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Friday, September 12, 2003
Outsourcing:
This horse has been beaten to death my many bloggers lately (including the Blogfather himself). But I read an article in CIO magazine about the outsourcing of IT jobs, and the hidden costs. The area of the article that stood out to me was this:
If you have to outsource jobs offshore, here are six ways to minimise the destructive impact on your workforce
1. Whittle, Don't Hack Successful offshore outsourcing takes time - at least two to three years, say experts - so use that time to cut your workforce through attrition rather than retrenchments.
2. Offer Training CIOs owe it to their staffs to give them an opportunity to become the kinds of employees whose jobs won't be outsourced offshore, at least in the short term. Offer training classes in less transferable skills such as requirements analysis, architecture planning, business process design, contract management and business relationship management.
3. Find Out Who Wants to Leave Employees may not always want to keep their jobs. Perhaps they're close to retirement or are desperate to leave but just haven't done it. Ask for volunteers before you start cutting.
4. Communicate Employees won't like you if you tell them their jobs are going to be outsourced in a few months. But they'll hate you if you don't tell them. Hate has more long-term implications for you and your company than dislike.
5. Don't Hold Benefits Hostage Employees who are forced to train their offshore replacements to receive severance packages feel humiliated and angry. Find another way to get foreign workers up to speed if you can.
6. Lobby for Curriculum Changes Universities need help to change their curriculums to make IT graduates more prepared for global competition. Call university faculty and tell them what you see happening.
Particularly, number six is relevant to me. Many college educators seem to counsel kids based on yesterday's trends. Is COBOL an "emerging language"? Nonsense. But some school still teach it prominently. Web design? If you are in school learning HTML, you're likely wasting your time. College students should identify specific areas of opportunity in the "real world" that cannot be outsourced, or at least are not likely to be outsourced. If you're a Linux junkie, and you refuse to embrace anything Microsoft, you might want to prepare yourself for a life as a Debian pauper.
Finally, a related thought. If you don't understand the business, you can be the greatest programmer in the world, but you are of little value to the company. Learn how to adapt, and immerse yourself in things other than just programming (knowing how businesses work, and manage themselves would be a great benefit). Any IT department should introduce business concepts, and should put a premium on people skills if it wants to produce marketable graduates in the 21st century.Labels: Archives_2003
.: posted by
Dave
12:41 PM
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