Companies emerging from the global economic crisis are focusing on restructuring and productive use of corporate real estate.

The finding was highlighted in the inaugural Global Real Estate Survey by Jones Lang LaSalle and Thomson Reuters, which compiled responses from 500 CRE executives in China, India, Australia, UK, France, Germany and North America. The cross-section included banking and finance, pharmaceutical, government and IT industries.

“This survey gives us an unprecedented window into the mind of the CRE community as well as the global business marketplace as a whole,” said Stuart Hicks, Jones Lang LaSalle’s CEO. CRE typically accounts for seven to 12 percent of a corporation’s total operating costs.

Of the respondents, 97 percent supported one or more “tactical real estate plays” to reduce costs. Thirty-five percent said growth would be the most influential factor in shaping real estate strategies in the next three years followed by 11 percent citing cost pressures as carrying the most weight,.

“Many will need to progress their journey along the outsourcing curve and partner with specialist real estate service providers in o9rder to effectively meet these challenges,” Hicks added.

Topping the critical needs list going forward will be attracting talent, enhanced productivity, right-sizing the portfolio and the desire to change the culture and nature of work. And with that comes the need to create more efficient workspace.

Thirty-nine of the respondents expect an increase in the size of their global portfolio in the next three years while 31 percent are calling for a reduction. Respondents suggested the U.S. and Western Europe will experience a reduction in portfolio sizes in the next three years unlike the strong-growth regions of Asia-Pacific.

In terms of industries, financial seems to hold the lead globally. Although most corporations are emerging with stronger cash positions, economic uncertainty remains a concern by 29 percent of the respondents. The majority of respondents firmly believe that structural changes are underway for CRE functions.

“There is a clear opportunity for CRE leaders to redefine their organizations and drive a more strategic real estate agenda as the importance of this role continues to broaden in board rooms across the globe,” Hicks said. The survey’s take-away is 80 percent disclosed plans to fully or partially outsource CRE functions within the next three years.

Source:http://newyorkrealestate.citybizlist.com/18/2011/3/7/Outsourcing-Gains-Strength-as-Companies-Redefine-CRE.aspx

PeoplePerHour.com, the online outsourcing marketplace for businesses, has seen a huge rise in the number of Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) enjoying the cost and time-saving benefits of online outsourcing.

The number of India based users of PeoplePerHour.com has doubled since launching earlier this year and already has more than 13,000 registered Indian freelancers with an average hourly rate of US $16.

Commenting on global virtual business trend, Xenios Thrasyvoulou, PeoplePerHour.com’s founder and CEO said, “Thousands of Indian businesses have discovered that they can access top talent and import best practice very affordably by using freelancers”

SMEs using PeoplePerHour.com have access to a virtual, on-demand, global workforce that enables them to scale up or down as required.

Mohammad Ali, owner of Genex, a small business in the Information Technology domain based in Kolkata, says “We are a small size company and we use PeoplePerHour.com primarily for information technology projects outsourcing. We have posted many projects and got them done through freelancers in cost effective manner.”

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/SMEs-join-global-outsourcing-bandwagon/758958/

With all-time high attrition rates and shortage of skills making companies go into a hiring mode, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) services are gaining popularity in India.

Companies such as MphasiS, Wipro, Accenture and others are outsourcing a big chunk of their hiring process to recruitment services vendors to bring in more efficiency, both in terms of candidate appraisal and costs. It also helps them cut overall recruitment time.

Amitabh Das, founder and CEO of recruitment services firm Vati Consulting, says Indian customers are now moving beyond outsourcing just the CV appraisals and asking them to screen candidates till the final round.

This, he says, is because companies want to concentrate on their core business. Also, with RPO services, recruitment processes and HR requirements get more streamlined for the customers.

“With the recovery in the economy, firms are now expanding their business, and recruiting quality manpower has become an arduous task for them. This is making them outsource most of the processes to a third-party vendor,” he said.

Typically, an RPO deal starts with the service vendor first receiving the requirement from clients. The same is discussed with the technical managers and the requirement is broken into primary, secondary, mandatory and preferred skills.

The next step involves the client evaluating the technical competency of the vendor’s panel members to give the final nod.

Once this is done, the process of sourcing, short listing and scheduling of candidates for telephonic interview is initiated. The conversation is then recorded and the interview valuation sheet is collected along with call-transcript.

Finally, the candidate profile, evaluation sheet and the recording is shared with the client and the schedule of the shortlisted candidate is prepared for the final technical round of discussion.

This is followed by the HR round with the client to complete the hiring process. The RPO partner has access and is expected to comply with all internal tools and process, including employee referrals of its customer.

Tech major Accenture has been outsourcing its entire recruitment process to RPOs for some time, and now companies like Fiserv, ITC and others are also slowly getting their recruitments done from service vendors.

Global services company Fiserv was able to slash its hiring budget by 25% by shipping out most of its recruitment process to an RPO firm.

“These are still early days, but I feel more and more companies would look for it as a good RPO service provider can help organisations build scalable recruitment teams, predictable delivery mechanisms and at the same time get better cost options,” said Syed Kaleem Raza, general manager – recruitment, Fiserv.

He believes speed and low cost are biggest advantages of RPO firms. “But one needs to be careful against agencies that claim to be RPO but are nowhere close to it. Also, if the agency is not competitive enough, there can be wrong people on the board which will bring a bad name for the company,” warned Kaleem Raza.

Narayanan Nair, global head – staffing, MphasiS, said RPO enhances the overall delivery capability with focus on managing scalability and growth without increasing the size of internal staffing organisation.

However, he said, it is important that a RPO firm has the wherewithal in terms of financial strength and competence to manage the full-fledged process.

Source:http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_firms-outsourcing-entire-hiring-to-private-recruiters_1517011