signs your job is going to get outsourced-

[lane912]

your boss sends you this---

Hello team, I have been asked to fill in the blank of what we do and wanted to reach out to your for help. Here are the items need by 12pm tomorrow.

Number of years in the industry and any special individual skills or how the employee may provide a specialized talent in your current role

What specifically does your job or role support? Why Is the role critical to the business

List all of your role’s responsibilities/job functions



Thank you

[stomachmonkey]

Start looking.

[LakeCleElum]

When my sisiter-in-law's investment house out-sourced jobs to India: They didn't get their severance pay until they had trained their replacement was flown in for a week.

[jwgn777]

When the management of your company,shop, or office starts to repair or correct all of the problems that your crew has been grieving for years then start worrying.

[Craig T]

If it's a big company, they may have simply hired The Hay Group or Towers Watson to do an HR efficiency study or job description categories for a future comp plan. It doesn't mean you're going to be let go or outsourced.

If you have a 40 hour exempt (salaried) job, and you have three hours a day to kill playing online backgammon, then worry. if you're breaking your back to get the work done in 50 hours like 99% of the middle and upper management workforce, you probably don't have too much to worry about.

if you manage servers or IT function that can go to the cloud…Worry.

[Red88Carrera]

Sounds more like a buy-out than out-sourcing. Perspective buyers want to see what's in the talent pool.

[Craig T]

Originally Posted by Red88Carrera

Sounds more like a buy-out than out-sourcing. Perspective buyers want to see what's in the talent pool.

A pending M&A deal could be the case. If the acquisition review has passed the preliminary phase, and a Letter of Intent has been executed, they would go into this level of due diligence for sure. Typically, it's kept tight to the HR director to answer these question and not made so obvious to the employees. Nothing is worse than spooking the FTE's before the deal closes…Unless it's a roll-up and the acquirer is cherry-picking and they don't care about employee moral in the interim.

Hope this isn't the case…Because they would be looking for duplicative staffing expense to trim during integration or consolidation.

[emcon5]

[Scuba Steve]

^
This was my reaction as well. To me it sounds like justification of headcount.

[sammyg2]

Late last year corporate instructed HR to put together a list of people considered "top performers" and if they'd be willing to relocate to another state.
Most were convinced there was a massive headcount reduction in the works.

Turns out they were just developing a contingency plan in case of a strike and a progression development program.

I look at it this way: if there's not much you can do about it, why worry? it might be nothing.

[cstreit]

Lots of reasons that this might be happening other than that. You might just ask the originating exec and your boss? Assess the answer critically.

It can never hurt to be conservative and look at your options. Worst case you simply get affirmation that you're in the right job.

[herr_oberst]

When I worked for a great big Beaverton, Oregon-based company (rhymes with "Crikey"), my job bounced between FTE and contractor; I'm currently employed by a "Crikey" vendor, doing the exact same job I did when I worked behind the rampart.
I never had to fill out an evaluation or train my replacement though, so your situation is most likely completely different.

[Craig T]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Late last year corporate instructed HR to put together a list of people considered "top performers" and if they'd be willing to relocate to another state.
Most were convinced there was a massive headcount reduction in the works.

Turns out they were just developing a contingency plan in case of a strike and a progression development program.

I look at it this way: if there's not much you can do about it, why worry? it might be nothing.

I give odds that this is the case ^^^^^

Strategic HR is very big right now. 20 years ago HR leaders were basically recruiters and benefits managers stuck in middle management. Now, the top HR manager is typically in the top five highest paid persons in senior management, and even CAO (Chief Admin Officer). Strategic HR initiatives are right up there with sales and ops now that we're nearing full-employement.

Unless you hear acquisition rumors, I would;t worry to much.

[aigel]

Whoa - this is a direct manager asking his / her staff?

This information required is something a direct manager should have readily available without having to go to the employees. Not just on top of her / his head but from annual performance reviews, job description at time of hiring, resume, training records. A well managed department and company has this available - 15 min work per head to put the latest update together.

Going out and asking your employees to do this themselves in an email is about as bad as it gets. I would not want to work for such a boss. You go ask my boss what I do, why I'm critical to the business etc, and he will rattle that off in seconds. Same for everyone on his team, including indirect reports.

I don't know the motivation for this exercise, but this is not a place I'd work at. May be a good place to hide in - not my cup of tea. I'll work hard or retire, but not in-between.

G

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Exactly. What kind of manager would even do this? I know I wouldn't! It's all info. I know already and I should be advocating for my people as best I can (after all if they're laid off its more work for me and makes me more vulnerable since I am then overseeing fewer people and am more likely to fail as my remaining staff gets spread too thin and morale crumbles).

If my bosses ever asked me to get this information from my people I'd fill it out myself and I'd definitely tell them about it - and that it might be a good time to start looking for other jobs. Companies get so hush-hush about impending layoffs but I won't play that game - if my company were to ever consider it I think the people potentially affected have a right to know so they can start preparing for any eventualities earlier. I'm more concerned about the people that work for me, their families and their well being than I am with lowered productivity (usually by the time a company gets to this point, productivity and morale are in the tank anyway - people usually can tell something's up and aren't as stupid as upper management likes to think they are) or someone going nuts and sabotaging the office or whatever.

[Scuba Steve]

It's surprisingly common for managers to not know around here. If they stay in one place for more than 4-6 months they're old timers. All they do is shuffle managers from one group to another for some reason, but the only thing it does is enhance their general cluelessness.

[onewhippedpuppy]

George, that was my thought. If they have to ask, they aren't much of a manager.

"So, what is it you do here?" - The Bobs.

[sammyg2]

Too many managers delegate EVERYTHING, even things they could and should do themselves.
Suppose you have a manager that knows what to write, but looks at it like a PITA and doesn't want to be bothered with it.
So he passes it down the food chain (innaporopriately) and makes his reports do it.

Power changes people, usually for the worse.
If that's the case then realistically, HE (or she) is the one who should be worried about his job.

But then again ..............................................

[Bill Douglas]

A place where I worked there was an Indian chap sitting by himself in the lunch room. I thought show the visitor some hospitality and started chatting with him. It turned out he was from Bangalor and was here to work out the details of taking out tech support jobs from us. Nice guy, and he was just doing his job. At least I had forewarning the sneaky employer was planning to throw us out for what they (mistakenly) thought was a cheaper option.

[oldE]

About 20 years ago, the company brought in some consultants to look over the business and try to find ways of doing things more efficiently.
I was a branch manager and told the consultant that I really did nothing, as long as everything else was going well. It was when the fecal matter hit the fan that I got busy.
Within 9 years most of the branches (including two of mine) were closed.
I got to take a new career path.
Best
Les