January 10, 2012 in Blog by Amanda Sheckman

Time to Change the Meaning of an ‘O’

By Faye Holland

Four years ago when I was in the BPO practice at IBM, my colleague Bill Payne constantly repeated that whether its BPO, FAO, HRO – it’s not a big O, it’s a little o. The premise behind this statement was that there are lots of ways of doing outsourcing and to choose the right solution may actually involve a combination of sourcing options. Simply, the ‘O’ is more than moving processes from in-house.

At HRO Today Forum Europe 2009 (previously HRO World/ Summit Europe) in London, we asked the 196 HR Officers in the audience to vote on what does the O stand for – outsourcing or operations. 80% of the audience said outsourcing but that it was seen as a ‘mystery’ and that we ‘still have a lot to learn’.  On a daily basis Heads of HR – HR Officers,   manage a portfolio that encompasses the need for operational effectiveness across talent, recruitment, learning, payroll and benefits so it was really no surprise that this elevated level of confusion existed.

Interestingly, it was the advisor community that was most receptive to ‘operations’ and it was music to my ears when in October last year, sitting in a HROA board meeting when Tim Palmer, PA Consulting said he doesn’t talk outsourcing per se with clients now but about how to run operations in the most effective manner.

Elliot Clark, CEO of SharedXpertise, Publishers of the HRO Today Magazines wrote in the autumn 2010 issue of HRO Today Global (previously HRO Europe) “Oh No, No ‘O’”. For the prior 18 months Elliot had been waxing lyrical across every medium possible about the future of HRO being inextricably linked to the future of HR. “HR outsourcing will simply be a tool in the compendium of HR solutions and it will simply become part of HR operational models for delivery of global infrastructure….It has become so common that it is inconceivable to think of any HR department in any organisation that does not outsource some aspect of its HR operations”.

It is our role as Change Agents to shape and define the O be it about the peer-driven solutions from HROfficers, the latest developments in HROperations or cutting-edge case studies in HROptimization. Join us to define our O at the  HRO Today Forums – Washington (April 30-May 2) and Singapore (May 16-17) and Dublin (November) to take on:

• Overcoming the Job-Skills Gap.  Even the midst of the Global Recession, every year millions of jobs go unfilled globally because companies can’t find the skilled workers they need…
• Operational excellence.  It’s not just cutting cost it’s about turning HR into a strategic asset that drive productivity and employee satisfaction…
• Opening up innovation. Net-new jobs come from new companies, new products, and new services.  HR has a role in nurturing a culture of innovation, creating the preconditions for growth…

What’s your view? Let the discussion begin……