Outweigh the Outsource

There are pros and cons to outsourcing and the choice whether to participate can greatly affect organizational profits, employee morale and their productivity. These choices are made for different reasons and can cause conflicting loyalties. Current unemployment levels not seen since the Great Depression has many Americans feeling that Corporate America certainly isn’t doing its part to keep jobs “in-house”. Some of  the nation’s largest corporations — General Electric, Caterpillar, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Chevron, Cisco, Intel, Stanley Works, Merck, United Technologies, and Oracle have cut their workforces by 2.9 million people over the last decade while hiring 2.4 million people overseas. This is eating away at our standard of living here in the US. No longer can an employee feel secure in their job like in the "old days" It also eats away at our tax base with no repercussions for outsourcing.

So what does that have to do with the surveyor? I continually hear how scanning technology is impeding on the survey profession yet,  most underestimate this new capability to handle more work and larger projects. Then what? Outsourcing drafting in the interim of automated processes is a viable option and there are many good, capable US companies that add that additional horsepower. US companies that understand regional issues, conversion issues with the international foot and metric verses US customary units. But, there are additional issues that encumber the work process when outsourcing overseas. Small as they appear, they can become one more issue to deal with in the life-cycle of a project.  Issues that become real are access, accountability, time differences and communication. The larger ramifications are security, inadequate bandwidth, national instability,  and of course the inevitable labor backlash publicity for your firm in this new “Buy America” age.

As a nation that is slowly becoming producers of nothing why would we now give away the virtual paperwork? What will our son's or daughter's work environment look like? Will they have the professional opportunities that you had?

Reference:

Zaid Jilani (2011, 19 April),ThinkProgress, Top "US" Corporations Outsourced More Than 2.4 Million American Jobs Over the Last Decade, retrieved July 21, 2011 fromhttp://www.truth-out.org/top-us-corporations-outsourced-more-24-million-american-jobs-over-last-decade/1303196400