Thursday, February 20, 1997

Looking ahead: a workplace with no jobs; outsourcing on the rise

By MICHELE HIMMELBERG / The Orange County Register

Author Bill Bridges was talking about a "de-jobbed" future, a time when there will be lots of work but no "jobs" as we know them. Paychecks are not disappearing, he says, just those hard lines that we draw around traditional jobs.

The uncomfortable topic mildly intrigued the lunch crowd of business managers. Then he started talking specifics, and a hush went over the room.

"Jobs in human resources are in most danger of all," he said. "We're on the crest of outsourcing everything in HR. That doesn't mean there isn't work for you to do in the company. But I'm not sure you should count on it in the form of a 'job' next year, or in the next five years."

Bridges, a consultant and author of the book Job Shift," concluded his speech and immediately the question came: You don't mean that companies will shift all their work outside, do you? You wouldn't parcel out work such as purchasing, for example?

"Why not?" Bridges said, pointing to examples.

The nation's largest kayak manufacturer has one employee; the owner outsources everything else. Executives at Sam Adams Beer contract their core competency - brewing. And Lotus got its "Notes" concept from a project worker, Bridges said.

Bridges forgives those who have a hard time grasping the concept. After all, he has seen it work since the late '80s when he worked as a consultant at Intel. At the same time, he urges individuals and companies to prepare for this inevitable shift in the historical cycle of work.

At Intel, he said, the computer and software company was swamped with work - but had few jobs. The constant change in technology demanded that Intel be organized differently from traditional companies, from hiring to managing to training.

Bridges helped Intel compress old job categories, learn to cross-train and challenge policies. Some policies were replaced, and some workers were recycled.

"If you're fighting for job protection, you're doing 19th-century work," he said. "That only slows things down. Who's looking ahead?"

The shift is this direct: Forget coping with change, and make change work for you.

Bridges isn't the only employment leader advocating this idea, which incorporates more outsourcing, consultants hired for projects and temporary workers. The fastest-growing temp areas are in professional fields.

An estimated 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies outsource at least one function; nearly half of those outsource payroll. International Data Corp. predicts that outsourcing will increase 60 percent to $121 billion by the turn of the century.

Lee Hecht Harrison, an employment firm, also encourages its clients to "imagine a workplace with no jobs."

That's such a huge shift that it requires more than training; it demands a new mindset, said Jack Higgins, general manager of Lee Hecht Harrison's Irvine, Calif. office.

The firm encourages workers to become self-reliant and agile to remain employable.

That's the same message organizations have been sending for a decade, though it sometimes has been delivered more harshly - as in a layoff.

At Harvard Business School, career-development specialists say the modern career is "like surfing, constantly looking for waves, checking the water." Sometimes the projects will roll in like a set of predictable waves, and sometimes there won't be any more work, says the recent issue of the school's newsletter, <I>Management Update.<I>

Employers often prefer that flexibility. They can match up skill sets with projects on an as-needed basis. But some fear that a steady progression of project work could rob them of their core value - intellectual capital. Information might be logged in a computer, but "knowledge" is stored within the workers.

Career advisers say that's precisely why outsourcing works. Today's "knowledge" is changing so rapidly that employers need to utilize workers who have the most current abilities and skills. They can continually train their own employees, or they can outsource more work.

The career-coaching industry is booming today because of this shift. Coaches are helping workers buy into the concept, then they're showing them how to sell themselves. Bridges calls this thinking of yourself as a mini corporation, "Me & Co."

"We're all going to need to think of ourselves as entrepreneurs, and develop those skills," said Vance Caesar, a Seal Beach, Calif.-based coach who is president of the Professional Coaches and Mentors Association.

Like it or not, it could apply to almost any worker, Caesar insists.

"Look at the entertainment and sports industries; there aren't a lot of jobs, but there's work there," he said. "I think they're a precursor for our economy."

Just as actors and athletes use agents, workers will either represent themselves or find someone to do the marketing for them.

Big Six accounting firm Deloitte & Touche has created a subsidiary to fill that niche in the world of finance. Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Deloitte & Touche Resources matches up high-level accounting, tax and computer specialists with controllers and financial officers who become overloaded with projects.

Camille Herzog, 32, had worked as an accounting manager and supervisor and was looking to open her own business when she hooked up with Resources.

"This is like working on my own but they do the marketing for me," said the CPA who went to Germany twice on her last assignment. "I know I will get a constant stream of work, I get high-level projects that I probably wouldn't be able to land on my own, and it's my choice to accept or decline a project."