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.

Outsourcing also creates jobs!

You and I have heard of the eternal complaint that outsourcing kills onshore job opportunities. But here is a bit of news that will be music to the ears of many pro-outsourcing quarters. West Corporation of Omaha is expanding operations to Wausau, where it will generate about 300 full-time jobs with a wage structure starting at $12 an hour.

West Corporation provides outsourced communications solutions to global clients, and the company has kick-started its new operations in Wausau by initiating a training program for the first batch of 130 employees. The following year and half will see other batches being added to the program, in readiness for the outsourcing operations.

According to Associated Press, West Corporation hopes to build its client base by establishing a business-to-business sales pitch with an office supply firm.

Sluggish mood could cost India its outsourcing advantage

The sooner Indian outsourcing vendors emerge from their complacency, the better for the market. Having carved out a sizeable portion of the global outsourcing market, Indian vendors seem to be sitting back on their success, making little or no effort to cover fresh territory. Take the field of HR outsourcing, for example. Out of an estimated $80 billion global HR outsourcing market, India accounts for a miniscule part of the pie.

The biggest fear of HR outsourcing companies in the West is data privacy and data security. However, the security aspect doesn't seem to figure high enough on the priority list of India's outsourcing service providers. As Business Standard reports, the lack of data privacy concerns has kept most of the HR outsourcing bigwigs away from India:

The biggest problem—and this is why the HR outsourcing industry in India is on the back foot—is the government’s and the industry’s failure to tackle issues like data security and data privacy. Most foreign companies insist that their outsourcing agreements contain detailed and precise contractual specifications regarding data privacy and protection. This is where Indian HR outsourcing companies face a major handicap.

Then, there is the other aspect of human resources—Indian salaries are rising at 14% per annum, and this could even out the positive incline that Indian vendors are enjoying at the moment. India's cost advantage might disappear in a few years' time.

Before that happens, Indian companies need to pull up their socks and tighten other business processes, such as the security concerns, so that they stay afloat—and swim—in the global outsourcing market.

Crunch in tech-savvy resource pool leads to aviation outsourcing

You might be surprised to hear this, but India, China, and Mexico produce more engineering graduates than the US. So you have a limited resource pool in the US to absorb all aspects in the aviation industry. In this scenario, aviation companies in the US cannot be blamed if they look toward other countries for subassembly help.

It is the age of partnerships, and the aviation industry is not lagging behind in this respect. A major criterion for this trend is the quintessential benefit of outsourcing—it reduces the cost of production and cuts out unnecessary chains in the production cycle

At the General Aviation Technology Conference and Exhibition at Century II sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers, a panel of leading executives in the industry confirmed to engineers that the time is ideal for more partnerships and outsourcing contracts. However, the panel is well aware of the downside of outsourcing:

The devil is always in the details.... Companies must have the digital technology needed to transfer large files. And there must be good communication among engineers in U.S. companies working with those in other places.

The worrying factor for educationalists and aviation industrialists in the US is that there is a perceptible drop in interest in the engineering disciple. The aviation industry can hope to keep engineering jobs within the US only if students get rid of this apathy toward the subject. If this doesn't happen, the specter of outsourcing is bound to cast its spell even darker and deeper in the future.

GrandForks Herald has more.

HR outsourcing: Building blocks

As I mentioned in an older post titled Where is HR Outsourcing headed? HR outsourcing comes third in the list of potentially high paybacks, after IT and the telecomm industry. However, many companies wrap up their HR functionalities as something that happens in the back office, and do not give enough attention to the infrastructure that essentially props up its employees. Over the years, this has bred neglect, leading to antiquated HR management systems. If you're interested in earning an HR management degree, consider California Coast University's MBA in HR management degree program.

Now, it is time for this mindset to change, because companies are suddenly waking up to the fact that their HR policies are not in step with the times, and a major overhaul is called for to keep pace with company acquisitions and mergers. A few companies have tried mending their HR management system on their own, but they soon discovered that it is like opening Pandora's Box; more you inquire into the state of HR policies, you keep unearthing more anomalies.

That's where outsourcing can step in. If you have a problem managing your HR and bringing the existing system up to scratch, why not let a third party worry about it? What comes with HR outsourcing is better management at a lower cost

An article in Morning Star names some big performers in HR outsourcing: Paychex, which provides payroll processing; AMN Healthcare, which looks after health-care staffing; Administaff, which provides all HR functions and caters to the small businesses; and Hewitt, a consultant firm for companies that need employee benefit programs. 

The outsourcing controversy rears its head in Malaysia

In almost every country, human rights are a major concern, and the guardians of civil rights are ever ready to take to task any violation of individual rights. Look at the outsourcing scenario in Malaysia, for instance. No sooner had the Malaysian government announced its policy of using outsourcing companies to recruit Bangladeshi workers, two human rights organizations—Malaysia-based Tenaganita and the Philippines-based Migrant Forum Asia—were up in arms against the statement.

Both these organizations believe that the Malaysian policy will institutionalize and legalize human trafficking and bonded labor, charges that could prove too hot for the Malaysian government to handle.

But it is not only the policy that is under attack. Both Tenaganita and Migrant Forum Asia have also made scathing remarks against the outsourcing companies, labeling them as arrogant and exploitative enterprises that hold the workers to unjust contracts and treat them as bonded labor. It remains to be seen if the Malaysian government can work its way through this opposition and arrive at a consensus—an unlikely result in the present scenario where both parties are at loggerheads.

For more information on the impasse, click here.

Human Resources Outsourcing Conference

Human Resource Outsourcing is no longer an alien word in the outsourcing industry. In an older post titled "HR Outsourcing Ensures Quality Service", I had written how HR outsourcing benefits the organization. Many top functions of Human Resources continue to be outsourced and is expected to increase further over the next few years. These functions include leave management, learning, payroll, recruiting, health & welfare and global mobility.

While some organizations have renewed their contracts, others are considering to take the plunge. They all are focused on enhanced capability. The HR Outsourcing Conference will be held on 19 September 2006 and 20 September 2006 at The Drake Hotel, Chicago, Illinois.

Xansa Gets 5-Year HR Outsourcing Deal

In the recent years, Xansa PLC, has emerged as one of the leading outsourcing and technology company. Xansa recent got the first multi-process HR outsourcing deal within the UK financial services sector. It signed a five-year contract with Lloyds TSB. The contract covers HR functions including administration, recruitment and existing helpdesks for training, advice and guidance. Xansa will work with Lloyds TSB in order to develop, host and support new recruitment and management information platforms.

HR Outsourcing Ensures Quality Service

Outsourcing of HR activities has become a trend in the world. For more than two decades now, there has been emphasis on the role of the HR function in the organizations. It is driven by the fact that HR departments in organizations are seen as the administration departments. They manage pay-roll administration, applicant tracking, training and other developmental work. Hence, HR becomes the most important part of any organization.

To improve the quality and enhance the performance of the organizations, most companies prefer outsourcing their HR services. The outsourcing relationship offers cost-savings, standardization of processes, increased speed and quality of service. Outsourcing of HR function has become an integrated business strategy for the organizations. However, its success depends on the senior management and HR professionals to identify the core HR processes and non-core processes that can be outsourced.

The upside and the downside of HR outsourcing

After IT and the BPO industry, HR outsourcing might well be the next big thing in outsourcing. Several top-rung companies—including Unilever, Cable & Wireless, BAE Systems, BT, and BBC—have already taken the outsourcing route for their HR services. In a couple of years, the HR outsourcing wave is expected to touch $75 billion. That's big money!

However, skeptics are beginning to raise an eyebrow or two at this growing trend. According to them, HR is a specialized area where an outsource service provider will not be able to understand the underlying dynamics; in the absence of an “internal re-engineering”, HR management is bound to lose its strategic edge.

Let's look at another downside: the danger of jobs drying out for existing HR employees is beginning to raise its ugly head. For instance, the Unilever move to outsource its HR function might leave its strong employee force of 3,300 executives high and dry. True, some of this force might be absorbed by outsourcing partner Accenture, but it has certainly led to a few faster heartbeats. As a recent article has it, the transformation to outsourcing will be very painful, but it can subsequently lead to insourcing—an even more painful process.

Expansion of Human Resources BPO in India

Convergys has increased BPO capacity in the Asia-Pacific region by either opening new service centers or expanding existing ones in high-tech locations like Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Bangalore, Dalian, and Singapore. Convergys has more than 150 clients globally.

With its highly skilled talent pool, Convergys has already earned a strong reputation for itself. With 16 offices and 17,500 employees in the region, Convergys provides a whole gamut of benefits such as learning and performance management, and staffing and payroll administration for clients from multiple industries.

Sunstar has more on the story.

Accenture's HR Outsourcing Contract

Accenture has selected ARINSO International for a new HR Outsourcing contract with Unilever, which is a multinational manufacturer of leading brands in foods, home care and personal care. ARINSO International is a provider of HR Technology Consulting & Outsourcing Services. As per the deal, ARINSO will provide payroll processing as part of a newly established HR Outsourcing agreement between Accenture and Unilever.

The agreement with Accenture is close to EUR 90 million and will be for a period of seven years. It will cover all the continents excluding the Americas. The agreement will establish Accenture as a Top 3 customer of ARINSO and the contract will generate important recurring revenue streams in the coming years. It is a major step forward for ARINSO in developing its HR Outsourcing activities. Online Recruitment Same Topic.

Currently, ARINSO provides Unilever with payroll services in the Netherlands and integration services for Peoplesoft. Under this new contract with Accenture, ARINSO will support HR services for approximately 63,000 active and 12,000 inactive employees across 30 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Outsourcing by Small Businesses

It has been noticed that IT functions are frequently being outsourced by small and medium organizations to third parties. There is no doubt that outsourcing offers access to resources that are not available or not affordable with small and medium businesses. The positive effects of outsourcing IT and HR administration are overlooked. Small and medium-sized firms are getting into the act of hiring professionals to manage important tasks.

The HR Outsourcing is seen as an emerging industry in most parts of the world. It has been predicted that it will grow to $2.5 billion in 2009 from $1.6 billion in 2004. Companies believe that by delegating their payroll and related functions to an outside service provider, they can eliminate all constraints associated with calculating payroll taxes, signing checks and preparing records of employment. In-house system also requires computer hardware, software updates and the ability to keep the pace with government legislation and tax remittances. In such a scenario, companies can see the value of outsourcing.

Outsourcing: A universal trend

When outsourcing started out as a business model for companies in the U.S., it became the alternative to high costs of operation in the U.S. and found economically viable partners in countries like India. Some years down the line, the practice of outsourcing work to save time and money is no longer a one-way-traffic, but has developed a cyclic pattern. U.S. countries outsource to India, India outsources to other countries, and so does China to other outsourcing service providers situated in other countries.

In the present scenario, the pros and cons of outsourcing are shared by several countries, and it is no longer a U.S.-centric model. When you turn to the news coming in from various countries, you will find that the work force in each of those countries faces the same worries and enjoys the same advantages that come with outsourcing work. Like it or not, outsourcing is a business model that is being adopted globally, and it is here to stay.

Outsourcing of Pharmaceutical Companies

According to a recent study, most pharmaceutical organizations are now shifting their IT-support functions to third-party vendors. This is the hottest trend in the outsourcing industry. Previously, only the IT sector and customer service industry were the part of outsourcing boom. However, the situation has changed now with the globalization of pharmaceutical companies.

According to Benchmarkreports, pharmaceutical marketing and sales organizations can be enabled or disabled by their IT-support services. About 50% of the respondents in pharmaceutical industries said that they outsource helpdesk operations. About 40% companies employ a hybrid model that maintains a balance between outsourced and internal operations. Global Services reports:

The study also finds that staffing cost per IT Full-time Equivalent (FTE) ranges widely from less than $10,000 to over $45,000. Level of outsourcing and number of FTEs are the main influencing factors for staffing cost.

The onset of quota system will hamper India's outsourcing growth story

The increase in quota based admissions into national institutes of repute will strongly hinder the quality of students passing out from these institutes thereby resulting in shifting of outsourcing requirements to countries like Brazil and China. The preference of caste rather than merit will severely mitigate the skill levels of the talent available to the outsourcing sector. Hindustan Times reports:

In the wake of the recent controversy surrounding the increase in reservation of seats in professional colleges and universities,the Chamber said it was but natural, that if half the students were given admissions without merit, the quality of students  passing out of these institutions would not match the global standard.

Human Resources Outsourced

The perpetration of technology and computers into almost every aspect of our day to day lives is one of the main reasons for the increase in the outsourcing of human resource functions. This, coupled with the fact that global economy is slowing down and the number of layoffs are increasing, has led research firm Gartner Dataquest to predict that the human resources outsourcing market will climb to $26.3 billion in 2007, in an increase of nearly $4 billion over a three-year period.

A 2004 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management has listed background checks, employee assistance programs, flexible spending account management, payroll, and administration of health and pension benefits as some of the most frequently outsourced functions. Nearly 300 human resource professionals surveyed were in accord when they listed reduction of costs, control of legal risks, access to vendor expertise, and the streamlining of human resources functions as major reasons for outsourcing human resources.

Qantas Workers may oppose outsourcing plans

Qantas is contemplating outsourcing while at the same time it's maintenance workers are deciding to go on strike to pursuade the management to relook at the outsourcing issue. If this action occurs, it will be a major setback for Qantas as it could leave some of it's aircraft out of action leading to inconveniences for it's passengers. ABC Online reports:

Earlier this month, Qantas made a commitment to keep its heavy maintenance work in Australia, by closing its repair base in Sydney and shifting the jobs to its base in Avalon near Melbourne.

Capita inks deal with the BBC

Capita Plc, the British outsourcing services company has signed a 10 year human resources services contract with the BBC worth 132 million pounds ($232 million). Capita will provide a gamut of HR services to the BBC and the broadcasting giant expects the deal to provide significant benefits in terms of reduction in cost. Reuters reports:

Capita said in a statement it would "deliver a full range of HR services to the BBC including recruitment, the administration of pay excluding pensions, some aspects of staff development, occupational health and other services".

Bank Associations Contemplate Strike Actions to Oppose Outsourcing

The All-India Banks Employees Association (AIBEA) and All-India Bank officers association (AIBOC) are considering a campaign to display their dis-agreement for outsourcing as the associations felt that outsourcing would work against the common people. The circular passed also stated the possibility of an all India strike towards the second half of May.
Sify India reports:

It said that if outsourcing were done, there would hardly be any work in the branches for employees and there would be redundancies and surplus.

US must focus on STEM to stem erosion of competitiveness

Global sourcing has brought the focus back on attracting more American students to study STEM, if the country wants to stem the erosion of its global competitiveness! Well, STEM stands for science, technology. engineering and math. According to experts America must at a minimum double the number of STEM graduates, from approximately 430,000 to 860,000 over the next 10 years, or risk losing ground to global competitors.

The lead in technology that America has enjoyed over the years is gradually giving way to a level playing field thanks to the huge number of STEM graduates that are being produced by countries such as China and India. As national barriers disappear and more and more companies adopt a global hiring policy, the need for America to have its own large pool of skilled workers becomes more and more important.

Read more: Globalization's Gloomy Guses must adapt

Lason India launches course to train BPO workers

Another new initiative has been launched to tackle the problem of shortage of trained manpower for BPO units in India. Lason India has now introduced at the postgraduate level a three semester course to provide hands-on experience to students and make them industry ready by the time they graduate. The course is being offered as an elective subject to postgraduates.

While the company has launched the initiative in India's Silicon Valley, Bangalore, a company spokesperson said the initiative will lead to introduction of such couses in more cities across India. The Hindu quoting Thomas Denomme, Director, Lason India reports:

There is a need for Indian professionals to be in the forefront so as to explore new avenues in implementing high standards in BPO services.

Hewitt Associates extends its Wings into Poland

Hewitt Associates expanded it's Poland operations by opening an HR outsourcing centre in Krakow.  The centre is poised to handle the burgeoning client base from Europe with a multi-lingual workforce. Consultant-News reports:

The company has operated an HR consulting office in Warsaw since 1996, which serves nearly 300 of Hewitt's global and European clients. Approximately 300 Hewitt associates will work at the Krakow centre, providing customer service support to Hewitt's HR BPO clients in Europe.

Philippine BPOs facing dearth of skilled workers

Now it is the turn of Philippines to feel the heat of the BPO boom! What I mean is now call and contact centers coming up there have begun to face a dearth of skilled workers. So much so that Philipino politicians have now started asking the Philippine government to withdraw the incentives that are in place for attracting foreign investment into call and contact centers. Instead the incentives should now be given to those firms which are giving training to Philippinos to become skilled at call center and contact center work. At present Philippine-based call and contact centers are the cheapest compared to those anywhere else in the world, but the big question is how long will they be able to hang on to this advantage?

Read more: Senator challenges govt to rethink incentives for BPO firms

Shift jobs out to create more jobs!

In this day and age of globalisation any sense of nationalism especially in matters business is always misguided and counter-productive. A recent survey of consumers in the US have come up with the finding that 65% of the respondents said that if they knew that a paticular company was using call centres based in India, Philippines or anywhere else outside the US, they would buy less or even totally stop buying from that company. It does not take an Einstein or the ability to master rocket science to realise what would happen if people really began to do that. US companies would lose their competitiveness and go bust, lay-offs will rise, corporate sector savings will fall, domestic investment would fall - on the whole there will be more unemplyment in the US. It seems to go against intuitive logic but the truth is that the more jobs shift out of the US, the more jobs can be created within the US. Just try to figure that out!

Read more:Is the shine off offshore outsourcing?

India unbeatable - Reasons why sceptics are wrong!

Doubting Thomases have raised two issues in recent times even as the latest strategic review of India's IT and ITeS sector by Nasscom, the country's largest IT and ITeS industry association has predicted that India is well on track to achieve IT and ITeS exports of $60 billion by 2010, and that it will continue to maintain its leadership in the global BPO market.

Rising wages, new challengers

The first issue is: with the demand for BPO/KPO out of India rising, the labour cost arbitrage that is now driving BPO/KPO business to India will narrow down, perhaps even disappear and India will begin to lose its dominance in the global BPO market. Incidentally, India now enjoys a whopping 44% share of this market. To prove their point people are citing the recent move by SAP AG to look outside India for its offshoring needs as it has claimed that labour costs have become too high in India. The second issue is the claim that China and other destinations are fast emerging as major challengers to India in the BPO market.

Mismatch is temporary

Both are really non-issues! Yes, in the very short term there is likely to be some mismatch between demand and supply for labour in India's BPO/KPO industry and that at the moment labour costs in India are moving northwards. But let me assure you that this is just a temporary phenomenon and will be overcome in the very near future. The reason for this is that the Indian government - both at the federal as well as the state levels - is very much aware of this problem and is, therefore, making concerted and conscious efforts to overcome this. Most states have already introduced and made compulsory some kind of IT education even at the primary school level. Most school going Indian kids can now operate a PC, can surf the Internet, play online and offline games and know the basics of standard and widely-used applications such as MS Word or Power Point or Excel. By the time these kids come out of school, all will be armed with basic IT skills.

Training, training, trained!

Second, government, industry and academia are working hand-in-hand to set up new IT training institutes, introducing new courses that will train people in skills required by industry or are fine-tuning existing training courses so that those trained have the skills needed by industry. Third, India being a poor country with a high level of unemployment, both students and their parents are very much aware of which sectors have the highest employment potential with the result that students inevitably rush to get trained in those skills that they think will help them get jobs easily once they pass out of school or college. So, any perceived shortage of skilled workers now is purely a temporary phenomenon. In the very near future, supply will outstrip demand and that is a certainty rather than the other way around!

The Chinese demographic dragon

Coming now to the second issue about other destinations posing a challenge to India. The only destination that can provide any real threat is China with its huge population. At present India leads all other destinations in terms of talent pool by a factor of 2.5 and that figure is surely going to go up in the days to come because of what I have said in the previous paragraph plus the fact that India's population growth rate is around 2% a year and it is going to remain that way for quite some time to come. Secondly, India's demographics are excellent with more than 50% of the population being aged below 25 years. China's demographics, on the other hand, are very much skewed in favour of the aged and despite its larger population, China is all set to see a shortage of people in the working age group in the years to come. You can't really afford to fool around with natural rates of growth and dictatorially impose a one-child per couple norm without having to face some kind of backlash somewhere down the line. If in the short run they have managed to push back the population growth rate, in the long run they are going to suffer for it!

The English edge!

Finally, India will continue to maintain its lead due to the English language factor. No other country can hope to catch up with India in terms of an English-speaking talent pool, not even China despite its larger population and despite its efforts to train people in English language skills. Some time back there were reports out of China that parents there were resorting to surgical interventions on the tongues of their children with a view to make these children better able to pronounce English words. I have no doubt that such moves will only cripple many innocent children but will not really solve the problem. India has too much of an historical edge to beat here. And as long as the United States and the UK continue to be leading global economies with most BPO/KPO jobs emanating from there, nobody can stop India's dominance. If the Chinese have any edge anywhere it is only with regard to the Japanese market. Japan so far has not taken to offshoring as much as the US or western Europe but things are changing. But trust me, India will be there too! So, all those envious of India's leadership position in offshoring will have to remain just that - envious - for a very long time to come. Good news for them will be hard to come by!

Read more: Business Process Outsourcing - Advantage India   

How to bag an LPO job

A hell of a lot of guys and gals out of India - legal eagles all - have reacted to our posting on legal process outsourcing and have asked about how they too can bite into the LPO pie. Well friends, there may be several ways of doing it but possibly the best, cost-less and hassle-free way is to first announce your presence as a willing service provider in the global market for legal process outsourcing. There are several good sites where you can get your profile listed so that your skills, experience and expertise get advertised in the global market.

Some of these sites are www.guru.com, www.offshorexperts.com, www.elance.com, and let me tell you there are many others. These and similar sites are market places and they help you to market your services in the global market. All you have to do is to go to these sites, upload your profile, check if any immediate jobs are available which match your profile and for which you can put in a bid to try get the contract and if no immediate jobs are available just sit back and wait. These sites will send notifications to your mailbox the moment some employer posts a project which requires a skill set that matches your profile.

If you just want to get listed so that the market knows that you are available for providing various kinds of legal services you can do so at outsourcing.org. Then there are the large and well-established  players already operating in the market such as thuriam.com and delhiprofessionals.com to name just two such players. You can visit these sites and get their contact ID  if you want to apply for a job with them. If you don't like any of the sites I have mentioned or feel that you should get registered at more such sites then just type out 'legal process outsourcing' in the search field of www.google.com and you will get the entire list of sites which could of help to you. Just a word of caution, however. If some guys are very upbeat about the prospects of more and more LPO jobs coming to India, many are also quite sceptical. Read the link below to get a contrary view.

Now there, I think I have given you all the dope you need for the moment. So, hey, what the hell you waiting for? Get cracking!

Read more: We've got a long way to go for legal offshoring

Labour has nothing to lose but its myopic spectacles!

When personal computers first began to trickle into India in the middle eighties, labour unions across the country were up in arms against what they called 'the black hand' of computerisation and automation. Even today, every now and then one comes across companies and organisations in India hit by labour trouble on the grounds of computerisation and automation, the main grievance being a perceived loss of jobs. Why should we let machines take over our livelihoods, is the refrain.

Today, twenty years down the line, it is ironic that most new jobs in India are being created in the IT and ITeS sectors. According to the Nasscom, the apex body of Indian IT and ITeS firms, the manpower requirement will be over 3.7 million in these sectors by 2012. This is over and above the manpower required for domestic IT and ITeS firms which the Nasscom estimates at about 1.5 million. In fact, the demand for human resources will shoot up so much that unless there is effective intervention now, there would be a shortfall of about half a million people in these sectors by 2009. So much for how computers would eat into jobs!

A similar thing is now happening in the West. With more and more Western companies looking east to outsource their operations, back office or otherwise, trade unions and politicians of various hues have begun to shout from the rooftops regading how jobs are going to be lost if outsourcing to India and other countries continues unabated. But again the facts tell an entirely different story. The US banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector alone has saved over $6 billion so far from outsourcing to India and other countries and these savings have been utilised to provide new employment to as many as 125,000 thus preventing layoffs. Add to this the 60,000 new jobs created for Indians in the US doing onshore work and how their spending in the US is adding to final consumption demand with its concomitant employment effects and you end up with a situation which is contradictory to say the least -- by outsourcing jobs, that is by shifting jobs from the US to low cost destinations, more jobs have been created in the US. It is somewhat like the Water of India trick that magicians out of India are wont to flaunt on global stages - the more water you throw out of the pitcher, the more full it becomes!

Perhaps labour everywhere is short-sighted and slow on the uptake. In this age of outsourcing they have nothing to lose but their myopic spectacles!

Read more: BPO India          

Accent no more on accent

After being at the receiving end of many jokes, Indian BPO companies at last seem to have realised that it does not pay to merely worry about training its call centre recruits to speak with an American, British or Australian accent. Thank god! They have now begun to realise that it would pay more to put the accent on problem solving skills of call centre recruits rather than on the accent with which they speak.

Initially most of these companies were under the belief that their American clients or rather  customes of their American clients would be pleased to be spoken to in their own accents. But research has shown that what customers really want is not some put-on accent but an effective solution to their problems. Now Indian BPO companies are putting their emphasis on training recruits to think on their feet and provide effective solutions when customers want them. The Economic Times reports:

More and more call centres are now shifting focus to getting the job done and queries answered effectively rather than getting the accent right.

More cos eyeing recruitment outsourcing

More and more American companies are looking at outsourcing their recruitment processes. A survey conducted by the Human Resources Outsourcing Association has found that while at present fewer than half of the respondents were currently outsourcing their recruitment processes, as much as 40 per cent of those not currently outsourcing their recruitments is thinking of doing so in the near future. hr.cch.com reports:

The benefits of outsourcing recruitment processes include lower cost of recruitment, faster time to hire, and enhanced recruiter quality, according to survey respondents who most commonly outsource the recruitment activities of background checks, screening and testing, sourcing, application tracking systems and technology, and name generation.

Indian KPO can KO China

Go through the Indian media any day and you are bound to come up with at least one article which talks about the competition between the two Asian giants - India and China -  when it comes to clinching outsourcing deals in the global market. There are those who see China as an emerging threat to India mainly because labour costs in India have begun to climb upwards while those in China are still perhaps the cheapest in the world. Their argument is based on the observation that with so much work going to India, Indian BPO companies have already begun to find it difficult to find trained human resources to man their call centre and othe low skill BPO operations.

Recent news out of India seem to confirm this view. Apparently some Indian companies are going so far as to recruit expatriates out of the United States and the UK to man their BPO operations and to overcome the shortage of English speaking staff willing to work for boring call centre jobs. As a result, initially it was the backpacker gang that was taking up low level, low wage call centre jobs in India -- moving out of the US or UK to grab jobs that had moved to India (we have already written about this here). This wasn't going to make much difference to the wage differential between India and the West.

But now there is a twist to the tale. Now even middle level and senior managers are keen on taking up Indian assignments. That means an upward pull on wages and salaries in India. After all, once you begin to recruit people at wage rates that they expect in their mother countries -- high labour cost countries such as the United States and the UK -- it won't be too long before Indian managers with similar skills start demanding similar pays. That would again mean an upward pull on salaries and wage rates even for low-skill call centre and similar BPO operations.

Yet, Indian companies are merrily setting up call centres, US and UK companies are making a beeline for India to set up their backoffice operations, the Indian central and state governments are going ga ga over the so called IT boom taking place and everyone seems gung ho in India about the bright prospects of the BPO industry. While one reason for this bullish attitude is, of course, the assessment that it will take at least 10 or more years for wage rates in India to outstrip Chinese wages by such a margin as to lead to a dry up of BPO operations, the other reason is the lead that India enjoys over China in having manpower skilled in the English language. Whatever may be behind the bullishness, one thing is certain. Quietly but steadily Indian companies are going for high-skill knowledge process outsourcing jobs more than ever. According to some, a second wave of outsourcing from the West is now underway and this time it is professionals -- engineers, biotechnologists, accountants, architects, radiologists and lawyers -- from all over India who are working long distance for Western companies. As long as Indian companies realise the importance of moving up the value chain when it comes to BPO and KPO, business is unlikely to go bust simply because India does enjoy a huge talent pool in these areas and wage rates for such workers will continue to be much lower than in the West for years to come. Moreover, even if the wage differential narrows down, the real benefit of outsourcing for Western companies will be the ability to garner the best talent in any field. By tapping the best in the business, Western companies can increase both productivity and efficiency which in turn will bring down costs and help them remain competitive.

Read more: Homo technologicus dug up in India       

Kolkata calling

Even a few years back companies would have thought twice about investing in Kolkata, capital of the world's only state ruled by a democratically elected communist government. But things are changing and in a big way. The city has begun to challenge Bangalore as the hottest IT destination in India. And, the BPO sector is leading the way. A new IT/ITeS company is opening shop in Kolkata almost every day. All the big names are already there -- IBM, Wipro, Cognizant, GE -- they are flocking there.

Now comes ICICI OneSource, the BPO arm of one of India's leading private banks, ICICI Bank. The company is planning to launch its BPO operations in the city by June, 2006. recruitment has started and plans are afoot to hire as many as 1000 professionals form the BPO segment. The company has already acquired 90,000 sq ft of space at the Technopolis IT facility in the city’s Salt Lake Electronic Complex (Saltlec). The Economic Times writes:

Though the official launch of its Kolkata BPO unit is unlikely to happen before June, ICICI OneSource has silently started hiring ITeS professionals in batches for entry-level jobs.

Beeline to India for BPO jobs

If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed will go to the mountain. So goes the saying.  With increasing globalisation something of the sort is happening in the global labour market. Till the other day, Indians, Chinese, other south east and far east Asians were making a beeline for the developed world in search of jobs. Today the tide has turned. People from the developed world are now flocking to countries such as India to find jobs. And you guessed right? Where else but in the BPO sector.  So what if those 'bally' Indians are grabbing all the new jobs? Just go over to India and grab those jobs yourself. Who is stopping you there. No doubt globalisation is creating a level playing field and perhaps, for the first time in the history of capitalism, the labour market is actually becoming a perfect market with national barriers disappearing and people moving freely between different labour markets. We all know what that means for the future -- wages will tend to become uniform across the world! Or, will they? What do you think?

Read more:Firangs discover India for BPO jobs

KO for KPO

There is always a downside to every boom. The KPO business is booming in India. India is emerging as a hot destination for offshore outsourcing. Look to India for all your offshore outsourcing deals. One has heard of all this a million times over. But there is a downside. Indian companies are finding it increasingly difficult to meet their manpower recruitment targets. Finding the right talent for the right job at the right price is no more easy. The same BPO story is being repeated here.  No one knows how things will ultimately pan out, but the crisis is real. The Economic Times writes:

To find the best talent is always a challenge. India has a huge talent pool. Demand for professionals is high. This high demand is not in direct proportion with the supply. Also, this work force is not readily available in the market. KPO industry has to set up internal training to convert raw recruits into productive resources

Ahoy! India ahead!

With 3 mega deals being signed in less than six months, Indian companies are surely emerging as the hot favourites for bagging mega deals in offshoring.

Talking about trends -- well, here is one for sure. It all started with the Dutch banking major ABN-Amro splittting a whopping $2.2 billion offshore outsourcing deal among three firms -- Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) from India and IBM. This was in September, 2005. HCL Technologies of India then did an encore. All by itself it bagged a $335 million outsourcing deal from the UK-based specialist electrical retailer DSG in January 2006 to provide system development, application delivery, infrastructure support and maintenance services. Now comes the news of Wipro Technologies of India bagging a $300 million deal out of the $15 billion IT outsourcing contact awarded by General Motors (GM) on Thursday. 

India is also emerging as a hot destination for many new areas for offshore outsourcing. Publishing and content is one such area. The outsourced publishing market in India is estimated to be about $3 billion. Then there are many new markets opening up. One such is the home tuition market. More and more Indians are teaching students in the UK and US over the Net. The size of the market is now estimated to be over $1 billion and growing at a whopping rate of more than 100% a year.

We already know that Indian legal eagles are taking a very sharp look at the $178 billion US legal services market. So are other knowledge outsourcing vendors out of India.

No wonder experts think that India will remain the country of choice for offshore activities owing to its unique blend of skills, tax breaks, manageable legal and fiscal environment and low labor costs. As a result, revenues from offshored activities are forecast to generate more than $17 billion for Indian companies in 2006 alone.

But where is all this leading to? If this trend continues as it surely will for sometime to come at least, what will happen? With so much demand for workers in the outsourced sectors will not wages and salaries tend to move northwards? Will not the cost differences between hiring developed country workers and their Indian counterparts get gradually wiped out? Perhaps, the opportunity to tap the best talent available rather than just lower costs will be a more permanent driving force behind the offshore boom.

Read more:BPOs shell out more to retain staff       

Protest likely over outsourcing at Irish Ferries

Outsourcing at Irish Ferries has run into a controversy, with private sector unions, representing about 4,00,000 workers, planning to register a day of protest. The reaction of the Labour Relations Commission is awaited by both sides involved in teh controversy. Ireland On-Line reports:

Meanwhile, Labour wants the Government to support its private members' Bill to stop, what it calls, 'rogue employers' from using flags of convenience.

Indian IT and BPO service provider Hexaware gears up to meet HR outsourcing demand

Market research analysts Gartner and Forrester Research indicate that HR outsourcing is increasing. HRO deals are mainly seen in the market for horizontal business process outsourcing (BPO) services, and increasing customer demand and increased sophistication of HRO services have contributed to the growth of this brand of outsourcing.

According to Gartner, 85 percent of companies based in the US will opt to outsource at least one component of their HR requirements within a year's time. Outsourcing service providers are already gearing up to meet this demand. For example, the Indian IT and BPO service provider Hexaware is preparing itself to absorb the demand in the sectors of maintenance services, hosting, and outsourced application management and BPO services.

The client list of Hexaware already includes MNCs, and the company is offering its expertise in global payroll solutions and HR portal solutions. Hexaware has recently met with success in this service sector, winning a contract for payroll outsourcing from India’s third largest private bank.

The company also offers a range of other services in areas of application services, enterprise solutions, product services, and testing services. It supports the business processes of industries such as banking and finance, insurance, transportation and hospitality, and healthcare.

In the banking services, Hexaware offers domain solutions on core banking and leasing and securities, product solutions in proprietary products and packaged products, and technology solutions in application development and management services.

Everest Group expands HRO service

The Everest Group, which provides strategic advisory services that help companies worldwide harness the power of outsourcing, has assembled an impressive consulting team of HR outsourcing experts in its drive to expand its HR outsourcing specialty service. Business Wire reports:

Three HR business process outsourcing experts - Marc Pramuk, Scott McNerney and Dwayne Fowler - recently joined Everest Group from Convergys, EquaTerra and Hewitt Associates, respectively, as HRO Specialists, augmenting the firm's high-powered, highly collaborative HRO consulting team.

More Indians with ANZ

1000 more Indian employees will join the ANZ bank as a part of its outsourcing plans in the next 18 months. According to the spokesperson Paul Edwards, this addition to the existing 700 software development staff in India is a strategy to cut costs.

The union, however, feels that outsourcing technical jobs means losing highly skilled workers from Australia. Paul Schroder from the Finance Sector Union opined that the country would be putting itself to disadvantage if they wanted to turn themselves into the financial hub. ABC reports:

The union says the Federal Government needs to step in and work with the banks to find a way to keep skilled technical jobs in Australia.

Protest likely over outsourcing at Irish Ferries

Outsourcing at Irish Ferries has run into a controversy, with private sector unions, representing about 4,00,000 workers, planning to register a day of protest. The reaction of the Labour Relations Commission is awaited by both sides involved in teh controversy. Ireland On-Line reports:

Meanwhile, Labour wants the Government to support its private members' Bill to stop, what it calls, 'rogue employers' from using flags of convenience.

Millbrae police in extended contract with the sheriff’s department

The City Council has approved an eight-month extension of the outsourcing contract between the Millbrae police and the county sheriff’s department. Under the terms of the contract, the sheriff’s department provides three deputies to Millbrae. San Francisco Examiner reports:

The council also approved a maximum contractual increase from $95,001 to $195,000, an amount already covered in the police department’s budget.

IT outsourcing in Bangalore: Facing the challenge

Ever since the boom in the outsourcing industry in India, the southern city of Bangalore in the state of Karnataka has enjoyed a pristine position. Backed with the then state government machinery, Bangalore was able to grow as a top IT destination for large companies, including industry heavyweights like Intel and Motorola. State subsidies and cheap land contributed to the growth of the outsourcing sector in Bangalore.

However, the situation is now changing. While land is at a premium, state subsidies have also declined. Coupled with this setback is the rising challenge of other Indian cities that are making all efforts to attract investment in the technology sector. The challenge is not limited to the larger cities, but also extends to small towns such as Coimbatore and Jaipur. Coimbatore has drawn Cognizant Technology, while Genpact and Progeon have already established base in Jaipur. Even in the proximity of Bangalore, Hyderabad is attracting investments from technology companies. Wipro has recently reached an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government to buy 100 acres of land in Hyderabad.

The recently held BangaloreIT.in conference has also brought another facet to Bangalore's growing problem: NR Narayana Murthy, chairman of Infosys Technologies, and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda were involved in a debate over resource division between the IT and agricultural sectors. It is likely that Deve Gowda, whose party holds coalition power in the state, will incline towards agriculture rather than the development of IT resources.
The shift from Bangalore to other Indian cities is already being felt by Swiss Adecco, the world's largest staffing group. According to the chairman of its Indian arm, at least three investors have selected cities other than Bangalore in the last quarter alone.

It now remains to be seen if the Karnataka government and the IT sector see eye-to-eye, and whether Bangalore is able to reestablish itself as the leading destination in India for IT outsourcing.

Outsourcing in Russia: A growing phenomenon

Outsourcing, which has become a global phenomenon with more countries opting to delegate their non-core functions to an outside company, is yet to catch on in Russia. The labor force in Russia is circumspect about outsourcing and generally believes that jobs in outsourced projects are temporary. This has made it difficult for recruiters to attract enough skilled labor for outsourced projects.

Recruiters are trying to convince workers that the working conditions for outsourcing staff are the same as other normal employees. In the case of Motorola, the company transfers workers to a permanent position on its company books as soon as there is any opening. The St. Petersburg Times reports:

Unclear labor books or work records that list a frequent change of employer can put a potential candidate at risk of being seen as unstable. Meanwhile, the compensation packages of outsourcing staff sometimes lacks medical insurance, among other perks added to the wage.   

Employees party to the success of outsourced projects

In awarding an outsourcing contract to a service provider, it is important for a company to consider how outsourcing will be accepted by its own employees. The National Outsourcing Association (NOA) has indicated that people issues are pivotal in outsourcing business processes. A recent report by research analyst firm Gartner has revealed that half of the IT projects outsourced today will either fail or close prematurely by 2008.

One of the reasons for this forecast is the ignoring of issues related to people; the success or failure of outsourcing depends on the way the move is taken by the employees. It is also important to keep the employees in the loop of things, so that there is no room for rumors and apprehension. An article published on vnunet.com provides case studies to show the importance of keeping executives informed about outsourcing deals. Vnunet reports:

According to Forrester Research, the successful integration of IT employees requires training and education sessions, where the outsourcer can present career and transition plans. Typical questions that need to be asked include: Is there a budget to support the process? Are there dedicated people to manage the incoming employees? And is there a process for evaluating new employee skills and planning education requirements?

Jobcentre employment services may be outsourced to the voluntary and private sector

The Ministry of Work has declared that most of the Jobcentre network employment services could be outsourced to the private sector. The network is comprised of 650 offices, and only benefits, managing contracts and eligibility decisions are going to remain with the offices.

The outsourcing proposals are being discussed by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organizations and the Employment Related Services Association with David Blunkett, work and pensions secretary. Both these organizations are making presentations with evidence of from Australia that has reported a 40 percent cost reduction after outsourcing job services. Personneltoday.com reports:

Hodge said the private and voluntary sectors appeared to offer more flexibility and a more personalised service to claimants. But last month Blunkett ruled out complete privatisation of the Jobcentre network amid reservations about whether the private sector could exercise authority against benefit claimants.