'Outsourced' is a new show on NBC that follows the story of a young American manager, Todd Dempsy, who runs a phone room of outsourced Indian employees.
The story begins with Todd's company closing it's US office and laying off all of its employees; Todd is forced to move to Mumbai, India to head up the operation there, which will cost the corporation far less in the end to maintain.
Beyond the funny facade of the show - the story of 'Outsourced' is a situation that many Americans have faced; except they haven't even been offered a managerial position in India.
They end up losing their work because it can be cheaper to outsource the same job overseas.
So it makes sense that the word 'outsourced' or 'outsourcing' brings up a number of negative connotations for Americans.
However, many people don't know that outsourcing isn't something that always means going to foreign countries for work.
Outsourcing is something that takes place everyday on American soil - it simply means going outside of a company's internal resources to find experts in a specific field.
Let's say your company were to throw a big party for a client; the planning process would require several layers of outsourcing.
A caterer would need to be brought on to handle the food and drink.
A designer would need to get the space ready for the event.
These 'outsourced' companies or individuals would be employed because they have specific talents that would not be found internally.
The same goes for Recruitment Process Outsourcing.
It means bringing in a qualified company to fill in for a lack of internal recruiting resources.
Recruiting and hiring can be one of the most difficult sectors to get right: for good reason.
Essentially, recruiting means finding a company the perfect candidate for a specific job opening.
This means funneling a number of applicants through a solicitation and interview process to determine the best fit for the job.
This requires a great deal of applicant tracking resources and collaboration between several individuals on the chain of hiring.
Quite a lot can go wrong during the recruiting process: including competing companies going after the same candidate, and the pursued talent backtracking on where they want to be placed.
In order to minimize the problems that could occur, recruiting professionals need to be in charge of the process.
In the end, outsourcing, particularly in the recruiting sector, is a risk-reward equation.
If a company is considering utilizing a recruitment process outsourcing firm they need to ask themselves this question:is finding the best talent available integral to our business success?If the reward in hiring the top employees in the industry trumps the risk of outsourcing their recruiting process, than it makes sense for a company to outsource.
So the next time you think about the word 'outsourced' - try to keep this positive connotation in mind.
Outsourcingis an integral and necessary process to keep a business competitive and on the cutting-edge of innovation.