Offshoring gives multinational companies opportunities to create more values at lower costs; but what about Change Management ?

Offshoring gives multinational companies opportunities to create more values at lower costs. That means boost in productivity for the global economy – a bigger pie for everyone to share. But gains don’t flow automatically to the people it affects… Offshoring accelerate the pace of change in every society it affects.*

I am currently working on that kind of project. With the help of a strong team (Anne, Anna, Big thank you if you read this post), we have developed a methodology to mitigate the hardships of those who are impacted and ‘build bridges’ between teams and continents.

This the first post of a serie of 10 that will cover this topic. Let’s start by the beginning :

 Offshoring projects are projects aiming at offshoring a part or a whole business activity in another country . These projects have major impacts since they generally lead to :

• Change of business processes with new actors and business rules
• New organizations (to be aligned with processes),
• Change of skills of impacted populations,
• New resources offshored.

For Offshoring projects, the impacts on organizations, people and business are huge. Thus Change management is a key activity and a key enabler to ensure a smooth transition.

From a Human Resources perspective:
• Redeployment of resources,
• New offshore Teams Recruitment & Ramp up on business activities,
• Onshore teams transition to new skills/organization,
• Extended team management with possibly remote management,
• Multicultural differences.

From a Business Perspective:

• Continuity of Business activity,
• Fluidity and efficiency of processes,
• Support the development of analysis skills for onshore teams (usually identified as a key benefit in offshoring activities),
• Follow up KPIs and reach ROI.

The next post will cover the 4 Key principle for Change Management within offshoring projects.

* Offshoring, Understand the emerging Global Labor market- McKinsey Global Institute – Edited by Diana Farrell – Harvard Business school Press.
**Picture : Flickr, Andy Kaye, Ganesha
*** Thanks to Anne & Anna for their great contribution to this post.