Executive Summary:

Recent times have seen increased adoption of global sourcing (GS) across multiple business functions. Organizations are looking at GS not only from a cost-savings perspective but also as a strategic enabler in terms of getting access to specialized skill-sets and achieving scalability. Within an outsourcing context, suppliers are increasingly leveraging a global delivery approach so as to offer services at the optimal price and quality. With buyers realizing value, this has only led to increased adoption of global sourcing.

Compared to other BPO functions like call centers and finance and accounting (F&A), human resources (HR) has seen limited adoption of GS; but changes are afoot. Some of the factors that are positively influencing offshoring, especially within HR outsourcing (HRO) are:

• A “transform-transfer” approach that creates streamlined processes with better documentation
• A phased approach to offshoring, leading to better success
• Increased maturity of offshore delivery locations
• Increasing buyers’ comfort in receiving services from an offshore location, especially non-employee-facing transactional work

While the adoption levels are already increasing in the large market segment (the >15K employees segment), the inherent characteristic of the mid-market (3K-15K segment) should result in increased adoption of offshoring.

This whitepaper discusses:

• Current adoption of GS in HR and the changing dynamics
• Value proposition of GS in HR
• Suppliers’ GS strategy in HRO
• Considerations for choosing an appropriate offshore location
• The risks and potential mitigation strategies