Outsourcing is perhaps one of the most common terms in the HR organs of the companies of the twenty-first century. In its basic sense, outsourcing HR means employing the services of an external agency in the recruitment and selection of candidates on behalf of the internal HR department of an organization.
Perhaps a global example is SEEK, an Australian based company that advertises, recruits and places staff on behalf of other companies. Even though General motors does not directly through its top management issue out human resource outsourcing contracts, its human resource department is keen to deploy this strategy to cut on the costs of the department.
One would ask why large companies such as General Motors would contemplate outsourcing its human resource duties, yet it can afford to run such a department. According to Patriot HR (2004), this is why small organizations do the same: “cut on costs, increase productivity, and provide a higher level of service to employees” (Para. 1).
Concurrently, IBM Global Process Services (2011) “Automate and streamline HR processes and put transactions employees’ fingertips” (Para. 3). Outsourcing may happen both to local companies and even in overseas. For instance, as Patriot HR sheds light, in 2004, “An HRO was handling benefits administration for 1.2 million General Motors employees, retirees, and dependents.
General Motors Europe also outsourced human resources functions for personnel in 10 different countries” (2004, Para 1). By outsourcing staff recruitment responsibilities, HR department has many opportunities to focus more on other core strategic activities.
People have voiced quite a lot of unscrupulous news across the world about outsourcing. Take for instance the scenario in which “Texas has put IBM on notice where Indiana has sued IBM, which in turn has sued Indiana” (Global services 2011, Para.1). In the core of all these stalemates is the perception of outsourcing contracts going haywire.
However, on the other hand, General Motors perhaps has a different story to tell about its human resource outsourcing all together. People Strong, a HR Company based in India, Seven Step, and ACS are perhaps some of the companies that offer recruitment services to General Motors.
Talent Management (2012) informs that “Seven Step, a provider of outsourced recruitment services, announced that General Motors (GM) has chosen it as GM’s exclusive recruitment services partner to manage all salaried recruiting and hiring activities in its North American operations”(Para 1).
On the other hand, according to HRO Today in 2009, ACS, “a premier provider of business process and information technology solutions, announced the commencement of services under a new human resources servicing contract with General Motors Corporation (GM) as the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer” (2009, Para 1).
Under the terms of contract, ACS was to take up non-core HR chores, which was one of the strategies that GM adopted in an attempt to remain competitive by taking advantage of the ACS immense HR capabilities.
Additionally, HRO Today reckons that the terms of contract permitted ACS to “provide comprehensive HR services for GM’s European entities in 10 countries, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom” (2009, Para 3).
This move immensely satisfies Alexander Cheri, the GM European vice president. In support of the move, HRO Today records him commending that “We are extremely impressed by the level and range of services we will be receiving as part of this agreement with ACS” (2009, Para 8). In this end, it is somewhat evident that GM not only deploys HR outsourcing in the US, but also in every other place where it has established its global presence.
With the HR outsourcing, General Motors leaps from the three-T: talent, technology and transformation, model (Stone 2003, p.14: Vosburgh 2003, p.19) of HR management in perhaps all its operational centers across the globe. Other corporations can also profile such excellence on the strategies already put in place by GM in the yet not so old global methodology of cost reduction: HR outsourcing.
References
Global Services., 2011. IT Outsourcing: market dynamics. Web.
HRO Today., 2009. ACS Announces New Human Resources Servicing Contract with General Motors for European Operations. Web.
IBM Global Process Services., 2011. Human Resource Outsourcing. Web.
Patriot HR. 2004. Who is outsourcing. Web.
Stone, A. 2003. The Intranet Boom. Philadelphia Business Journal, 3(2), pp.17-18.
Talent Management., 2012. GM makes seven step excusive recruiting partner. Web.
Vosburgh, R., 2003. The state of the human resources profession in 2003: An interview with Dave Ulrich. Human resource planning, 26(1), pp.18-22.