Global Outsourcing Helps Service Sector Firms

Global outsourcing has many benefits with costconsidered entry-level (and compensated as such) in
reduction a frequent catalyst that causes firms tothe U.S., but the employees in India are
examine offshore options. This introspectioncollege-educated. All calls that need to be placed for
encourages many firms to first look at theirfurther verification are routed back to the U.S. and
manufacturing locations and processes. While mostmade by the U.S.-based employees. This helps
types of manufacturing can be outsourced offshore,minimize any language biases and poor communication
service and software industries have also benefitedbetween employers and applicants.
from offshore outsourcing.A huge bonus for the firm and their subcontractor is
One example of a non-manufacturing company tothat the Indian CEO has experience with U.S. business
benefit from outsourcing is HireRight, Inc., aand economy which helps all parties to understand the
privately-held employment screening vendorissues. Even so, occasionally problems have come up
headquartered in Irvine, California. They have been ablerelating to production output quality and/or speed. This
to obtain greater output at a lower cost, thusrequires renewed communication efforts and
significantly improving their financial position.renegotiated contracts, to keep output quotas and
They are one of the largest Internet-basedquality standards in place. Sometimes, a penalty clause
independent screening providers focusing onis written in to help emphasize their expectations.
employment background screening. This includes drugCommunication is a key factor in making outsourcing
and health screening, along with employment andwork.
educational verifications as required by the customerOther issues with India have a great deal to do with
for large and mid-size organizations. Their customersthe Indian culture. High turnover has been a problem
have offices around the globe including major marketswith their subcontractor because most of the
in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middleemployees are women. This is related to the Indian
East, and selected markets in South America andculture where women live with their families until they
Africa.are married and then they rarely work. Adding to this
The main obstacles that needed to be addressedissue, the subcontractor works U.S. business hours,
revolve around language and communication,which is basically the middle-of-the-night in India. Indian
expectations of contracted work, and culturalfamilies are uncomfortable with their daughters, wives,
differences, yet they have made outsourcing aand mothers commuting during those hours
significant part of their production solutions and isThey believe that that reason why most of their
currently enjoying partnerships with Estonia, Russia andcompetitors do not outsource is due to the fear of the
India.unfamiliar. This could be the perceived lack of control,
They has a subsidiary in Estonia which does productcultural issues, fear of what customers will think, fear
testing and design. Moscow, Russia also producesof the unknown, and the cost of starting up an
modular components of the proprietary software tooutsourcing program. Another reason that some
be used. For both locations, components of thecompanies don’t consider outsourcing relates to
software which are sensitive or security related areloyalty to the American worker. They fee that the
only produced or put together in the U.S. Therefore,American unemployment rate is at an all time low and
intellectual property is also kept within United Statesany displaced workers would certainly find work in the
borders.fast-growing retail sector.
India is where most of the outsourcing occurs, sinceThis is a good example of a company that has found
they do the bulk of the background research. Thegreat benefits in global outsourcing. Not only are they
selected vendor employs approximately 150able to meet their customers’ needs of quality
employees dedicated specifically to HireRight, so thereservice a very competitive price, these outsourcing
is priority placed on the timeliness and quality of thepartnerships are allowing them to conduct business
work. The type of work outsourced to India isand sell in over 200 countries.