sking people to do more for less money can seem unfair. In my opinion, companies and organizations sometimes put too much pressure on surviving employees. This can cause the decision-makers to seem insensitive to the reality that employees are people with full lives and responsibility outside the workplace. Call it outsourcing with a heart. DuPont on December 11, tentatively agreed to outsource its computer and telecommunications operations, but it will do so without cutting jobs. Instead, some 3,100 DuPont staffers will be given the chance to switch employers with 2,600 spots slated for Computer Sciences Corp. and 500 for Andersen Consulting. An additional 1,100 information technology staffers are expected to stay with DuPont. The outsourcing pact is one of the biggest ever. It will be worth more than $4 billion over 10 years, with CSC taking the lion's share. CSC will handle DuPont's global mainframe, mid-range, and PC hardware needs, and worldwide telecom network, while Andersen takes care of software applications. The parties have signed a letter of intent and are now hammering out the final terms. The flip-side to downsizing could be a more positive result or experience. When companies have their employees economic survival at heart when planning their downsizing tactics, an adaptive approach as well as a positive outcome can be expected. Most managers seem to understand the hard side of downsizing such as the cost of inventory, shipping, severance packages, and plant capacities. I'm sure DuPont considered all of these issues. However, they took the issues one step further and considered the softer issues such as morale, loyalty, and the role of the corporate environment on employee motivation and productivity. These issues should be addressed to keep a downsized company alive and well. As history would have it, more companies suffer from downsizing rather than prosper. Why is this the case? Most companies or organizations fail to ...
