Victor Banjo, the director of Executive Education at Lagos Business School and former Chief People Officer at Green Africa, advocates for a shift in the perspective of Nigerian companies towards outsourcing. He emphasizes that outsourcing talent should be seen as a strategic enabler beyond merely cutting costs. Banjo highlights the importance of building capacity, preserving culture, and driving long-term competitiveness through outsourcing. This view was shared during a forum organized by Peakware Group, focusing on the strategic value of talent outsourcing under the theme ‘Beyond Cost: Evaluating the Strategic Value of Talent Outsourcing – Opportunities and Challenges’.
In the discussion, HR executives, including Gbemi Adebayo, emphasized the critical aspects of governance, partner alignment, and culture fit in maintaining competitiveness within a rapidly evolving economy. Banjo, drawing from his extensive experience in various sectors, cautioned against excessive reliance on outsourcing, citing examples like Boeing’s production delays and safety issues due to over-outsourcing. He stressed the need to retain certain roles in-house, such as cleaners and security staff at Lagos Business School, to preserve culture and service standards. Banjo highlighted that strategic outsourcing should focus on capability building for long-term benefits, emphasizing efficiency, flexibility, and competitiveness.
Chinasa Oriaku, the Head of Operations at Peakware, highlighted the evolution of outsourcing, moving beyond a cost-centric view to one that offers agility, innovation, scalability, and access to top-tier talent. The conference aimed to challenge the traditional perception of outsourcing as purely administrative and showcased how multinationals have successfully leveraged outsourcing for core advantages like advertising and distribution. During a panel discussion on ‘Outsourcing Talent Acquisition: Success Factors and Pitfalls’, HR directors like Timipiri Odu and Stanley Eluwa stressed the importance of defining core roles, maintaining culture alignment, and ensuring vendor compliance to avoid morale issues.
Patricia Aderibigbe, HR director at the Africa Finance Corporation, emphasized that outsourcing decisions should be elevated to the boardroom level. Drawing on European experiences, she warned against cost-driven outsourcing projects that could lead to accountability and cultural alignment issues. Aderibigbe also highlighted the role of artificial intelligence in reshaping the outsourcing landscape, emphasizing the need for leaders to ensure that partners adopt technology to remain competitive and avoid obsolescence. The experts collectively underscored the significance of selecting the right partners, establishing clear expectations, and finding the balance between outsourcing and internal capacity building for successful outcomes.
Takeaways:
– Strategic talent outsourcing goes beyond cost-cutting and should focus on long-term capacity building and competitiveness.
– Governance, partner alignment, and culture fit are crucial factors in maintaining competitiveness through outsourcing.
– Retaining certain roles in-house can help preserve organizational culture and service standards while strategically outsourcing other functions.
– The evolving landscape of outsourcing offers agility, innovation, scalability, and access to top talent, emphasizing the need for strategic decision-making in partnering and technology adoption.
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