggressive about pushing for U.S. jobs.

However, CWA doesn’t stop its campaign only at the offshore factor. As Line56 reports:

AT&T had promised that CWAers would have opportunity and access to the jobs of the future, but union members are pointing out that much of this work—running video hubs, installing and maintaining Internet routers and hubs and other jobs—is being performed by managers and contractors.

Source your HR outsourcing needs—on the Internet!

We all know that the Internet is a potentially a "high-gain, low-risk" marketing tool. Any company that launches its official website gets unlimited exposure, and has the best chance of showcasing its wares.

The investment is limited and, in most cases, a one-time cost. No wonder, the Internet is increasingly being used as an advertisement forum on the global scale. In this scenario, you can hardly expect the outsourcing vendors to lag behind.

South Florida-based HR consulting firm Employers Rx LLC has launched a website where potential clients can identify and process their HR outsourcing requirements. It's akin to a one-stop shop, where visitors can compare services in key areas, and then request quotes from selected companies that offer the desired solution.

Here's what the company has to say about the venture:

Employers Rx LLC is a national HR Outsourcing consulting firm. Our focus is helping businesses find the right HR outsourcing solution for their needs. We assist companies with 5 to 500 employees to be more profitable by outsourcing their non-productive employee management functions, saving business owners time and money.