Myths on Outsourcing - Week 2 Outsourcing automatically means redundancy of current employees!
Before you all go running off into the hills screaming we are all going to die, or more rationally off to the closest Job Centre / employment agency on hearing that dreaded word “outsourcing” I would like to tell about BA who outsourced 2000 jobs in 1996 to India.
I am sure you all remember the headlines in those days. People were angry, defensive and worried, but in reality out of the 2000 people employed in India in 1996 only 2 people were made redundant in the UK.
How did they manage that you may ask? Roy Marshall who headed up the programme in 1996 gave me the answers. All the rest were redeployed within BA in higher value, less mundane positions. Why? Because of their excellent existing knowledge of BA processes and systems they were trained into other positions where they were of greater value to the company.
So what changed? Well, 2000 staff in India were trained to take over all written correspondence with customers. This ensured that letters sent from valued BA customers were answered and dealt with further as necessary, to the customers satisfaction and within agreed SLA’s.
The effect was that customer satisfaction increased because the core business of the 2000 strong India team was customer services satisfaction through correspondence.
The onshore BA staff could focus all their attention on their core business which was getting customers onto their flights, where they wanted to go, on time with excellent customer service.
What does that mean for law firms today? Well let’s take a look at transcription services which are traditionally carried out by Secretaries.
Secretaries as we all know provide a variety of services starting from knowing which document you mean when you say “that document” to typing, a wide working knowledge of the law, client liaison services, booking agents, excuse makers, diary coordinators, billing experts and knowing - if not everything then at least who to speak to.
It would therefore make financial sense to increase the time that secretaries can use these higher value skills. Redeploying transcription or document production then ensures that it costs less and that low value work does not take up valuable office space and is quality controlled. The indirect knock on effect also has its advantages to Fee Earners because as Secretaries help out with higher value skills like paralegal work and managing offshore staff, Fee Earners will be freed up to win more work and get on with the higher value and more complex legal functions.
Advantages?-
- Reduction in the cost of producing documents;
- Elimination of backlogs;
- Real career development opportunities for secretarial staff;
- Quality control and Service Level Agreements;
- No cover requirement for sickness and holiday;
Disadvantages?-
- None other than payment a monthly invoice.
That is a nice idea, I hear you say, but does it work in practice. Well the headlines speak for themselves as Clifford Chance and Pinsents Masons have both seen first hand the success of these projects as The Lawyer reported in January 2007 “Pinsents elevates standing of secretaries with typing outsourcing strategy”.
Next week we will look at the third myth and why in fact size does not matter when it comes to being able to outsource.
Provided with compliments of Magellan Consultancy Services
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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Myths on Outsourcing - Week 2 Outsourcing automatically means redundancy of current employees!