Advertisment

Out of the Door…

author-image
DQI Bureau
New Update

It’s like the case of a home-maker who’s so caught up in routine

housework that she forgets to stand up and listen to what her family wants. Or

that of a team leader who is so involved in getting the paper-work right that he

loses out on motivating his people. How often have you seen HR managers battling

with piles of resumes, appraisal and compensation issues, so much so that the

key function of ‘motivation’ is lost.

Advertisment

However, the HR function is steadily growing in importance and HR heads are

finally breaking the bastion to enter the ‘core teams’ in companies. In such

a scenario, the idea of handing over mundane functions to an external agency

certainly is appealing. Even more important, from the companies’ point of

view, outsourcing works out to be a more cost-effective option. HRinIndia

recently organized a discussion to debate the issue. The discussion was held at

the Dabur premises in New Delhi.

To begin with, unlike the security and canteen facilities in offices, can HR

be outsourced? "Anything that can be benchmarked and bundled as a com-modity,

it can be outsourced. Given the obvious cost benefits involved, the question I

would raise is why not outsource? Anything that is a more economical alternative

for a company, especially during these troubling times, must be adopted,"

says NK Mansukhani, president and CEO, Transcorp International. For with

outsourcing, overheads like office space, support staff etc get passed on to the

vendor as well.

Looking Out
Key HR functions that can be outsourced
Attraction of talent/recruitment
Administration/salary-related matters
Retention of employees
Motivation of employees/ building leadership
Exit interviews
Advertisment

But the idea of outsourcing brings with it a fear of trusting the vendor.

"Don’t companies trust auditors with sensitive company data? And if a

case of misuse does occur, there will be legal provisions as companies always

sign a contract with the external agency," points out G Rao, GM (HR) Desein

International.

Recruiting and training have been outsourced a lot of times. Counselling in

fact works better if it is done by an external agency.

For instance, companies who bring in external HR consultants to conduct exit

interviews have found that exiting employees are more honest with them.

Advertisment

This is especially so in sticky situations like an employee leaving the

organization because of unhappiness with other employees or an immediate boss.

In such critical situations, third party counseling would does help.

"However, this requires the company to display implicit faith in the

consultant," says Parul Diwan, HR manager, Merisant India. Others believe

that HR is best practised at the line managers’ end.

Given that employees interact with their immediate superiors far more than

with the HR department, in most cases, employees would prefer to confide in the

former in case of a problem. Sanjiv Bhikchandani, CEO of Naukri.com says that at

Naukri, in cases which involve a good employee wanting to leave, the matter is

brought to the notice of the top management and there is a discussion with the

employee. ‘‘All this is done by the line manager. In fact for an

organization of nearly 150 people, we have only one HR person. We may have one

more–never more," he says.

The phenomenal growth of public relations agencies across the country is

another example of outsourcing. By using a PR agency, a company does not

undermine the role of its corporate communication department. In fact, the

agency provides better infrastructure and resources to execute the company’s

communication strategy without having an army of communication experts on board.

HR managers could easily assume a similar role, of being the point of contact

with an external agency that executes all the company’s HR operations. So,

with outsourcing HR practices becoming a trend, is there a threat of the HR

manager losing his/her job? "Not likely" says HCL Infosystems vice

president (HR) M L Taneja. Is there a threat of the support staff, which has

traditionally handled the paper-work for performance appraisals, payrolls etc,

losing out? "Possibly," says Taneja suggesting that a good company

could look at passing on its support staff to the outsorcing agency it appoints.

And why not. After all, these are people matters…

Manjiri Kalghatgi in New Delhi

Advertisment