business

Outsourcing is Not a Four Letter Word

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I read this online Business Week article and I thought I was reading about myself.  If I were to add my thoughts, I’d add:

  • Live where you want to live (provided you have a decent Internet connection)
  • Enjoy flexibility of schedule
  • No corporate politics or non-productive meetings
  • Meet and work with interesting intelligent humans
  • Enjoy a different kind of stress.

Outsourcing Benefits U.S. Workers, Too – BusinessWeek

For the project workers who log in to oDesk every day to create their own job with decent pay, outsourcing is a wonderful thing—be it in Wyoming or New Delhi. Some have been forced from full-time jobs but many simply prefer to go it alone or to work with small groups. Scarred by a barrage of layoffs in recent years, these workers like the control over their lives and diversity in the source of paychecks.

Employer Provided Training – What Training?

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Copied shamelessly from Workforce Training Management e-newsletter.

METRICS
Formal Training Hours Consumed per Learner, by Industry, 2007 and 2008
Bersin & Associates reports that the drops in formal training hours from 2007 to 2008 is not necessarily a bad thing. “For smart companies, this means that they are cutting programs that are generic, low value and under-utilized,” analyst Karen O’Leonard writes. “We have talked with several organizations that are now carefully scrutinizing the value of their learning programs, some by employing cost-benefit analyses to their initiatives. Their analyses have led them to cancel some programs that were costly to run and offered relatively low value.”
Industry

2007

2008
Pharmaceuticals 35.3 25.2
Banking/finance * n/a 20.2
Manufacturing 29.4 19.5
Business services/consulting n/a 19.1
Telecommunications 31.7 18.9
Banking/financial services & insurance * 28.0 18.8
Insurance* n/a 16.8
Retail 14.0 15.3
Technology 21.9 14.3
Health care/medical 24.0 14.1
* In 2007, small sample size required that insurance industry results be combined with those of banking and financial services. For 2008, there was a large enough sample of banking /financial services and insurance companies to break them out. The individual industries’ data are shown, as well as the combined category.
Source: “Corporate Learning Factbook,” 2009, Bersin & Associates

Thought For The Day – 090909

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We partner with others to barter tasks and resources as well as to synergistically enlarge our vision.  We let them do what they enjoy and are good at so that we can do what we enjoy and are good at.  The only trick is to find people who love to do things that we do not enjoy and partner with them to do it.

Dr. B. Curtis Hamm received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and is Professor Emeritus of the Spears School of Business and Consultant to the Oklahoma State University Foundation.

Dr. B. Curtis Hamm

Another Reason For Outsourced Underwriting – MOJO

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When you mention the word “outsourcing” most people get very emotional.  The emotion is fear. Usually, it is a fear of losing one’s job.  Well, during this nasty recession a lot of jobs have been lost.  I have been asking the question,

“Who’s left to do the work?”

I’ve noticed I am not the only person asking this question.  Nearly two thirds of respondents in a recent survey asked the very same question (see survey results reproduced below or click through to read the entire article).

If you’re in NB/UW management your cost cutting phase is over.  Stick a fork in it, it’s done.  Now you have to figure out how to get the work done with a decimated, demoralized staff.  Screaming won’t help (unless that makes you feel better).  Mandatory 60 hour work weeks?  I don’t think so.  Yup, looks like a man-made management problem that requires creative management solutions.  Unabashed self-promotion follows:

The underwriting talent is out here and we have the technology to connect companies with with experienced, professional underwriters to get the work done.

Call us. I have a mortgage, two kids in college, and a small fleet of cars to support.

One more thing…we got the MOJO.

Workforce Blogs – The Business of Management

A new survey just released by the Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc. and conducted by Harris Interactive suggests that a lot of employees may not be feeling particularly optimistic and workplace productivity has been a casualty of the Big, Bad Recession.

Here are some of the survey highlights:

• Some 38 percent of respondents employed full or part time said there had been layoffs in the past year at their primary place of employment.

• Of those respondents who said that productivity had been negatively affected by layoffs:

—66 percent said that morale has suffered and that workers are less motivated;

—64 percent said that there is just too much work and not enough people left to do it;

—37 percent said the wrong people or departments were laid off, leaving inefficient systems and workflows; and

—36 percent said they are concerned that as the economy picks up, they won’t have the right resources to meet demand.