As the economic downturn affecting many global organisations shows little sign of coming to an end, managing your greatest asset, your employees, is possibly more important now than ever before. Some of the challenges facing the HR executive are:

a) the pressure to increase shareholder value forcing HR to better manage costs;
b) the rapid changes in technology and lack of skilled IT resources are resulting in organisations considering external HRIS options; and
c) the growing need for meaningful management information, both enterprise wide and by specific group or business unit. 

The result is that HR has to reinvent it's service delivery measures in order to get the most from employees when resources are scarce, deal with the uncertainties the future holds, and find innovative ways to ease the demands that the HR executive is facing.  Outsourcing could be seen as one of the potential solutions.

One can hardly imagine a company today that does not outsource some aspect of it's HR function, even if it is only the fund management of it's pension scheme.  The objective of outsourcing (generally) is to free up the internal resources so that HR can concentrate on strategic issues important for the overall wellbeing of the company.  Often organisations hire unsuitably qualified individuals, due to the lack of skills, to perform this critical function.  This results in senior managers spending inordinate amounts of time trying to maintain control, taking valuable time from the more strategic issues they should be addressing. Managing a payroll is a highly skilled profession.  The skills that are required but which may not be available internally, are the driving factor for many HR organisations to outsource. 

As a rule, HR outsourced service providers deliver the management of transaction-orientated functions such as payroll.  However, outsourcing does not have to be limited; an improved total HR service which is strategically focused and aligned with the organisation which delivers tangible bottom line results should drive the decision to outsource, with not only the extent of savings being considered. The challenge is to find a total outsourced solution that will ensure a high quality service and free up the time of your HR and Finance executives, which at the same time provides them with the critical management information they require. 

So why outsource?

Source - SHRM Outsourcing Survey 2004

What could go wrong?

• Poor design and implementation
• Lack of emphasis on change management and communications
• Lack of client resources for transition
• Lack of capability in the client organisation - they have not done it before
• Unclear approval and decision making process
• Under-utilisation of third-party experts
• Too much emphasis on short-term goals

The key to outsourcing is the development of successful, long term partnerships between the outsourcing provider and end-user.  The outsource specialist can take responsibility for some of the non-core functions of the business, releasing the HR executive to concentrate on other areas on expertise which are of more direct benefit to the business and bottom line.

At Educos Vision Services we develop, implement and outsource our products and services to companies both in South Africa and internationally.  Our solutions have evolved over the past 25 years and offer our clients a fully integrated, flexible and totally customisable solution for managing all aspects of HR and Payroll management, including a total outsourced solution.   We take a slightly different approach to "off-the-shelf" solutions, and tailor our solutions to your needs to provide the flexibility and process automation that is required to run your business more efficiently.   Our solutions are able to integrate with any other third party software, and part of our implementation strategy is to define what system integration would be required and include this as part of your total solution.

Our highly talented developers, business analysts, specialists and consultants assist organisations with evaluating the complexities associated with managing Human Resources and Payroll efficiently and effectively, demonstrating how vital it has become to have a comprehensive service addressing both the management of processes and information. 

With our experience in providing service excellence for 25 years have absolute confidence that our solutions will add value to your organisation.