Outsourcing Has Been A Huge Ordeal For American Companies

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Outsourcing has become a huge ordeal for American companies today. Companies either offshore, where they relocate their business procedures overseas, or they near shore, where they move production or services to a country near its home base. They outsource everything from human resources, banking, customer service, telemarketing, factory jobs, security, maintenance, food service, deliveries, accounting, and information technology (IT). Companies try to outsource jobs that are not the main focus of their daily routines so they can save money and remain flexible. Even though outsourcing has its advantages, it may not always be what it seems because they take away jobs from hark working American individuals. Even though outsourcing has become …show more content…

Sometimes hiring third-party vendors is not always the best solution, but they can also help to increase the overall productivity. Companies also outsource strategic functions (like benefits planning) due to the outside vendors’ information being more up-to-date and that these outside companies can afford to hire full time experts in all areas of human resources. Human resources feel that not everything should be outsourced to outside vendors because there are a few functions that should continue to be done inside of the company. A few things that are okay to be outsourced that include ancillary activities, any routine activities, economies of scale, and specialized knowledge. Ancillary activities are tasks that are assigned to human resources that they do not need to be doing, it should be done by the organization (like food service and janitorial services). Routine activities include ones that are standard procedure where this is little transaction. Economies of scale include making larger amounts of items that can be achieved. Specialized knowledge is gained through education and its requirements, experience, or both. A few things that should not be outsourced include specific organizational knowledge, highly confidential activities, and management decision activities. Specific organizational …show more content…

They include expense reduction, conserves management time, conserves management effort, increased organizational competencies, professional expertise, improved employee morale, and improved service quality. All companies are constantly looking to save money, and it is the main reason why companies plan to look outside of the United States to do business. Even though the expense is less, people in other countries seem to perform better in the job and it is faster for the company than if they do these activities in-house. Repetitive activities and problems are being outsourced, so the company is not as responsible as they used to be which in turn reduces the in-house management involvement. This allows management to focus on the core tasks that the organization wants to do that will help differentiate them from its competitors. With the routine activities out of the way, management can focus more on the primary functions of the organization. The less time they have to devote to minimal jobs that are not the main focus, the more time they can spend that help contribute to the functions that they need to worry about the most. Outside expertise is a huge help in the United States companies because they are different from the views of the company’s human resource department employees. This then allows more efficiency by the outside company due to the company probability of the problem being