By Sylvia Carr, 12 January 2005 15:30
NEWS Staff fear for their jobs when their employers look to outsource work but the process could be beneficial for their careers, according to recent research from IT consultancy LogicaCMG.
Over 80 per cent of employees surveyed in Europe said they've had concerns - including worries about job security - when their employers considered outsourcing.
Yet seven out of 10 admitted after the outsourcing went into effect, they were more satisfied in their new positions than before; the same number agreed the change revitalised their career. Nearly half also said they view outsourcing as an opportunity to take on a more specialised role than they had previously undertaken.
When it comes to seeing as outsourcing as an career opportunity, though, UK respondents are the most pessimistic of the lot with one-sixth saying they saw the change as a chance to move into new industries. This compares with a third in Germany and the Netherlands and one-fifth in France.
UK employees are also more likely than the overall group to consider moving jobs if the transition to outsourcing is poorly handled, with over a third saying they'd seriously contemplate such a move.
The best ways for employers to deal with staff as they outsource work, according to LogicaCMG, are to talk to staff about why the company is making the change early in the process and to outline benefits to individuals as well at to the company as a whole. Management should also work closely with work councils, allow employees to give feedback and do their best to make present workers feel part of the new team.
The research is based on interviews with 200 individuals in the UK, Netherlands, France and Germany who have employers that have outsourced positions.
Comments
There are 6 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
The danger is that the outsourced company and staff get divested to a wholly owned susidiary, which is then allowed to go bust, leaving employees without a job and being owed pay. Parent company is back in business 24 hrs later with a different subsidiary, offering the employees their jobs back at vastly reduced pay!
Employers need to be careful, to whom they outsource!
2. Karen Challinor
It's funny how everyone except the senior management can be outsourced
3. Kevin Greenwood
What a brilliant yet simple comment. Thank you Karen Challinor.
Ah, capitalism. The rich get richer buy screwing the not-rich, who allow themselves to be abused for a small to medium salary that they use to buy stimulants and nice shiney new things to make their miserable insignificant lives seem worthwhile.
Isn't it good that 95% of the population are idiots.
Have a nice day, I always do.
4. Sandro Del Re
Karen, I've a couple of your comments and they are right on, as we say here in the colonies. I guess anything under senior managmeent is simply a commodity.
5. anonymous
Whilst our premier and other business people (good comment Karen!) believe it's good for business (their business), the shopfloor staff are the ones that suffer. And what management seem to fail to comprehend time after time, is that their lives are totally changed because of it. Yes it allows people to develop into new areas and learn new skills, however, i'm not convinced it's good for the UK's economy as there are now hundreds of thousands of IT contractors and employees out of work therefore not spending. What outsourcing has created for people i know, is anger towards our own country, forcing them to move out of the UK as it's clear our own government doesn't care about it's own citizens.
6. Matt
I have over 15 years experience in the IT industry - and what I have seen overseas as the result of so called outsourcing - it is BAD NEWS especially for the IT professionals it impacts upon - Senior Management do not seem to understand the difference between COST CUTTING & implementing COST EFFICIENCIES. As in any professional Services Organisation - what customers value the most is hard to quantify from a Bean Counters Perspective - so therefore gets ignored by Senior Management - whi in reality care very little for the actual worker.