Demystifying Outsourcing.

Demystifying Outsourcing, by Debbie Friedman, Book, 2006, Pfeiffer & Company, $50.

Turning Training Inside Out

Outsourcing has become a controversial word, negative to some, positive to others, but an essential practice for much of the global business community. To many professionals in the workplace, learning and performance community outsourcing has become a fact of life in the execution of their jobs.

It is a complicated process, very expensive yet potential contributor to the corporate bottom line. It is an accepted practice--perhaps I should say an expected practice--in the process of training and developing employees, consultants, vendor partners, and other human resources essential to the successful operation of a twenty-first century company.

Demystifying Outsourcing: The Trainer's Guide to Working With Vendors and Consultants aims to hone your skills in the art of outsourcing the training process.

In the misty past, training and development were the responsibility of the human resources or personnel department. We have come a long way, haven't we? The Personnel Department has evolved into Human Capital Management, and this management responsibility may now include humans who are not even employees of the company!

That's where books such as Demystifying Outsourcing come in. The evolution of managing human capital has reached new heights thanks to the advent of computers and the Internet.

We can't just stick our heads into the office next door or meet for lunch to discuss a current or future project when the person we want to talk to is working 1,000 miles away in a different time zone or halfway around the world a day apart. As Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

Demystifying Outsourcing is divided into five sections:

* Building strategic foundations

* Identifying and selecting partners

* Navigating projects while strengthening partnerships

* Addressing challenges of partnerships

* Expanding personal capability

Also included is a CD-ROM that contains:

* 28 worksheets

* Eight learning journal exhibits

* Five sample project management forms

The largest section of the book (148 pages) is the third, "Navigating projects while strengthening partnerships." Clearly the scope of the workplace learning and performance professional has changed. We are no longer managing or guiding or designing the training event (at least not by ourselves).

Our responsibility and skill set must now include project management and vendor management as well as the more traditional time management, training design skills, training analysis expertise, training development know-how, and so on.

Perhaps you are a line manager and have been asked to develop training events. In fact, this situation is more common now than it was before globalization kicked into high gear.

Some chapters are focused on you and your personal skills gaps or prowess, others are on the art and science of the outsourcing process, and still others concentrate on aspects of the training process. The author suggests that you approach the book in a linear fashion if new to outsourcing or just jump to chapters as needed if you have outsourcing experience.

My impression of the book is that it offers a very comprehensive overview of the outsourcing process and seems to encompass the myriad details involved in executing an outsourcing strategy for corporate training events. The book should be supplemented with others that develop subjects such as training design theory in more detail or writing a request for proposal (RFP) or contract.

I found the learning journal concept introduced in the book to be an interesting and effective approach to putting thoughts, actions, and events in more perspective. Journaling may or may not be your strong suit, but it has its uses and helps organize one's thoughts as you map your outsourcing projects. They also give you a documented history of your projects for future reference.

As the author suggests, she has written Demystifying Outsourcing from the inside of the corporation versus the outside consultant's viewpoint--so this book is intended for inside trainers and HR people, not consultants.

Recommendation

Demystifying Outsourcing provides useful, sensible guidance for managing both internal and external people, processes, and other resources. But be sure to consult books written by such authors as Block, Clark, Kirkpatrick and others to supplement this one.

Review by Barbara Fillicaro

Product Ratings

Demystifying Outsourcing

Overall rating  ***