Related Links

Featured Links





Recommended Products



 

 
Featured Articles

Delegate or Drown
Why waste your precious time working on tasks, which are definitely not your forte when you can delegate or invest your money on a product or service which will free up your time? You can then focus on the more important areas in your work and your life. ...

Online Post Office Helps Small Businesses
When the internet came into popular usage many predicted that postal service would become under used as people relied less on paper documents and more on email. What really happened is that businesses popped up all over the internet (Amazon, Toys'r'us) ...

Personal Training: 6 Secrets of Award Winning Customer Service
Would you believe that your ability to provide quality customer service to your clients is at least as important as your ability to get them results from their training program? Did you even know that customer service was going to be part of your business ...


Google
Adsense Websites

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






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.





News


PR Web (press release)

UPDATE 1-Fed's Kroszner-small business credit access shrank
Reuters - 11 hours ago
... businesses have tightened substantially since last April," Kroszner said in prepared testimony to the House of Representatives Small Business Committee. ...
UPDATE: US Officials: Econ Woes Big Hurdle For Small Business EasyBourse.com
Treasury Turns Attention to Credit Needs of Small Businesses Insurance Journal
$1.6 Trillion in Bailout Funds Fail to Find Their Way to Small ... PR Web (press release)
AFP - Reuters
all 46 news articles


Boston Globe (registration)

Kerry, Snowe, Schumer Push Sec. Paulson to Purchase Small Business ...
MarketWatch - 10 hours ago
John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Ranking Member Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Charles Schumer, a senior ...
Is TARP Really a TRAP? BusinessWeek
Is TARP Really a TRAP but is Scott Malkinson really Scott Malkinson? thestockmasters
all 252 news articles


Wall Street Journal Blogs

Huntington Bank Ranks as No. 1 SBA 7(a) Lender in Ohio, Indiana ...
MarketWatch - 12 hours ago
The bank also improved its national standing as an SBA small business lender, moving up in rank for both total loan amounts and number of loans provided to ...
SBA steps aimed to fuel small-business lending Finance and Commerce
Small business loans dwindle The Tennessean
Allegan, Barry country residents hit by flood eligible for loans MLive.com
NJBIZ - BloggingStocks
all 271 news articles


Daily Mail

Brown steps up pressure on banks to increase small-business lending
guardian.co.uk, UK - Nov 19, 2008
The business and enterprise department already has a small firms loans scheme in which 75% of the loan is guaranteed by government. ...
Brown v Cameron: tax and business Channel 4 News
Brown hints at more steps to get credit flowing The Associated Press
Brown hints at pre-Budget goodies LaunchLab.co.uk
Bloomberg - The Sun
all 119 news articles


EPA Reform of SPCC Rule Benefits Small Business
MarketWatch - 5 hours ago
The Office of Advocacy of the US Small Business Administration is encouraged that the EPA listened to small business and included those provisions in the ...


Wells Fargo named top small-business lender in Texas
Bizjournals.com, NC - Nov 19, 2008
Wells Fargo Bank, NA has been ranked the leading small-business lender in both the United States and Texas, according to the latest Community Reinvestment ...


Small business focus of Detroit mayoral debate
DetNews.com, MI - 8 hours ago
The forum at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History focused on small business, and candidates testified about how they fostered economic ...
Detroit mayoral candidates make their cases at forum Detroit Free Press
Mayoral candidates to hold forum Detroit Free Press
all 5 news articles


Entrepreneurship Can Thrive in a Challenging Economy
MarketWatch - 11 hours ago
As the fastest-growing sector of new small business owners in the country, women, are creating new jobs for themselves and are taking advantage of resources ...


UPDATE 2-Intuit cuts outlook, sees small business cautious
Reuters - Nov 19, 2008
... software and for revenue from payroll and bill payment processing services, as its small business customers get squeezed by the deepening recession. ...
Intuit 1st-qtr loss widens despite higher sales BusinessWeek
Intuit Q1 Loss Widens; Lowers Full-Year Forecast RTT News
Intuit lowers forecast for current year San Jose Mercury News
all 45 news articles


SLC lends hand to small businesses
Salt Lake Tribune, United States - 1 hour ago
Under "small-business initiative" at slcgov.com users can learn about permitting, licensing and financing. Business owners also will find $3 million of the ...


small business - Google News