The global economic crisis heralds a move towards HR outsourcing.

As the World and indeed Australia's economy slows down, many companies are struggling to make a profit while others are simply struggling to survive.

Against this background we have had a number of enquiries concerning dramatic reductions in overall HR costs.

There are two distinct types of enquiry;

The first type is coming from those companies that have thought about the concept in the past but have shied away because it required too much change, wrong timing or too political and thus was perhaps inappropriate. However, in the current economic climate an opportunity does present itself to move to HR outsourcing.

The second type of enquiry is coming from companies who will entertain any kind of cost reduction in order to survive.

The general objective of any outsourcing exercise is to reduce costs while still maintaining the necessary benefits.

It is argued that if any function is not part of the main business system then it should be outsourced.

The main benefits of HR outsourcing are:

• Reduction of direct HR costs by as much as 50%

• Learn the true costs of the HR functions

• A reduction in indirect HR costs. This normally comes as a surprise

More recently we have entered discussions with an International Mining Company to develop a HR Partnering Alliance for their Australian mining operations.

Their position is that they have Partnering Alliances all over the World in Contract mining, Contract Maintenance, Land, and Air Water Transport so why can't they develop an Alliance Partnership for HR services?

We agree.