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Surviving Outsourcing?
An anonymous reader writes "As some of you may know, HP is negotiating with DPWN, parent company of DHL, to take on outsourced parts of DPWN's global IT Services business unit. As a worker in that business unit, I and my colleagues are part of what HP is negotiating for. I moved into my current position fresh out of university and so far haven't experienced corporate shake-ups or outsourcing initiatives. I enjoy my work and the opportunities that go with it, which is why this announcement was so distressing to me at first. Then I began hearing about the opportunities HP has internally. If you've been through a similar experience, what advice would you give for someone being outsourced? Should I 'ride the wave' and join the new company and culture, or dust off the old CV/resume?"
Although many factors are beyond your control, you can give the impression that you are really positive about the whole thing. Cooperate enthusiastically about the whole process. You can't stop it, or even slow it down, your goal should be to ensure that management think you are "part of the team" and "have the right attitude".
You need to do wholly BS stuff like ask those controlling this mess if there is some way you can help.
As a techie turned CIO turned headhunter I laugh openly at the "great opportunities" at HP or any outsourcer. My former colleague at PC Magazine Guy Kewney refers to these as "Industry Standard Lies".
They have as much credibility as the many fine offers I get in emails from Nigeria and China for wealth and health.
But you must not share my laughter.
You must sound impressed with these fake offers, maybe even apply for some. This is best done as innocent questions, like asking the new management about them, and how you could apply. They will be selling them to you, so we now have both of you faking it to each other. That will look good when they decide who to dump.
You may wonder if they will be taken in by this fake enthusiasm. The odds are better than you think, unless you have already met some HP managers, and then been amazed that people like this are allowed to be in charge of anything.
They're not exactly very bright are they ?
You will want to leave of course. Anyone who has seen outsourcing knows that the good people will want to walk.
But in any market, you want to be the one who decides when you leave. Buy some time and maybe the horse will learn to sing.
Dominic Connor,Quant Headhunter
Just what I was thinking - do both!
I went through something similar a couple of times within a few months a little while ago. First time round I got a lot of reassuring "we want your expertise" noises, then a payoff and a goodbye. Then I got a new job at a small company and it happened again.
Second time it was another big company (let's call them "large indigo") and we had all the same talks and speeches and the same reassurances, only they actually meant it. Unfortunately it's very hard to tell this. Anyway,I'm still with them and am not only very happy (and in the same job) but it's kinda cool having the opportunity to move around the company and the world once you're on the inside.
So, YMMV, but don't be too pessimistic.
This would seem to be the obvious thing to do.
I got outsourced a couple of years ago, (not to HP) and I couldn't say it's any better or worse than it was before. I do have the advantage of UK employment law on my side, which in theory ensures I remain on cmparable terms and conditions. I ended up with a poorer pension scheme but a higher salary to make up for it, and a few minor changes in other benefits - mostly good.
Not everybody stayed on, but most people did. One guy left, then got re-hired because he was too valuable to lose. Most of us are doing pretty much the same job as we were before, although those in leadership roles probably have more responsibility than they did before.
In theory there are more opportunities for me. A lot of that is going to depend on me seeking them out. At the least, I shall end up doing work for other customers besides my original employer which gives me exposure to different ways of doing things.
In my limited experience - I got sort-of outsourced once before: massive reorganization which involved setting up a new company to handle IT for the whole group - it needn't be bad for you. I certainly think that some of the other posters are being needlessly alarmist and cynical. Go with it, and try to be involved in the changes.
It seems that I am on the other side of the story (dark side?) since I actually work in an outsourcing company. I work in Serbia, and we provide some programming for one company in USA.
It may be that we are not a typical example, but in our case there are about 60 employees in USA and 20 here in Serbia.
Complete R&D, marketing, and all top-jobs in IT are done in USA. Here in Serbia we do very basic tasks only.
In our particular case, we are not doing the job very well. Successful outsourcing requires very good communication channels. Due to geographical difference and esp. if there is time zone difference (like USA - India) communication must be perfect. This is very hard to achieve. That would require trained people in USA to write good specs, to know how to handle tasks and everything. For a beginning, just to know what they want as a product. In practice, that would mean that good managers will do some good work and bad managers will do some bad work, just as if there was no outsourcing. Outsourcing will just make existing communication problems bigger.
In our particular case, since we work in extremely regulated industry, things are even harder. Everything in the process has to be double-checked, documented and so on. In theory, this makes things more easy to outsource, but in practice, as major job has to be done in USA, outsourcing does not seem too beneficial. In our case, only thing you can outsource are junior jobs. But they have problems figuring this, and they try over and over to send us any tasks they find "labor intensive". This won't work. Outsourcing company is not a cavalry you call when you are in trouble. If you want to treat it like a cheap labor for boring tasks, you'll be in a huge problem.
As a complete surprise to a geniuses who believe that outsourcing is a solution for poor business practices, people that work in outsourcing companies are human, too. When treated as junk, they treat their employers as junk, so they tend to leave for small increases in salaries, since their job satisfaction is low and salary in only measure. Even more surprisingly, if treated as humans, outsources tend to behave just every normal employee. They learn about their jobs, they are ready to spend some time there when salaries are not the highest in the city and so on.
It's a bit different story when large company, like HP decides to outsource entire department. I don't see how this could be efficient. It's not a problem to replace junior John Doe with Asok in Delhi, but if you need to replace every trained team-leader, every mid-manager with the Indian counter-part, it seems to me like a recipe for disaster.
No sig today.
"This likely will result in a possibility you come on to the new company... or not. Remember a lot depends on how much you are willing to accept as a reduction in pay which ultimately will happen at some point."
I've been through two corporation acquisitions in the last 10 years. First time, I wound up making $5K more per year, as an incentive to stay, doing the same job. Second time, I was offered a different job in the new company, making $11K more per year. We've all heard the stories about people being forced to take pay cuts to keep their jobs, but I personally don't know a single person who has experienced that.
The OP should ride this out, keeping a positive attitude and an open mind. Opportunities are born out of situations like this.