BETWEEN 2 and 4 per cent of current Australian jobs could potentially be moved off shore, with HR being one of the prime candidates, according to a recent report
BETWEEN 2 and 4 per cent of current Australian jobs could potentially be moved offshore, with HR being one of the prime candidates, according to a recent report.
Released by consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, it examines the potential for outsourcing jobs offshore and the advantages and disadvantages of global outsourcing for Australian companies.
It found that the types of jobs currently being moved offshore include human resources, finance and accounting, financial analysis, customer support/call centres, health care support services, transaction processing and computer.
Administrative HR functions such as payroll processing, benefits administration, employee data records maintenance, time card entry, distance training and HR application maintenance were being moved offshore.
However, the Outsourcing Globally: Trends and Implications of Offshoring for Australia report found that the number of jobs that could be moved offshore is lower than many would have expected for a number of reasons.
Seventy-three per cent of Australia’s labour force serves domestic service industries that cannot be moved offshore, such as retail trade, accommodation, cafes and restaurants, health and community services and cultural and recreational services.
In addition, outsourcing is largely about scale and the ability to provide services at a more competitive cost. Jobs that are likely to be moved offshore are expected to come from larger companies (more than 100 employees). When looking at business growth, 66 per cent of employed persons are in businesses with less than 99 employees.
“Offshoring is not for every firm and certainly not for every business process,” said Tim Jackson, managing director for Booz Allen Hamilton in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.
“As senior managers in Australian companies look at which functions could be offshored, they need to work out whether it makes sense, taking into account a wide range of considerations including cost, quality and reliability.”
Job types not only include manual labour or call centre work, but are also targeting middle class university educated professionals.
The report said this becomes a reality in the light of the potential job losses at Telstra, with up to 1,500 IT jobs being relocated overseas. “This represents around 4 per cent of their employee base,” it found.
