Dear Friends,

In a HR conference, an issue was raised by one of the member about impact of outsourcing HR activities on internal HR practices of an organisation. Some opine that Outsourcing may even cause a threat for the very existence of core HR dept. and HR personnel in the Company. Then what will HR professionals do...??? In my opinion, there are two ways of looking at the whole issue. When viewed from a practical/ working part of HR activities (PA, R&S, Compn.,T&D, etc) it is like a nightmare for any HR personnel. If all the activities slowly get outsourced, then why is HR person required and what will he/ she do..? If he/ she exists also, his/ her work will be more of administration of activities than actual performance of core activities. But when viewed from soft part of HR activities (Motivation, Attitudinal change, handling employee grievances, personalising company value systems in each employee, etc) HR person has got a lot to do in here. According to me, these activities can never be Outsourced. HRMs should be involved in high level strategic decision-making. Our existence should be made felt in the organisation. Here is the importance of HRM. We can work on generating new modules of HR practices to motivate and increase the productivity of organisations. I have given a very small view as per my understanding. I request the group to carry on this discussion and generate more insights and perspectives. All comments are welcome. I dont intend to hurt anyone's feelings or thoughts. Lets keep this discussion on.

Warm Regards

Rakhi

Converting HR department into profit oriented department needs a critical look on HR processes, culture and practices of the company. HR accounting can be used as a tool towards this where in all the HR activities can be measured interms of cost and benefit (profitability). This helps in eleminating the wasteful activities (in terms of time & cost) and improve the processes. Any comments and suggestions are appreciated the other group members. About motivation, Could you let me know what exactly are you looking for. I mean Motivation at which level of organisation? Do you need theoritical inputs? I would definetly share my knowledge and would be happy if its of use to you..

Hello Rakhi & friends,

In my view either we outsource HR activities or do it as internal HR practice the objective is same - Search for Excellence and Effectiveness.

After implementation of ISO-9000 (Old and new verion both) HR has really came in picture .Further more new awards, systems & practices like Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award, Malcom Balridge Award, CII-EXIM bank award , TPM,5-S etc has brought HR really in driving seat because all these systems and awards call for real effectiveness ,which is auditable also.

Now the questions is - Can we deliever all ,what is being expected. This require many diversified competencies. No organisation can think about total outsource of the HR activities. But blend is always better. It brings new air. Some activities should be outsourced but major part of HR activities should be carried out byt Internal resources . The only question is - are we regularly assessing competencies of HR professionals to cope up with the challenging demands.

Awaiting for more feedbacks..

Anuj Jain