IT outsourcing - can it even be positive?

getmore4less

The company selling out to the outsource better have done their homework or it will cost them more in the long run.

martyp

Many thanks all, I think I'll look at this as positive in a way as being an IT section of a company thats primary interest isn't in IT it could open more doors if the outsourcing company is an IT company. One colleague worked somewhere that was outsourced to India so his job was out the door straight away. My company is vacating the building that I work in anyway which is only 10 minutes from my house (3 miles) and we'd have to relocate to a site owned by the non-IT part of the company which is likely to be about 45 minutes away (26 miles). I've heard that in such a case they pay a travel allowance for up to 12 months but really have no idea what the outsourcing company will do location wise. I moved to the area due to a relationship rather than work and have a mortgage etc. so lots of travelling etc. might not be favourable.
In my workplace though I started in 2002 and left in 2007 as I was unable to progress (went to another place that was worse, then came back!), oppurtunities in other departments were becoming fewer and fewer and there was very little staff movement. People just stayed in their jobs with the recession etc. There was hardly any training or chances to learn any new skills and the job role got really stale as such. The turnover was high in my department as people would leave to work elsewhere more than progressing in the company. In my department there is about 60% or more contractors who I suspect are now more than likely to leave. The permanent staff I suspect might be inclined to take voluntary redundancy. I have only been permanent for a year and a half and was told that you needed to be there for 2 years to get redundancy.
With regards to recognition of potential I have been told a number of times by people, even by my own manager that I am wasted in my current role and could do so much better. There haven't been any vacancies at all since I was made permanent, before I was permanent all the vacancies were only for permanent staff! If it's a case that the new IT company does see potential in me then I'll definitely hang on. I'm really quite bored in my current role, it's extremely easy and people are fully trained in a couple of weeks and I've been doing it on and off for around 8 years. The only reason I didn't leave was I felt it was quite a secure job and didn't want to take any risks. The location, money etc were all sufficient for me.
I also heard rumours you get more money in the last few months? I was promised a promotion to another team next month with a pay rise and wonder if that was linked in with the outsourcing. Another thing that was offered by the manager is oppurtunities for upskilling...

p00hsticks

gnus wrote: »

Remember after tupe you will move on to the contract of the outsourcing company. This can mean end of overtime, end of flexi, stopping of oncall allowances etc etc etc.

Are you sure about this ? It's been more that twenty years ago since I was subject to a TUPE move, so I might be out of date, but I thought that the whole idea of it was that - with the exception of pension schemes - it preserved your original employment contract, so that you retained the same working hours, holiday allowance, redundancy terms etc.

It became apparent to me that a lot of things that people took to be part of their contracts wasn't really (for example, just because your particular line manager is pretty casual about when you arrive or leave, it doesn't mean you are contractually entitled to work flexi hours). And you'll probably find that if you want to move to a new position within the outsourcing company they may ask you to switch to their standard contract.

But, unless the rules have changed, I don't think they can force you into changing your existing employment contract- the TUPE legislation specifically protects you against it.

I now work for an large outsourcing IT company, and a number of my colleagues are on non-standard terms because they have been TUPEd in from other companies and retain those orignal terms of employment from the incoming company.

getmore4less

TUPE only protects at the point of transfer.

once transfered the company can start the change process to get you onto standard T&C's if they want, as they could with any change thye want to any contract.

Sometimes the terms of the transfer give greater protection than TUPE.