Staff split on life after outsourcing

Employees are warming to the idea of outsourcing, with 50 per cent seeing it as beneficial to their careers.

The latest outsourcing survey conducted by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young found that, although companies are turning to outsourcing to maximise efficiencies, cultural issues are still hampering uptake.

While 27 per cent of respondents have personal experience of outsourcing, almost a third felt that it is 'likely' or 'very likely' that their role could be outsourced in the future.

Over half indicated that outsourcing would offer them the opportunity to enhance their career options.

A similar proportion thought that having their position outsourced would lead to increased training and personal development support, and one third felt that outsourcing would lead to improved pay.

But over two-thirds of respondents are still concerned that outsourcing might lead to reduced job security, and 39 per cent fear it would result in lower pay.

Respondents also believed that they would lose pension rights and holidays, and many associated outsourcing with a move to a worse office location.

The research warned that the bulk of resistance is due to a lack of understanding of exactly what outsourcing involves.

In particular it highlighted widespread ignorance of the Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) legislation introduced to safeguard employees' rights when businesses change hands.

More than half of the 212 respondents from companies employing 250+ staff had never heard of TUPE, and less than one in 10 said that they understood the legislation.

Les Mara, executive director at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, said: "While [the legislation] is well understood in a general management sense, it is clearly not understood at a grass roots level.

"Nonetheless, people can see the benefits of being associated with a specialist provider."

The consultancy warned that communicating the practicalities of an outsourcing agreement and detailing employees' rights are key to making staff less resistant to the process.

But Peter Skyte, national secretary of union Amicus MSF, warned that employers need to be aware of the potential downside to being outsourced.

"Outsourcing is a mixed bag. Yes, it can mean benefits for employees who move from working for a company where IT is seen as a support function to one where it's a central activity. It can mean career options and career development prospects, and there's lots of evidence to support that," he said.

"But IT services companies take on these contracts to make money - there's nothing altruistic about it - often by making savings through redundancies or changing terms and conditions.

"TUPE is intended to safeguard employees. What it doesn't do is prevent an employer seeking to make changes to your contract after a transfer."