Hiring in India HRO

When I met the Senior VP of Human Resources in one of the top notch MNC a couple of months ago on a promotion drive for HRO Manager, one of his comments took me by surprise. When I told him about how key decision makers on HRO look at informative websites for making their business decisions whether it be for vendor selection or product selection, he stated that he believes many business leaders have neither the time nor the interest to look at website for information that could influence their business decisions.
This may be true to some extent when it comes to taking complex business decisions such as whether or not to outsource their HR and so forth, but how far does this hold true for HR Managers holding key responsibilities who can not allocate time to updating themselves on the latest happing in HR around the world?
When I met another senior HR manager in a call center based in Chennai, India, I asked him if he looks at any HR informative channels such as websites or blogs in specific and his answer was a resounding NO. The reason given was that the bulk of his time is spent hiring talent. This made me think for a while. If this a trend visible in India alone or does is stretch around the world? When I look at my Google Analytics Statistics for HRO Manager, 75% of hits come from the United States, 20% come from Europe and only 5% come from India. This might be a realistic figure given that my site contains more articles pertaining to the United States. However, a mere 5% figure coming from India really concerns me. From my experience and what I have personally observed during my interactions with various senior HR managers in India, it is clear that Indian HR is mostly concerned with hiring and not in a position to go that extra mile in terms of a whole transformation into a strategic HR center competing with global HR standards.
Viewing HR as a strategic business center is still fiction in India and is not currently being viewed as a reality. The everyday job in a typical Indian HR department begins with viewing job requisitions from line managers, job postings, interacting with consultants, conducting entry and exit interviews, documenting for new joiners and exits and so forth. We have yet to see HR leaders playing a vital role in key executive meetings and most of the key HR decisions are still being taken by CEO or COO and the HR heads have simply to implement these decisions. There is a huge cry from among the community to bring a new role to the HR controller or chief Human Resources Officer in Global HR. however; India HR is still far from accepting this. It may be past time for Indian HR to transform into strategic HR centers.

Performance Management Needs

In order to gather information about performance management practices and outcomes, WorldatWork and Sibson Consulting invited WorldatWork members to participate in a confidential online survey. Results from the 2007 State of Performance Management Study by WorldatWork and Sibson Consulting indicate that improvement in performance management is needed in many organizations and that performance management is stronger in higher performing companies.
Key findings of the study include:
Performance Management techniques for both the effective and less effective organizations are not very different. The greatest difference is the level of active leadership support and championing of the process.
At least half the respondents use information from Performance Management to determine merit increases, promotions and annual incentive distributions.
Only 30 percent of the respondents reported that their employees trust the Performance Management system.
The 2007 WorldatWork and Sibson State of Performance Management Study surveyed more than 550 individuals, primarily senior-level HR professionals. The demographic profile of the respondents is similar to that of the WorldatWork membership. The organizations represented in the study range in size from fewer than 100 employees to more than 100,000 employees. The following industries were represented: Finance and Insurance, Healthcare, Higher Education, Manufacturing, Professional Services, Public Sector and Utilities.
WorldatWork is an international association of Human Resource professionals and business leaders focused on attracting, motivating and retaining employees. WorldatWork supports its 30,000 members and customers in 75 countries with Leadership Education, Publications, Research and Certifications.

Global HRO Market Expectations

Global Research Analysts estimate the World HRO market to hit US $78.8 Billion by 2010, a CAGR of 10.71% over 2000-2010 period.

Market to Exceed US $78.8 Billion

EquaTerra Q2 Survey

EquaTerra, in a web cast released yesterday, presented the BPO Pulse survey results for Q2 2007. The topics evaluated in the survey include Demand and Buying Patterns, Deal Scope, Pricing, TCV and Profitability, Sales Cycles and Service Provider Capacity.
The primary process focuses include Call Center, Customer Care, CRM, F&A, Human Resources, IT and Procurement.
The respondents to the survey include EquaTerra advisors and leading global BPO/ITO service providers. Here are the highlights of the results:
Market demand continues to slip through growth although growth still remains positive.
Deal size and scope continue to decline.
Service provider capacity remains tight especially for transition and delivery.
Supply capacity issues, transition challenges and buyer cautiousness point to a slow.
Service providers are bullish on market demand. However, the expected growth is down on a year-by-year basis.
A complete presentation of the web cast is available as a PDF on our website HRO Manager under our research section.

Caliber Point Growth Expectations

Caliber Point, a subsidiary of the multi-core Hexaware Technologies, is expected to emerge as a strong HRO player in the coming years. Reports are coming out that the company is focusing on major HRO wins this year. Caliber Point is a strong outsourcing player in the healthcare segment primarily; however it is well positioned to handle major HRO contracts.
Caliber Point enjoys the technology expertise from its parent company Hexaware, which offers advanced technology solutions to HR and other areas helping the HRO buyers to enjoy a cost advantage. Its offshore model further helps the buyers on the cost side.
Research leader EquaTerra is optimistic on the company as well as expecting it to move up the value chain in the coming years.
The company signed with HRAmerica this January which was subsequently acquired by Gevity. Sources report that the company is focusing primarily on European markets during this year in comparison to North America.
The company is headed by Mr. Ashok Bildikar, President of Caliber Point, who won the HRO Superstar Award for 2007.

RPO Services Contractor

Information Resources, INC., a supplier of enterprise market information solutions and services has selected Aon Consulting to be its RPO service provider. This report comes from Onrec.
According to Nick Peligno, Business Development Manager for Aon Consulting, IRI was using recruitment agencies and traditional media advertising until now, which are basically high-cost routes to its recruitment needs. At the same time, company senior HR managers responsible for hiring decisions were stretched with limited resources. The result of this high cost per hire and time to fill are long. In order to address these challenges, Aon will be providing an onsite tam for IRI and deployed a customized web-based technology system that automates the recruitment process and enables candidates to apply online or to submit detail for future opportunities.

PlatformOne HRO Services

PlatformOne announced today that another key client, Thorp Reed & Armstrong (TRA), has gone live with PlatformOne’s comprehensive HR outsourcing solutions for technology, services and support. this report comes to us from PRWeb. The Pittsburgh Law Firm estimates that HRO services will save the Firm $100,000 annually and Two FTEs.

New ACS Contract

ACS signed a Benefits outsourcing contract with Ameren Corporation, one of the largest investor-owned electric and gas utilities in the US. The duration of contract is 5 years and covers 24,000 employees.
For more details on this news, Please click the below link
ACS Awarded Contract

Teamlease Quarterly Report

TeamLease Services Private Limited, India’s largest staffing solutions organization, has recently released its fourth quarterly employment outlook report for the period between July and September 2007. The report comes from India PRWire.
According to the TeamLease Employment Outlook report, the financial services sector has reflected maximum growth both in terms of hiring prospects and business outlook. The same can be said for infrastructure. The Employment Outlook growth for the quarter suggests a 2% increase over last quarter while business outlook remains constant at 90 index points. New Delhi, which has witnessed a downturn over the last three quarters, suggested a positive trend in hiring as well as business at 5% this quarter. Urban hiring remains consistent a 3% for both quarters.
Key Highlights of the report include:
The Financial Services sector shows the highest growth this quarter (34 index points) as compared to the previous three quarters.
Retail, Media and FMCG continue to remain at a 12 point constant as compared to previous quarters.
Mumbai shows a 2% decline in net employment as well as business outlook at 91 and 95 index points respectively for the current quarter.
The BFSI sector hits an all time high at 96 index points which is a 5% increase as compared to the previous quarter.

Increase in Outsourcing

Demand for outsourcing in the Asia-Pacific grew strongly in the first half of 2007, compared to the same period last year. This information is in relevance to the latest Quarterly Index from sourcing advisors TPI. The total value of new (as opposed to renewed or restructured) outsourcing contracts in the US $25 Million plus bracket, where the most significant outsourcing activity occurs, is US $5.4 Billion, an increase of 100% over the first half of 2006. This strong Asia-Pacific performance is in sharp contrast to a modest overall global increase in new business of only 6% in the first half of 2007.
Highlights of the Index include:
The Asia-Pacific market shows 3 straight half-years of new business growth.
The Asia-Pacific BPO market bucks the global trend.
Inclusion of offshore delivery in outsourcing deals hit record highs.
Telecoms sector leads in outsourcing contract value.

Philips BPO Unit

Unconfirmed reports are playing rounds in the market that Electronics Major, Philips is all set to sell its BPO operations to Infosys, India’s largest software leader. The deal is pegged at US $200 Million. Philips currently employs roughly 1500 people in its BPO units operating in Chennai, Bangkok and Warsaw. The acquisition should be a positive event for both companies. Critics have their say that Philips BPO unit experiences higher attrition and other issues which add to higher operating costs that impact the company’s balance sheet. Philips BPO unit in Chennai currently supports F&A processes for its parent company and deploys SAP, according to informed sources. Infosys BPO unit enjoys a strong hold on F&A process outsourcing, so the acquisition should prove positive for the latter if the reports emerge true. This is just another example of major consolidation drives experienced by the Indian BPO sector after reports that CitiGroup plans to sell its BPO.
Disclaimer - HRO Manager does not verify or hold responsibility for the authenticity or validity of the views expressed herein by the Contributor and the views purely belong to the Contributor.

Indian HR Outsourcing Prices

HR Outsourcing companies with operating centers in India need to reevaluate their pricing structure for current and future contracts, in view of the appreciating Indian Rupee versus the American Dollar. The current exchange rate for $1 anywhere is fluctuating between 40 to 41 Indian Rupees which is almost a 10% drop in the American Dollar against the Rupee when compared to the past 6 months of data. This is already showing a little impact on the earnings of Indian outsourcing companies in general, who entered into contracts at the higher rates. The impact is not merely limited to HRO companies, but to almost every company dependant on US contracts. The current average pricing cost per employee annually is $677 for an HRO contract per EquaTerra Research. Indian HRO companies need to look at this pricing structure and compare their current and future pricings before negotiating with buyers.
On the other hand, Indian HRO companies are also experiencing talent shortage and higher wage costs which are again contributing factors for a reevaluation of their pricing structures.

ARINSO International

Rev-Trac changed management solutions for its SAP-based business information infrastructure. ARINSO employs over 2,500 staff in 27 countries on five continents and provides HR solutions to one in five of the world’s largest companies. Through the HR management systems that it currently has installed, ARINSO serves over 6 million employees. In addition, its HR Outsourcing solutions now serve 600,000 employees worldwide. ARINSO is part of UK-based Northgate Information Solutions.
Globally, Rev-Trac provides enhanced change control capabilities to many major organizations with SAO-based IT systems. At ARINSO, Rev-Trac brings the ability to manage customers by rapidly changing HR needs efficiently, effectively, in an auditable manner and at the lowest cost. It will help ARINSO to ensure its outsourced services remain cost competitive, even in highly regulated environments. ARINSO selected Rev-Trac because it can enforce change control processes, provide automated workflow and automated transport migrations and has built-in sequencing error prevention. Together these capabilities were considered a compelling argument for partnering with RSC in change management technology, according to a report from PRNewswire.
The decision of ARINSO to partner with Revelation Software to enhance its existing HRMS platform SAP suggests ARINSO is likely to continue with SAO solutions and its migration to Northgate’s HR solutions is still uncertain. Many know that when Northgate announced its acquisition of ARINSO, analysts wanted to wait and see whether ARINSO would continue with its present technology SAO or migrate slowly to Northgate HR solutions. However, the current partnership with Revelation Software offers us the fact that ARINSO might still want to continue with SAO, at least in the near long term. This is an interesting development that was discussed during the recent web cast hosted jointly by EquaTerra and IDC on Changes in HR Outsourcing. During the presentation a participant raised the question on how the Northgate acquisition of ARINSO can be viewed and one of the panelists answered that this is an interesting development and rather a very bold move on the part of Northgate. She also shared that it will be interesting to see how ARINSO will make the decision on its technology, whether it will choose to go with SAO or Northgate proprietary software.

Two Major HRO Players Form Alliance

SuccessFactors, Inc., the leader in on-demand performance and talent management solutions, announced today that TriNet Group, a nationwide provider of human resource (HR) outsourcing services, will offer SuccessFactors performance and talent management solutions to TriNet’s customer base of small and medium-sized businesses, in order to enable them to optimize employee performance and productivity and to achieve overall business goals. For the complete news story please visit: HR Outsourcing.

EquaTerra Outsourcing Reports

In the recent EquaTerra and IDC joint Flash report web cast on HR Outsourcing changes for 2007, interesting facts and forecasts were presented to the participants. EquaTerra is best known to the industry players for their advisory and research expertise in HRO and hence it does not need a special mention. This is also the case with IDC.
During the web cast, EquaTerra founder, Mark Hodges, and IDC Program Manager, Lisa Rowan, jointly presented the presentation that dealt extensively with HRO trends, market forecasts, contract analysis, market demand and supply and lessons learned.
HRO highlights 2007 from EquaTerra:
HRO pricing is increasing as well as HRO provider profitability.
Global HRO deals are on a decline with only 2 to 4 projected for 2007.
Large sophisticated buyers seek more global solution offerings yet best in class solutions and regional approaches will dominate.
Demand is outstripping supply and providers are capacity constrained.
All HRO providers are suffering from service delivery issues.
HRO renegotiation and re-competing have begun.
New providers are still entering the market.
HRO is still an underutilized performance improvement option in global 2000 organizations and even more so in the mid-market.
Lower cost and offshore delivery are still underutilized and less mature in HRO.