IBM Creates Fund To Train Workers Who Might Be Outsourced
from the the-right-approach dept
For all the press coverage of jobs being outsourced, companies that do something positive on this issue aren’t getting enough coverage. IBM has announced a $25 million fund to help train workers who are likely to be impacted by outsourcing. The goal is to help prepare these employees for new jobs within either IBM or IBM partners. It appears that IBM is realizing that it’s very costly to lose good employees – even if their jobs are being outsourced. While smaller companies can’t be expected to match this sort of training program, it is a good example of a company understanding that outsourcing certain jobs opens up new opportunities at home – and they might as well fill those jobs with people they already know.
Comments on “IBM Creates Fund To Train Workers Who Might Be Outsourced”
smoke.
Yes, it’s a good thing they’re spending some money on retraining, but the important part is that they created the REASON for the retraining. It’s like making a half-hearted attempt to wipe up the spilt milk. Didn’t their whopping investment in Linux come from (and go back to) their TV ad dept?
Considering the massive cultural differences that US companies are discovering exist in some of these offshore shops, and the rate at which some companies are re-onshoring some of their work, the ray of hope is that when IBM does this they’ll still have the former group members around and can move them back from the mail sorting room to Apps Devel again.
Blame Canada. All those people no longer able to come in here and work for peanuts, it’s making IBM, HP and them go elsewhere for the apparently cheaper labour.
They’ve all forgotten about the price of a free lunch.
Re: smoke.
Sounds more like IBM is spending 25 million dollars on an ad campaign for the coming backlash …
No Subject Given
Training? Training for what? Indian basket weaving?
Re: No Subject Given
Let’s put this in a larger perspective (and I don’t work at, never worked at, nor would ever consider employment at a behemeth like IBM, but know a lot of people who happily left that company voluntarially):
– IBM currently has about 315,000 employees, or near a third of a million people worldwide. Is every employee that IBM have “overseas”, like Britain, South America, Mexico, etc. an employee that isn’t hired in the U.S.? Don’t think so.
– IBM announced plans in Jan 2004 to hire an additional 4500 employees in the U.S. out of the total 15,000 they plan to hire worldwide this year (taking their employment past 330K), or about a third of total new hires. Total number of U.S. employees will go up in 2004 (if you believe IBM, which I have no reason to disbelieve).
– This isn’t to say that IBM will also cut some U.S. jobs, like the 400 they cut a few months ago. So some departments get cut, others get increased. This isn’t anything new at large corporations.
– Most corporations have an “internal first” policy to hire/transfer internal people before looking for external hires. This program seems to be a way to train internal people for these transfers if they aren’t an exact match before going external.
Ofcourse those of you crying about IBM’s hiring policies could go off and start your own company where you can decide everything that goes on. But bitching about some other company’s policy is SO much easier.
Re: Re: No Subject Given
SO is responding anonymously, Anonymous Coward