CRA Inc

2 May 05 @ 8:45 am

Keeping Up With Employees During Outsourcing

Most organizations have outsourced, are in the process of outsourcing, or are considering outsourcing and conducting a “sourcing evaluation.” Fact.

As we’ve worked with our clients during each of these stages, we’ve learned many lessons about the process and how employees (both in and out of scope) respond to the news.

One of the most important lessons relates to how employees educate themselves about the outsourcing industry. In-scope employees are often just as savvy as the executive team about the pros and cons of outsourcing and how it will affect their business. They read offshore newspapers, download whitepapers, and participate in online message boards to stay informed, among other things.

So this morning when I finally checked out my FierceCIO email update from Friday and saw this, I immediately thought of the employees who may be “in-scope” and also read it…I know the article has made its way around most organizations by now. (The article is about a recent study of organizations who have outsourced. It seems many of these organizations are unhappy with the result. I question the validity of the research, but now that it has made its way to popular press, most will not scrutinize that aspect of the study. You may download the full article from Information Week here: Download file.)

I also know that those employees who have read it are in the process of crafting a question to post on the intranet Q&A page or getting ready to ask it at the next brown bag or town hall (or have even emailed it to your CIO).

So what do you do?

# Don’t be surprised. Communication professionals need to be as informed as the employees during an outsourcing evaulation or process. There are plenty of email updates you can subscribe to via Google, FierceCIO, Yahoo!, and others to stay up-to-date. When you see articles like this, make sure your leadership team isn’t surprised either.
# Don’t deviate from your original messaging. Articles like this do not change why your organization has decided to think about outsourcing or the process you’re using to make sure it’s the right decision for you.
# Email the article to employees and proactively address it. “We know you saw this. We saw it, too. It doesn’t change the reasons why we’ve chosen to look at this.” This will make some leadership teams squirm…pre-test the idea with a pulse group or other informally networked employees and provide that feedback to your leaders if they’re unsure about the idea.

posted in category(s): Coaching Points