Metagrobolize

Mad Deskillings

Hip-hop performers are sometimes said to have “mad skills,” and this is a good thing. I’m hearing about what might be called “mad deskilling.”

It is not a good thing.

More often in global outsourcing these days the rather artless (literally) words deskill and deskilling are being bandied about. The dictionary defines deskilling as “the elimination of the need for skilled labor in an industry, especially by the introduction of high technology.” It also refers to the downgrade of a job or occupation from a skilled to a semiskilled or unskilled position.

You can guess how I feel about this. I neither like nor agree with the assertion that jobs can be dumbed down to the point that they can be performed in a piecemeal manner. Performed more efficiently? Sure. But done without any design, master plan or measurement? Absolutely not.

Collaborative work is work done as part of a group. And that means there’s a shared goal or at least a common purpose. As with almost any group activity there is some element of social interaction to the work in addition to the task fulfillment. Trust comes into it. Read the rest of this entry »

So Your Job is in the Outsourcing Cross Hairs

No question: If your job is “in scope” for an outsourcing endeavor, you will experience change, which can be disconcerting to say the least.

Knowing that knowledge often brings comfort, I thought it might be useful to share some of the tactics that companies use when trying to decide how/if to transfer employees to an outside service provider.

They frequently ask these questions or ones much like them:

• How would you describe the culture and demography of your organization? What’s your staff turnover rate?
• How will you handle the sensitivities and concerns of transitioned staff?
• How do you typically integrate and develop new employees?
• Describe the process you use to harmonize conditions between a client’s staff and your own in line with “generally comparable (contractual) terms and conditions.”

Transparency and providing people with as much lead-time as possible are key principles of well-designed sourcing programs, and the good news is that most companies genuinely are committed to ensuring consistent and fair treatment of employees in the event of outsourcing.

At the same time, most of the industry’s service providers are looking to add talent to their ranks.