Business process outsourcing (BPO) is now part of everyday life, from IT to HR to call centers within big companies. What has interested me is how outsourcing impacts a company's reputation and brand, both with customers and with employees.
This first came to mind when I was waiting for my luggage to arrive after a Midwest Airlines flight from New York to Milwaukee. One customer thought it was taking longer than normal for the bags to arrive and asked a nearby customer service rep why. Her answer was, "We've outsourced our baggage handling." This made me consider a few things about outsourcing and brand perception:
- There needs to be employee buy-in when essential functions are outsourced, especially those that touch customers. The airline rep thought saying baggage handling had been outsourced was an acceptable answer to the customer's question, but it's not. She was offloading her responsibility of good customer service, clearly not happy about the decision to outsource. Employee buy-in with BPO is no doubt difficult but seems required so an "us-them" mentality does not develop between retained employees and the outsourced staff. Customer service cannot suffer because some employees do not agree with the outsourcing decision. A brand is a relationship, and these types of incidents can be damaging.
- Outsourced employees need to understand and live up to the values of the organization. I considered this point that day in the airport also. The customer service rep clearly was frustrated because the outsourced baggage handlers were not living up to quality of service standards previously established by paid employees. It's essential that the BPO provider work with its client to understand and reinforce the values of the organization with its staff so the level of service is not degraded. Otherwise, brand love will decrease as well.
I consider the second point most often in cases of HR outsourcing when a BPO provider takes over the company's recruiting functions. How do recruiters learn the employer brand promise, values and voice of the organization and reflect those with job seekers? I'm sure there is a detailed process to get them up to speed, but consider this:
I am a job seeker and apply for a position at Company ABC where HR and recruiting are outsourced. I have a bad experience with a recruiter who is part of the BPO. My perception of the company is affected negatively, but is actually based on experience with the BPO provider, not the employer itself. I go on to tell others about my negative experience via word of mouth brand hate toward the hiring company. Here is my question - does the employer, at any point, have any idea this has happened? BPO firms often have service level agreements they must live up to, but how can the employer measure brand perception and possible degradation with candidates?
I know that outsourcing is happening constantly, and in many cases it allows a company to have work done 24/7 (IT outsourcing to India, for example). But there also seems to be much work that has to be done around buy-in, training and measurement (babysitting?) to make sure BPO is working, especially in cases when the outsourced staff works directly with customers.
