HR Cornucopia is partnering hSenid to offer Sri Lankan professionals regional and local opportunities through Job Street.

Dinesh Weerakkody CEO HR Cornucopia says there is enormous potential for Job Street.lk to become the premier web site in the region for qualified Lankan professionals.  HR Cornucopia provides people centric business solutions for MNCs, large organizations, small & medium enterprises and start-ups.

In a move that was heralded on the US Sri Lanka Embassy website on the 2nd of August, the US government agency USAID in conjunction with the US embassy in Sri Lanka, announced a number of initiatives to be undertaken, one of which is a joint program with different unidentified private business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing companies.

The initiative involves the training of over 3,000 under- and unemployed students on offshore business process support and English language training.

They will then be participating in on-the-job training schemes with private firms. USAID is said to be contributing about $10 million for the project.

With the establishment of Sri Lanka as an IT outsourcing destination, companies can open new centers and expand their business in neighboring country Sri Lanka, rather than in other Indian cities where the cost is higher.

The move is expected to cultivate the country’s potential in the offshore outsourcing IT and BPO space.

Human resources are the most critical assets of any organization as the organization’s success lies in their hands. But in order to ensure that its employees remain satisfied, the company has to have a specialized human resources department that most of times proves to be a costly affaire. That is why most companies today; decide to outsource their human resources management functions to offshore destinations.

What is HR Outsourcing?

HR outsourcing is a process in which a company uses the services of a third party to take care of its HR functions. A company may outsource a few or all of its HR related activities to a single or combination of service provides located in various offshore destinations.

Advantages of HR Outsourcing

HR outsourcing including personal outsourcing case studies have indicated that managing human resources involves specialized activities such as training, payroll administration, employee database management, employee retention, employee benefits and a lot more that many companies either don’t have the proper resources or time to manage on their own. By outsourcing their HR functions companies can save huge amounts of money and be free of complications that are otherwise involved in maintaining an internal HR department. By doing so, companies can concentrate on their core competencies saving their valuable time and resources.

To sum it up, human resources outsourcing that includes hr recruiting outsourcing helps cut costs, helps concentrate on core business and most importantly helps in ensuring employee satisfaction.

As the business processes are getting more complicated and diversified more and more companies are looking to outsource there work. Outsourcing enables companies to venture into new avenues quickly and easily. It also helps companies to operate with a small staff. Another very attractive option for most US, UK and European countries is offshore outsourcing. The main reason for this is the quality but cheap labor available in Asian countries where you can do the same task but for a less money. Another reason is the time difference , so for companies that needs reporting of there days activities by next day they can outsource the report creation part to an Asian country where it is still day time. Another reason is to avoid the high taxes in there countries. India has being a favorite offshore outsourcing destination of many European and US based companies but with the end of war Sri Lanka is looking an attractive place to outsource your work.

What makes offshore outsourcing to Sri Lanka attractive

According to Sun Microsystems, J2ME is supported by over 94 million handsets operating on over 53 different mobile networks. Java technology has come a long way. It will be more prevalent in the coming years in the small wireless gadgets we all Carry in our pockets and wear on our belts, our mobile phones, PDAs, and handhelds. In fact, it has supported wireless phones comprise over 80 percent of all the major phone handset manufactures. Such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, Blackberry and many more.

It is a reliable, high usability technology platform and the importance of J2ME application development has grown tremendously in the last few decades due to its improved security and consistency of applications across platforms and devices, superior user interfaces with graphics, the ability to function off-line out of wireless coverage, peer-to-peer networking and no licensing expenses needed for the SDK.

On the surface, J2ME has appeared to provide the perfect solution. In addition to benefiting developers, it also promised significant advantages for handset manufacturers, mobile network operators, and end users. To handset manufacturers, it offered an opportunity to foster a large and prolific development community that could deliver new and value-added functionality for their devices. To network operators, it offered an opportunity to push new applications that would drive increased usage for recently deployed data services. And finally, to end users, J2ME offered an opportunity to turn the phone into a multipurpose device similar to a PC or PDA, and expand the basic functionality beyond simple voice calling.

However, outsourcing is not just about cutting costs. Rather, its a powerful business strategy to infuse quality in your processes as well. But before we venture into the details, let us first understand what exactly is the concept of outsourcing and how it can benefit your business.

Outsourcing is the process of hiring third-party service providers, be it individual freelancers or companies to perform the non-core activities of an enterprise that can otherwise be done by in-house staff. The concept of offshore outsourcing has acquired immense importance at present and is one of the fastest growing industry.

Both government agencies and business enterprises hire third party entrepreneurs to complete services like data processing and management, internet research, virtual assistance, staff recruitment, administering payroll, offering security, cleaning, call centers and so on.

Cost Effectiveness
More often than not, companies adopt offshore outsourcing in a bit to cut costs. This is because the service provider companies only charge you for the work that is done and there are absolutely no expenses pertaining to over heads like staff training, insurance packages, medical care, terminal benefits and other benefits.

Increased Quality
However, cost effectiveness is not the only thing you can gain from offshore outsourcing. Rather, its a great way to have access to high quality deliverables and superior services as well. The service provider companies have a highly skilled professionals with prerequisite experience and technical knowledge of the your industry. And they would have extensive experience of completing the type of tasks that you want to outsource. The outsourced services are completed competently and within timelines. The professionals adhere to strict timelines, because failure to do it would mean violation of the signed contract that may attract penalties or lead to legal redress as well.

Enhanced Focus
Moreover and most importantly, outsourcing allows a companies to focus all their investments, be it manpower or time, on the core goals and objectives of a business. They themselves take care of all the fringe activities. This reduces administrative workload at your end as most work is delegated and taken care of by service providers. This increases productivity and the overall quality of work.

How to Use Outsourcing?
The success of an offshore outsourcing project depends on the strategic relationship between the client and the service provider. The service provider needs to be have the capacity and technical knowledge to make use of the outsourced service efficiently. Also you in-house staff should be kept informed about the proceedings. This way you wont be at the sole mercy of your service provider and can handle things for yourself if at all the provider leaves.

You should always set structures to ensure that the service provider is operating within its core values and adhering to the guidelines. Often it is seen that companies alienate themselves from its clients when the service provider takes over. This however only serves to eliminate the direct contact between the company and its customers and blocks the pathway for building a sound relationship. So make sure you are always monitoring the proceedings.

Outsourcing payroll accounting has become more common with the emergence of companies offering outsourcing services. It is beneficial to outsource payroll processing if you wish to save on your company costs, manpower and resources. It is very beneficial for small and medium scale companies to outsource payroll accounting because meeting the expense of payroll software is usually difficult for them. Outsourcing helps them in saving money and allows them to manage their records as well.

With the help of a payroll service you can easily minimize the quantity of work you need to do as a business owner. Running a company is not a cake walk and you need to focus your energy right to get the desired output. Being a small company you cannot take best care of everything and most essentially your payroll accounts. Outsourcing them leaves you with less responsibility of handling other ongoing processes and keeps you from hiring more amount of staff that you can handle. Payroll outsourcing companies can take care of employee related issues together with state and federal regulatory issues. It is essential to ensure that you pay your tax in time and you have complete knowledge of profit and loss that your company has incurred in a particular financial year. It will help you to manage your accounts well and give you an idea as how much liquid assets you have in hand.

They will fill all the essential forms on your behalf and keep your payroll accounts up to date. Outsourcing your payroll will also reduce the requirement for you to gain knowledge on topics like FICA, withholding amounts, labor laws and unemployment insurance. These companies also assist you to avoid financial penalties from underpayments, late filings, incorrect paperwork submission etc. Small business payroll services are benefitted the most as being emerging companies they cannot keep with the changing and the new rules of payroll accounting and filing. Once you hire outsourcing companies you are relieved from the tension of maintaining payroll and filing it. These companies take care of everything and allow you to focus on increasing sales of your company.

hSenid signed up with State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) to automate SPC’s human resource operations with hSenid’s HRM Enterprise – Corporate Edition.

The basic services offered by HR outsourcing firms may include:

• Overseeing organizational structure and staffing requirements
• Recruiting, training and development
• Tracking department objectives, goals and strategies
• Employee and manager training
• Benefits administration
• Employee orientation programs

Businesses who outsource HR are typically small to midsize firms with between 25 and 1,500 employees. These businesses view HR outsourcing as a strategic tool that relieves them of HR responsibilities and enables them to focus on what they do best. In addition to allowing you to concentrate on your core business activities, outsourcing provides some key benefits, including:

• Providing you with skilled professionals who are focused specifically on HR
• Helping you reduce and manage operating costs
• Improving employee relations

If you need to hand off the entire HR function, consider a professional employer organization (PEO). A PEO becomes the employer of record, handling employee relations, payroll, benefits, workers’ compensation and all the other areas that fall under the HR umbrella, while you manage the employee’s everyday business responsibilities.

But not many businesses thoroughly understand the benefits of outsourcing. It’s true that outsourcing can save money, but that’s not the only (or even the most important) reason to do it. As many firms discovered during the outsourcing “mania” of the early 1990s, outsourcing too much can be an even bigger mistake than not outsourcing any work at all. The flat economy caused many companies into huge layoffs and subsequently outsourced functions that were better kept in-house. Wise outsourcing, however, can provide a number of long-term benefits:

Control capital costs. Cost-cutting may not be the only reason to outsource, but it’s certainly a major factor. Outsourcing converts fixed costs into variable costs, releases capital for investment elsewhere in your business, and allows you to avoid large expenditures in the early stages of your business. Outsourcing can also make your firm more attractive to investors, since you’re able to pump more capital directly into revenue-producing activities.

Increase efficiency. Companies that do everything themselves have much higher research, development, marketing and distribution expenses, all of which must be passed on to customers. An outside provider’s cost structure and economy of scale can give your firm an important competitive advantage.

Reduce labor costs. Hiring and training staff for short-term or peripheral projects can be very expensive, and temporary employees don’t always live up to your expectations. Outsourcing lets you focus your human resources where you need them most.

Start new projects quickly. A good outsourcing firm has the resources to start a project right away. Handling the same project in house might involve taking weeks or months to hire the right people, train them and provide the support they need. And if a project requires major capital investments (such as building a series of distribution centers), the startup process can be even more difficult.

Focus on your core business. Every business has limited resources, and every manager has limited time and attention. Outsourcing can help your business to shift its focus from peripheral activities toward work that serves the customer, and it can help managers set their priorities more clearly.

Level the playing field. Most small firms simply can´t afford to match the in-house support services that larger companies maintain. Outsourcing can help small firms act “big” by giving them access to the same economies of scale, efficiency and expertise that large companies enjoy.

Reduce risk. Every business investment carries a certain amount of risk. Markets, competition, government regulations, financial conditions and technologies all change very quickly. Outsourcing providers assume and manage this risk for you, and they generally are much better at deciding how to avoid risk in their areas of expertise.