Outsourcing

VIEW FROM THE GROUND FLOOR

I mentioned recently that having your phone conversations recorded was one of the hazards of being a trader (and of the humiliations involved in hearing them played back to you) but I’ve noticed that more and more companies are now doing this too, ostensibly for ‘training and quality purposes’. I wish they’d record the bit where I’m screaming at the machine to say that I know that all their customer service people are busy and that I know that my call will be answered in rotation - but when the hell will that be? If a company has invested in the technology to answer the phone and allow me to choose from six different options (although none are usually the one that I want) then surely they can also tell me where I am in the queue and for how long more I have to listen to the strangled sounds of Greensleaves or (even worse) their latest advertising jingle.

I feel sorry for people in call centres who undoubtedly take the brunt of customers’ aggravations when they eventually get the opportunity to speak to a human being. But the biggest problem, as a consumer, is that the corporate drive to be lean and mean has meant that the job has probably been outsourced anyway and so the human being we’re finally getting to talk to isn’t actually employed by the company with whom we wish to deal at all! So telling them that you’re never going to buy their product again means absolutely nothing. It is, after all, no skin of their collective noses.

I was thinking a lot about outsourcing thing recently, having been looking at the figures for China and India for the previous week’s Ground Floor and knowing that it is a phenomenon that is here to stay. Of course outsourcing doesn’t necessarily mean employing an overseas workforce - it can just as easily mean contracting out non-core business locally, which is something that many, many companies now do.

Outsourcing areas such as IT support and customer care (although I have to say that the latter is a bit of an oxymoron in many cases) is a reasonable step for some companies to take. After all, it really doesn’t matter where on earth the operator (or agent or representative or any of the many job descriptions that are used now) is located; the key element is to answer the phone and deal with the customer - once he or she has successfully made it to the top of the queue!

But is outsourcing always the right answer? Clearly most companies look at it from a financial viewpoint and the payback is fairly compelling. An initial investment at the beginning followed by cheaper operational costs in the future has to be a recipe for a leaner and meaner corporation going forward. And if there are some teething troubles, well, the consumer has got used to that.

And most of us probably have. The truth is that we ring helplines more in hope than in any real expectation that we will receive the answer to our query from someone who actually knows what the problem is. And it’s fairly pointless in getting frustrated with the person at the end of the line who really can’t help you at all. Apologetic they may be. But they’re working for somebody else.

As a consumer, I would much rather companies didn’t outsource at all, but the question is would I be prepared to pay more for a product on the basis of excellent customer service? Clearly most companies feel that an almost adequate level of service and a cheaper product is sufficient. And, while ex-employees and consumers may be less than happy, we have to assume that the companies themselves, faced with lower costs for the future, are ecstatic.

Apparently not all, though. According to a recent report in Computerworld, there is anecdotal (though not yet scientific) evidence that almost half of the companies which sign an outsourcing contract are dissatisfied at the end of the first year. Even as more and more companies began to use outside contractors in many support areas, a further number reverted back to their original locations. The main reason given was customer dissatisfaction. I do wonder how those customers managed to register their dissatisfaction though - was it an option on the telephone choices?

However there are other reasons for companies to feel less enthusiastic than at first about their decision, and they stem to a certain extent from what the companies themselves are looking for. Many seem to want dramatic cost reduction and increased productivity and they want that to happen immediately. But realistically they should be factoring in a period of time when productivity may be lower, not higher, as the new company gains experience. And that’s probably the time when customer dissatisfaction is highest.

There can also be a lack of team spirit within the company, particularly if the work of a certain group is outsourced but they still need to use company facilities. This is becoming more and more common as the company which has contracted them often wants the same level of commitment that they get from their actual employees. Yet those outsourced workers will often have other contracts too. Why should they care more about one client than another?

As fewer and fewer employees have a direct input into the finished product, and fewer have a sense of ownership of the company itself, the task of motivating them becomes harder yet more important. We all need a sense of pride and achievement in what we do. But that’s a two-way stream. Companies have experience in making direct employees feel motivated and part of a team. There is a challenge still to be met in making their contracted employees feel the same way. And the challenge is doing that in a positive way rather than simply threatening to relocate those jobs to yet another different place.

Posted by Sheila on 01/24 at 03:11 PM - (0) ADD / VIEW COMMENTS

Kilometres & Euros

VIEW FROM THE GROUND FLOOR

Another year another changeover - this time in speed signage for the roads. I never quite understood why we changed the distance signage but not the speeds before now. I’m sure it had something to do with public acceptance and getting us used to the idea, but it has to have been confusing for overseas visitors (to be honest, though, everything about our road signage is surely confusing for overseas visitors; I can’t understand half of it and I’m supposed to have some idea where I’m going).  Anyway, it’s another move to bring us closer to Europe but whether it will result in the old imperial terminology disappearing from our language is another matter. Whatever about the difficulty of understanding the relationship of feet, inches, yards and miles in comparison to the metric system, the words are much more evocative than millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres.

It’s surprising, thought, how quickly things can become familiar and right-sounding in conversation, replacing even the most well-worn phrases. The other day I was talking about prices of goods to some friends and the term ‘a couple of quid’ was used. Almost immediately we all agreed that it sounded dated and wrong, even though ‘a couple of euros’ still doesn’t trip as easily of the tongue.

Ireland seems to have shaken off its currency past (if not it’s association with imperial speeds) with an ease not yet matched by our continental neighbours. Nowhere in Ireland do you see the Irish Pound equivalent of the Euro price any more. Yet in many continental shops, both Euro and the home currency price are still displayed. To be sure, the price for the Euro is much more prominent, but the old equivalent is still given. In restaurants you’ll usually find it at the bottom of the bill.

According to our friends in Spain, many of the European ex-pats living there still convert back to their home currency. I can understand it on the part of the English residents (although our Welsh friends think in Euro all the time); but I was astonished to hear that the German and Dutch regularly convert back to deutschemarks and guilders too. Of course, in the case of the Germans, and despite the then government’s enthusiasm for the project, there is a definite nostalgia for the deutschemark and a feeling that the arrival of the euro further eroded Germany’s place at the top of the European pile. But the truth, of course, is that the misguided exchanging of ostmarks to deutschemarks at parity was one of the most destructive economic decisions ever made by a German government trying to be politically popular. Easy short-term political decisions with difficult long-term economic effects always come back to haunt you and that decision has been haunting Germany almost since the day it was taken. A case against the short sharp shock and in favour of a dual system after all?

Before the euro came into common usage, there were dire warnings about massive job losses in financial services as foreign exchange and treasury departments scaled back. But five years on this hasn’t happened to any great degree. There are still plenty of financial instruments to be traded and new markets opening up all the time. European specialists became Eastern European specialists and then new-Asian specialists so that the wheels of finance still kept spinning and the traders kept trading.

A long-standing friend returned from Germany last year where he had been working in the Bundesbank. The arrival of the Euro had meant that staff numbers there were being somewhat depleted, although not by any great amount. In fact there have been a number of analysts questioning staff numbers in European central banks. Apparently the Central Bank of France currently employs 15,000 - a drop of 3.6% since the introduction of the Euro in 2000.

Central Bankers aren’t fools. They had plenty of time to think about the Euro and think about the consequences for their jobs so they set about widening the scope of their financial regulation and research departments even as their power to set interest rates disappeared. The Banque de France operates services for businesses which include company ratings and assessments although its services to consumers seems to be limited to a national hot line to report stolen or irregular cheques (and the numbers of those actually declined from 1999 to 2003 - from 144,037 to 127,824)!

Our own Central Bank was in a similar situation as the euro changeover approached. It coped by restructuring and calling itself the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority which brought the supervision of all financial bodies operating within Ireland under its remit. The result - 716 people were employed by the bank in 1999; now it’s employing 1,005 - an employment coup, I think!

The lean and mean ECB has approximately 1,300 employees, many of whom are on secondment from or previously worked for individual central banks. The bank plans to move from its current location (the imaginatively named Eurotower in Frankfurt) to an impressive new building, the design of which was the subject of an architectural competition. (There’s a vast amount of information on the various designs which leads me to believe that one of the bank’s 58 divisions was entirely given over to the architectural competition.) The building will easily house a few thousand staff so the ECB is obviously planning for the future and keeping its eye on staff numbers as well as interest rates.

There are probably more people (including those in national Central Banks, a natural breeding ground for economists) analysing the ECB’s interest rate policy than actually formulating it. The general view is to expect a tightening in the early part of this year. In a recent press conference the bank stated that ‘the combination of high excess liquidity and strong credit growth could in some countries become a source of unsustainable price increases in the property market’.
All those people telling us things we already know!

Posted by Sheila on 01/24 at 03:09 PM - (0) ADD / VIEW COMMENTS

Irish Names

A lot of overseas readers have asked for information on the Irish names of many of my characters. This sections gives you the history of some of the names…

One of the most difficult things to do is to come up with the right name for the characters in my books. It’s really important for me to get to know the character and giving him or her the right name is part of that process.

Some of my overseas readers (and I’m so glad you’ve all got in touch!) have asked about the Irish names of some of the characters. So I thought I’d give you a run through on them. If I’ve missed any out, please let me know.

Clodagh (Jane’s daughter in Dreaming of A Stranger)

This name is now popular outside Ireland too and it pronounced Klo-dah. In ancient times, rivers in Ireland were given names of local deities and children were then named after them. This name comes from the river Clody in Tipperary.
Hugh (Jane’s lover in Dreaming of A Stranger)

This name is equally popular aborad. The Irish spelling is Aodh, which means fiery. It’s also my godson’s name!

Conor Gallagher (Caroline’s Sister)

This is a popular name outside of Ireland too with this spelling, though its original Irish spelling is Conchobhar and it means ‘lover of hounds’. It was the name of one of Ulster’s High Kings.

Orla (David’s second wife in Far From Over)

It’s pronounced as you spell it, although often it’s also spelled Orlagh or Orlaith. It’s one of my favourite Irish names and it means ‘Golden Lady’.

Keelin (Gemma’s daughter in Far From Over)

I’ve used the Anglicised spelling of an Irish name because otherwise lots of people would have trouble with this. It’s original Irish spelling is Caoilfhionn though now you sometimes see it as Caoilinn. For any of you Irish students out there the original spelling gives the meaning away because it comes from Caoil (which means slender) and fionn (fair) – although in my story Keelin is dark but she’s very, very slender.

Ronan (Gemma’s son in Far From Over)

Obviously the fame of Boyzone’s Ronan Keating has made this name more recognised outside Ireland, certainly in the UK at any rate. So I probably don’t need to tell you how to pronounce it (Row-nan for those of you who haven’t heard it before). Interestingly, though, it means ‘little seal’ and was a very popular saint’s name!

Aisling O’Halloran (My Favourite Goodbye)

This is another one of my favourite Irish names. It’s original spelling is Aislinn but it’s pronounced Ash-ling and often spelled that way both in Ireland and overseas. It means ‘dream’ or ‘vision’.

Nessa Driscoll (He’s Got To Go)

Nessa is the eldest of the Driscoll sisters – in Irish mythology she was the mother of Conor (see Conor Gallagher). Unlike my Nessa, she was a powerful and ambitious woman and managed to get her son on the Irish throne.

Bree Driscoll (He’s Got To Go)

Bree is the youngest Driscoll sister. We’re not quite sure whether Bree is simply an abbreviated version of Brigid (Ireland’s favourite female saint whose feast day is 1 February!) The name means ‘exalted one’.

Finn (Cate’s fiancé in He’s Got To Go)

I explain a little about the origin of this name in the book and you can click on the link to read more. The legend of Fionn MacCuhaill is one of our greatest folk stories. It means ‘fair’ and the name of one of the great Irish folk heroes – Fionn MacCuhaill (pronounced Mac Cool). He was a much loved warrior and brave, wise, good-looking….a real catch!

Declan (Bree’s boyfriend’s father in He’s Go To Go)

Another name which is very popular outside of Ireland and comes from Dag (good) and Lán (full) so it means full of goodness. St Declan is a well known foklore figure.

Doireann (Cora’s sister-in-law in Anyone But Him)

Another Irish name which I really like, it’s pronounced Deer-Ann. It’s thought that it may actually be a corruption of Der Finn (daughter of Finn, or Fionn as I’ve mentioned earlier) although it’s been translated as meaning ‘sullen’. I would never make a Doireann character sullen, although I do think that it describes a dark person!

Áine (an acquaintance of Jin in Anyone But Him)

This is the Irish form of Anne and it’s pronounced Awn-nyeh. It means ‘brightness’ or ‘splendour’ and most of the girls named Áine that I know are blondes! Áine was also the name of one of Fionn’s wives and Áines are supposed to be lucky in both money and love!

Kevin (Jin’s husband in Anyone But Him)

This name is hugely popular throughout the world but it’s of Irish origin. It means ‘gentle child’ and was the name of another of our most loved saints. St Kevin founded the magnificent monastery at Glendalough (worth a visit if you’re a tourist!)

Cian (Kevin’s son in Anyone But Him)

This Irish name is pronounced Keen. It means ‘ancient’ and was the name of the son-in-law of one of Ireland’s best known High Kings, Brian Boru. Unfortunately both Brian and Cian were killed fighting the Vikings in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Given that I now live in Clontarf I felt that Cian had to make an appearance in one of my novels!

Jin (Anyone But Him)

OK – obviously Jin is very much not an Irish name. But a few people have asked me where it came from. The answer is that her name is Virginia but when she took up modelling she called herself Jin. This was explained in one of the early drafts but eventually got edited out. Hopefully this puts your minds at rest.

Eavan (How Will I Know?)

I’ve used the Anglicised version of this name because the Irish spelling is Aoibhinn which would cause some problems for overseas readers. It means ‘radiant beauty’ and was a popular name for Irish princesses!

Sive (one of Georgey’s friends in How Will I Know?)

Another Anglicised spelling here. The Irish spelling is Sadhbh and it means ‘goodness’ or ‘sweetness’. Sive has folklore links to Fionn – she was his lover but was turned into a deer. Years later Fionn found a child in the woods who had been raised by a dear and realised that the child must have been his by Sadhbh. He named the child Oisin (little deer). I have a nephew named Oisin and he is a dear, but also a terror!

Gráinne (Steve’s mother in How Will I Know?)

Pronounced Graw-neyh it’s another name connected with the great Fionn. She’d been promised to him in marriage but reckoned he was too old for her and so put a spell on his nephew, Diarmiud (pronounced Deer-mud) instead and ran off with him. The legend of Diarmuid and Grainne was compulsory reading in schools for a long time (I don’t know if it was meant to warn us off running away with boys!)

Dervla (Mirror Image : Destinations short story collection)

This is a name which has become common outside Ireland. Its Irish spelling is sometimes Deirbhile (which means poet’s daughter) or Dearbhail (which means true desire) but nowadays in Ireland you often see it spelled as Dearbhla which is a kind of Irish combination of the two!

Bronagh (Valentine’s Day : Destinations short story collection)

This comes from the Irish word brónach which means ‘sorrowful’ and it’s a very common name in Ireland. The Anglicised version is simply spelled Brona – and that is now apparently very popular in the US.

Nieve (Bad Behaviour)

Spelled Niamh in Irish, she was the daughter of the Sea God Mannan who fell in love with Fionn’s son, Oisin (link to that legend) and brought him to live with her in Tir na nOg. She was known as Niamh of the Golden Hair, although in Bad Behaviour Nieve is actually dark-haired.

Posted by admin on 11/01 at 09:16 PM - (0) ADD / VIEW COMMENTS