Next Gen News

There is nothing new about outsourcing: the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker had their supply chains, too. But the scale of it is new. Some 86% of organisations outsource some operations, and well over a third of public service workers are employed by private and voluntary sectors. This means millions of people effectively work not for a single organisation, but for networks of subcontractors, many of whose interests they are under some obligation to satisfy, but none of whom could be said to be entirely responsible for the work.

When Xchanging takes over a client's staff, it works to a six-point plan. First, there is "disorientation" as transferred staff are led to doubt the wisdom of their old work habits. Next comes a period of "self-examination", leading to "mutual change recognition" - the feeling that their new employer might have something to offer, then "realignment" followed by the construction of a "new service mindset", and so on.

If that sounds a bit like having an operation, it may have something to do with "transactional" outsourcing's fundamental principles. The industry applies lean manufacturing techniques - consistency, standardisation - to services. Every process is analysed for efficiency, innovation and the potential use of technology, in an echo of the classic 19th century scientific management approach to factory productivity.

When Maurice Glasman - for his work with the campaign of Ed Miliband, ennobled, and now a prominent "Blue Labour 'thinkers - is reflected in a book of essays, although it was difficult to meet to get with executives, points out the similarities at shareholder meetings proved highly contagious. "It was always ... more time than not, has led to the cleaning and catering staff, back into the house."

Cost trumps quality