On my list of what’s been pulsating through the outsourcing world recently are a bold move and some notable quotables. There’s also some news that begs the question: what’s wrong with this picture?
Bold Move
For the past two quarters, MphasiS, a leading Indian ITO and BPO service provider and subsidiary of HP, has been deducting 5 – 20 percent from its employees’ salaries and giving it back as “variable pay.” Employees receive the variable pay quarterly, based on performance of the employee as well as the company. It’s improving the cash flow but also notably reducing attrition.
What’s Wrong with this Picture?
1) Marooned. India’s ITO and BPO trade body, NASSCOM, established in 2006 a national skills registry (NSR) to counteract fake resumes and create a unified employment database for the outsourcing industry. People who register in the NSR must reveal details of their qualifications and details of current and past employment. As one BPO provider points out, “there are few takers.”
2) Endangered Species. Spoken and written English — an in-demand skill that has especially benefitted the Philippines call center outsourcing industry — has deteriorated lately among Filipinos. Now it’s about to take another hit. The nation’s young people are now using jejemon as a unique text-messaging lanugage that combines misspelled words and punctuation marks. The Philippines’ eduction secretary warns that English proficiency skills will be imperiled if the jejemon lanuguage is not stopped.
Notable Quotables
1) It’s about time! The CEO of Indian service provider firm Aditya Birla Minacs says “Just because something is cheaper does not mean it has value.”
2) Blue-ribbon comment. A ComputerWorld UK blogger, pointed out that, despite the fact that many people incorrectly linked the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with outsourcing, outsourcing actually didn’t play a role in the disaster. He wrote:
Though the BP case was not even one of outsourcing, I find it frustrating that the wider public almost never hears about the numerous examples where outsourcing is positively affecting industry, and instead we hear only about isolated instances where it has not gone smoothly. I suspect that good news doesn’t sell…
Since 1998, freelance writer Kathleen Goolsby has studied outsourcing relationships’ successes, failures, trends, and best practices. She has interviewed more than 860 executives at buyer and service provider companies and is the author of “Critical Requirements for Building and Sustaining a Successful Outsourcing Relationship,” a chapter in Global Outsourcing Strategies: An International Reference on Effective Outsourcing Relationships (December 2006, Gower Publishing). As a freelancer, she also currently serves as the Senior Writer for Outsourcing Center (whose parent company is sourcing advisory firm, Alsbridge) and has authored dozens of articles as well as white papers. In a past role, she was editor of Outsourcing Venture (a former print publication). You can contact Kathleen at ksgoolsby@gmail.com.
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