Adopt Now Mike Wright Semi-Regulated Industries Team Leader Lincolnshire, Illinois HRO Sales and Accounts The sooner you do something, the sooner you stand to reap the benefits. We've all experienced this in one way or another. For example, the sooner you start jogging, the sooner you'll get into shape. The sooner you start saving for retirement, the sooner you'll be able to retire. And this holds true for HR BPO. Its well-documented cost savings and service benefits include accelerated deployment of HR technologies and applications; standardization of processes; continuous improvement of day-to-day best practices; and an integrated customer service experience. The benefits of HR BPO are especially strong for organizations with a large global workforce. These companies are saddled with multiple service centers, redundancy of staff, and hundreds of HR technology applications supporting local, regional, and global HR processes. In this situation, a BPO arrangement guarantees efficiencies by providing an existing shared services infrastructure and a single, integrated technology platform for HR processes. If an organization has already moved to a shared services structure, it's well positioned to take the next step to an HR BPO arrangement because it will have already worked through standardization of processes. At that point, greater efficiencies and additional cost reductions are difficult to achieve without turning to an outsourced solution in which the provider can deliver greater economies of scale. In some cases, HR has decided to make a move to BPO in order to retain control over the process as well as the outcome. By leading the charge, it avoids having change forced on it by another area of the organization—finance or procurement, for example—that could potentially select a delivery model and provider based solely on cost savings. If you stand to gain significant cost savings, while obtaining capabilities that solve problems which currently exist within your organization, why would you want to wait?

Evaluate Further Barbara Williams Financial Services Industry Team Leader Charlotte, North Carolina HRO Sales and Accounts There are some instances when additional evaluation may be prudent before moving to an HR BPO solution. If a company's lines of business operate very autonomously, for example, commonality of processes likely ranks pretty low on its list of priorities. Since standardization of processes and technology platforms is one of the fundamental drivers in business process outsourcing, moving to an HR BPO arrangement may not be the logical choice. Organizations might also be advised to wait if they are in the midst of a significant organizational change or if they are in the process of restructuring their HR organization. Throwing outsourcing into the mix during a major change could be overwhelming. On the other hand, it could also be the ideal time to explore an outsourcing arrangement to help manage all the change. Some organizations may want to wait until they've adopted a clearly defined sourcing strategy that helps them sort through their activities and determine which should be retained in-house and which can be more effectively performed by an outsourcing partner. Strategic sourcing starts with the premise that core competencies—those activities that create long-term value for customers and sustainable competitive advantage for the company—should not be outsourced. In the case of HR, core competencies are usually the strategic people practices necessary to drive business growth. For many, though, HR administration is not considered a core competency, so a sourcing strategy would indicate a need to evaluate administration as a potentially outsourced activity. As evidenced by the growing number of arrangements, HR BPO is not a trend that's going to fade away anytime soon. So even if it's not necessarily the right time for an organization to make a move, it should continue to monitor the industry and perform due diligence, perhaps even consult with a sourcing advisor. That way, the organization can act quickly if the time becomes right to move to an HR BPO solution.  Back to Top