systematicHR

Who are you?

With the recent glut of HRO and other outsourcing deals, it’s obvious that some employees are going to be invited to stick around, and others will be given the pink slip. With over 100 HRO deals out there (defined as fully outsourcing at least 5-6 processes), there have been a fairly large number of people and companies who have gone through the process of picking who and which positions are worth keeping.

While this process has always existed in outsourcing, never has it been as prominent as it is now. For example, if you outsourced payroll to ADP 5 years ago, you may not have needed to keep people intact for printing and distributing payroll, but you certainly needed to keep an eye on daily payroll processing. With the added service most HRO organizations are putting up, you’re really retaining just a few key players: a director level practitioner, and perhaps tax and a couple others. The department transition goes much deeper than pure task level administration.

It should be stated however, that we’re not talking about selecting the “right people” for an organization to move forward with. Sometimes the right person simply holds a job that isn’t needed anymore, and no matter how hard an organization looks, the organization simply can’t locate an appropriate spot for him/her in the new model. You might be the best benefits clerk in the world, but the company’s growth path simply does not include 5 years of mentorship to get you to a point where your skills become fully utilized.

So who are these retained people and who are the “right” people? Well, if your organization has spent at least $10’s of millions and possibly $100’s you can feel pretty sure that some good thought has gone into identifying the right mix, skills, positions and people to retain. Who are you? Hard to say without knowing your organization, but chances are you are hard working, analytical, growth oriented, understand the organization mission, and get the meaning of metrics and process. Perhaps not all of that at once, and perhaps none of those initially, but certainly you’ve showed the necessary growth potential. You’ve also shown the ability to work cross functionally and collaboratively rather than silo-ing yourself off from your potential partners.

Let’s face it: it’s possible that you also didn’t get retained when there was a valid spot open. Going back to payroll, perhaps they needed a payroll director and you’re the incumbent. You might be the perfect person to process payrolls on a bi-weekly basis, but not the right person to continue moving the organizational strategy forward. Since your entire process has been outsourced, you’ve become a highly paid liability unless you can change your skillset quickly to focus on strategy rather than process. In these cases, your replacement is now part of an organization, not retained.