Outsourcing: A Controversial Subject In Today's Business World

Outsourcing is one of the most controversial subjects in today’s business world. Outsourcing is defined as the practice of having certain job functions done outside a company instead of having an in-house department or employee handle them. Functions can be outsourced to either a company or an individual. There are many advantages and disadvantages to outsourcing. It is not just one sided like most people like to believe.
While some may have the disposition that outsourcing means nothing except bad things for the United States consumers, they are entirely off base. We know that by allowing outsourcing it means there will be lower costs overseas which seemingly takes away jobs from us consumers back here in America; however, there are
other things occurring on the other side of the spectrum that we do not necessarily realize. The fact is, that compared to the jobs lost by just being more efficient in the United States, the number of jobs lost to offshoring is relatively small. If a company is struggling financially, instead of filing for bankruptcy, they can outsource in order to stay in business. By moving their entire company or parts of their company overseas it allows the company to continue to sell their services and products to us. As long as the company is able to stay afloat then they will continue to pull money into our economy. With these businesses being able to remain open and running, entrepreneurs and small business owners can begin to rise up here at home.
It has been said repeatedly that small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Thus, our services are helping to improve the current economic climate. With outsourcing, these businesses now have the ability to set aside time to make a strategic plan and build more businesses. This in turn will open more jobs for people like us that are still here in the United States. If we look into one employee’s daily tasks we can see that there is no time for planning, acquiring new business or developing new products and services. If we allow this employee to outsource then we can open up time to begin to do these things and focus on making new deals with new people, acquiring new alliances and begin marketing better. Growth and profit of the business means that more jobs are opening and more money is becoming available to the consumers which forces the economy to grow. Outsourcing allows you to delegate noncore activities and lets you maintain your focus on the activities that make you
successful. Not only does outsourcing help with the small business line, but it is also good for our capitalist model of competition.
By bringing this competition, it provides for more innovation and better products and services. When companies hire outsourced workforce, they are saving money on taxes, employee benefits and wages, office overhead and much more thus allowing for a more competitive positioning. This increase in competition allows for our economy to grow and profit more rapidly and once again brings the money home for our consumers. This level of competition, the making of new jobs, and the flow of money in and out of businesses is what our economy needs to bounce back from its recent downfall, and outsourcing could be a major key in fixing it. Proponents of outsourcing jobs to other countries from the United States argue that in the long term, it is better for everyone involved to let outsourcing happen; however, this is simply not true for those in the United States and abroad. One argument against outsourcing jobs overseas is that it will eliminate jobs here in the United States and lowers wages for workers here. The United States loses about 230,000 jobs a year due to
outsourcing.
Another reason outsourcing is bad is that many of these newly unemployed workers have difficulty finding other jobs and are often times paid significantly less in their new jobs. With this decrease in pay, consumers may not be able to support themselves and/or their families when it comes to buying food and clothing or paying the bills, etc. This financial trouble also means that consumers’ spending will decrease tremendously on unnecessary goods because they cannot afford it. If they do not buy the unnecessary goods that they use to then it hurts the economy. With companies outsourcing they do not need to maintain as many facilities in the United States and thus they are not taxed. This way the government does not get any money for the services it provides. Also, companies that outsource do not need to follow the same production requirements as those of companies staying in the United States. This is not good because it can lower the quality of goods produced.
Another negative of outsourcing is that it exploits workers in lower paid nations. Outsourced call center jobs force international workers to disguise their nationality, adopt fake accents and work nights when customers are awake half-way around the world. Jobs such as these squash all nationalism in the local cultures where outsourced jobs are relocated to.
Outsourcing also poses a threat to security and confidentiality. If an employee is dealing with highly confidential information like bank accounts, salaries, credit card numbers, etc. it is extremely important to make sure that information does not get into the wrong hands; therefore, a company would need to make sure that the contract in which they are engaged in is in good faith. If the information gets into the wrong hands then it can potentially cause irreparable damage to the reputation of that company as well as the consumer whose information was stolen/obtained.
One of the main jobs that people outsource is customer call centers. This poses the idea of inflexibility because it is difficult to control or work with people hundreds of miles away. It also makes it hard for a consumer to solve any problems they may have because the person they are talking to is half way around the world.
As you can see there are many benefits that go along with outsourcing; however, there is also a few downsides to it as well for both the company and the consumer. There is no really good way to make both the company and the consumer one hundred percent happy. Yes outsourcing can reduce costs for the company, but it is also a real big pain in the butt for the customer to deal with a customer service representative working half way around the world.