the softer side of international relocation

[pms]

GM, for example, estimates it will save $3.7m a year by outsourcing its
travel-expense processes to Captura, representing a 93% cost reduction.
"We'll be able to take half the people out of the back-end T&E management
process alone, from 23 employees down to 11," says Michael Osment, CIO of
GM's enterprise activities group. "We're also saving several hundred
thousand a year by eliminating paper receipts, and that doesn't even count
the people administrating this. Ditto the savings on postage, imaging costs,
copying and just plain keeping track of everything."
***
Wage garnishments alone, for everything from unions and child support to
motor-vehicle obligations, consumed countless hours. And with 30 separate
fields to be filled out on each paycheck, Wherehouse was immersed in a
clerical nightmare, while such issues as recruiting, benefits and employee
retention got short shrift. ProBusiness not only handles routine functions
but also provides high-level data on what Matt Keller, ProBusiness's client
support manager, dubs "the true cost of employees", which can help
Wherehouse make better decisions on whom to hire and how to staff each
store.

********
Defining your core

Offloading tedious functions may enable a company to focus on more important
things, but it's not always easy to determine what to outsource and what to
keep. "Look at Ford," says Ms Ross. "It now makes tons of money doing credit
financing, and is saving vast sums by leveraging a network of global
suppliers. Its core competence is shifting."
Had it subcontracted those functions in order to focus on building cars,
might it have missed key opportunities? That gives Mr Penhale more time to
focus on the softer side of international relocation. "Instead of making
sure service levels are defined and measured, and everything is running
smoothly and paid for, which Exult does now, we're giving our attention to
real human relations, which is what HR is about anyway," he says. "A
contented workforce is a better workforce."

http://www.economistgroup.com/

Like that GM exec said last year, soon the guys in the plaid coats will be a
thing of the past.  I got a chill from "the true cost of employees" thing.
With the inflation in health care costs who's gonna hire anyone over 40?