The last 2-3 years have been more than a little interesting in business sectors.
We’ve seen mass layoffs and migration out of corporations into the private sector. The jobs of expensive more qualified workers were sent overseas and re-assigned to less-qualified, lower-paid staff. To survive, those who were let go entered the workforce as contractors and consultants. It seemed a viable way for corporations to cut overhead and displaced workers to cover the loss of employment.
More recently, we’ve seen an attempt to reestablish corporate control. The overhead of bringing unskilled, overworked staff up to speed on many of these more technical and creative tasks has been difficult to handle. All the fancy software just didn’t produce competent graphic artists, writers and computer technicians…or replace the expertise of years of training and practice.
Meanwhile, jobs that were sent overseas are once again being offered locally. It seems the East is more interested in brokering those jobs back to locals IF they agree to drop the businesses they’ve been struggling to build and IF they will work onsite for half a beginner’s wage.
This may last awhile. But, there are challenges with bringing all this talent back into the corporate fold. The re-focus on controlling technology and creativity in corporations, gives rise to the need to restructure again along with increased overhead: re-investment in facilities, equipment and management that can handle the returning workers.
But, more, this shift in focus dilutes the corporation’s focus on its core business.Financial institutions, for example, busy managing IT and creative people and trying to determine just what equipment they should be investing in, are less likely to have the manpower to refine and develop their core business. Medicine and manufacturing concerns can no more do a competent job writing and managing computers than the IT folk and creatives can do the work of the medical and manufacturing experts. Any effort to take on tasks that require skills outside of a person’s core competencies results in excess loss of time and money.
Is there a way for corporations to utilize the already-developed talent that’s in the market looking for work without dealing with the overhead? Can highly skilled workers function in the marketplace, make an appropriate living and contribute to the growth of corporations at the same time? Seems new business models are due…or, perhaps even re-evaluation of partnering and joint venturing arrangements that have been successful in the past.