Human Resources Business Process Outsourcing

More and more companies are entrusting outside providers with managing their entire HR function, both with regard to administrative activities, as well as training, recruiting or career development. Starting with this observation, the authors of the book decided to make a detailed study of four such outsourcing initiatives in order to identify the factors that contributed to their success.
As one of the authors is the acting CEO of Exult, HR service provider to the four studied companies, it would certainly be surprising if outsourcing were not presented in a favorable light. However, this book is not just for promotional purposes. The detailed week-by-week breakdown of the work required to outsource successfully and the many interviews of concerned managers are chock full of interesting conclusions. The case of BP (chapter 6) and Bank of America (chapter 7) seem to be the most interesting to us. We would also point out that chapter 3 contains some original food for thought on measuring the performance of an HR service, and that chapter 11, which goes over most of the recommendations made throughout the book, may be consulted as a condensed version of the book, and thus a helpful shortcut for pressed readers.