Managers Indicate Outsourcing Provides Sense of Satisfactiontest

By Dave Lubach, Associate Editor

July 2014

More than 85 percent of the managers responding to the survey say they are satisfied with their outsourcing experiences in general, but that does not mean they agree on all aspects of the practice. The passionate arguments on both sides of the fence are no surprise to Cowley.

“Outsourcing is kind of like a dirty word,” Cowley says. “It’s kind of hard to explain. Anybody who is in the facility management business and not in the outsourcing business is afraid they are going to be outsourced because there’s this perception that outsourcing is cheaper and better. And quite often, it is. But it’s because nobody supported the in-house group and gave it the support and leadership it needed. Things got in such bad shape that they said, ‘They’re not going to mess with it anymore, so we’re going to hire this company to do it.’”

Respondents’ comments in the survey reflects the emotions many feel about outsourcing.

One respondent says outsourcing provides “no benefit to our work staff (and) no benefit to management other than looking like they have saved some money.” Another manager moved away from outsourcing “due to high costs and low quality.”

Managers’ reasons for using outsourcing include receiving higher quality work, easing budget concerns, and complementing the talents of in-house workers.

“I can’t afford to increase my work force, so outsourcing is a way for me to keep the ship afloat,” one reader responds.

Another manager says the contractors hired “performed better in most cases than our in-house staff.”