Just cast my vote to a poll on Phil Fersht's Horses for Sources outsourcing blog in which he asks the question, 'Will an economic downturn spark a new wave of outsourcing?'  According to the results, I'm a contrarian in that I don't believe there will be a sudden uptick in the number of organizations outsourcing business processes.  I say this looking through a narrow scope of the HR function.  The bottom line is that I don't feel any looming slowdown will be severe enough for organizations to suddenly accelerate their offloading processes and personnel any more than they already are.  In addition, a U.S. dollar that continues to get weaker and weaker will also render such deals less compelling from a pure economic standpoint.

In other words, I believe the thesis that the trend already in place for steady growth in outsourcing HR processes - primarily those that are high-volume, non-core, and standardized (e.g., benefits administration, compliance training, payroll, managed servicing and support of HR applications) - is the correct one.  Check out the latest predictions and examination of the HR outsourcing supplier landscape from IDC's Lisa Rowan if you're interested in learning more about the numbers and what's behind them.   

I think the majority of outsourcing over the next few years will remain limited to IT (e.g., managed services and support of HR software) and high-volume, administrative processes such as payroll and compliance training.  Strategic, talent tanagement processes such as performance consulting, compensation planning, and creation of custom training programs will remain in-house for the most part as organizations evolve them to better manage today's, multi-generational and transient workforce.

As I thought about this distinction between non-core, administrative processes and strategic, value-add processes, it resurfaced for me a term that a really savvy (tongue-in-cheek) HR outsourcing marketeer or consultant must have come up with a few years ago when targeting senior HR and CLOs with their value proposition.  The term I'm referring to is 'Learning Outsourcing.'  I first came across the term at an ASTD conference in 2002.  I'm sure it pre-dates that.  To this day, some vendors offer a service line under this moniker.  If anyone working in marketing for such an outsourcer reads this, I hope they will take the initiative to rebrand.

When I read or hear the term, I cringe.  How can an organization outsource its ability to learn?  What a false promise.  What a slap in the face to all believers in the writings of Peter Senge!  What's next?  'Leadership Outsourcing?!'  OK.  End of rant.

It may seem like semantics to some.  After all, the term 'learning outsourcing' may be simple short-hand for more appropriate yet less catchy terms 'learning business process outsourcing' or 'training and development outsourcing.' 

To me, simply reinforces how immature the business process outsourcing (BPO) market is.  As a consultant, I do see corporate T&D departments looking for ways to re-engineer processes so they are accessible to global employees, partners and customers who can benefit from personalized, self-service learning utilizing the latest technologies. And like other HR functions, they will increase their outsourcing of IT platform management and non-core tasks such as the creation of online learning programs for years to come. 

Will any get to the point of outsourcing their organization's learning?  Only those that go out of business or sell out to someone else.