Offshoring, Smart Business Or Shortsightedness?

Companies have been outsourcing work for many years. This trend has been carried to an extreme in the case of offshoring - sending work and jobs to other countries where labor is cheaper.

Outsourcing made sense. Specialized companies provided their services to many client companies at lower prices than the client companies could do the work in-house. Both companies, the service provider and the client, profited from the arrangement. Unfortunately, like the building of conglomerates before it, outsourcing got carried to extremes. Companies began outsourcing work to the lowest bidder and lost sight of the effect it had on the company except for finances. Outsourcing this work to "foreign" or "offshore" companies, solely to take advantage of lower labor rates in those countries, became known as offshoring.

The offshoring of professional and technical jobs by US companies is done to save money, but it has raised concerns. As the US struggles to recover from recession, the rate of job creation lags far behind the expected pace. There is growing concern that this is due to offshoring.

Offshoring is neither the cure-all it has been portrayed by business nor the economy-destroying monster laid-off workers claim. While offshoring does have financial advantages for businesses, these advantages are often far smaller than first anticipated due to hidden costs. There are also non-financial costs to businesses from offshoring, including lowered public perception and reduced morale/productivity from remaining staff. Offshoring can be beneficial for workers of the US companies because their employers will be financially stronger and better able to compete.

Initially, manufacturing jobs were outsourced. Other countries were able to manufacture goods more cheaply than in the US because of lower standards of living and less restrictive laws and environmental regulations. Recently, companies have begun outsourcing service jobs as well. The motivation here is solely financial. As this new wave of outsourcing hits the middle class, struggling with a near job-less period of economic recovery, many citizens and lawmakers are beginning to question the wisdom of offshoring.

For decades companies expanded their conglomerates by buying other companies. Initially these companies were related businesses, often suppliers. Soon the conglomerates began buying companies with no relation. Profit motives and the desire to be the biggest became sufficient justification. Ultimately, the conglomerates began to collapse under the weight of the acquired companies. Profits started falling and companies began to retract to their "core" businesses. Next they discovered that they could shed even core functions by hiring them out to companies that could do them more efficiently and, thus, less expensively. Payroll processing was subcontracted. Shipping was farmed out. So was manufacturing. Companies were hired to do collections, customer call centers, and employee benefits. Collectively, this was called outsourcing.

Outsourcing made sense. Specialized companies provided their services to many client companies at lower prices than the client companies could do the work in-house. Both companies, the service provider and the client, profited from the arrangement. Unfortunately, like the building of conglomerates before it, outsourcing got carried to extremes. Companies began outsourcing work to the lowest bidder and lost sight of the effect it had on the company except for finances. Outsourcing this work to "foreign" or "offshore" companies, solely to take advantage of lower labor rates in those countries, became known as offshoring.

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