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new survey launched today finds the drive to cut employment costs and tackle skills shortages in the UK has led to almost a third (30%) of organisations feeling under pressure to offshore business activity. As a result of this pressure the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) estimates that 30,000 jobs have been offshored each year since the turn of the century. Although those losses have been partially offset by parallel job gains and have been more than compensated for by the underlying growth in jobs over the same period. Any plans to offshore must involve human resource professionals if they are to minimise the negative effects often associated with offshoring, such as damage to employee morale, UK job losses and difficulties as a result of managing remotely, according to people management experts the CIPD.
Whilst 17% of respondents that have had experiences of offshoring report the benefits are less than they anticipated, more than 60% are very satisfied or fairly satisfied. However, the survey did highlight disadvantages with over half (55%) of employers believing it can cause low staff morale, 48% believing managerial control is more difficult, 44% citing job losses in UK as a problem and 33% stating language barriers as an obstacle.
Ben Willmott, CIPD Employee Relations Adviser and author of the report, says,
“Organisations that decide to go down the offshoring road focusing purely on cutting costs, without taking account of the people management challenges and the potential pitfalls are likely to face considerable problems.
“Too many organisations (42%) don’t involve HR when strategic decisions about offshoring are being made with the result that some of the real people management challenges that exist may not be taken into account in the excitement over the potential cost savings.