Organisations will be more open with staff and unions about their outsourcing and offshoring intentions and stop treating it as a clandestine business process in 2005, experts predict.
In the past, many have hidden outsourcing intentions from staff, which can result in unrest, and even strike action, as occurred in 2004 during a dispute between Swansea City Council and its IT workers.
But best practice body the National Outsourcing Association said organisations have learned lessons from these mistakes, predicting that the majority of those planning outsourcing will get unions on board at an early stage.
This year will also see what it describes as the moral panic about offshoring abate with “brimstone declarations” on outsourcing beginning to wane, the NAO believes.
Martyn Hart, chairman of the National Outsourcing Association, said that 2004 was a contentious and interesting period for outsourcing and offshoring.
“Far from simply settling down and consolidating, 2005 will see the emergence of stronger growth and further changes in what areas and services are outsourced.
“There is little doubt that the interest and debate in outsourcing and offshoring will continue to burgeon in 2005,” he added.
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