The HR Journey

One of my favorite HR related reads is the IHRIM.link magazine. The articles are always timely and relevant to the types of projects we’re engaged in. A recent opinion article, A Matter of Money and Confidence, (February/March 2009) made me ponder my personal opinion on outsourcing HR functions. The author discusses how HR service delivery decisions are often based on money and confidence level (Kuhn, 2009). In my opinion, decisions are also often based on convenience and strategy.

As a working mother of two, I’ve started to outsource many activities in my personal life for the sake of convenience and to free up my time to focus on what matters most. It has definitely optimized my home operations! Isn’t that what it’s all about? Aren’t we all striving to reduce the time spent on non-value added tasks so we can focus on the more meaningful, strategic activities in our lives and careers?

If you have a strategy defined, then it’s easy to identify which tasks align with your goals and which ones do not. Take those tasks/functions that are not helping you reach your goals, but are nonetheless important, and shift the work to someone else. This may be through the use of technology or by using an outsourcing partner. Sure, you still need to spend the time to manage that relationship, but you’ll spend less time and energy managing it than you would trying to execute it on your own.

Does your HR organization have a strategy? Have you identified potential functions to outsource? I’ll tell you, I didn’t always have this opinion on outsourcing. As a previous in-house HR practitioner who worked for two privately-owned, rather lean and efficient organizations, outsourcing was not a term used often. We did just about everything in-house. It’s taken several events in my career to change my opinion on outsourcing, including; 1) the recent changes in the economy, 2) HR’s shift to become a strategic business partner, and 3) looking at the numbers. Have you ever looked at how much you are really spending on some administrative functions? You may be surprised how it can be advantageous to outsource. What’s your opinion on outsourcing HR Functions?